as the days turn into nights and my big deadline draws scarily close, i’m getting so stressed and have the worst panic attacks at times. after dropping off a pair of my sequined harem pants at the patricia field boutique on friday (i sell my sequined harems there), i went with one of my good friends and a buyer at the pat field boutique to coffee and a light dinner as we talked about our dreams.

the lack of time, the things we want to do, the lack of resources, our plans and our future…… at the end, it all boiled down to money.

can money please fall from the sky?

*sigh*

i’d like to think that we can do anything if we just had dreams. but really? i mean, really?

in fact, today i spent a few hours doing my expenses sheet, noting down things i still need to do, and figuring out how much that is gonna cost. holy cow. there’s no way this is going to happen. it’s so difficult and i feel like an elephant is sitting on me and causing all this stress. i caught a glimpse of myself holding my head while looking at my spreadsheet… and took a picture of myself that i think i will put up on my wall.

just to remind myself that in many ways, money does make the world go round, and that if i want to really achieve my dreams, i need to save one cent at a time and put any profit i make to good use.

never mind that i’m like 2 months behind schedule after my winter bout of pneumonia, with my show next month, my dog back in singapore is currently in poor health (she’s 17), and my lease is up in may. which means that within the next month, i need to finish my collection, finish all my photoshoots and lookbooks, pack up my entire apartment, ship it, go back to singapore, have a show, try to get orders, try not to go bankrupt, and keep my sanity at the same time.

what?

yeah. exactly.

i think the problem is that i’m trying to do as much as i can myself, because i simply cannot afford to employ anyone. i am getting some help with my samples, but it’s really minimal and that’s pretty much all i’m getting help with. everything else i’m basically doing myself. because who the heck can afford to hire help? not me.

i know people who are from wealthy families who have all the resources to just sign their names off on that dotted line and get things done, easy like that. and as fortunate as i’ve been, there are still a lot of limitations to what i can do. and i’m not gonna lie – while i don’t get insanely mad about it, there are times i sigh and get a bit jealous.

is a trunk show what i need?

so my “grand” plan is to have a trunk show and try to have some pre-sales. have you heard about trunk shows? there are a lot of ways to do this… i don’t know how i should do it or how it needs to be done, but i believe it’s what i need to do.

most times, labels get buyers, produce ahead, then get paid after they deliver the goods to the stores. if they’re lucky they get paid within a month. if they’re unlucky, they don’t get their check till 3 months later. how can one sustain? i honestly don’t have the funds to spend like, $50,000 to produce a collection and deliver it to stores, then wait another few months for that money to come back in.

a trunk show, however, is a different story. it’s that special little event where a designer gets to meet his or her actual customers, have some face-to-face time with the people who will ultimately be buying their designs, and introduce their garments to anyone who will listen. at some trunk shows, designers have some inventory on hand to sell on the spot. and at times they do pre-sales, taking a deposit, which adds up to a sum that any one would be grateful for. this means that the designer has some capital to pay for production, in order to get those garments made, so that they can be sent to the client who then pays in full for it.

a group of 10 designers from parsons were selected to show their collections at debut nyc, a store in downtown new york. i was one of the lucky ones, and there was a little party to say hi and meet everyone! our garments were on display in the store for a little over a week. a huge big thank you to lisa weiss and sang a for letting us emerging designers have this huge chance!

the cutest little dog prancing around the store

kevin hwang: great american sportswear that even i like!

bae jeong, with accessories designer sang a.

getting interviewed by new york magazine's the cut blog.

myself with lisa, from debut, without whom this all couldn't have happened!

japanese desserts with bae jeong after the event. *note to self: why'd you always look so weird in bad lighting?*

boy oh boy. add a headache to a shaky voice plus quivering knees and a blank mind, and what you get is the bunch of us retarded, scared shitless people. people who were sweating buckets while waiting in line at the gates of heaven for the angels to tell us if we get through, or go straight to hell.

waiting in the dark for dooms day

at parsons, they call it the jury. just like what it means. they basically decide on your fate, and your life depends on it. you’d be lucky if you get good jury. meaning, even if they slay you alive, they are reputable and super amazing people whose criticisms and comments you would really appreciate. but sometimes, man, a couple of those on the panel are those “who are you again?” type of “fashion industry” people, and you think, “fuck, you mean i worked my ass off all year and all i get for christmas is you?”

judgement day is made into such a stern, serious event. i mean, i understand that it needs to be serious, but it is unnecessarily so. there are so many strict cut-off times that you must meet to be able to show your collection. miss it by 10 seconds, and it means you’ve wasted your 4 years at parsons.

oh but hey, as i mentioned before, there are always that handful of people who can show up late and hand in their things the next day. we suspect that they are secretly giving blowjobs to those teachers-in-charge to get these special privileges, while those who didn’t get on their knees end up sobbing their eyeballs out when the teachers tell them auf wiedersein.

what happens at the gates of heaven

so here’s how it goes.

you all know about the dreadful year-long process that has led up to this day. no doubt it was hard, but i’ve never experienced nervousness like this. mind-boggling, stuttering, brain-freezing, hands-jittering, knee-shaking nervousness. my mouth was dry and i could hardly speak. thesis week is a weeklong of senior classes showing their collections. usually 2 classes a day. depending on luck and on who our teachers know in the industry, some classes get pretty amazing judges to come and view their collections, though some aren’t as lucky.

