Breaking in Spring

After five months of cold weather and trillions of layers, the word “spring” can have an almost immediate release of endorphins in my body, along with the colour pink (#fact). But when that word is followed by the word “break”, it is as though all my blood cells have morphed into Despicable Me minions and they’re all laughing hysterically through my veins. In other words, it’s exciting, really exciting. Fashion Design is a rather labour intensive major and pursuing it in fast pace New York City amps up the urgency and intensity of every assignment. Therefore, when any opportunity to catch up on sleep or finally eat a meal that wasn’t made in 10 minutes or less comes around, it must be taken advantage of. However, the reality of springtime is that it is often accompanied with spring cleaning, both literally and metaphorically. This means, clean up your life in any area you can think of that you didn’t have the time or energy to do during the depressing winter months. I.e. apply to internships, look for a new apartment because your lease is ending, finally take out the recycling and do your laundry. Well, I guess those are more literal cleaning than metaphoric, but they’re still very important. What spring break really means is temporarily take your mind off school and focus your energy on the ‘real human’ things that you’ve been neglecting. Though the university would like you to believe that you’re taking this time to relax and take a break so that you can come back and finish the semester at your optimal state of performance, the reality of the situation is that the break is the only thing saving you from complete life overload. Yes, life overload. I’ll leave that up to you to define for yourself as it can often mean different things for different people. So, in resistance of this life overload, whatever it shall imply, this spring break is much more about getting stuff done than taking a break from getting stuff done. I hate to break it to you, but I do not have any tropical beach bikini photos of me wearing the same Victoria’s Secret bathing suit your sister and your boyfriend’s ex girlfriend have, with my hand on my hip and my hair blowing in the wind and a charming smile, because you haven’t seen enough of those on your Facebook newsfeed this month... I actually don’t have many pictures from this spring break at all and if I did they would be of me watching movies and looking overfed (#accurate). Oh, and of course there would be pictures of me on my laptop doing things I said I would like applying to internships and haphazardly looking for apartments and...well...writing this. And believe it or not I’ve rarely put on real clothing or have any recollection of what my face with makeup on it might look like, so I wouldn’t even be looking cute in these hypothetical photos. 

Well, if you’ve read this far then you’re probably experiencing the kind of boredom that occurs during the type of spring break that I’m having. At least we’re in it together, am I right?

School starts again in four days. Four days people!

#wearwhatyoulike

Photo by Matthew Perrone

It's actually astonishing how many times I'm asked for fashion advice by those who believe they "know nothing" about fashion. Believe it or not, I'm equally as capable of telling you what to wear as a fish. A blind fish. And the backing for that is that, at the end of the day, they're just clothes -fashion is just clothes. People like to warn me about how competitive and cut-throat this industry can be but in actuality, it's the people in the industry that make it that way and I predict a fashion forecast of funnier and more lighthearted designers, including myself. I think it's about time everyone reached back and untangled the bunch their panties are in and stop taking themselves so seriously. If I have learned anything at Parsons (and I've learned tons *cough*mom and dad your money isn't going to waste*cough*), it is that you need to wear what you like and I'm sure I've posted about that before. If you're not comfortable and confident in your clothing, why are you wearing them? Anyone can buy the newest or the most expensive but that doesn't make them fashionable, or at least, I should hope not because otherwise we'd all be broke (or homeless if your wallet resembles anything similar to what mine currently looks like). Thus, I have come to the groundbreaking conclusion that my approach to fashion is simply that - #wearwhatyoulike. Shoot - who I am to tell you what looks good; if you like it, then wear the hell out of it 'cause you're damn sure going to look better than the girl who can't figure out if she actually likes what she's wearing or if she's just resisting the buyers remorse flooding her subconscious. If someone else told you what you like, you're doing it wrong.

Wear what you like. Seriously, stop being so serious. 

Ha. 

Chopped

When you have curly or wavy hair, your hair days are typically hit or miss. Unless of course you have enough will power to rise in the morning and claim the role of lion tamer and attempt to control the wild locks of hair twisting in whatever directions that make the least sense. Unfortunately, curly and wavy hair is both a blessing and a curse. Anyone with straight hair would kill to have it hold a curl and anyone with curly/wavy hair would kill to be able to predict what their hair might look like after they shower. But sometimes you just have to give in to the natural texture of your hair and let your frizzy freak flag fly, because after all, nothing is more beautiful than confidence, self-acceptance, and Hermione Granger circa Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
So in an effort to embrace my natural mane, I've decided the only manageable way to do so is to go chopped. It's become somewhat of a trend for women with frizzy big hair to cut it short and, in my opinion, they're killin' it.

