Sew Thus is Life...

I've quite possibly had the busiest two days of my life yesterday and today. Yesterday I had to be up bright and early (read: before 11 am) to help put together a display case showing of none other than.... TA- DA!!!! (L-R Patricia, Me, Jasmine, Yuliya) In all seriousness it  was more work than it looks. Once Yuliya and I got the case cleaned out, forms up and "dressed", pressed, and gorgeous, you know people came out the woodwork offering their criticisms. (blah, they weren't even constructive). Anyway life goes on. The case looks nice and is getting some decent foot traffic. In between this and Collection, there's the Fashion Show preparations, the first due dates are in a month. As you also know I've been getting a lot more serious about my internship search, more so now that I have a hole the size of Earth in my schedule next year. The first deadline was for Destination Maternity, parent company to Motherhood, A Pea in the Pod, Oh Baby! for Kohls,

I FINALLY got good pictures of my suit from Advanced and THE Wedding dress. On top of that I got an email from my program director saying they'd love to have the wedding finalists put their gowns in one of the front cases in Hayward (the School of Design and Engineering/Health and Liberal Arts building). So excited. Anyway, enough of my blabber here are the pictures. Model: Megan A. (Wool/ Velvet suit) Back Artsy Shot Rehani wedding dress (w/ overskirt) overskirt Twirly

This was me exactly 12 hours ago. " its 5o'clock in the mornin.. presentation got boring. i should be heading to bed soon, but photoshop is my new moon. and i figured i'd play there, until the RA came up the stairs...   WTF right? for the man. I know. I'm sitting in class on the verge of nodding off so I figured this was a safe bet to look like I'm alert while.. not. Today I attended a career and internship fair. Interesting experience. I was almost immediately disheartened when I got my profile sheet back after the portfolio pick up and none of the Fashion employers wanted an immediate one- on- one appointment with me. I went back to work (Admissions) to inwardly sulk. I took the Career Service rep's advice and came back for the open interviews. I met with the new president of Costume Gallery, a dancewear company in Burlington NJ. (Me, in Jerrz? le gasp.) She gave me very helpful points on editing my work, and noted that what I had WAS good, but wasn'

I never thought myself to be overconfident. If anything I'm always afraid that I didn't do as well only to find out otherwise. I tend to be proud of my work after the fact, but never in the process. I mean my industry is tough; and yes, you can stand by your work, but that doesn't make people accept it. Yesterday I was happy that my muslin fit, and I think it's ready to go to final cutting. Apparently Jane did not. Don't get me wrong, she didn't hate what i showed her, and she thought the execution was done well. It just wasn't SEXY enough. not sexy enough Jane? I understand a model and a dressform are two different things, for one a model is LIVING, with imperfections and bad posture and anorexia nervosa and stress and flat pattern homework and periods and no boobs and unshaved pits and feelings and-- what am I? chopped liver? Not SEXY. Apparently my neckline is too high and the bodice has no structure( after I asked her if I should make a foundation). a

So Collection is chugging along very smoothly... and I just fit my muslin on my model and.....IT FITS! ITS PERFECT! I've never made a muslin that fits so perfectly. unfortunately, my professor had to leave before I could fit... so I'm not sure if I can cut this weekend, depends on if we can all meet tomorrow. My fabric also came in yesterday so I'll let you see those in a bit. Back to the collection. My first look is a fitted semi- sheath dress (semi because it's technically strapless, but taking cues from Africa, its a "Sheath"). I'm calling it the Bantu Sheath dress, and it features side to back cutouts, and a twisted and knotted center front detail. I'm using the royal blue and orange wax print for this one. front, with knot detail back My next look, pending this ones final cut approval, will be a three pc pants set featuring skinny pants, a gathered bustier top and a large sweeping linen swing jacket. I said I would show you the fabric

So the whole premise behind my collection is African wax prints. So in doing my fabric and color research I stumbled on a few textile trade shows showcasing the seasons upcoming fabric trends. One of them were the wildly graphic styles that I'm using in Collection. Below are the prints I'm tentatively using, we'll find out for sure tomorrow... blue/lime/orange Orange/ turquoise wax dynamic orange/blue/lime So that's my side. Stylesight, my fashion trend crack, have posted some good inspiration shots, some blatantly African-feeling or tribal. Maybe later I'll post more of the shows but for now enjoy these lil tidbits. Thanks to Stylesight for helping me stay inspired and making my life a lot easier, Brush Tribal Ok. Going to bed so i can "make it werk" tomorrow. Peace babydolls. P.S. as of 6:00 i got confirmation my lil African hookup has my fabric in stock and i should have it by Tuesday!