Thursday, November 25, 2010

Muses fit for a Musing

It seems to me that I have a constantly revolving door of new muses. It includes everyone from video game characters to random fabulous women in the street. However, I do have a core set that I consistently go to for inspiration. It might be simply for their beauty, but more often than not, it's an intrinsically instinctual connection that I feel with the muse in question.

LADY GAGA


OMG I KNOW. "That's so cliched. She's so overdone. She's unoriginal. She sold out. Blah-blah-blahbbity-blah". I know what you're going to say. And I refute every little bit of that, there is NO ONE more inspiring to me than Lady Gaga. Not just her the person, or her the performer, but everything she stands for carries a great personal meaning to me.


FLORENCE WELCH


I don't know what it is with performers, but they always inspire me. Maybe it's because I come from a really strong theater and music background. I don't really know. I don't know why Florence inspires me the way she does. But everytime I look at her, visions of Grecian statues and perfect drapery dance through my head. Maybe it's her brutal honesty, maybe it's her imperfection, or maybe it's because she is just flawless.


DAPHNE GUINNESS

[Italian+Vogue+-+Daphne+G001+copy.jpg]

FIERCEST BITCH EVER. Like, ever. From a very young age, Daphne has been inspired by the armor collection amassed by her parents. As such, her wardrobe is largely influenced by that. She is so cultured, but so wacky and wonderful. While reading an interview with her, I was continually surprised by the answers she gave, not because they were shocking, but because they were so unexpectedly Daphne Guinness.


KARLIE KLOSS

karlie kloss pics

Of course, no designer is complete without his model muse. Models are meant to be perfect, but Karlie is not. Which I love. Yes, she tall thin and gorgeous, but her eyes come off too strong, and runway walk is quite sloping. But I love it. I love every second of it. I am transfixed by what she does to the camera. She's edgy, she's cool, but most importantly, she's versatile.


So, those are my main squeezes! Who are your muses?

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Conquest

This dress didn't QUITE turn out as well as I had hoped. Mostly due to a lack of experience and procrastination, both on my part. But, lesson learned, don't try and rush finish a dress 2 days before you intend on shooting it. Never. Again.


FINALLY. I get to work with an experienced model. I had lucked out on my models before, they all worked well in front of the camera, but all of them needed a tiny (and I mean infinitesimally small) push. But she needed no direction. I was like, woah. And my photographer was like, woah.


And she fit the dress so well! The skin, the hair, the burning intensity in the eyes! Ugh, perfect.


I was having a lot of difficulty thinking of locations for shooting this dress. With all the other dresses, I knew where I wanted to take pictures. Be it on a sound stage with flashing lights, on a rocky outcrop by the beach, in a natural area by a city center or by a construction zone, I knew immediately where I wanted to photograph my collection. But with this dress, I couldn't think of anywhere to shoot. As luck would have it, my photographer and I were scrambling for places the day before the shoot, and we stumbled upon a mossy, overgrown set of old stairs. It was like someone had captured an 18th century villa and forgot about it, allowing nature to run it's course. It was a natural fit.

Dress: Evan
Shoes: Models Own


Friday, November 12, 2010

Pestilence

This shoot was a NIGHTMARE to put together. First, both my original model AND photographer ended up getting really sick, and the shoot needed to be done that day because I would be going on vacation the following morning and working for quite some time after. Thus, I called my friend (OMG I LOVE MY FRIENDS) who happened to be a similar size as my original model, if not a tiny bit shorter, grabbed my shitty camera and trekked out to her house at 12:30 in the morning.


She was such a trooper! I had never been behind the camera, she had never modeled, my "art-director" (loose term for her sister haha) was drilling her with details, and it was pouring rain. Did I mention that this was at 12:30 in the morning?


It started out super awkward. I can't lie, shooting with a cheap camera with an unexperienced model (and photographer), in the rain late at night, I didn't have very high hopes. But this shoot was magical, frame after frame, pictures came out perfectly disheveled. Shots were blurry, there were watermarks on the lens, but it added to the atmosphere of the collection. It was spectacular. And that pose! I taught her the single ladies dance, and I started the shoot telling her to do the dance, but end at the pose she was in. Marvelous. 