in my case, we had 2 buyers from oak, a fashion consultant (what does that actually mean?), a journalist, a stylish lady who comes every year and i’m not actually sure what her job is, someone from the cfda, and the head designer for isaac mizrahi couture.

although i made a pre-fall collection, i didn’t really create looks with that many layers, and so shucks, with 2 looks on the models, my rack looked bare. not great. i wish it was a less wide rack. haha!

although i had about 6 looks to show, my rack looked scarily empty!

the concept

i started off explaining my concept and inspirations.

the debut mini collection by RÊVASSEUR, which translates to “daydreamer”, embodies the emotions of childhood – adventures, imagination, self-discovery, growing up, dependency, and tension, where something cannot exist without the other, nor function without a helping hand. it was also inspired by english author, enid blyton’s magic faraway tree series.

as a child, i used to follow my older sister everywhere, and loved reading fairy-tales, building the biggest lego castles with my brother (and smacking him when he knocked them down), and playing in our squatter-like make-shift indoor tent that consisted of tons of blankets hung from the ceiling and buntings strung all over. we would eat, sleep and read in there, and come up with new passwords every hour!

after my mother bought me my first enid blyton book when i was 4, i got obsessed and would read a new book each day. this started my love affair with enid blyton and her wonderful tales, and in particular, the magic faraway tree series. they brought me into an imaginary world filled with pixies and gnomes, flustered golliwogs, and talking rabbits; into the enchanted wood, up the magic faraway tree, gobbling pop biscuits and google buns, into the land of take-what-you-want and do-as-you-please, and down moonface’s slippery-slide.

the inspiration is expressed through a variety of strong silhouettes, a great mixture of textures and prints, as well as multiple pattern manipulations and fabric treatments. this collection is an exploration of a memory of my childhood, and continual imagination of a world of colour, fun, and make-believe.

i was basically brain-dead from being so tired, which shows on my face, but my hands are alive!

erm, of course, that was the plan but it didn’t go HALF as well. i was shaking all over; my fingers, hands, knees, and voice. i couldn’t stop fidgeting, and although i did make it a point to look and speak to each of the judges, i also closed my eyes a few times just to think. prior to this day, we have had 2 rehearsals in class when we presented to our teachers and classmates. but nothing really prepares you for the beady eyes of the judges burning holes through you.

owww.

i don't even remember what i said but i was probably rapping. HAHAHA! and i really don't remember what i was talking about when i made that michael jackson "thriller" dance move!!

my line

each of the judges were handed a folder containing all of our linesheets, and this was mine. i got my model to do a pose like a kid reading a book. the book of course, is a really old edition of the magic faraway tree, of which i had based many ideas of my collection on. i drew the tree on photoshop; i’ll admit here though, that i certainly had to look at pictures of trees to draw this, and even then, it ain’t great!! the pixies and fairy folk i drew with some reference to illustrations i found. (apparently i’m not that talented?) pfffft.

TURQUOISE WITH PINK DOTTED COTTON asobi TWO-WAY DRESS

my first look is an airy light dress that looks a little simple but can be played with to create something a lot more fun. it can be worn on its own in summer, or layered in the fall and winter to show just the drapes! i created some huge tiered folds in the front which adds some drapes on the side, and allows the dress to balloon a little as the wearer walks. the great part is that this silhouette completely changes because of the epaulette on the back that allows you to pull up the skirt of the dress and button it up higher so that the drapes become a little more dramatic and cute!

did i also mention that this is a turquoise cotton fabric with textured pink dots all over? love it so much.

MULTI-COLOUR DOUBLE-FRONTED fukuzatsu TWEED JACKET WITH HIDDEN SHIRT POCKET, HAND-WOVEN SAORI COLLAR AND PLACKET, AND WASHED TWO-PLY SILK COWL

following that, anna came out parading my second look. this jacket was probably one of the hardest little thing to make and made me want to slit my wrists when i was making it. the drapes on the side, god, why did i want so much to stick to my plans! no matter what i did, it kept moving and changing its shape and really made me feel like stabbing myself in the chest!!

the jacket is made from a ton of different colours and textures (obviously!), with this amazing woven tweed i found from linton tweeds, which had a mix of greens, orange and khakis – very weird (in a good way), very different, and i love it. i picked up the colours form this tweed, and used wools and yarns in the same colour story in the weave that i made, which i then cut and sewed to make the front placket and collar. this was decorated with a ton of different plastic and covered buttons, some made and some bought.

the left front of the jacket is actually a double layer, which unbuttons to reveal another layer inside that looks like a shirt but is of course made of tweed and pretty warm. there are hooks where the collar can hook onto which changes the look of the jacket a little at a time.

i had made an extra piece of woven fabric which i passed around to the judges for them to have a closer look at the possibilities of what this technique of weaving could produce.

BALLOON PRINT JERSEY kantan T-SHIRT WITH TIERED SLEEVES

BLACK SILK WOOL DIAGONAL yattaze PANTS WITH BLACK SPANDEX AND GREY JERSEY

underneath the jacket was a simple tshirt in my balloon print, with a few tiers in its sleeves. it’s worn with these pants with 2 very strong diagonal seams that cut across the leg, which i thought slimmed down the hips and thighs a little. it also has a little gleamy spandex in there, which is usually perceived to be a rather cheap fabric, but i thought it added a nice bit of shine to an otherwise matte pair of pants.

the best part about these pair of pants, is that no matter who tried it on, they all told me how comfortable it was and wanted to order a pair! whee!

