kawai

The Mars Sock Monkey summer collection is finally here! Say hello to Robert, Mona, William, Eileen and Ulysses!

Inspired by some world renowned graffiti art, the newest monkeys are representative of the vibe and culture that buzzes in the streets of East London. Here the neighborhoods are splashed with innovative street art and people with styles and fashions that are something out of this world…or the 80s, 90s, and even 70s. With bright colorful patches of paint, the streets seem to come alive. East London is why the Mars Sock Monkey summer batch is bright, funky and as colorful as the art displayed on the city walls.

These new monkeys sport some innovative knitting techniques in terms of doll fashion. In addition to the use of the popular polo style sweater design, I’ve added a style of knitted fabric which has a blended gradient color effect, mixing stiches of different yarn colors together gradually to become what I call the “gradient sweater”.

Another style of knitting new to the collection includes cables, which are the strands of braided fabric that run up and down winter sweaters to thicken and add a decorative touch. From this fabric, I created an outfit based on the v-neck sweater vest and undershirt combination. I’ve combined it with the traditional European hat, the flat cap (or golf cap), so popularly worn in England. Very cute on a sock monkey by the way ;)

The final contribution to sock monkey fashion wear is a cap with a brim done in the same style as the gradient sweater…simply put a baseball cap!

New finishing touches include opposite color edging on the sleeves, sweater and hood, some ribbon and a big heart pattern. Making their return from previous monkeys are rib knit edging, puffy short sleeves (for summer!), hoods, beanie with pom-pom, a pocket pouch and original star design from the very first days of the Mars Sock Monkey.

I’m really looking forward to making the next group of sock monkeys…hopefully there will be some surprises and new innovations. The next batch will be inspired by an interesting piece of the London nightlife. Stay tuned for the Fall MSM Collection!!

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Each sock monkey from the Summer 2008 Collection is for sale at Etsy and DaWanda. If you’re interested in a custom order, please email me at .

To view the full photostream, please visit the flickr feed. Please note that no actual monkeys were used in the capture of the graffiti art, so they are perfectly clean and in top-notch condition. :)

I now present the Mars Sock Monkey Summer 2008 Collection!

Robert Mars Sock Monkey

Robert comes with a newly designed short sleeve gradient sweater with hoodie and pocket pouch in light/dark purple and green. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.

Mona Mars Sock Monkey

Mona is dressed with a short sleeve hot pink and black sweater with star design and matching color beanie with pom-pom. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.

William Mars Sock Monkey

William sports a newly designed green cable vest sweater with brown bow and white undershirt. He also sports a lovely matching flat cap. True to the Englishman style! For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.

Eileen Mars Sock Monkey

Eileen wears a striped short sleeve hot pink and bright yellow sweater with hoodie and heart design. For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.

Ulysses Mars Sock Monkey

Ulysses comes with a short sleeve light yellow/hot pink gradient sweater and matching sports cap with brim…baseball cap! For sale at maribel.etsy.com and maribel.dawanda.com.

Graffiti art is not associated with Maribel Made and belong to its respective owners (City of London and graffiti artists). A good reference to graffiti artist’s names can be found here.

See the previous MSM collection:
Spring 2008

For more info on my exclusive line of sock monkeys see, Sock monkeys + knitted sweaters = Mars Sock Monkeys.

Toys, original and manipulated photos are copyright Maribel Castellanos.