Hope Love Japan

A facebook friend of mine, Yukari Peerless, was a few days away from visiting her family in Japan when the earthquake hit two weeks ago. She decided to stay home in Victoria, but not one to sit idley by, she flew into action and planned a fundraising event for this Sunday. Hope Love Japan is being held at the new Parkside Hotel lobby (it is so beautiful).

Smoking Lily designed and made a cute wallet for the event. We came up with three different logos, I couldn't decide on my favourite, so we printed all three. The wallets will be there on Sunday, but if you can't make it down we should have them in our shops by the end of next week. All proceeds are going to the Red Cross.

Vancouver Update: Smoking Lily's Artistic Treatment

Last year my very good friend, Mark--photographer, painter, art director, Renaissance man at large--shot a series of photo portraits of his friends in locations they had chosen that were of some import to them. Having been one of his volunteers, I can attest that it was an interesting experience for someone who dislikes having their picture taken (Glenda knows well how I generally squirm when there's a camera on me), but I was absolutely fascinated by the results. Flipping through the dozen or so finished photographs, most of which being of people I haven't met, was so engaging; who were these people? Why had they chosen their particular locations? What were they thinking of when the picture was snapped? What stories lie here!

One photo I most certainly did recognize was the one above. Despite splitting her time between Toronto and Japan whilst slaving away at post-graduate research, Sara manages to come and investigate our skirts on a pretty regular basis. In this portrait she is looking quite contemplative in, I believe, one of the very few short-sleeved John Wayne tops from last year. Sara also writes a fantastic blog all about her Japanese adventures called Tokyo Beaute, which I highly recommend. ...Hhmmm, maybe we'll have to get her to send us some pictures of her Smoking Lily collection in action on the streets of Japan!