SUMMER holidays at the beach can be traced back to the Victorian era when it was often associated with activities such as building sand castles and donkey rides. Today, when you talk about beach holidays, the thought of exotic far away islands or beaches come to mind.
There will be beach parties, summer gigs or concerts, and loads of other fun activities. Beaches in the summer are akin to sandy catwalks, where everyone parades the latest fashion.
For spring/summer 2010, jet-set fashion designers drew their inspiration from summer beach holidays. Hawaiian influences are obvious in Ashish spring/summer 2010.
Other fashion brands like Prada and Maison Martin Margiela were also inspired by the beach. Typical beach-inspired motives such as palm trees, tropical flowers and birds were used as prints, embroideries and beading work for their 2010 collections.
Most of us probably have great memories of beach holidays. Let’s all do our part to help protect our beaches and stop the pollution, so that the future generation will still be able to enjoy them!
You will need:
The tools you need.Straw bag, canvas bag or any kind of bag that’s suitable for a beach holiday
Coloured buttons in different sizes
Sewing needle
Nylon fishing line
Soft pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Step 1
Based on a beach theme, arrange and design a motive using the buttons on a clean surface.
Step 2
Measure the width and length of your design to make sure it fits the surface of the bag which you will be sewing the buttons on later.
Step 3
Use the soft pencil and draw your design on the bag.
Step 4
Sew the buttons onto the bag based on the design you have just drawn using the sewing needle and nylon fishing line.
Step 5
You can have all the buttons slightly overlapping each other in order to create a three dimensional effect. Voila! Your very own cool beach bag is done.
Fashion tips
Do mix and match the beach bag with simple vest (you can wear a colourful bikini top inside), holiday-inspired printed long skirt, ethnic beaded flip flops, big straw hat accessorised with lots of Indian bangles or a couple of chunky wooden ones.
Don’t forget your big sunglasses to protect you from the burning sun. Don’t bring the beach bag to work to match your executive suits even though you will be catching a plane after work to an exotic place for holiday.
Another no-no is mixing and matching it with evening dresses for a formal party, even if the buttons you used on the bag are “bling bling” ones!