ORANGE AND TURQUOISE IKAT COTTON ASYMMETRICAL nanka-iissho SHIRT WITH GREY JERSEY SLEEVES AND SAORI BIB

next is a shirt and pant look. the shirt was made with this seriously colourful and so-very-me ikat cotton that was made in india. it was a little rough when i first bought it and had to wash it through a few times to soften it.

i made its sleeves in this really soft grey jersey (same as the one i used in the diagonal yattaze pants), because we all know how many times we’ve bought shirts and start fidgeting because seriously, shirt sleeves are sometimes simply not the most comfortable things to wear. the shirt is longer on one side, with a slightly rounded collar, and curved shirt placket. the highlight is of course, another version of one of my weaves, again with colours that are also in the ikat. this was used to make a square shirt bib. i stuffed the collar, placket, and bib a little to give it the slightest bit of volume and added curves, and then threw in more plastic and covered buttons down the placket.

DARK TURQUOISE AND MUSTARD JERSEY DROPPED-CROTCH sarueru PANTS WITH ASYMMETRIC MULTI-TIERED LEGS

the shirt can be paired with this super comfortable dropped-crotch pants. i explained to the judges that dropped-crotch pants are something you either love or loath. i. love. them. i live in them, i really do. i don’t know how many pairs i own. i think it’s easy to create a statement with dropped-crotch pants, because they instantly create a very unique and quirky silhouette even if you are wearing a plain white tshirt and no accessories at all.

i added tiers down the legs of the pants which is something i don’t think i’ve seen before and adds a little something different. on the left side though, i added 4 tiers and then made it very skinny, to make sure it doesn’t make the wearer look like she’s some kind of walrus blubber.

DARK NAVY HIGH-WAISTED GABARDINE piero PANTS

a pant alternative is this pair of high-waisted, almost corseted pair of pants. it has a pretty wide leg that tapers towards the ankles, with great hand stitching detail in red. i also spoke about how i enjoy using interesting linings with great prints that add a little something extra, that might not get seen by anyone other than the wearer, but is a detail that i like to include in my designs. the multiple tweed fukuzatsu jacket had a silk lining that was printed with my balloon print, and for these pair of pants, i used a bright red polka dot lining that is just the cutest thing.

CASHMERE WOOL forrest-nymph ASYMMETRICAL JACKET

i threw in my forrest-nymph jacket that i admittedly made in junior year, but which was also made with the same concept as my collection, so much so that my teacher convinced me to include it in my presentation. honestly, i thought long and hard about whether it was a good idea to include it, but after seeing how some students had some extremely questionable collections where they OBVIOUSLY had no part in sewing anything at all, i was like, fuck it. they didn’t even make any of their collection, it’s all bullshit, and at least this is my own work, that i created and sewed without copying another designer. so yes, i did it, and i included it in. whatever.

the jacket itself is a combination of different colours of cashmere, asymmetrical again, and of course, decorated with my signature mix of buttons. there’s also the added detail of the turquoise hand-stitch all along the lapel and hem. i have to say, i’ve worn this jacket a million times and it goes with just about anything i own! it’s the perfect piece that i’m really proud to have made!

ORANGE AND TURQUOISE IKAT COTTON mecharaku DRESS WITH STUFFED JERSEY COLLAR, SEAMS AND BALLOON SKIRT

my second to last look is made with the same ikat and soft grey jersey, this time in a balloon dress with an uneven hem. you’ll notice that the dress is as long as my entire self. yes, i am that short and it was made for model people. (annoying. i hate them. j/k)

it kinda resembles a motorcycle/riders jacket effect with its collar, lapel and also the diagonal zip. the collar is stuffed and hugs the neck, and is made of the softest black jersey so it feels so good. the same jersey also lines the inside of the dress. i mimicked the same tiers in the grey jersey, as with the other garments… well, technically speaking, they are tucks.

strips of curved jersey goes around the body which draws the eye together with it, and the poofy balloon shapes add playfulness to the design.

i love the shape of this dress and really need to make it shorter so i can wear it myself!

BALLOON PRINT JERSEY iroiro MULTI-WAY ROMPER

my last look was on monica. it can be worn in a multitude of ways. there are 4 different necklines (where your legs could also go through), and 3 different armholes. i created texture along the shoulders with hundreds of tucks closely sewn together, and right underneath all the tucks on the left shoulder is the zipper that closes up the entire romper.

when worn in its normal way, the left arm can either come out of the armhole at her waist (as in the top left picture where monica is walking), or at the shoulders (as in the top right picture).

however her head could also go through either of the holes through which her legs are, thus producing completely different looks and a whole lot of possibilities; it could be worn as a romper, or even yet, as just a top and paired with something else below!

the back of the romper has a circular seam (that i admit, went sliiiightly wonky as i was sewing in the black cording to emphasize the line!!), which i’m a big fan of.

accessories

we had 7 minutes to finish our presentation and about 3 minutes left to answer questions from the panel. after i explained through my line of clothing, i gave a sigh of relief and was like, “phew! ok i’m done!!”

