Why not?

A simple question, but not always an easy one to grasp and over come. You see, for one of my Fundamentals of Design projects we needed to design collections (3-4 pieces will be submitted) so we could learn the creative processes, the marketing process (who's your customer), how to choose fabrics, colors, etc. Now I decided I wanted to do something very wearable: wool pencil skirts, cable knit sweaters... very J. Crew/Ann Taylor/Ralph Lauren. But that was the problem... there was nothing new or spectacular about the pieces. I wanted them to be marketable; she wanted something "New". In fact she told me she just didn't like the designs. SAD PANDA!!! But by this time I've become attached to the designs, so revamping was a hard idea to wrap my mind around. There were a few pieces I wanted to keep, but how? So for a week I sat an stewed over new ideas, and decided on a Lolita concept. Showed my teacher some of the ideas, and she loved it. Great! But what do I do when I still have the other sketches on the brain?!?! So I went to Jerry (my Fashion Product Evaluation teacher, and the Owner/Head Designer of the XOXO brand) and freaked out on him, begging for advice. After explaining what I had done, and what I thought about doing I said "but I don't think I can do that" - in reference to the Lolita style - and he said "Why not?" I was so caught off guard. Of all the people I thought would look at me and say I was right to assume it was a bad idea, he did anything but. Instead he pulled out some older fashion forcast books and some historically themed paper dolls and said: "Here. Do research." To make a long story short I took a few books home (trains and large amounts of books don't compute ladies and gentlemen) and have since revamped everything, and it's 100 times better. Only stipulation: I show him the designs on Monday. I'm kind of excited.
Here are a few of the preliminary sketches...
These two were from the original batch, and the ones I loved most:

And these are some of my new ones:

No colors yet, but I'm getting there.

One of my major forms of inspiration for this venture was actually the Art Deco fashion designer Erte. Wait... Lolita and Art Deco?!?! What?!?! Believe it or not, what that man used to do with fastening, especially buttons, on his coats was AMAZING!

Here are some pics of the paper dolls I used:

Another inspiration was the designer Schiaparelli. What that woman did for suits...:

Bye, Bye y'all! Have a stylishly fantastic week!

Creativity = No go...

OK, maybe not a complete "no go", but it's definitely lacking. However, I'm trying to mend this by attempting a little side mission.

MISSION: "What I Wore" Drawings

I was inspired by Viet-My Bui over yonder, namely these. The thought that went through my mind was: "That's fantastic!" or: "I should do this so I can finally catalog what exactly I can were in public (i.e. work)!" It really all depends on what kind of detail you believe I think with initially... Personally I tend to believe my mind is like a blue-screen on an old computer, where in the lower right hand corner you have the message : Computing...

And before you point out that I'm comparing myself to one of the most intelligent creations of the 20th century, let me remind you that a computer is only as smart as its user a.k.a. it's pretty stupid.

On top of this mighty little mission, I finally found the pattern I want to use for some sewing projects of mine. No, I'm not that amazing and can draft my own patterns; I just wish I was. But for all you people out there who question my sanity in buying costume patterns, I'm actually using one of those silly patterns. No, not one of those easy, "sexy" costumes, but this:



SAY WHAT!?!?!

Technically I'm only going to be using the chemise/ shirt pattern from the girl in green, so don't freak out too much. Why? Because all I have to do is lengthen it and get rid of the lace cuff (a.k.a. not cut out the pattern piece) and voila! I have a tunic dress for my own enjoyment. I'll be making two, actually. One that I had been planning since this summer (it had this amazing corral print), but never got around to (I didn't go to the beach as much as I hoped), and the other will be a blue, jean-like cotton fabric that I was originally going to make a romper with.

In other news: my internet is being special, I have way too much homework, and I get to go site- seeing for class today... awesome.

Also, I will hopefully post my "What I Wore" drawing from today later (sadly the others were left at home...).

Ta!