Thought you might like to see another Momiji Movie. This one was created by Harry Handyside who was crowned the overall winner of our Moving Image project with the students at Chelsea.

Harry was selected by our panel of judges, headed up by Gavin Strange who is Senior Online Designer at Aardman.

Harry’s animation showed an amazing attention to detail and gave us a magical tingle! Here’s a little bit about Harry. More Momiji movies coming soon.

Name:
Harry Handyside

Hometown:
Bethnal Green, United Kingdom

Tell us a bit about your Momiji moving image idea:
A young girl takes a ceremonial journey through the land of the Momiji to collect the dolls and share them with her friends

Favourite designer:
Alex Trochut

Favourite place:
On the roof

Favourite place to shop in London:
The Japan Centre

All-time favourite Movie:
Akira

Your speciality dish:
Cod and chips, extra mushy peas!

And your final word…
"Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto”

We’ve launched a new contest. If you’re a crafting genius, this one’s for you. We’re challenging you to make a fabric Momiji doll.

You can use any textile method that you like to create your own fabulous doll. We’ve set up a micro-site dedicated to the contest www.lovemomiji.com/couture which contains all the details you’ll need. There’s a simple template which you can download if you like, but you can also ignore it and do your own thing; it’s up to you.

We have an uber-glam panel of judges including Pip McCormac from The Sunday Times Style Magazine, Beth Smith from Selvedge Magazine, design icon and founder of BIBA; Barbara Hulanicki and Susan Hancock who owns Royal/T. Royal/T is an amazing contemporary art space in Los Angeles which also incorporates a Cosplay Café and fabulous store. The top ten dolls as selected by the judges will be displayed at Royal/T and the winning entry will also be featured in Selvedge Magazine.

We officially launched the contest at the New Designers exhibition in London. We had such a great few days chatting to the students, graduates and tutors from the UK’s top fashion and design colleges. We worked with our friend Zoe Murphy and her lovely brother Mat to create our stand. They screen printed up images of all kinds of beautiful sewing paraphernalia. Here are a few shots of us setting up. Excuse the mess.

So what are you waiting for? Get stuck in, spread the word. Everything you need is right www.lovemomiji.com/couture.

We love a bit of showing off and the students at Chelsea College of Art and Design certainly know how to do it in style.

Last Friday Emma and Claire were invited down to their degree show and as always the work was spectacularly brilliant. Lovely to see so many portfolios with Momiji movie projects in them.

Thanks to Geoff and all the students on the Graphic Design Communication course, we’ve loved working with you this year.

This little dayglow bundle contains our signed Nina Zimmermann notebook and it’s on its way to our winner Selma Thorkilsden.

Well done Selma! Thanks to everyone who entered. More giveaways coming right up…

Blimey. Yet more terrific news. Designer extraordinaire and one of our favourite people in the world ever; Nina Zimmermann, has signed and doodled in one of her beautiful Momiji notebooks for us.

Just like last week’s giveaway, all you’ve got to do is send your full name to smiles@momijishop.com and we’ll pull a winner out of Nina’s woolly hat.

We’ll do the draw on Monday morning (22nd) so get your entries in before 9am (UK time).

If you win we’ll contact you for your postal address.

Nina’s notebooks are available right here right now.

Thanks for all your entries to win the Joanna Zhou signed and illustrated notebook.

We’ve chosen a winner at random. Big congratulations to Ellen Wong – it’ll be on its way to you very soon.

You may have noticed some new additions to the online shop. We’ve got three new Cosplay notebooks designed by Joanna Zhou.

Each notebook features one of the Cosplay trio; Donut, Ruby and Polo. The front half is lined for notes and the back section is plain for doodling. You can get yours here

Joanna has very kindly signed and illustrated the inside cover of one of them for us to giveaway.

Email us at smiles@momijishop.com with your full name for your chance to win. Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday 9th June and we’ll contact you for your postal address.

There aren’t many people who look good dressed as a giant hamster but Joanna is the exception to the rule. Here she is, looking fabulously furry at the London MCM Expo.

Last week we headed down to Alternative London Fashion Week. Our super-talented friend Emma from Playful Promises stole the show with her new collection, Shanghai Boudoir.

The after-show party was a glitzy affair with raspberry cocktails and fabulous music by Twin & Tonic. They were totally stunning and made us wish we’d made a teensy bit more effort with our make-up.

Everyone headed home with a goody bag filled with treats from Playful Promises, Urban Decay and Momiji. Thanks to Emma and Laura for a lovely day.

And just to finish off here’s the moment Gemma managed to squeeze in a considerable pile of ‘Super Ninja’ banana waffles.

Hope you all enjoyed the first of our Momiji Movies.

Next is a little film by Gina which we LOVED. It’s so right yet so wrong all at the same time. Let us know what you think.

Name:
Gina Geoghegan

Hometown:
Stockholm, Sweden

Tell us a bit about your Momiji moving image idea:
My idea was to find the darker and more surreal side of the Momiji world. I like their cuteness, but thought that they needed a bit of an edge too, so the film takes you through the creation of the dolls, and where they actually come from, and the answer may surprise you.

Favourite designer: 

Fashion – Vivienne Westwood 
Design – Phillipe Starck
Graphics – right now it’s Thomas Kurppa, who designed the font for a gallery in Stockholm called Kleerup, it’s so old Swedish and curvy, and makes me think of everything I love about my home country.

Favourite place:
In the whole world? Under a duvet with my cat and an episode of 30 Rock. I’m not hard to please.

Favourite place to shop in London: 

Borough Market, for food, it’s heaven for anyone who likes to eat! For clothes, there is an absolute gem near Victoria that sells vintage; I always find something fabulous there! I’m not giving you the name though, it’s my little secret!

All-time favourite Movie:
It’s a tie between The Big Blue and Strangers with Candy.

Your speciality dish:
American Pancakes with the works. I stack ‘em high!

And your final word… 

“Imagine that the key to happiness is following your own intuition instead of other peoples’ opinions and advice.” – unknown

A few months ago we began a project with 3rd year students at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. We challenged them with a ‘Moving Image’ brief, asking them to create a short film or animation inspired by Momiji.

We loved the results so we’ll be sharing our favourites with you here over the next few weeks. First up is Kate…

Name:
Kate Sigrist

Hometown: 

London

Tell us a bit about your Momiji moving image idea:

The film was inspired by Funny Girl’s love of quiz shows, which I often find pretty mundane and can definitely be improved upon with the appearance of a triffid-like sprout monster in your front garden! I loved building all the details into the Momiji’s world, and tried to inject a bit of a dark twist into it.

Favourite designer: 

M/M (Paris)

Favourite place: 

Red Hook docks in Brooklyn, New York

Favourite place to shop in London: 

Spitalfields Sunday upmarket

All-time favourite Movie:
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine

Your speciality dish:
Squash risotto with sage and prosciutto

And your final word… 

Razzmatazz