I learned a lot from this shoot. A lot about preparedness, a lot about spontaneity, and a lot about the wonders of a labor of love. 

Dress: Evan
Tights: Evan
Belt: Ardenes
Bangles: Ardenes
Shoes; Models Own



Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Death

Ah, my first attempt at pattern drafting. It really wasn't that hard to do.


Like, seriously, this dress took me all of 20 minutes to draft and make. Lazy? Maybe. Stylish? Definitely.


There's something to be said for the simplicity of a pure white gown. And my model, having a darker complexion, made the dress glow. I absolutely love her. She's one of my friends, which made working with her easy, but she knew what she was doing.


Dress: Evan
Belt: Ardenes
Bangles: Ardenes
Shoes: Models Own

Monday, November 8, 2010

Famine

Famine, the second dress from my portfolio collection. This dress was my favorite! I loved everything about it, the construction, the idea, the model, the photo shoot, everything pulled together for an INCREDIBLE experience! I take a lot of inspiration from birds of prey. I adore the intriguing mixture of grace and ferocity. I tried to ensconce that with this dress. I also listened to a lot of orchestral music while I was designing this collection, but I played this pretty much on constant repeat when I was making this dress.




I LOVE FINAL FANTASY 7. Such an enormous source of inspiration for me! Nobuo Uematsu is a genius. No words describe the level of awesome that this song encompasses.


This is my favorite image out of all of the photo shoots done for the collection. It's so perfect in its imperfection. Sure, the eyes are a little dark, and maybe it's not the best compositionally, but it best captures the emotion and feeling I was trying to get out of the collection. The lightly tousled hair, the agony written across her face... Sublime.


At this point I felt a little bad for my model. "Hey, I know you're wearing 5 inch heels and everything, but do you mind posing on a tiny rock in the middle of that pond over there?" doesn't exactly get one brownie points. But she did amazing and was a total professional. I always try to get girls with personality for shoots, they do the best there, hands down.


The only problem I had with the dress were the feathers on the shoulders. But I figured out an easy way to do them. I ended up snapping 5 needles on my sewing machine by doing so....... Whatever, it turned out, which is all that matters.

Dress: Evan
Belt: Ardenes
Bangles: Ardenes
Ring: Ardenes
Shoes: Model's Own






Sunday, November 7, 2010

An Introduction to Manufacturing

So. I'm blogging. It's something that I've been meaning to do for quite some time, but now I feel like I have enough of a voice to actually say something intelligent about the wide, wonderful and wacky world of fashion. Recently I started studying to become a fashion designer. One of my favorite classes (which is saying a lot, seeing as we only just started taking it last week) mentioned the impact that bloggers have had on the fashion industry in recent years. And you know what, I totally agree. Thus, this blog serves as my (as of yet unheard) voice in the industry. Also, the class is called An Introduction to Manufacturing, hence the name!

So.... How does one become a student studying fashion design? One must make a pretty fantastic portfolio, that's how. For my portfolio, I submitted LOADS of artwork and fashion illustrations, but I also put it upon myself to execute and create a whole 5 look collection. While it isn't technically proficient by any standards, the ideas are there and that is what's important! 

The collection was inspired by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Each dress is inspired by one of the Horsemen. 

"Wait, but there are 5 looks," one might query. And you are right. There are 5 looks, but 4 horsemen. That's because there is one Horseman that can be switched in for another. Theoretically, the Four Five Horsemen are War, Death, Pestilence, Famine and Conquest, with Famine and Pestilence being interchangeable. Problem solved.

The first look is War.


With War I took a rather abstract inspiration. That is, explosions. The center portion (the red satin minidress) being the flames, while smoke embroils the dress (the grey tulle).


OMG. Corey, the model, was something ferocious. It was both of our first photo-shoots ever. She got in front of that camera and worked like you wouldn't believe. I'm looking forward to working with her again.


This dress was my first proper foray into learning how to sew. I'm the kind of person who will take a leap when it comes to things I am passionate about and hope that I fly instead of fall. But it turned out pretty good. An "A" for effort. Sewing? Uh...... Let's leave that.

Dress: Evan (AKA Moi)
Belt: Ardenes
Bangles: Ardenes
Shoes: Wal-Mart (I KNOW! Way too amazing for Wal-Mart standards...)