I’m renaming the 4-way dress to The Dress of Infinite Possibilities!

Several pieces from the Spring 11 collection were recently shot by Sara Kerens for Fashion Fights Poverty.  Not only do I LOVE the shots, but I also love the way the stylist ingeniously put on the 4-way dress.  How did I not think of that?!

You can also see more of the copper pipe necklaces designed by my assistant, Juewls Amelia.

WELCOME TO MY STUDIO – part 2

The work room in the studio came with a closet built into one wall.  It’s not the most beautiful or well built closet, but it’s useful to house back stock, samples and patterns.  But it is made from unfinished wood and didn’t look very nice taking up an entire wall of the room.  So we’ve been wanting to paint it with chalkboard paint since we moved in, and finally did it yesterday! We painted it black without knowing it’s in the Helpful People & Travel section of the Bagua chart… so lets hope it brings lots of both to my life very soon!

The paint came from my favourite neighbourhood store, Green Depot.  I send my interns to pick things up there because if I go myself I end up spending WAY too much money.

I love the way it looks all black and clean – in the same way I like the way fabric looks laid out on the cutting table prior to being cut – but eventually we’ll have to put it to use.  And I’m going to do that by mapping out the Fall 11 production schedule and Spring 12 sample development details.  Yay for organization!

WELCOME TO MY STUDIO – part 1

In honour of an unexpected – but delightful – visitor who came to see me today (hi Leah!), I’m going to share some pics of the studio.  I should have done this when we moved back in January but with Fashion Week and starting Guilded, it just never crossed my mind.  The other reason I haven’t shared this until now was because the work room was disastrously messy… until now!

The back right corner of the work room (and what Susan would refer to as the Relationship corner on the Ba Gua Grid) is now officially the Knitting Corner.  I think it’s an appropriate place for the knitting machine and yarns.  They’re colourful and I like seeing them when I walk in the door.  Now that Kate & Zaida have finished their internships for the semester, however, I’m not sure who is going to help me when I drop a stitch.  I’m on page 3 of the user manual for the knitting machine and not quite getting it right.  If I don’t figure it out soon I might end up reverting to good old fashioned knitting needles!

So there you have it, a little sneak peek at what is quickly becoming my dream studio space!

I recently introduced you to one of my interns, Zaida, who sadly completed her internship last week (bye Zaida, it was a pleasure working with you!).  Zaida and some of her fellow classmates are producing an event next week to showcase the work they did for their thesis projects.  Here’s some info from the press release for the event:

The MMXI Project is a collective formed by five young designers who decided to take the initiative to establish a platform in which they could share their creative works. The collective began taking shape when it’s members; Amabelle Aguiluz, Nicole Girion, Zaida Goveo Balmaseda, Michelle Sordi, and Mary Symczak, met while studying at Politecnico di Milano in Italy. The designers developed bonds both socially and creatively, while working, living, traveling, and studying together. Upon their transition back to New York they were faced with the pressures of their fast approaching graduation. They took it upon themselves to channel this pressure and translate it into something positive and motivational. Thus the project was born, goals were set, and they began to push each other to work for a common goal: The MMXIproject.

The designers themed the exhibit around the concept of transition, something very relevant to them, as they finish their studies and begin their careers. Designer David Kirshoff collaborated with them to help translate each of their stories. By constructing custom display units, David helped them create their own worlds, which the viewers will be welcomed to explore. Each of the designers developed their projects from original concept to finished garment and interpreted the theme transition in a different way. There is a strong effort to not only present the project as final products of a technical craft, but
to show the research and thought process to parallel the final result. The show will exhibit a range of mediums that express the design sensibilities of each designer including textile development, photography, inspiration research, sketches, and actual garments. These are five designers that stayed true to themselves and their vision.

The MMXIproject invites you to come explore their worlds, have a drink, and be inspired.

photo courtesy of deaddrops.com

Firstly, I’m not going to take credit for this post, I found it this morning while catching up on my overstuffed reader inbox.  It was hiding amongst lots of very inspiring images courtesy of one of my favourite blogs, Outrageous Outings.  I love her idea of hiding little secret notes for people in unexpected places.  I’m going to search out my own spot somewhere on the Bowery near the studio.  Mr. Maisel, I’ve got my eye on your building, be forewarned!

I also realize it has nothing to do with sustainable fashion, however it does have something to do with the sharing of information, which has been very prevalent on my mind recently thanks to the imminent launch of Guilded (coming soon!).

Aram Bartholl, the artist behind dead drops,  has left empty usb-drives around New York for people to use for file-sharing.  His manifesto describes a publicly accessible, passively powered hub for any kind of information anyone might want to share with others and appears critical of information clouds with limited accessibility.  Besides the fact that the installation of some of these devices looks a little mischievous (read: could potentially trigger a response from Homeland Security), I think the idea is brilliant.

Who needs a lookbook when I can put up pics from the collection on these bad boys!?

Dead Drops ‘How to’ – NYC from aram bartholl on Vimeo.