then one of the judges was kind enough to point to my accessories table and say, “i think you forgot to tell us about those crazy shoes there?”

i was like, “OH. MY. GAWD. thank you SO much for telling me!! i am so nervous i’m peeing in my pants i didn’t even remember it even though it’s right next to me!!”

seriously. if he didn’t tell me that, i would have really ended it and also perhaps ended my life.

freak out!! i nearly forgot to talk about my shoes and hats! wtf!

i really wanted these comfy and yet strange looking boots and wanted to get them properly made but obviously lacked the funds to do so. so i made these blue monster boots myself. it’s basically a boot with the turquoise, pink dotted cotton wrapped and draped over it, with buttons as accents!!

monica in my blue monster shoes

the shoes that i DID get made professionally were these pair with corked wedges with a 1″ inbuilt platform. it carries the same idea of tiers and a support system, that goes in line with my theme, and is made with the balloon print canvas, and turquoise and lime leather. i got them made at elias custom made shoes, at 856 lexington avenue, (212) 988-7360. they were great, and really friendly!! tell them gilda sent you!! they will remember that i am the crazy girl who made turquoise and lime green wedges!!

the booties also have a little leather collar which was an accent that i wanted in the design.

lastly, i’d made 2 hats. now if you know me, you’d know i love hats. i have 26 hats hanging from my walls at home… and more in my hat boxes. and these are just hats, mind you, i have a ton of other hair accessories! so there was no way that i would have done my collection without hats included! a hat completes an outfit, right? right.

one of my hats was a mix of the weave i made, plus a pink and green tweed, raw lime green silk, and a blue-green cashmere for its rim. it can be worn in any direction and tilted to its side to produce different looks.

the second one i made with another blue-green wool, which is super cute when worn tilted. i’d re-watched the peter pan movie when i was making this, and it was a little rounder at first but after watching peter pan, i made its brim a little pointier and i think it makes it look like something a little pixie would wear. no? i mean, c’mon, tinkerbell would totally wear it! (i hope)

and there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. that was my thesis presentation!! 3 years of hell (luckily i didn’t have to do foundation year, or it would have been 4 years!!), all leading up to this short little 10 minutes!! it’s crazy!!

it was so hard for myself, i think some of the korean girls in my class really had it 40 times worse. some of them really couldn’t speak much english and my teachers spent days rehearsing with them. i tried to help too, and up till the last minute, was helping one girl rehearse what she was going to say. she wasn’t confident enough to just do some free-talk, and actually memorized every single word. i was worried about that because once she got nervous, she stammered a little, but we were all crossing our fingers for her and somehow, we pulled through together!

at the end of all our presentations, we went in a line in front of the panel again for our final bows. the auditorium was quite full and there must have been about 200 people who came to watch our presentation that day. i think we all seriously sweat buckets. we were hugging each other because the damn thing was finally over!!

we thanked soo and rob, our methods and concepts teacher. they were really instrumental in us getting our thesis done, and clapped like crazy for them.

later we found out that we were the only class who actually thanked their teachers publicly. ain’t that weird?

totally dorky picture of myself... but this is how i look when i'm completely stressed out and haven't slept in days!

i’m putting up pictures of some of my friends’ collections in a couple of days, so keep a look out for that!!

by the way,  with the exception of about 3 of these photos here, all the images you see were taken by the lovely aneta genova of bobbin talk!! she took the pictures and all i did was edit them.

aneta teaches accessories design at parsons, and is really active on her blog. we were all too nervous to take pictures even for each other during our presentations, and relied on outside friends to help shoot some. but, the auditorium was basically pitch black except for a couple of lights in the front, so most photos turned out fuzzy! then i remembered that aneta had posted an amazingly clear picture of my collection on her blog, so i thought of asking if she might have had taken any other photos of my clothes, considering that she basically sat right in front where all the action was! turns out, she did! and not just a few, more like 119 pictures!! i was like, OH MY GOD i love you!! so she burned them all for me on a disc. if not for her, i never would have been able to share this with you guys, and would also not have any pictures to remember this day by! so, thank you so much aneta!! i really do appreciate it!!

aneta, by the way, also conducts accessory design e-classes!! i think that’s a fantastic idea and can certainly be applied to garment design as well! you should definitely check it out if you have always wanted to attend design classes but don’t want to commit to silly school rules and the risk of a teacher who might not be great. i’ve never taken aneta’s class before at parsons, but a lot of my friends do, and they all love her so you will too!!

a little while ago, the finale to the LVMH x parsons project: the art of craftsmanship revisited, was held on governors island. such a long period of time had gone by since the fashion show that was held at milk studios during new york fashion week. so towards the end of may, without anything much happening in between except for a little studio interview for the LVMH documentary.

by the way, if that video EVER goes public, i want you all to know that i was desperately sick at that time (it was right after my thesis when i was deadly sick for 3 weeks), and did the best i could to control my coughs. my face was super puffy and bloated and my eyes were half-closed and i sounded like a frog.

it was awful.

it was such a super-fuckin-duper hot day!!!