Ok, that Miley one was a joke, I didn't do THAT to my hair...but you get the idea. But she was pullin' the chopped thing before she went out for crazy cakes. Short is the new long... Orange is the new black...all that nonsense. It's the 'less is more' mentality, you know, good things in small packages? ...Size doesn't matter? I'll stop.

Someone a little closer to home, who is known for this haircut, was my inspiration for this MASSIVE lifestyle change that is so much more important to write about than do my homework... Her name is Leandra Medine and she is The Man Repeller. She graduated from my school and has become a total style icon/fashion socialite/fashion influencer in NYC. Her mentality towards fashion is that we must find the humour in serious fashion and the weirder the better, which, in some ways, is similar to my take on fashion: #wearwhatyoulike. She rocks the chopped look and basically instills the confidence within me that my hair can be freshly washed and frizzy and still chic. 

Because, why not?

homework?

My school gives us an insanely long winter break for whatever reason. Normally I wouldn't complain about this, I mean who would, right? But, of course, my program felt it necessary to assign a massive winter assignment to work on while we're home so as to keep us "inspired" and "creatively engaged". And me, being who I am, didn't even touch it until the end of the almost 2 month long winter break. In my defense, I was taking some time to reconnect with friends and family while they were home for the holidays and then immediately started working at the insurance office to make some moola. Working 9 to 5 is like real life. I don't know how people do it and maintain hobbies and stuff. I have a new found appreciation for the workforce of ... the world, because trying to get my head around doing homework upon arriving home in the dark days of January at 6:30 pm was a real struggle. 

So I eventually got around to completing it. 

The assignment was to design two collections: one represents your ego as a designer, and the second as your alter ego. Don't get it confused - alter ego does not mean another side of you. It was actually meant to imply THE OPPOSITE of what you identified as your ego... which apparently was hard for everyone in my class to understand, including me. I immediately decided my ego was 1960's-mod which I fell in love with last semester during my fashion history class. Apparently people used to see that style in my own but I guess since moving to NYC and the whole "all black" thing... I've veered away from that.

My alter ego, which I believed to be the opposite, was punk/grunge, which I also learned about during fashion history. When I presented my winter assignment, my teachers (which are the same ones from last semester) told me their opinion - which was that I'm much more like my alter ego than my ego, if not a mixture of both. So... I'm not sure what image I've been giving off, but that's how they interpret my personal style. Maybe I'm just versatile and like experimenting, but I definitely was not expecting to be told I'm "punk". 

We needed to digitize our entire project. So that is what I have to share.

note: colours came out weird when the file was exported.

I'm here.

Well well well. Here we are again. I've now officially been back in NYC for one whole week after a long month and a half at home. I flew to Toronto in mid December and immediately started in on the friends and family. Lots of get togethers and nights with foggy details. It was awesome re-entering the world of legal drinking age. 7.5 months till I'm 21 baby.

So Christmas was fabulous. Though I couldn't help but notice it's become a lot less... Christmasy. Maybe it's the traveling, or the rush of the end of the semester, but it really took a lot for me to get into the Christmas spirit and apparently I'm not the only one who felt that way. It was December 24 and it still felt too early for Christmas carols. That's how bad it was. Nevertheless Christmas morning was so special. Santa paid close attention to my "gift guide for a fashion student" which was delightful. I love coming home to special times with my family. It makes coming home very exciting. This Christmas, however, was less one person. Sad face. My big brother is 'backpacking' through South America and thus couldn't be home for the holidays. My half size dress form filled his place but it really wasn't the same. 

New Years! 2K14 honey! 

Immediately after New Years I went back to work at the insurance company in Toronto that I've worked at for the past two summers. Not my ideal job but the pay is good, I know my way around and the people are great. Plus being home for a whole month and a half, you need somehing to fill you days especially after all your Canadian friends have gone back to school. The only down side to the longest break in history. 

So now I'm back in action. I had a feeling that as soon as I stepped foot in NYC my life was going to hit fast forward and that's exactly what happened. This past week I've pulled two all nighters, started work again at the department of athletics & recreation to get my fit on, but really just pumped out like 600 flyers for our upcoming winter events, fitness class and sports. Catching up with roommates and friends and molding back into the New York lifestyle. I guess you don't really realize how much you miss New York until you come back. It's like falling in love all over again. 

