Bemz is a company that specialises in slip cover for a lot of IKEA sofas and chairs. I love them, since they recently added my type of IKEA sofa in their assortment. Just a while ago, I ordered some fabric samples and I must say … it won’t take that long before I place my order.

Next to the fabulous slip covers, they also have a very interesting blog. And it’s thanks to this  that I got to know these two sites that give you the opportunity to design your own rug. So check out Rug Designer or Rug Couture and start creating your own rug!

The city of Brussels is concentrating on all aspects of design during the month of September with exhibitions, conferences, private showings, film screenings, debates, visits to designers’ studios, flea market, city tours ….

An interesting workshop is : CUSTOMIZE IT  by RECYCLART

Do you feel like a new flashy colour for your bike, a customised logo on your  skateboard, to revamp the family scooter? Your home-made mode of transport is  really too ugly? Good news: bring them all with you. A team of artists and designers  will undertake their customisation. Share your creativity with them and create a  unique item that will be the envy of all. Finally, strike a pose and the Studio Marcel  will immortalise you together with your vehicle! Or just drop in to take a look and  have a bite to eat and something to drink on the terrace of the Recyclart bar!

Sunday 20th September, Recyclart, Brussels-Chapelle station, rue des Ursulines 25,  1000 Brussels – Info: 02 502 57 34 – www.recyclart.be. Open from 2 PM to 6 PM.

Pa++ern is an esoteric language developped by the Japanese duo Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi. The main idea is that one can create custom embroidered t-shirts using Twitter as the control interface.
The program uses sets of one character commands that instruct a sewing machine to excecute specific designs. Users can input these command codes via the Twitter micro-blogging service (@_pt), and view their results on the Pa++ern website.

Source: PSFK, Pa++ern

Together with the re-launch of their Camden store, Oxfam also began a DIY competition. The relaunch of the store is in collaboration with Mrs Jones , who recently styled a photo shoot featuring “real” people modelling unique looks created entirely using garments from Oxfam’s recycling facility, Wastesaver.

Parallel to some workshops in the Camden store, a DIY fashion competition was launched online.

And if you lack the creativity to start altering on your one, you can always resort to the more than helpful tutorials on the Oxfam website.

Oxfam DIY 2009 from Susie Bubble on Vimeo.

Fernando Brizio – a portugese artist -  created this stunning dress as part of the Turin-based exhibition “flexibility – design in a fast changing society” last year.

The dress has little pockets and by placing coloured felt-tip pens in them, the appearance of it changes over time. Since the coloured ink bleeds into the fabric and creates a one-off design each time. After cleaning it, the owner colour it in a different way for each time they wear it.

Source: Designboom

Last month, I visited the Paper Fashion exhibition in the Antwerp Fashion Museum.
Especially for this exhibition, La Redoute and the Antwerp Fashion Museum present two paper dresses, designed by Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene and inspired on the famous paper dresses in at the end of the ’60.

If you don’t have the opportunity to visit the exhibition, but would really want a gorgeous paper dress … thanks to the internet, you can buy it online at //La Redoute Paper Fashion Dress, where you can find additional information and ideas on how to wear the dresses.

However if you can, I advise you to visit the exhibition  … and buy the dress in the museum of afterwards online.