oh my god, the worst type of day ever. i could not stop perspiring and i just was not a happy camper. all these important lvmh dudes from france were there and i don’t know how they managed to look cool in their suits. i bet they had a secret airconditioning device under those armpits. that must be one of the perks of being rich – you don’t have to suffer with the poor. if not, seriously, what’s the point? well, that, and the money in the bank, obviously.

way back when the competition first started, we were told that the final event would be an exhibition at a big gallery in the city, and that we would have our documentaries shown in some indies theatre downtown, or at least in the school auditorium.

so when the news came about that the videos we shot would not ever be shown, we were like, hmmm. then we heard that there would only be 1 single private screening of the documentary that lvmh recorded, we were like, huh? and then we found out that the exhibition would be held at governors island, we were like, where’s that?

i mean, seriously. where’s that?

nice.

the answer to that question, is nothing.

admittedly, for this day when the sun was determined to cook us, there was actually some effort put in to make this relatively press-worthy. meaning, i think this was only done so that some press would come and the lvmh big-shots wouldn’t be annoyed. there were nice white tables and benches around the space, complete with hor d’oeuvres and champagne. some of my friends enjoyed the cheese, but i couldn’t understand how they were eating it. i basically hung around the drink table and asked for ice water nonstop.

our garments were shown in the little houses around, with works from the artisans we worked with, as well as displays from some of the lvmh brands. it was the first time i’d seen most of these garments up close, and in the end, my friends and i were saying that we were really glad that our garments were WELL made.

i mean, they were sewn properly with proper techniques. unfortunately, some of the other garments were not. i mean, i saw glue, i saw suspicious sticky tapes holding up some things… it was downright weird. our garments told a proper story and it wasn’t just made for the sake of creating a statement.

on the right is my friends' phume, hee and sonica's design.

this was some amazing piece of work from one of the artisans.

this artist sat without a fan or airconditioner, sewing fendi baguettes!! i was in AWE, but i felt so sorry for him!! i could hardly breathe!

our artisan, the amazing les metalliers champenois, put on display their sample cast of the lips of lady liberty!! haha!

and this, if you might remember, is our garment.

this sounds so arrogant, but i still think we did a great job.

gathering around for the big announcement.

this was the winning garment.

antoine being his crazy french self.

the moment it got dark, i HAD to get away because the bugs were all out and i felt stickier than pudding.

myself, antoine, elahe, phume, hee and sonica.

the exhibition was up on governors island for a couple of weeks. i wonder if anyone even goes there on a regular day. i mean, in total, we probably had more squirrels looking at the results of our months of hard work, than people.

and if you’ve even read all this and wondered why i’m being so sarcastic and particularly bitchy, here’s the reason.

we were given a $500 budget to spend on this entire project. which isn’t much at all, considering the amount of things we had to do and the fact that each trip out to new jersey to visit our artisans cost $12 each way.

after all the lousy organization which i believe is in no way lvmh’s fault (because each time we had to converse directly with them, it was easy and smooth-sailing), i asked around and emailed many times as to how i can submit my receipts to get my money back. finally, i hear that i’m “too late” and that there was already a meeting for teams that did submit their receipts. i went through all the emails that they had sent out and nothing was ever mentioned about submission of receipts.

so yes. ladies and gentlemen, a month after i’ve graduated at parsons, they still find a way to piss me off and remind me of how much i hate that motherfucking piece of shit school. ass. hole.

i am NOT happy.

oh hello hello hello, remember me? i must have fallen off your blog radar a super long time ago with my lack of consistent postings. but i really have good reason! for the last few months, i have been completely absorbed – mind, body and soul – into this project that has really been the biggest deal of my life.

video title slug

that’s right, LVMH, short for louis vuitton moët hennessy, the company responsible for practically 90% of the world’s luxury brands, somehow collaborated with parsons. this is a contest called “the art of craftsmanship revisited: new york“, that involves students forming teams of students from the different schools (fashion, photography, technology, etc) in parsons, and coming together to make a documentary and also a complete ensemble.

the assignment

the aim of this project was simple: LVMH x parsons wanted to bring some light to the dying craft of artisans. the history of artistry in europe is very strong, but it seems to be fading out in america, and so the whole idea of this project was to shine the spotlight onto these artists who have toiled with their hands and passed down their craft through the generations.

right at the beginning in late november, we were given a huge list of different artistry that was available in the new york area, and had to choose one. there were areas like book binding, neon lights, calligraphy, puppet making, glass arts and so on. after much debate, my team chose metal arts. we proceeded to throw ourselves into completing the initial rounds for submission, which was to basically give the judges an idea of what we might come up with in the final round. when we thought about metal arts, there is just so many different aspects of it that we didn’t really know where to begin. but our idea was that the image of metals is so strong, but yet it can be melted down and turned malleable and into liquid, and we wanted to capture a split second in time of this moment made by both the metal and the artist’s hands that are creating it.

we were free to choose any category as it did not matter – in the end, we were given our artisans based on our initial submission. and you know what, they loved our submission so much, they gave us the artist involved in metal arts. hearing the judges say it was the best feeling ever.

that’s when the shocker came – i don’t think any of us expected what sort of amazing artists they had lined up for all of the teams. our artist, or artists rather, were from this french company called les métalliers champenois (basically meaning ‘the metal workers from champenois, a place in france) who moved to new york after winning the bid to restore the statue of liberty.

