Muse musings

Hey everyone! I'm not dead, just been incredibly busy with school. I figured I would post this to prove I haven't been kidnapped and since the draft has been sitting since March.


Blatantly copying fellow fashion student and blogger Evan from An Introduction to Manufacturing I've decided to share a post of muses. Muses are a common inspiration for fashion designers from Karl Lagerfeld to Gianni Versace to Matthew Williamson and countless many others. Although I personally find inspiration from sources like history, comic books, videogames, other cultures etc. there are a few famous ladies who I find quite a-MUSE-ing. ;{D

ZOOEY

Zooey Deschannel. She's gorgeous and has a voice that could make a wolverine purr. She's the balls. I adore her vintage style, her piercing eyes and hair I would give up my first born to have. 500 Days of Summer helped me move past a lot of things in my life, she actually might be more of an idol to me than a muse. Her band She & Him played in Vancouver this past year and a part of me died inside when I missed it.

UFFIE

To be honest I've only recently discovered Uffie. A Paris-based underground electronic artist, fashion designer and socialite. Aside from her party girl persona she's to die for. A hipster's delight. Her music is constantly playing on my ipod especially while I'm pattern drafting.

AUDREY

Because I had to insert some cliche in here somewhere. Audrey Hepburn, if you don't know why please get out from under your rock and watch any of her films.

ANNA

Anna Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer, actress, film director and semi-retired model. She's been a muse of mine since she did the soundtrack for one of my long time favorite anime series, Nana, as the singing voice for Nana O. Even though I've moved on from this era in my life her unique look, since she's half Caucasian, and edgier style is what really draws me to her. If you're interested in her music I'd recommend Bubble Trip, which is one of my favorite of her songs.

EMMA

As suggested in an earlier post, I love Emma Stone. American comedy actress. I don't know why. Aside from Zombieland she's yet to do any spectacular roles or anything overly impressive. She actually seems like your average "coming of age" movie actress who will disappear in a few years tops. I adore her none the less, I think it might be her psycho red-head appearance. She's Gwen Stacey in the new Spiderman movie.

In conclusion I've come to realize that my muses have one major thing in common. Multi-talent. I don't think I could ever be inspired by models or socialites or women who only ever do one thing. There's a lot more to beauty than looking nice, at least for me. I think that's what really inspires me, the drive to do everything. Being gorgeous helps though. Also note, the women I find inspiring are not limited to this list, these are just the first few that come to mind.

Stay Classy, internet.

Bibian Blue F/W 2011

Some fabulous photos from this seasons collection by Bibian Blue I just had to share. The whole line has a very costume and steampunk feel to it. Not to mention the obvious historical influences.
J'ADORE.

The more I look at this collection and past ones from this amazing designer out of Barcelona the more I believe I've found a new favorite designer and an answer to Lisa's question "Who do you want your clothes to hang with?"

http://www.bibianblue.com/

Promotional Image from her site

Promotional Image from her site

What do you guys think? What are you favorite autumn & winter 2011 collections?

Betsey Johnson Fall/Winter 2011

As we all know New York Fashion week has kicked off and is in full swing! So far I've seen some fabulous collections, The Blonds, Diane Von Furstenberg, Michael Kors (surprisingly... I normally find his collections rather bland), Jason Wu, Prabal Gurung and the list goes on. And of course everything at fashion week is subjected to opinions.
In my opinion Betsey Johnson was the biggest failure ever.
The woman sure knows how to put on a spectacle. Her collection was appropriately shown on Valentines day and at the catwalk’s entrance, a huge illuminated sign read, “He loves me not”; notes on the seats read, “Hey Valentine!”


I'll start with the good aspects of this collection. It also stands to mention that I love Betsey Johnson, I've always been a huge fan of her work and strive to own more than a pair of Betsey socks. Now that's out of the way...


The Pink Patch line. I'm seriously incredibly excited for this, I would love one of the over sized sweaters from this. Pink Patch is her response to the trend of designers releasing "affordable" lines. Classic Betsey Johnson designs revived and all priced under $100. Refreshing considering they're actually affordable and it was done without the aid of a big box store and lot of hype *ahem * Lanvin.


