Senior Collection & More!

My Shot for the Program.

Hello Everyone!

The fashion show is 33 days from now and I'm not freaking out at all, which is slightly surprising. I have a model practice tonight and I'll be able to see my line up and see how everyone's patterns look together. I'll also get to see the fit again and if I need to make tiny alterations. I'm pretty excited to see the clothes and shoes and what I've done so far come together. As of now I still have to cut & sew 1 pair of pants and 1 corset. Besides that everything is already cut and in the process of being completed. My goal is still to have everything done before spring break, which is in 12 days. 

Besides my senior collection I'm proud to announce that I've landed an amazing job for part of the summer. I will start late April and work until mid June at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis at a 1st Hand. I'm really excited and can't wait to start! I'll be working on 4 productions and I'll get to do little apprenticeship type classes- millinery is 1 of them! But I think it's a wonderful opportunity and I did everything to make sure I could accept it, which included getting permission from all of my professors to spend the last 3 weeks (including exam week) off campus. I'm very lucky to have their approval and I can't wait to share my progress and projects! So stay tuned for some really awesome things!

Womenswear Progress

Work in progress: striped dress
with zipper detail.

I have 3 female models for my senior collection and since all my male models are wearing pants I figured I should make some different types of skirts or dresses for my looks. One model is in a skirt, one a short dress, and one a long dress. The dress pictured to the right is the same material as one of the men's shirts and has a zipper down the front. It's a stretch knit so the zipper isn't there for function but for fun. I wanted to break up the all over stripes look and I also plan on adding black rib knit to the collar and around the armholes so it'll connect the all over look. I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole look together with hair and makeup and shoes. 

Menswear Progress

Close up of hand sewing one cuff.

Last semester I made 4 menswear looks and this semester I'm only working on one menswear look. The look for this semester consists of a pair of black wool trousers with suede down the side seams and a color blocked t-shirt. The bottom half of the shirt is a black and white plaid, which was used for a pair of men's pants last semester, and the top half is a black cotton. For the collar and cuffs I chose a grey knit to kind of break up all the black and also add another texture into the look. Instead of focusing on elaborate and over the top designs and focus on simpler silhouettes but mixing textures and patterns. I'm pretty happy with the results so far and I can't wait to see it all come together! I have a model practice next week with all 8 of my models and I can't wait to see them all in their looks (what I've gotten done so far) and see how the outfits look all together instead of just individual pieces.

VolUp2 Articles

My second piece for VolUp2 is on the site and ready to be read! If you want to check it out it's all about the #ToyLikeMe campaign and you can check it out here.

Book Love

Book Love by brimalotke 

My latest adventure with my PR Marketing job is creating a Facebook page for the book to gain a wider audience. If you want to check it out, it's titled "Olympic by Jaylen Ross."

Sweets Inspired

Untitled #106 by brimalotke

Being a Translator

Je t'aime by brimalotke

The 1st article I've translated (English to French) is now up on VolUp2's website!

Check it out here! Also just check out the website in general, it's beautiful and a powerful platform for diversity in fashion, especially when it comes to body sizes and shapes. I hope you love it!

Spring Poems

Spring Poems by brimalotke

All this winter weather is making me dream of springtime, and also my upcoming trip to France. I'll definitely be posting a lot of pictures when I get back late March. Stay tuned for some more French related posts!

Shoe Love

Shoe Love by brimalotke

Loving the glittery shoes and how fun they can make any outfit!

More to come soon!

Focus on You

Focus on You by brimalotke

New Website

Recently the Fashion A Magazine's website went through some changes and is now completely new! It's more professional and stylish looking, very modern, very fun and easy to use. The only downside is that all the articles I have written are no longer up on the site, however, it's not necessarily a bad thing. With the magazine taking a more professional route the writing style will be changing as well. This will expand my writing portfolio, giving me more diversity in my examples, and allow me to grow as a writer. I do have all of the articles I wrote for the previous website saved, so if you're interested just contact me. Also, since the website is new the links on my previous posts won't be working. I will be going in and editing them but there's a lot and it'll take some time. If you're interested, go and check out the new website here.

Alice Inspired

Alice Inspired by brimalotke

Looking at my senior collection these past couple of weeks has had me thinking a lot about what truly inspired my collection. It's kind of tricky because after our presentations and such in senior design last semester I changed some of my ideas. Also with this semester, I'm using the same fabrics but the inspiration is coming from a different place. 

When I was doing just my menswear last semester I was drawing inspiration from well tailored suits from A. McQueen and the Savage Beauty exhibit I had seen in London as well as from the patterns I wanted to use and how they all worked together. this semester, working with just 1 men's look and 3 women's has me drawing inspiration from places such as "Alice in Wonderland" and all the red, black, and white aspects to it. Also the different music videos that draw ties from the story. For example, Natalia Kills's music video Wonderland has some obvious draws from the story line (besides the title). I love watching music videos and a lot of the story lines in the videos are insanely intriguing. If you don't watch a lot of music videos I recommend it, it can change your outlook on a song.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens; I've only started in fashion fabric for my men's look and only have 2 looks patterned so far. I'll be posting some pictures as I go, especially when I get to Gabby's corset, and write little descriptions on why I chose certain fabrics and tailoring choices and more! SO stay tuned, the show is April 2nd and I plan on having all of my 8 looks (I did 4 last semester) completed by the middle of March.

Decisions Made: Men's Shoes

Dairius modeling the shoes.

While putting my senior collection together, I've decided to take a more punk rock turn and move away from the polished and sophisticated route my collection was headed. I picked out hair and makeup to help ease my collection further into a punk rock vibe along with my music choice, Lydia by Highly Suspect.
One of the big things that was keeping my collection more polished was the men's shoes. Originally I was going to have them all wear their own black dress shoes, however, when I looked at fit pictures after the break it just didn't seem right. After a while, I considered getting converse for all the guys (5 male models) but I was pretty hesitant in making a final decision. When I discovered these black canvas shoes online at H&M on sale I just went for it. 
I'm pretty happy with the results and they all fit the models- which is pretty great since 2 guys had to go down a half size so that I could order the shoes. I can't wait for all their looks to come together. I'm still pretty positive that I don't want to be an apparel designer and that I'd much rather go into costume design or writing, but I'm having fun with my collection and that's what matters.