Alicia VW

One of my supervisors at work asked me to create a dress for her that could make the transition between office and cocktail hour easily. Alicia likes classic shapes, but she's also drawn to pieces with interesting design details. She was thrilled with the slightly drooped pockets and draped sleeves. The fabric, a polyester microfiber, looks and feels like silk, but is easier for her to maintain during her busy and vigorous day-to-day activities. If you knew how fast she walks, you'd understand how silk might not withstand her energetic personality. It's a relatively simple dress, but it's elegant, versatile, and was an affordable option for Alicia. After I delivered the dress to her, and got her to try it on one more time, I asked her if I could take a few shots for my portfolio. She was a great sport, posing for an impromptu photo shoot. I even got her to give me a good pose featuring her hyperextended elbows. Awesome.

Me, Myself, and I

I spent Valentine's Day continuing to update my portfolio. I had to (re)shoot a few garments, and with this being a hurried thing again, guess who had to model? Go me. This time I was sans une équipe créative - so I had to do the best I could. I painted my face and put my hair up in a pathetic updo, just to get my hair out of the way. I hung a big piece of white, cotton jersey from my wall, endlessly battling with the tape (I'm not willing to put holes in my wall just yet). I rounded up some lights, redirected the lights in my kitchen, and got my camera set up. Self-timer is an amazing thing. I wish I could say I had fun doing this.

Here are some shots of my Wear-Every-Way dress. It's a reversible dress with a detachable chiffon "scarf" that doubles as a belt. You can leave it on and tie it a million ways, or leave it off and let the garment just fall around you. You can wear it in a variety of ways including as a wrap, a shrug, a top, a sleeved-hood thing, and so on. It's really up to your imagination. Once again I'm designing as though fabric were the most precious thing in the world... In time perhaps it will be. For now, this is the ultimate investment piece for a poor fashionista. Enjoy.

Happy New Year?

Oh hai. It's been a while. A few things on the go, including some custom pieces for pals of mine, photos soon, hopefully. School is in full swing, I was less than happy to return to classes after a really lovely return home to Edmonton (in spite of the -25°C weather). Projects this semester include an evening wear dress, drafting and sewing a designer knock off (yup!), designing and creating a corset, and a whole lot of illustrating, of course.

In between major projects we do several different draping exercises. This was last week's smocking drape - I used a lattice smocking pattern on a really soft bamboo jersey. Smocking is really strange in that it is quite difficult to plan out exactly how much fabric you need when you're not sure where you want to smock, if your pattern is curving, and so on. I didn't have much fabric to work with, and I wasn't certain I would like what I did. I therefore did not want to cut up my fabric too much, as I wanted to be able to use it afterward. So, for this exercise, I draped in such a way that I used as much of my fabric as possible, without cutting. From about 2 yards of fabric I think I cut away only a square foot or so.

I've been designing in this way recently, like an 18th century dressmaker keeping all that precious woven fabric in one piece. I've been coming up with some things that I quite like. Unfortunately I only had enough jersey to do half this dress. I'll figure something out. I'd love to wear this baby.