completely blown away by LMC

that’s right folks, i mean, this was a huge deal. in short, there were problems with the gilding of the statue of liberty when she was first done, so they were contracted to restore the flame and torch, and also recast miss liberty’s face and toes!!

you might recognise some of these?

we went to their atelier a few times and were honestly flabbergasted with some extra flabbers… it wasn’t just the statue of liberty that they restored, but also the supremely ornate rails of chateau de versailles and the gates of the place stanislas in nancy, france. i can’t go on long enough about how amazed i was with their work. the statues that you see in central park, the staircases of some serious aristocrats…. besides all those historic restorations, if people like bill gates and jerry seinfeld let them into their house, you know they are pretty legit!

some of our first sketches and design ideas

so we had lots of talks and meetings, discussing what it was that we saw that really sparked some inspirations within us. the movements of each of the artists at LMC, the repetitions of those moments, the importance of their hands in molding their craft, the fact that that everything fits like a puzzle since they don’t usually weld things, the idea of visual symmetry through different proportions, and even the amazing latticework that goes inside each restoration piece. jean, a seriously nice and hilarious french man, who runs LMC, told us this, that although they are artists, they are first and foremost, technicians. everything is a calculation, everything is based on really understanding and knowing the fabrication of their materials, the technical details that might escape a layman’s eye but what they as artists need to catch on.

it was inspirational and all too exciting. we focused on the way that LMC worked and their mentality, and brought this into our ensemble. layers, 2D to 3D, technicality, functional but beautiful, curvilinear, structure and movement, organic, restrained, controlled. those were our key terms in thinking about our design.

unveiling the trace

that’s the name we gave to our team of 6, 3 from the design and technology school, and 3 of us in fashion. it was the perfect name, because we drew our inspirations from the processes and movements that our artists go through in creating their own craft, and we wanted to trace their lines and convert it into our own craft.

the idea was to have a dress as a foundation to build up upon, creating abstract lines that told the story of the latticework that LMC builds into their restoration projects.

this was the plan for the crazy seams on our dress! no straight lines! whoah!

the first drape for our dress

it was decided early on that we would have the second layer was to be a more translucent layer of cowls that was a representation of both the movement of the artists as well as our representation of the repoussé that LMC is famous for. unfortunately, our initial design idea did not work at all. at. all. it was just impossible to force the fabric to do what we wanted it to. not that we wanted to force it that way at all.

so we draped and re-draped nonstop for like, a good two or three days, until we arrived at something that all 3 of us were happy with. it’s no good if just one of us liked something. this was a group effort. you can’t agree on something when even one person was unhappy with it.

we knew we wanted all cowls over the foundation layer, but it was more difficult than we thought!!

we draped our initial concept. and hated it. so we tried all sorts of different ideas

i can’t tell you how many times we tried draping this. we seriously met everyday for a few days and just kept draping and pinning things to the dress form to see how we liked it. there were a lot of different things to consider, especially if the drape went with the image of our artisans that we wanted to portray. in the end, we decided not to force it and to let it build in our minds for a few days while we concentrate on other things.

like the half-jacket. we knew exactly what we wanted. it was initially my idea. we were having a really nice little dress and everything and i wanted something that was somewhat masculine and that represented strength; my idea was that because everything was based on the work that the artists created with their hands, i wanted something that covered their right arm and protected it.

this was our quick drape of the jacket and its first sample

getting the perfect fit is a headache

many other teams made garments that were rather loose-fitting or in stretch materials which are easy to fix and forgiving. we used 4-ply silk for the base dress, a double layer of chiffon for the drapes as well as wool cashmere for the half-jacket. plus, it was such a streamlined and clean look, it needed to fit perfectly. PERFECTLY.

but this perfectionist side of ours was not fun. the school did not inform us of what sort of models we were to have. the instructions were that we should hand in our finished garment, completely done except for the hems, and that after handing it in, we would be assigned models and then have out fitting. which was really quite a crazy thing. i can’t even explain it to you. we had such a fitted dress and the fact that there were no straight seams made it even crazier. monica was our fit model in class and so we asked her to wear it for us and that’s when we realized how much of a horror it was to make one-shouldered dresses. neither of the 3 of us had ever attempted it before and it completely slipped our minds that the fabric stretches out so much on the bias.

plus, because the school simply instructed us to drape on the dress form, we were simple-minded enough to drape for a girl of a “regular” height. when monica tried it on, however, it was barely skimming her butt.

so without knowing what kind of models we were getting, runway models or fit models (they have very different heights and measurements), we dumped that first finished dress and remade it to make sure it was longer and better fitting. it was mad. completely insane. since i was more familiar with making patterns on 2D and manipulating it, i was assigned the grand task of reworking the dress patterns. marvelous.

and i really couldn’t complain about it because it was my grand idea of having all those curved lines in the first place.

with no measurements provided, we tried the dress on monica and realized how short it was!

werk!!!

i basically had to redrape a really simple dress silhouette that fitted an estimated of a model’s size (which is a great mental war, considering i didn’t know what sort of models we were getting). from there, i drew the shapes of the seam lines we wanted, while looking at the pieces of the very first drape we did. then it was on to pattern-making and some serious mind-boggling mathematician work. patterns are all about math. did you know that? i don’t think i could have done it without knowing how to add, subtract, and divide all sorts of numbers and fractions. i hadn’t done it for so long, it took me a good day and a half to get it exactly how i wanted it.

