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.

France: Not Even All of It

Now that I'm back everything is less exciting, and nothing is the same. The food is more sugary, the bread isn't as good, and nothing is as beautiful. France for me is an amazing and wonderful place, and I am already starting to plan out my next trip. Who knows, maybe I'll decide to study or work somewhere and actually get to live there for a while.
 







One week wasn't enough time, but I did get to experience a lot of things. I got to learn how to cook, pair wine & cheeses, learn about wine, do wine tastings (even 1 at a vineyard), and that's just the food related things. I had a blast walking and exploring around Riorges and Roanne, as well as getting to spend all of Saturday going around Lyon and experiencing a larger French city. 

I got to experience fancy pastries, classic quiches, see a movie in a French cinema (Deadpool in French is very different), and browse a few bookstores. Not everything is so different, but I do know I'll be making a few changes to my lifestyle from this trip. I'll be taking more downtime, especially when it comes to meals. Instead of rushing and eating dinner on my way to somewhere I want to take the time to sit and enjoy my meals. It doesn't have to be a multiple course meal with wine or take hours, but it will be nice taking that time out of my day and actually resting and enjoying life. Along with meals, I'll be cooking more and trying new things. No more soup or pasta once a week just because I have it. I'd like to make some vinaigrettes or maybe actually make a multiple course meal. I'll probably cook for my friends too. 

I'm pretty excited about adding some French touches to my life, but it's not the same as actually being there. I hope to return relatively soon, but with work starting in the next month I don't think it will happen for a while.  

"America is my country, but Paris is my hometown."  
- Gertrude Stein.

Study Abroad France: Silk Related

During my study abroad in Riorges we spent Saturday in Lyon. It was pretty amazing to see the city and spend a whole day out and about. I'll write more on the whole day, but this post is all about the silk. My mini group decided to go to the 2 different silk factory places with our free time. We started off at this really fancy looking place, but their tours of the factory had already taken place for the day. We got to walk around and see their mini exhibit, which was really nice. They had the process laid out for you on how silk is made and then the weaving and also some history on Lyon and their silk. A lot of what I saw regarding the process and machinery I had learned about in my textiles class. I did enjoy reading the history of silk in Lyon, it was very interesting.

After the first place we decided to walk to another silk factory location. This one was less fancy and older looking. It was great to see the differences. This location actually used the machines, they weren't just for display like the first location. I was able to get 8 "coupons" for 2 euros and I plan on creating my own fabric swatch book with information and such, similar to the books we made for my early design class (and then used in textiles). It was a great experience to go to both places and actually see the machinery, read the history, and just explore Lyon.

After heading back towards the center of Lyon we decided to just walk around for some shopping. I found a fabric store and just had to go in and look around. I had asked the woman if they had any silk, because why not, and they only had 1. It was a golden mustard color and cost 99 euros per metre...so I kept browsing around the store. I came across some "coupons" and decided to get them, they're white with black circles. Then I found a really cool upholstery fabric that is very colorful, different on both sides, and was really wide so I knew I could afford the 1 metre of 35 euros. It's not silk, but it's beautiful and I can't wait to finish my senior collection and make a really awesome jacket for myself.

Stay tuned for more on Lyon & the rest of my travels from this past week!

Corsetry Progress

Pictured left is the corset after all of the side seams were sewn together. I was still debating on the zipper but in the end I chose an all black separating zipper for the front closure. There are no laces, it just zips on and off. Once I sewed the seams I pressed them open and then sewed the zipper. Then it was ready for a fitting to see how it fits over the dress.

Pictured right is the corset all sewn together with the zipper and on my mannequin over the dress for Gabby. I was pretty sure it looked to big but decided to wait for the fitting before changing anything. Also, I couldn't put the boning in before making sure it fit. However, I could have put the boning in the seams in which I wouldn't alter after the fitting. The 3 seams I alter are the center back and the 2 side seams. After the fitting I needed to take the corset in around 3 inches total. 

Pictured left is the corset after sewing twill tape down 4 of the seams to create a tunnel for the boning to go inside. I learned this method in my corsetry class at the London College of Fashion (LCF) and decided to use it for my more modernized corset instead of doing the run and fell seams. I am not using black twill tape for the entire insides. I've been debating on how to finish the other 5 seams, but I'm thinking as of now it'll be 2 red seams and 3 white seams. I'll be finishing the corset by hand sewing black twill tape along the top and bottom. I may be taking the corset with me to France to do some hand sewing while in the airport, but that's not set in stone since I haven't packed yet and don't know how heavy my bags will be. We shall see :)