Gabby in Action

Gabby wearing my finale piece: 

The look consisted of a black and white plaid dress with a red visible zipper down the back and black rib knit around the armholes and collar. The bottom of the dress is black chiffon that was tied up around her waist until a certain part of the song when she would then untie it to reveal that it's a floor length dress with a front slit. 

The corset has a black visible zipper down the front and a soft grey cotton trim along the top of it. The panels are made from the different plaids from the rest of the collection with black cotton for the front and the black and white plaid from her dress for the back panels. The inside of the corset has black, white, and red ribbon for the taping of the bones. 

I made the headpiece in London at the London College of fashion for my final piece for my Millinery course. It's a black wool piece that I covered by hand sewing black fabric (that has a shine and a ripple texture). I hand glued all of the red swarovski crystals to the veiling and then sewed the veiling on to the piece. I dyed the ostrich feathers red, curled them, and glued & sewed them to the side. For the final touch I added a white and black butterfly I bought at the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the V&A to the side on top of the red feathers.

Picture courtesy of Brian Powell "Fashion Show Freebies." 

Senior Collection: Finished!

Pictured L/R: Tim, Eric, Sarah, Gabby, Brianna (Me), Dairius, Megan, Kevin, Greg.

On Saturday, April 2nd, I showed my senior collection at 11am and 3pm. My song was Lydia by Highly Suspect and my choreography was pretty simple. During the song Gabby would untie her skirt from around her waist transferring her look from a short draped dress to a floor length evening gown look. I have a few really awesome shots of her in action that I will post soon.

Overall I loved my collection. I got really lucky and my models were amazing people. They were always attentive, on time, excited, eager, good listeners, just the whole nine yards of awesomeness. They also all got along really well, which helped me because I was never stressing out about them or their looks. They all had the same eye makeup for the show, but the girls had red lips while the guys had their lips look as though they were sewn shut. I felt that without hair and makeup and accessories, the outfits could go very punk or very prim and proper. Which is one thing I loved about my looks. Drawing inspiration from bands like My Chemical Romance and then from the classic looks of French tailoring. I really liked playing with accessories and makeup to get the full effect. I like to think my models would make awesome characters in a MCR music video.

My aim was to have the guys have really similar styling but they little differences. For example, they all have different patterned socks and Dairius has a hat to add more black into his look. I wanted the girls to all be different with their styling. For the red and black dress I chose a simple gold ring and a men's pocket square to tie around her wrist. She also got black thigh highs with bows and black ankle boots. Gabby's look had a lot of patterns and my head piece I made in London, so I chose simple black triangle earrings and black heels reminiscent of the Spice Girls style. Megan's look has a Harley Quinn feel to it so I gave her one white glove and some black and white striped earrings. Her heels are cutesy with the t-strap and little black bows, but they're covered in gold spikes for a more dangerous vibe. I am in love with how everything turned out and I can't imagine changing any of it. 

When I get the more professional pictures I'll post those, especially the action shots!

Fashion Show Shenanigans in Photos

Close up of Gabby's makeup.

One of my lovely models getting her
hair done in a faux Mohawk style.

 

Some of my guy models waiting
for their pictures to be taken.

A detail shot of Eric's black and white plaid trousers,
 striped socks, and punk shoes. 

Ready for the show!
Makeup inspiration was from the band
My Chemical Romance when they did
their "The Black Parade" album.

Model & Designer 

All lined up and ready for the show to start!
For the runway they would be entering from altering sides (left/right).
So the first 4 models in line enter from the left and
the second group of 4 enter from the right.

Costume Shop Finds: An Elegant Hat

Look at this lovely women's hat! It's a peachy pink straw hat with ribbon and trim and flowers and pearls! There's a lot going on but it's beautifully tied together and doesn't look too over the top. On the left is the front view and on the right is the back view. We started going through and organizing the boxes today and I found this one just sitting in a box of very plain straw hats. It will definitely have to be put in a different box once we for sure straighten out the different categories. Right now we're just moving the boxes themselves to main areas of shelving. From the back of the shop we have hats, then show specific, next is men's pants and tops, then women's pants and tops, and finally the front shelves are for accessories and miscellaneous costumes (like dance leotards). Stay tuned for more fun costume finds as we go through the boxes themselves!

New Intern Position!

One of the pictures I sent
that's in the piece about
me as a designer.

I just realized I never wrote about how I was published in a magazine as a designer (not a writer!). I was pretty darn excited about the whole thing and I of course bought a copy of the magazine. I'm in the June issue of Fashion A magazine pages 44-49 (a 6 page piece). 

After talking to the editor I was lucky to get an unpaid internship handling their social media. I'm not alone in doing this, but I post daily things to the Facebook page and will start working with their Twitter and Instagram this week. It's fun because I really fit into what the magazine is about so it's very easy for me to find things I want to share with the viewers. As stated on the Facebook page, "Fashion A is a bohemian androgynous magazine and it is about expressing yourself creatively through fashion without gender boundaries." But what's really really new is that I will be writing pieces for the online magazine. If you want to check out the website, which is now up and running, go here: Fashion A Magazine. I haven't written anything yet because I just got all the information today, but as soon as I post my first article on the website I'll write a little overview of it for my blog, similar to what I did for CollegeFashionista or Maghanitwork.