redoing the dress and reshaping the seam lines. and laying out at the old drape and wishing it had worked!

pattern manipulation.... "fun!!!".....

and so after many days of redoing everything and being really perfectionist anal buttheads, we probably really killed ourselves unnecessarily but we did end up with something we were happy with. this was our first finished sample of the entire look, in muslin and then in the actual fabric.

finally, the 3 of us could agree that we loved how this looked

blending technology and fashion

the techie guys in our team came up with an amazing code on computer that captured only the movements that were made on film, and with that, the “center” of all these movements were found and extremely amazing abstract lines appeared on screen. it was amazing. we wanted to use these lines and integrate it into our garment. how?

during one of our visits to the atelier of LMC, we looked to the ground and found dust. literally, metallic dust that was simply just remnants of metal stuff that they were cutting, soldering and so on. and we swept them up to keep, just in case. so we decided to put them to good use. to LMC, it was trash. but to us, it was beautiful.

we captured the movements of the artisans into a code

elahe and antoine going through the process of the fabric treatment i thought of

the finished cowl, complete with the code

it was gorgeous. my lousy photos don’t do them justice. i think it turned out better than the 3 of us expected it to. we’d tried fusing (basically, gluing) so many different colours of chiffon together and then sandwiching the metal bits in between them, but finally it was this very neutral beigey-grey that we liked. the gold metal bits looked amazing inside of it.

last minute craze

the deadline towards the show was coming up and we were panicking. it was only a week before the show that we found out that we were in fact going to use the fit models that we usually have in school. so we had to go through some crazy first-come-first-served email contest and fight for monica to be our model. we really wanted her because she has the best personality and we wanted someone who was fun and spunky. no use having a model who frowns and whines about everything.

we reworked our dress after fitting it to her, took apart whatever we needed to and then put it back together. it was a whirlwind, i tell you, a real whirlwind. for the last 6 weeks, we’ve spent almost everyday in school together working till 2am in the morning, discussing, making, contemplating, reworking, remaking….

this is me, concentrating on finishing the insides of the half-jacket

our heels: what we bought, and what we changed it into!

the big day at milk studios!

who'd have thought i'd ever make it into this sort of list?

the line up

red carpeting and pretending to be a star. except there isn't actually a red carpet.

she's totally working our look!!

walk the walk!

monica and myself. as you can see i need to grow another 10 inches.

monica with gerry and jean-paul from LMC

susie bubble and aneta from bobbintalk were some of the bloggers present

how cute is she!

the scene and some of the other teams' works

ta-ta!

sweet dreams are made of these

in a twinkling of an eye, 2 hours flew past. i felt like i was in a daze. it was surreal. we spoke to so many people. there were tons of guests who asked monica who made her outfit and she would direct them to us. this harper’s bazaar photog really loved it, so did this guy who’s a fashion publisher, and a few fashion editors at magazines. we got some really great feedback. i felt like i was on a high. surpassing cloud nine. it was unreal.

our tiny backstage corner

in the milk elevator

drinks + a huge relief that it's over

it was so much work and it put us so behind in our regular schoolwork, but i don’t regret a minute of it. i learned so much and had such an amazing experience. what more could i ask for? winning the $20000 grand prize would be amazing and certainly won’t hurt. but i had the time of my life. being at the fashion event and having the opportunity to take part in this contest was simply fantastic. having the avenue for people to come and look at something i’d poured my heart and soul into, the feeling of people admiring or even criticising your garments, it was great. we never had the chance to do that before, not to such a large crowd. we couldn’t stop smiling. i could do this over and over again.

after all that thinking and narrowing down of the direction and inspirations i wanted to take with my thesis collection and also my market and customer, my next step was the most painful one. doing sketches and then editing them.

design croquis

well, sketches, or croquis as we call them, aren’t so bad. croquis are just different design ideas. what we try to do is to come up with several design ideas based on the inspiration, and then we do many sketches and variations of each idea until our brain screams “NO! NO MORE!” and we’ve exhausted each idea.

say for example, i think of a really interesting concept for a pocket. i can place it on pants, then i can try placing it on different skirts, or i could put it on a shirt, then put it on a coat, and try it on a sleeve, and oh wait, look it’s morphing into a hood?

sketching then colouring my croquis

some examples of my croquis

i think i did about 150 croquis during my summer break. when we got back to school at the end of august, we were told that we would be given an extra week to do even more croquis, which i thought was completely ludacris. i mean, before school even started, our brains were already fried. when i met my fashion friends back at parsons, we were all already tired by the first day of school.

it didn’t help that we had to meet kids from other departments who whined about how short summer was and how they weren’t looking forward to being back at school. uhm!??! shut up bitches!! we had actual homework, ok!?

anyway, i had left some blank spaces in between my croquis in my book, so that i could go back into them and explore my favourite ideas even further. so when i had some energy, that’s what i did.

the important thing to know, and what took me a really long time to get used to, is that one does not need to stick to any design ideas. you can love an idea so much you don’t want to part with it, but by doing so, you are making yourself blind to more ideas that could have come along, if only you were open to receiving it.

