All in a days work

I'm wrapping up for the night and getting very ready for my trip to Ecuador tomorrow and I wanted to share my day, and my week. I woke up with a solid idea for the Braciallini competition that I will be participating in this semester (more on that later probably), so I'm very happy that I finally know what I'm going to do. I planned on going to LIC before heading to the studio, but the pattern maker whom I was supposed to meet was running late so I went to the studio first. On the way there I helped a girl chase her runaway puppy and keep him from running into the street, so that was good, and gave me positive energy. Then I saw two girls kissing, that was hot. Then I went to the studio and did some work, went to the garment district for a drop-off, finally went to LIC to pick up from the pattern maker, went back to the studio, did some more work, then back down to the garment district, back up town, back to Union Square, finally, errands, packing, dancing, also finally, and now here I am, summing up a days work :)

P.S. Interning has been awesome so far, I had a great week being there, and I feel like I'm learning about pattern making, especially for gowns and cocktail dresses, super important, and I love doing runs and going on errands because I get to meet people in the industry and learn where everything is located. So over all, it's been great, and I can't wait to go back, and to start classes again.

Learning as I go

We all know that a big, major huge part of learning is hands-on experience. After all, you won't learn everything that you need in a classroom, no matter how insightful the teacher is, or how hands-on the class is. That's why everyone recommends doing an internship, or two or three while in school. I think that this is a great idea - I want to learn as much as I can about daily operations of a fashion business and I want to meet as many people as possible, hear their stories and learn from their experiences.

With that said, I decided to look for an internship for the spring semester. I spent a long time working on my resume, changing it from that of a marketing professional to that of a fashion design student. It was definitely a challenge combining past skills with new ones. But I finally finished it and last week I started sending it out. Craigslist and FreeFashionInternships.com are GREAT resources! I got 3 replies. The first was for a volunteer oportunity at the (capsule) women's trade show. I'm super excited about it, two whole days of meeting and hopefully helping and working with some of the hottest up-and-coming designers. I can't wait. The second two replies were for internship opportunities. Both were young companies, with really great clothes, I was really excited to meet them.

So I got myself ready and pretty and all set to go. And here is where the learning process comes in. These interviews were completely different then the interviews that I'm used to. Same format of course, you sit down and talk, but as I really don't have that much to say about myself yet, I had the opportunity to talk to these designers, and ask them about themselves, their studios and their work. And I blanked. You know that moment in an interview, or any conversation for that matter, when you know that you have to say something, and it really better be something good, and then it turns into just ask a question, and then it turns into just say anything, move your mouth damn it and nothing is coming out and you're sitting there smiling going "ummmm, yea" all in a matter of one minute or so? Yea, it was like that. And that sucked. And of course I got upset aftewards. But that made me think about what I should be asking, and what I would want to be asked about if I was the one interviewing. And although the experience was not the best, it did help me learn about how to prepare for future interviews, which is pretty good. And, even better, I did hear back from one of the interviewers, and he wants me to come in on Monday morning! Fortunately, even fumbling and bumbling can be overlooked when people know that you're just starting out and learning. And I can't wait to start :)

Playing with color

For my color theory final, we were allowed to create our own projects based on what we learned in class. The projects were allowed to be within our major, or based on what we have done in class through out the semester. I recently saw the amazing and incredibly inspiring Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the Whitney and decided to do a collection based on her work. I really liked her earlier works, so I decided to focus on the Series I paintings. The colors and the layers are so intense and vivid, it really gave me a lot of inspiration, and a lot of looks to choose from. I also thought about Georgia O'Keeffe herself, her life, where she lived and her style of painting. I wanted to make the collection beautiful, sensual and earthy at the same time. To tie in what we have learned in color theory, I decided to focus on one color, and play around with its shades, hues and tones. I picked the color orange, lightened and darkened it, added gray and mixed it with red. I also used two shades of blue for the shoes to compliment the orange and highlight it even more. I really like how this collection and presentation came out. Here are the results, and more to come soon!

Romeo & Juliet, Sergei, Max and Joan

Here is the first of my final assignments. This is the final project for Fashion Drawing I class. We were asked to select an art movement from two options - surrealism or pop art - and create a capsule collection of 10 looks based on an inspiration taken from within the selected movement. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to work within the surrealist movement. I thought that it was a better fit for the flowing lines and movement that I am drawn to, and encouraged more playful details and unexpected cuts, volume and silhouettes. As I was doing research, I came across the Ballet Russes company, run by Sergei Diagilev. As a former dancer, I couldn't help but be drawn to it! The ballet company was renown in the 1910 - 1930's Paris for their dramatic stage productions, for the best dancers and composers of the time, and the most prominent artists and designers, who created stunning costumes and stage sets. Among the surrealist artists who worked with the company were Max Ernst and Joan Miro, who created the costumes and stage sets for the production of Romeo & Juliet. My collection is inspired by their designs, the story of Romeo & Juliet, and by the movement, grace and beauty of ballet.