Premier of Saskatoon Fashion Week

 

After my show for Vancouver Fashion Week, last Thursday, I received the greatest compliment - I was invited by the creative director of the soon to debut, Saskatoon Fashion Week, to show at SFW's launch next August!

I can't believe how lucky I am; what an amazing opportunity.  I'm very excited by the prospect of being involved in the PREMIER of this event - I keep thinking of how much exposure I could possibly receive by being a part of something so new to the Canadian fashion scene.

So, cross your fingers for me my lovelies and hopefully I'll be jetting off to Sask. in August!

 

Hang Tag

For a digital illustration class, we had to develop and create merchandising/marketing materials for our brand.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about branding and what the lifestyle of my target market is, what images and characteristics that I would like to associate with my brand and are these things that appeal to my target market?

I started with gold - I'm a sucker for gold bling and I feel like it embodies both qualities of luxury and kitsch; two juxtaposing elements that are present in my designs.  I also think that a general theme that runs through my designs is the sense of the garments being unique, yet quite wearable - gold is a precious material that, when you consider only items made from a pure form of gold, is not as prevalent in the market as say, silver or even gold plate/vermeil; yet it is very easy to incorporate into a wardrobe.

Next, a pony because of the feminine and masculine qualities that it represents.  Some little girls have soft, ethereal dreams of riding a horse through the mist on a beach; and the lean musculature of a horse can certainly be related to a lean, chiseled male physique.  Many of my designs incorporate elements of soft draping and structured, tailored silhouettes, so finding an image that also had "soft" and "hard" qualities was essential.

Using Adobe Illustrator, I found an image of a carousel horse that I liked, traced it and tweaked a few aesthetics - curved the tail upwards to give a sense of movement, removed the saddle and draped a riding blanket over the back with my logo on it; I was trying to keep the incorporation of my logo simple as the rest of the illustration was fairly detailed.

Then, I outlined the entire tracing and filled the outline with a gradient of dark browns, golds and creams.  After I had the "shine" pattern that I wanted, I played around with some different effects, like glass, crystalize, ink outlines, and paint daubs, and finally, I used Shape Builder to draw an extended outline that included a tab for a hang string.

Now, where can I have these printed and cut without being charged an arm and a leg...?

Vancouver Fashion Week

As I implied with my last post, I showed my new F/W '11 collection at Vancouver Fashion Week this April!  The collection is inspired by driftwood and the shapes and movement that it embodies, along with the element of erosion, as that is how driftwood is formed.

I've used a lot of draping and smocking to mimic the smooth, flowing lines that are seen in driftwood; the smocking is meant to appear as root structures and knots.  I rely a lot on juxtaposition in my designs, and what I found interesting about driftwood, was the way water and sand slowly shapes the wood into these smooth, sloping shapes - there is a sense of movement, fluidity given to the rigid wood through the erosion of its surface.  I also thought this erosion process was much like the way people change through each experience of their lives.  With each triumph, downfall, love and heartbreak we learn and reform ourselves and the parts of us that are not authentic are eroded away.

Thanks to Daniel Jolly and Victoria Radbourne for the fantastic photos!

Guilty Pleasure...

Those of you that know me are probably painfully aware of how "into" Star Trek TNG I am, so this will hopefully make you giggle and/or hang your head in empathetic humiliation for me...

As I'm showing at Vancouver fashion week this April (April 14th '11, come see yours truly and other emerging designers including my fabulous friend, Wilber Tellez!), I was asked to participate in a "Styling Tips" feature that The Province was going to be running.  I was so excited to be asked, that I enthusiastically replied "YES!!" before really knowing what it was...  Turns out it's a short, constructive critique of Vancouver street fashion by VFW designers.  That's pretty cool, no?  Anyways, VFW sent me the pics prior to the interview happening the next day, so I could come prepared with a little spiel, gave me a time to show up at The Province building and wished me luck!