in the end, we can sew as many pieces as we want to, but we are only allotted enough time to show a maximum of 6 looks to the judges. so basically, the idea is to not be crazy and sew 20 different looks, but choose 5 or 6 looks that are really amazing, that look good together, that tell a story, and make sure it gets made really well.

fabric choices

as important as our final edits, are our fabric choices. there’s nothing worse than an amazingly designed collection that’s made out of cheap-ass polyester and scratchy wools. my collection is basically an autumn/winter collection but it includes pieces that can be worn all year round.

i have a huge fabric library at home (ok not that huge, but big enough), and i collect all sorts of fabric swatches all the time. so when i went on a hunt for materials, i really had quite a good idea of what i wanted.

i knew i didn’t want any boring black and grey collection. hell-to-the-no. (is there even such a phrase?) i love black clothes and yes i do wear black sometimes, but you very, VERY rarely see me in all black. i think i would become a depressed nun if i wore black all the time. my life is about colour, and since i was basing my collection on enid blyton’s faraway tree series (if you haven’t read my previous entry, my inspiration is based on blyton’s famous childrens book series called the faraway tree), i wanted to make sure that the collection was really bright, colourful, and energizing.

i decided to use a mix of textiles, consisting of some amazing tweeds i found, and also a lime green raw woven silk, a gorgeous and colourful plaid ikat cotton, a teal cashmere, a super soft grey cashmere-cotton mix, some other wovens as well as jersey and black suede. i even threw in a liquid metallic black spandex in the mix to give it some sheen to juxtapose all the matte tweeds. it might or might not be a good idea, but it’s going to be there for now! haha!

fabric board and colour story

when i made my colour story, i thought it would be awfully fun to name my colours after characters or places in the books. naming colours are so fun!!! don’t you think people at places like paint companies or nail polish companies, whose jobs are to name paint or polish colours, have the best jobs ever?

although i am also still currently exploring different fabric treatments, one of the last inclusions to my fabric choices was to design a type of print. over the summer, i had drawn this hot air balloon on a whim. i thought it was really cute and decided this was the perfect opportunity to develop this into a sort of print. i could have just used the whole hot air balloon itself and just printed repeats of that, but i thought it might turn out too childish (though i’d love it personally). so i just took the patterns i drew in the balloon and changed it digitally into something that could be made into a repeat and printed on fabric. what do you think? i kind of really love it! wouldn’t you wear a pair of leggings in this print!?!? (i’m so gonna make leggings.)

narrowing it down to my final edits

what i personally like to do is, i make a photocopy of all my croquis in black and white, and cut them all up. i could copy them in colour, but when i edit, i prefer not to let the their colours affect my decision. colours can be easily changed later. when i colour them in my croquis book, it is to give me an idea of how i want it to look, or what sort of fabrics i want to use. editing, to me, needs to be about the design.

this editing process itself took me about 2 weeks. everyday i would spread out all the photocopies on my table, and just sit there staring at them while i finger my fabrics. what was my original inspirations? what kind of story do i want to tell? what’s going to make an impact? which looks go together? i have too many pants, but i like how they look; how can i change this pant into a skirt?

it’s important to think about questions like this while editing. you might have an amazing design idea, but if it doesn’t go along with your other looks, then you should take a deep breath and put it away and save it for another collection. adding a look that doesn’t go with your story, will only make the collection unbalanced and will confuse the customer. this is what it means in the fashion industry when we call a collection unfocused or without a point of view.

i make a “yes” and “no” group, then keep switching my croquis between the 2 groups until i’m happy with it. and then to me, it’s important to know what my friends think.

a good designer knows who their friends are, by the way. some people are not there to help you. you do not go to ask those people for their opinions. we all have different likes and tastes, but good friends will tell you their honest feelings about what you have designed. it doesn’t matter if we have completely polar opposite design aesthetics; the fact is that we are there to help each other grow and be better at what we do.

also, although my designs belong to a niche market, it is good for me to know what others think so that i know where i stand. it’s no use for me to insist on trying to be the next avant-garde mastermind, if no one is going to buy it. good designs need to not only be interesting, but also appeal to as many different people as possible.

editing down to 6 looks isn't easy

the rejected pile of about 180 designs

final edits

i would have loved to have had another week to think about my edits, but the truth is that we all run on a deadline and when time’s up, time’s up. while this had all been going on, we have already begun sewing some samples in our methods class where the garments get made.

besides, we would be working on this collection all year. things are bound to change. so although i wanted to mull over it a little more, i stopped myself and just went ahead with it.

these are my final edits.

my in-class presentation

my final thesis edits

so there you have it! although some things might change, this is basically what i’m going to spend the rest of the year making! i’m excited. so far, we’ve made muslin samples of 3 of our looks, and i’ve been trying to perfect the fit on our fit models. but more of that story to come later.

what i want to know now is, would you wear these clothes?

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update!
ps: i had to add that even though i do have a lot of black and some neutrals in my wardrobe, i prefer to design and sketch them in colour. remember that all designs can be merchandised, like when you go to a store, you will usually find the same dress in a few different colours. if i end up selling this line one day, i will definitely make the same pieces in blues, greys and blacks too.

it is easier for a consumer to picture a colourful item in black, than for them to look at a black garment and think they prefer it in pink. likewise, when this goes before the judges, i want them to see it in colour so that it might spark something in their heads, rather than for them to just think, “oh, yet another black collection. boring.”