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?*

you’ve all already probably seen photos of these, but towards the end of april, parsons held their annual benefit show. meaning a lot of people paid a lot of money to watch our designs coming down a runway with unfortunate music. not all the seniors had tickets to attend the show, which i think is ridiculous – those of us who had our designs in the show were guaranteed one ticket (nope, can’t invite your parents who paid US$120,000 for your education), while the rest of the batch had to ballot for their entry pass to the benefit.

while i was at bunka, japan’s celebrated fashion college, as long as you had finished your final collection in time, you were allowed to show your garment in the final runway show. after all, you were at the end of your education. your parents want to see your work. you want a sense of satisfaction, knowing that you’ve finally, somehow, completed your education.

on the same night, FIT held the senior show too, styled by none other than the fabulous styling team from the house of field, artie and sushi. obviously, they had amazing music, major looks and a a fierce runway!

anyhoo. a few of my friends had 1-4 of their looks on the runway. it’s a pity that the selection was so small; there were so many more people who were really deserving and should have had their designs shown. some friends had just 1 look shown on the runway; i had 2 looks chosen for the presentation area instead, which i thought was better, since it was on show the entire night and not just for 20 seconds.

i want a daughter.

the shows kicked off with childrenswear, which never fails to bring many “awwwwww”s and “oooooooh”s to the crowd. the clothes were cute, yes of course. but damn those kids were cuter! the first little girl who came out on the catwalk, in particular, took her time to walk down the runway, and won the hearts of everyone when she waved.

this little girl was such a pro!

laura siegel: living habitants you wanna wrap yourself in.

ryan o'connor: purebred!! pedigrees!!

ryan o'connor: i'm not usually a fan of the girly-girl but i wanted everything from ryan's!

ryan o'connor: like i said...

sean cabezas: c-c-c-colourrrr

not sure who, but i loved this twist on prep!

cute, yes, gorgeous silhouette, yes, but oscar de la renta + balenciaga much?

the benefit honoured the likes of vera wang for her tremendous achievements at the top of the industry.

hee lim: i felt like a proud mom. we all did!

hee lim: the most amazing cape ever!!

hee lim: double-layered vest. i LOVE this.

one of my good friends from parsons, hee lim, had 4 of his looks shown on the runway. he was robbed of the “designer of the year” title. i’m not being biased, but his concepts and ideas were so fresh and innovative, with a completely new point of view. so many people were supporting him and expecting him to win the “designer of the year” title. during the presentations, he had massive claps. so many teachers even came up to tell him, “if you don’t win, something’s wrong with the system.”

but no, he was completely robbed. it was a daylight robbery. at the end of the shows, all the seniors went up stage and that’s when the dean announced the winners. when the winner for “designer of the year” was announced, i think only 3 people on stage clapped; everyone else had a look of disgust on their faces. we all know what a lump of bullshit the “winner” is made of.

for starters, she never had anything to show to her class, and would come to class with the simplest of jersey pieces made. and we all know she sent out the majority of her collection to be made, which of course meant that everything was perfectly sewn. the rules stated that we were only allowed to send out (to the professionals) one to two items, and they had to be knitwear or leatherwork. everything else was to be sewn ourselves. hee had 6 looks and at least 4 garments for each look, and he made everything himself.

putting all that aside, she was allowed to hand in her collection one day late, while more than a handful of people were disqualified from showing their collections completely (for judging) when they were mere seconds late.

if this is not messed up, underhanded politics, then i don’t know how else to call it. you can imagine why she has no friends. she’s the fakest little thing i’ve seen. ugh.

one of my illustrations were at the center of my table! i had a pleasant surprise!

and then on the way out i found another!

taken in the day, when i went to set up the dress-forms

at 27, i need to stop making all these retarded faces because i later come to realize, i had NO proper photos taken!! shit!

antoine and shalindra, cam-whores.

bennnnnn!!! amazingly talented menswear and accessories designer, with his man-bag: to be sold at henri bendel's!

benny and me!

i’d been looking forward to this moment for only about 3 years. i mean, i loved my friends and teachers at parsons, but honestly can’t care less if the school burned down.

unfortunately that did not happen during my school term, but hey-hey-hey!! who cares, coz i finally, somehow, graduated!

oh. by the way. all the dodgy photos are taken by my parents. great.

as promised, here are some pictures from the presentations of my talented classmates!! i wish i had more and also better pictures, but unfortunately, my fingers and hands were shaking too much to be able to capture their moments!

i have to thank julie hardee, my ex-colleague from my patricia field days, for coming to support me during my presentation, and helping me take some photos!! too bad she could only get a seat further to the back. it was so dark in the auditorium!! but thanks for coming julie~~!! i was so touched!

hee, trying one of his AMAZING capes on himself!

hee lim‘s collection was the bomb diggity! he’s so creative and innovative, i get inspired just talking to him. i loved all his garments, and i am intent on ordering something for myself once autumn comes along! i hope he gets his website moving along soon! the buyers from oak loved his stuff, so you should know just from that statement that he is that good. i’m really excited for what the future holds for him and i’m crossing all my fingers that the world treats him well! he’s my design star!

contact: info@heelimnyc.com

tink's nudes/pastel/splash of orange in her collection was very grown up.

tink made a very grown up collection based on menswear for the ladies! the splash of a bright salmon orange was great and refreshing.

contact: rockangl87@hotmail.com

miki had an beautiful collection inspired by dita von teese.

cute little miki’s collection was for a confident woman who was in charge of her own sexuality. my favourite pieces from her collection were this white jacket with an interesting lapel, and also this gorrrgeous corset with crazy stitch details all over! she went all anal on it and we were all wowed!

contact: miki.mw.watanabe@gmail.com

antoine's garments were all in gorgeous shades of blue, and he had the prettiest silk scarves.

antoine is french and he definitely has that classic classical class in everything he does. his workmanship is impeccable and i say this with the upmost respect! it also helps that he is crazy funny and a nice, straightforward person underneath all that hilarious sarcasm. (though i’m not sure he’ll be pleased to let this secret out). i loved our tea sessions together at parsons, and all this discussion we had about clothes we loved, and clothes we designed! i also worked with antoine on our LVMH project, and felt real privileged to have him on our team! he made the most interesting collection with all shades of blue and blue-ish purple. it’s different, innovative, and certainly pretty. i still want one of his silk-screened scarves!

contact: cancrage@gmail.com

elahe's fabric treatment involved using the felting technique. very pretty!

elahe was another one of my teammates on the LVMH project. she made some interesting draped and also tailored clothes. my favourite was this look of hers that had a felting method that she used to dress up her fabric… i think it was organza?

contact: astaneha.e@gmail.com

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.