The outfits were, in my opinion, very typically "Vancouver."  I wrote down some notes that morning, had a mini freak out about the media attention (ok, maybe a fairly large freak out, I mean, they needed pics from my most recent collection, head shot, basically everything that a designer who takes themselves seriously has, and I hadn't thought to put those things together!), and spent an extra couple of minutes on my hair since, who knows, maybe they're taking pictures while talking to me...

Well, turns out it's a video interview and it was going to be run online next week.  I spent the 2 minutes in the elevator up to the studio silently giving thanks to the powers in charge of all things hair, for getting me to plug in the flat iron that morning and remember to pack my umbrella.  The woman who is interviewing me, Dana, calms my nerves quickly and starts in with easy questions like, "What is your spring must-have?" and, "Where do you find inspiration for your collections?"  I talk about shoes and nature and science and Star Trek...  STAR TREK.  Am I the nerdliest of nerdlies?  Well, I'm not alone (thank god), the gentleman behind the camera is a fan too.  Phew.   I'm asked more about the outfits I'm critiquing, blah blah blah, ok, now to wrap up.  I'm feelin' all good, that was easier than I thought, heh, I could maybe do that again if need be...  Oh, what's this? The two of them have a great and secret closing question to ask me?  And is she asking me what costumes on Star Trek I would re-design if I could??  Yes, yes she is.  And I blatter on, not only about re-designing costumes for the Borg, but about re-designing the whole Borg character!  What am I talking about?  Why did I choose that character?  Why not the "dress uniform" that is SO ugly!  I mean they look like weird, girly, gold piped tunics...

There I go again.  I'm mortified and hang my head, embarrassed - Darmok flushed at Tanagra.

Check out DGTV at The Province, for my nerdtastic debut.  Thankfully, they cut the most mortifying parts...

Texture & Movement

 I've been really inspired by textures lately, finding myself wishing for Jedi-like skills with knitting needles, but alas, I have yet to refine my knitting past plain and purl.

This piece from the Mark Fast A/W 2011 collection is incredible - I think it's very innovative in the way it uses flat knit panels to create a deep and mutable silhouette.  So many things go through my mind when I look at this sweater - clothing as protection (armor), Newton's third law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction), how flat pattern drafting results in a 3-dimensional garment...  I think I'm most fascinated with the interaction between the panels and how that influences the surface of the garment.  Obviously with every piece of clothing there is a relationship between the body's movement and the movement of the fabric, but Mark Fast illustrates this relationship in a comprehensive and unique way .  Instead of just having creases form in the crook of a bent elbow as you would experience with a flat material, this garment also shows the resulting expansion of the material along the outer bend of the elbow. 

I'm not really sure why I find this so worthy of recognition; possibly because I think it is a good representation of how interconnected everything (and I mean everything) is; or that it shows how something is more valuable as a whole than the sum of its parts, or it could just remind me of my childhood dreams of having a suit made of corrugated duct like a robot.

Phi Collection

So, I originally intended to do all of my illustrations in a digital format in order to keep with my theme of using technology as a visual and emotional language; however, i found that it took almost 4 times the amount of time that it would have taken me just using paper and pencil...  Which I find ironic since we are led to believe that technology has been developed to make tasks more simple or more efficient...

Anyhow, I only finished 3 of the illustrations in complete digital form and the rest are in quick sketch form.  My process had me first try and form a collection by designing each look separately, which did not yield a very cohesive collection.  After learning Drew's technique of plotting where on the body the collection is going to fall/cut/have detail, and putting the elements of my designs into the body map, the whole thing started to look more like a collection and less like someone's closet blew up.

After that, I went on to scan some of my croquis into Photoshop and Illustrator and started to draw faces.  I wanted the faces to feel soft and demure, fluid and pretty, like the gauzy material I used in the drapes of the collection.

Then I started to draw the outline of each look in Illustrator, to then transfer it into photoshop for colouring, shading etc.

The technicals I did are for the look that included the top that I draped, and the shirt skirt combo with the origami hip detail.

Phi - Illustration

I've decided to do my illustrations for Phi in a digital format to further reflect the integration of technology in society; however I've kept the drawings fairly natural in the face (as opposed to going with a "tech" style of illustration), to juxtapose the digital aspect...