Boy it's good to be back. 

the ugliest shirt you've ever loved.

For the last five weeks, I have devoted countless hours drafting, cutting, measuring, pinning, sewing, seam-ripping, sewing again, pressing, adjusting, problem solving, and eventually presenting one of the ugliest shirts I have ever encountered. As I was working on it, my roommates sat idly by watching as every component that I added to the shirt made it even more bazar.  I have to give it to them though, they still remained positive about the completed project and showered me with kind compliments even after I kept them up all night with the obnoxious noise of my sewing machine and burned their eyeballs with my stripes, plaids, frills and ribbons. Thanks dudes.

So here's how it went down.

The assignment: rethink and redesign the classic shirt. 

The theme : pick a theme and let it evolve and organically incorporate other themes to create something new and original.

The Rules : the majority of the shirt must be constructed from a striped cotton. Other patterns and solids may be used but only as additions to the stripe. The shirt must also be a SHIRT and not a blouse (meaning buttons down the front as opposed to down the back or not at all). 

The final presentation : 10 illustrations of the entire collection including the shirt, a mood board (inspiration board), a fabric board comprised of all the fabrics used in the collection, a flat of the finished shirt, and the finished shirt. 

My theme started as victorian. Just your plain old victorian shirt. Standard theme, no? Well... as instructed, this theme evolved and organically incorporated other themes. Victorian turned into victorian-motorcycle-country-saloon girl. Yeah, quite the mouthful. What does a victorian-motorcycle-country-saloon girl look like, you might ask? Well let me show you.

Here are my 10 illustrations depicting my final collection.

As you can see, the victorian shirt completely transformed and was paired with some patent leather pants and overalls to bring in the motorcycle and country elements making this very Beyonce "Bow Down" look, as one of my peers put it. The first shirt in this collection is the shirt that I actually went on to create. At the beginning of the project, I drew 50 croquis and proposed them to my professor. Out of those FIFTY designs, he chose that one. I think maybe because it might've been one of the more challenging ones from a pattern-making/design standpoint. Nevertheless, it would have been more ideal to choose one of the shirts that I would actually incorporate into my wardrobe unlike this bazaro ribbon explosion... Oh well. C'est la vie.

These illustrations, paired with my mood board and my fabric board, created a three-panel presentation board. I used the excess fabric left over and some other crafty things I've collected in my time as an art student to bring it all together. We were required to include some of our process work which is why I included my two sketchbooks of research, inspiration, and croquis.

  

Since coming to the fashion design program, I have been introduced to technical flats which I have never been required to do before. It was a real struggle at first to figure out how the heck to draw a shirt in Adobe Illustrator and have the proportions correct and everything. Basically a technical flat is what you send to the manufacturer so it needs to be coherent and correct if you want to get the right shirt made and sent back. If there is even one mistake, you could receive a completely different shirt from the manufacturer and then you're screwed. So precision is key! I'm still just getting the hang of this but this is the flat I whipped up for my shirt.

And lastly, the finished shirt.

**The sleeve shoulders are puffier when arms are in them.

I was a little nervous to present this project on the last day of class. I was convinced my professors and peers would be thinking to themselves "what the…." and conjure up some horrid story of my being the next Betsy Johnson… However, my teacher seemed to flip that apprehension on it's side. When he saw my shirt he fell absolutely in love with it and went on a 20 minute rant about this generation of Parsons students being "hyper chic" and serious designing all androgynous, avante garde, oversized, no colour, clean line, boring clothing. He said "finally someone who can take a damn risk!" He applauded my experimentation and fearlessness (little did he know I was internally freaking out) and mentioned that it IS an ugly shirt, but the fact that it's so well made makes it hard to hate. He went on to talk about the need to be tacky and crazy in fashion school because as soon as you get into the industry, you're going to have someone telling you what to do and the opportunity to explore will have evaporated (until you have complete creative control of a company which is … in the very distant future … if at all). 

All in all, this project was a roller coaster of emotions, but well worth the ride. As my prof put it, I've created "the ugliest shirt you've ever loved." Not a bad title if you ask me.

