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.