I'm thrilled I get to continue to write over the summer, and hopefully it doesn't just end when the summer ends. I was writing for Maghanitwork but the website has been updated sine the end of April (with my two articles at the top) so I am unsure of what the future holds for that writing position. Anyways I love what Fashion A is about and I enjoy doing the social media so I have no doubt the writing will come easily to me.

Other Costume Shops

Part of their hat storage.

Yesterday during my time helping in the costumes shop we took a little "field trip" and went to see how the costume shop at Krannert (U of I) organizes their costumes and rents them out to others. 

It was amazing to see how much they have in their collection. They have a lot of rooms dedicated to different parts of their costume stock. It's all neatly categorized and they even have maps for some of the rooms to illustrate to others how to find what they're looking for in the rooms. It's incredible to see what they have for their different period looks, and the variety is incredible. They also have a good amount of men's clothing which is fantastic. I wish I had taken more pictures, but just this little snapshot of a section of the hat storage just showcases how much they really have in their collection and why great colleges like NYU rent from them and use their pieces. I'm actually considering looking into U of I at their costume grad program. Still haven't figured out life after graduation next year, so we'll see what happens.

Costume Shop Finds: A Funky Hat

 

One of the great pieces I came across was this awesome hat! I was supposed to be searching for a big straw hat when I found this piece. I love it and really wish I owned it, it's really fun and would really work with my senior collection.

A Little Something Extra

 



After finishing my second hat, I felt that something was missing. While I was in Bath I had tried to find a broach of some sort or just something visually interesting to place on top of the base of my red feathers. 

Last week I had gone to the Alexander McQueen exhibit, "Savage Beauty," at the Victoria & Albert museum. It was spectacular and more incredible than I can even fathom writing about, although I will cover the exhibit in another, separate, post. At the end of the exhibit there was the gift shop. They had everything from books and postcards to jewelry and scarves and even sewing equipment! One of the treasures I found was a butterfly clip, meant for hair but I decided it was exactly what my head piece needed. It sits on top of a bed of red ostrich feathers, and the wings are attached by little springs so they move when your head moves. The butterfly is white and black, tying this head piece in with my current ideas for my senior collection which will use white, black, and red as the main colors. I am excited to wear this and/or to see it walk down the runway. Whichever comes first!

Mad Hatter: My Second Hat

Head piece and feathers.

For my second hat I chose to make a head piece. I bought a head piece, 2 ostrich feathers, black veiling, red swarovski crystals, black textured fabric, red dye, and a headband. First I sewed the fabric on to the head piece, one piece at a time following the curves of the piece. Then I dyed my feathers red, steamed & curled them, and finally sewed them onto the side of the head piece. 

Added the crystals.

Outside of class I glued the crystals on to the veiling. I did about half a meter of veiling with crystals. Then I needed to put holes into the head band and sew the head piece on to the headband. After that I bound one side of the veiling- I had decided to lay a piece without crystals over top of the piece with crystals- using thread and glue. Then I attached it to the inside of the head piece where the feathers were (on the outside). Next I needed my professor's help to figure out the right lay and pin the other side as well as the top of the veiling. Then I tack stitched where the pins were and I was done. 

Sewing on the textured fabric.

Inside view.

Final look.

It all seems so easy from the amount of steps, but it took a lot of hard work and effort. I'm pleased with the results, it's not quite what I had in mind originally but I still like it.
They will both most likely be in my collection next year, or even just at my senior table in the art gallery. We shall see when I figure out my designs for the runway! I definitely want to continue to make hats though, I think it's a lot of fun, albeit expensive, but fun!

Final 2 Hats.

Side view of top hat with head piece.

Mad Hatter: My first Hat

Materials

After I finished sewing my crown and brim together I finally had a hat!
The next step was to think about trimmings. I knew I wanted to a black and red piece because as of now I plan on using black and red for my senior collection next spring. Since I'm using a sort of traditional form I wanted to go nontraditional with my trimmings choices.

I trekked around London checking out a few different stores before finalizing my plans. I bought a red feather base, 3 sets of red coque feathers (the tiny red ones), and two types of ribbon. I ended up using the pleated looking one over the plain black ribbon. I decided to just keep the plain black elastic, I can always make a few simple skirts using it as the waistband material.

I started off hand stitching the ribbon around my hat. I used plain black thread and made sure it was tight enough but not too tight that it would alter the shape of my crown. I finished by overlapping the two cut sides so it appeared as if it was one connected piece.



Next I stitched my red feather base onto the left side of my hat. I then took a leftover piece of my ribbon and made a sort of flower out of it, stitching this over the bottom of the feather base and the seam of the ribbon. 

Finally I separated my red coque feathers and glued them to my feather base. I used my scissors to gently curl some of them so they weren't all the same height and going the same direction. 

Overall I am very  proud of my first ever hat. Everything but hand stitching was completely new to me and I think that I did a great job at challenging myself for my first hat.

Goofing off in class, wearing my hat!

First Ever Hat: Short Version of Steps

Chosen my blocks

Blocking the brim.

Blocking the crown.

Getting a fit before sewing on the ribbon.

Getting the crown off the block with a corset bone.

Sewing the crown and brim together.