Gift Guide for a Fashion Student

Let's be real here, Christmas shopping gets increasingly difficult the older we get. Not only difficult but expensive. For a college student, the expensive component of that equation is a death sentence, especially following Black Friday and Cyber Monday when it’s hard to put Christmas shopping before spoiling yourself...again. And isn’t that always the way? The one time of the year when the spirit of giving is in the air and you’re having a sudden epiphany of all these things that you ‘need’ and how you can justify purchasing them instead of that tie for your dad for the fourth year in a row. [Check out Harvey Nichols' Sorry, I spent it on myself gift collection, http://www.harveynichols.com/sorry]

So throughout this epiphany, I’ve been able to compose a list of gifts that a fashion student would like to a receive. A Fashion student like me. Hint, hint.

1. Illustration Markers.

My preferred brand is Primsacolor mainly because it’s the cheapest good quality marker. As a fashion student, you really can’t have too many illustration markers. Even if you have two of the same colour, they run out very quickly or they get murky from colouring over pencil. And then you have murky drawings and no one wants murky drawings because murky is murky. 

2. American Apparel ‘Easy Jeans’.

These are by far my favourite pair of jeans because they are so easy. Shocking, I know. I have them in black and wear them with everything and they look great no matter how bloated I am... A second pair may be in order. In medium.

They come in a variety of colours:

http://store.americanapparel.net/product/?productId=rsams300

3. Black anything.

Speaking of black clothing, there is an unwritten rule in fashion school, or maybe it’s the entire industry, or maybe it’s New York City... but all black is a must. I honestly never wore black before October - occasionally when I wanted to look cool but I was a classic crayon-box-wardrobe kind of girl. Then I worked a fashion event in Toronto in early October with a dress code of entirely black and I had sold my soul, crossed over to the dark side, and converted. I didn’t realize it until a friend pointed it out, and when my response was more defensive than ashamed I knew there was no turning back. It’s a habit. Now, this isn’t to say I don’t like colours, I love colours! I include them in my designs all the time! But as far as my own clothes go, well, I’ll be sporting the fashion student uniform: all black everything.

4. Large canvas bag.

You know that awkward kid running to class with his backpack on, lunch bag in his hand and science project slowly disassembling in his arms as he runs down the street? Yeah, that’s pretty much every fashion student at one point in their lives. Until of course, they acquire a nice, extremely large, canvas bag in which they can carry all their sewing, illustration, and pattern-making materials. New York is a busy place and pedestrians have little tolerance for those with too much stuff on the sidewalk. Not to mention the Parsons elevators are unethically small. Having multiple small bags of supplies in addition to your purse is a disaster waiting to happen, so let's just avoid conflict and obtain a canvas bag. Of the large variety. In black. 

Plain and simple:

http://makr.com

5. Fashion related books.

So we can look really cool when our non-fashion student friends come over. But also for inspiration…

“I don’t pop Molly, I rock Tom Ford.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tom-ford-bridget-foley/1017246140?ean=9780847826698

6. Unlimited gift-card to Starbucks.

Death before decaf, am I right?! Heh. 

7. Ridiculous shoes.

The more ridiculous the better. I can always take my shoes off to press the sewing machine peddle... 

For inspiration:

http://www.solestruck.com

8. Ridiculous sunglasses.

I mean hey, make-up can only disguise how exhausted we are so much. Sometimes you just need a killer pair of shades to get you through that bad-face day.

Like these:

http://www.nastygal.com/accessories-eyewear/

9. Candles.

I think it’s an artists thing, but an abundance of candles seems like appropriate decor. A New York City apartment could always use a little ambiance, especially when you can’t afford decent furniture or decorations or lightbulbs.

10. Money.

You had to expect this one. Materials are expensive! New York City is expensive! There is NO shame in accepting money for the holidays, and it is NOT uncreative to give money as a gift. So please, don’t hesitate. Really. I take all major credit cards.

11. Ironic apartment decorations.

We need to have our fair share of goofy dog sheets and princess chandeliers before our lives get too serious. Nice one on the spool-of-thread salt and pepper shakers, mom. You nailed it.

Need ideas?

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/apartment

12. Vintage anything.

Nothing rolls of the fashion-conscious tongue better than, “it’s vintage”. And the fact that no one else will have it is slightly appealing once you’ve realized that every other person in your class also heard about the sale at H&M in Times Square. 

13. Mason Jars.

For some reason it’s really trendy to drink out of these, and for some reason no one really knows where to acquire them except for finishing several jars of your mother's failed strawberry jam.

14. Instagram followers.
Won’t those look so nice with a pretty bow under the Christmas Tree? Actually, a group of strangers sitting in my living room doesn’t sound pretty at all…

I'm @herelovenyc by the way….

15. Patience

Because seam ripping.