Come on, rain!

Today is a beautiful day. It is golden outside, the perfect temperature (no jacket necessary), I need my sunglasses, and the leaves are turning the classic fall colors. They blanket the ground, muffling the sound of footsteps and decorate the streets. It's Oregon, and the rain has yet to start. When it does, it won't stop until June. The daylight will be perpetually gray, the leaves will turn to mush, and i'll have to give up on my hair entirely. But, on the bright side, I'll need rain shoes. Last year I got excited about tall rubber boots, but this year I'm excited about CHIC RUBBER SHOES. The Melissa collection is so wonderful, and their are some big name teaming up with the design efforts (Vivienne Westwood? Ok!) As for me, I've got my heart set on the Dutch clogs. They also come in red, oh baby. So, I'll be stomping around town, sans clunky boots, in little red clogs and a clear plastic umbrella!! 

(items found on melissaplasticdreams.com and umbrellasusa.com)

Antwerp, Heaven

I have been looking at the 2008 senior collection show from the Royal Academy in Antwerp. It happened a while ago, in June, but the levels of super-creativity are astounding. The construction is record-setting, and fashion is approached as a system, not simply as garments. Every peice seems to be alive, almost. Anyway, it's really inspiring, especially since i'm working on my senior collection. But the work here is in a realm not found in this hemisphere! Everyone should check out the work, which can be found at www.antwerp-fashion/be

tonight i saw

Tonight I saw the Felice Brothers at the Mission Theater. It was so amazing! I am not apt in the least at writing about music, but please watch out 'her eyes dart around' on the videos... it is the song that put its little hands around my heart and made me believe. oh, and i met them, most of the brothers, and they shake your hand and look you in the eye. Simone is a writer, and I bought his book Mary Full of Holes. 

Hair is the new yarn

I've been a  little fascinated by the use of hair in jewelry lately. Even in high fashion, designers seem to be using more long-hair furs in coats and accessories. It's a little morbid, but completely interesting. A company called Saltalamacchia (top pics) uses long horse-hair in otherworldly necklaces that I would love to wear. And there is a history behind all of this: In the Victorian era, jewelry was made from the hair of loved ones when they died as a kind of relic, called memento mori, to rememeber them (bottom pic).  Anyway, I've been seeing these modern takes and there are some pretty great design ideas happening. 

paper or plastic? uhm, plastic paper, thanks.

As I've said earlier, I'm i-l-l-u-strating again. I went to the art store, and found a watercolor paper made out of PLASTIC. Maybe I'm naive, but i didn't even know it existed. it's called yupo, and I decided to try it out. The sales woman said it wouldn't do anything weird, as I had my apprehensions since plastic isn't the most absorbent material in the world. I made these quick sketches with india ink and gauche tonight, and I think I like the effect. 

back in the habit

So, I can't remember how to draw. Art school has killed my instinct. Well, maybe that's not true, but I sure haven't had any time to draw in the last few years. So I'm getting back in the habit, and I am ambitiously trying to re-do my whole portfolio, because I don't think the illustrations are ANY good... i got really caught up in photoshop for rendering. and that takes the life out of everything! It's okay to be messy, I even used to LOVE getting dirty when I was working - like being up to my elbows in watery clay or riding the bus home with charcoal smears all over my face. 

This is a first attempt, a little warm up. It needs more work, but blah blah blah, i'm still posting it! I wish that sleep wasn't necessary, and one could stay up twentyfourhoursaday- just doing all the things we love to do but can't squeeze into waking hours. 

Dear Juan Carlos Obando, YOU HAVE MY VOTE!

The cfda/Vogue fashion fund is again looking for an amazing new designer to give a pile of money to. Well, I say, give it to J.C.O! I love his collection: it is so light, barely there even, and still manage to created a powerful statement of determined style. The clothes are beautiful, but he allows the woman to shine through. He's really not trying to say everything at once: just concentrate on a detail here and there, and let he rest speak for itself. I believe I'm going to need that middle-left dress in the near future. Tonight, perhaps, in my dreams. I'll wear it to the opera, in Russia, and then I'll go dancing in it... I think i would actually know how to dance if I wore that dress. 

the very first one

hello and good morning!

first of all, I'm not quite sure what this is all going to be about. I imagine it will be lots of fashion images and projects that I'm working on, such as garments I'm sewing or drawings and the like. At the moment, I'm putting together my senior collection. So there will probably be quite a bit about that as well. 

Ok- here's a little about me:

1. I live in Portland, Oregon. 

2. I'm about to graduate from the Art Institute with a B.F.A in apparel design. 

3. I love to sew, I love books and I love fashion. 

4. I have a twin sister, I'm five minutes older. 

5. I hate writing about myself, so from now on I'll stick to other topics. 

Alright then... this is just to get started, because I've had an empty blog for several days. What's to come will be decidedly more interesting. And Fun! bYe for now...