One part of designing this collection that I have not written about is the recurring doubt I believe most designers experience during the critical part of the design process. It is accompanied, for me anyway, by terrible insecurity, concerns regarding my judgment, and panic that the collection will be irrelevant or badly received. I’ve come to learn that this is part of the (my?) process and I am much better at dealing with it now than I was 11 years ago when I started designing. Yes, it’s been that long!
That said, it’s never easy to deal with and can become creatively crippling to a designer, which has been my case in the last few weeks while preparing for the show. This morning I woke up to find this link with a message from my adorable boyfriend reminding me that this is how he feels about the project. At times like this it’s so important to have a support system – other designers with whom to share ideas, friends who will listen to you vent, family and loved ones who will support you – to remind you why you do what you do in the first place.
If I haven’t taken the time to say thank you to everyone who has offered words of support, opinions, funding (only 1 hour left!), and many many hugs, then I promise I will do so in person soon. In the meantime, THANK YOU! I couldn’t have done it without you.
More weaving yesterday, this time with the tape I was discharging at home last week. I think the effect is going to be really interesting and I plan on exploring this technique further (once the show is over).
Also, I want to thank everyone who helped fund this project. The fundraising deadline is Monday at noon and I was sweating it a little bit on Friday when I hadn’t reached my goal, but then all you generous people who may or may not know me came through and made it happen. Thank you so much! I won’t let you down.
I have a meeting on Monday to work on hair for the show (this is the fun part!), so I’m looking through inspiration pics of hair and make-up ideas to find something I want for the show. Because the concept is a little modern, avant-garde, minimalist (insert synonym here), I want the hair and make up to reflect that and not detract from the clothing. I’m leaning towards something like the image above, but maybe with a slightly more translucent skin, hopefully it will look good on the runway.
*unfortunately this image was in a folder of archived images I found online, so I no longer have the credit for it, sorry!
It’s the little things that make me happy. I’ve been playing this video at the studio all morning, I think Helena is ready to kill me. It makes me smile while I’m trying to sew some peace silk… hopefully I will have pics of that up tonight.
I continued weaving last night and starting adding a pattern to the piece. I think it’s going to be beautiful if I am able to finish it on time for the show! It’s really slow and achingly painful on my back because I’m bending over my coffee table to weave each row. Next season I am definitely going to improve on this lack-of-technique.
But on the plus side, while I was taking back healing breaks, I played around with a tube of fabric that I brought home from the studio. It was originally a sewing test to calibrate my machine for another style, but it it turned out well (and was made of a single square), so I figured I’d try to make something out of it. I ended up with a simple organic cotton jersey tube dress with an elaborately knotted strap detail. I’m not sure if I’m going to put it in the show. I showed it to my stylist and photographer this morning and they want to see the whole collection before we can start to edit. I agree.
It was a fun experiment, and something else might come out of it as I slowly put the finishing touches on the line.