Now for the bad and the ugly.
Considering the release of the Pink Patch line her regular designs for the Black Label were, well, boring. Not necessarily boring in the sense where there was nothing to see. Boring in the sense where we've seen it before. I love Betsey's quirky hippie-goth-rock-punk-sugar coated-vampire aesthetic, it's part of what's made her stand out to me. But it's getting old. Lots of plaid, animal print, and red rosettes set against black fabrics and lace, it's something we see from her every season. Not to mention with over 100 looks in this collection, it got stale fast. It's time to renew yourself Betsey, don't change but show us something different.

Next up is her choice to use "Real" people as models, a.k.a. Betsey Johnson store employees. What is the obsession with "real" models? And why are we using that word? Are models suddenly not real people? 

This annoys me to no end, as there is nothing more painful that seeing someone walk down the catwalk when they don’t have the skills and confidence of a real model. I must say that the word “real” here is being overused, so I will clarify… regardless of body type a professional model is a professional for a reason. She or he is experienced on walking the catwalk in shoes reaching incredible heights, getting changed quickly, not to mention all the photography skills a good model has. Contrary to what media has led us to believe it's not JUST a job for someone who looks pretty. So when you stick someone, pretty or not, on a runway, and they've never walked a catwalk before, it just looks bad. The job is exclusive for a reason. Maybe we should start letting "real" people fight fires, fix our cars or act in movies with no training at all? 
The employees on Betsey Johnson's catwalk just embarrassed themselves. Controversial or revolutionary or not. It was embarrassing and a terrible representation of her clothing.

It's like the beaches of Normandy out there.

I think the part that bother me the most was the hypocrisy of her high-end Black Label. The black label, in contrast, was worn by the super tall, thin and primarily Caucasian professional models. Way to send the right message. If you want to be a trend setter and set new standards for modelling, do it the right way. There are curvier, healthier models out there of all ethnicities who are trained models. Why not just hire them instead of turning your runway into a gong show?

It's okay to be any shape or size, just as long as you're not part of my main label

Boo, Betsey, you whore.

Long Live McQueen

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the loss of the fashion industries most eccentric genius. It also marks the beginning of the bastardization of his label, McQueen rugs anyone? 
However, my displeasure with the line now aside, I truly miss Alexander McQueen. Although I can't quote him as the reason I decided to embark on my adventure into the fashion industry as so many can. Most, fashion students who likely never heard his name until he died and aren't familiar with anything more than is most recent few collections. Vivenne Westwood is the woman who did that. But, McQueen is still one of my greatest inspirations and represents all that I love about fashion, art and Britain. While Parisian fashion is often described as classic, elegant, chic only one word comes to mind with British fashion, rebellion. Alexander McQueen was just that, the fashion world's rebel.  
With the fashion weeks beginning words cannot express the gigantic void his passing has left in the fashion world.

Long Live Alexander Lee McQueen.

Days of Heaven

Last Tuesday we had our second class critique for our Designing Collections I class. The assignment was to take our 2 designs from the week before and elaborate on one of them with ten more similar designs. So I figured I'd share a couple of my designs here. I won't picspam all ten, just my favorite four.

I apologize for my super rough figures. I'm still getting used to drawing regularly again and they were very hastily inked to post here.
The first week's assignment was to do an inspiration board based on another designer's collection and then 2 of our own designs based on that inspiration. I won't show you my original two because they were hideous to say the least. But the inspiration was from Anna Sui's Spring/Summer 2011 collection. She took inspiration from the Terrence Malick 1978 film Days of Heaven starring Richard Gere.

It actually wasn't a bad movie. I won't spoil it or go on a full movie review but I will say it was a very cute love story and I can definitely see how miss Sui found it inspirational. If you love drama films watch Days of Heaven.

I tried to tap into the whole "country farm girl" and "cowboys and Indians" feel the movie portrayed but that isn't exactly my strongest source of inspiration.
Sadly my class "critique" wasn't so much a critique as it was my instructor calling everything "cute" and everyone else standing around like they had something to say but wouldn't. However, I'm just as guilty of it. I think everyone has opinions on everyone else's work but is scared of demonizing themselves or stepping on toes. I know that's why I keep quiet at least. I'm hoping this coming week everyone will feel a little more confident and maybe be able to offer helpful criticism. But for now what do my followers think? Anything you like, dislike or feel I can improve on? :)
Also, please don't steal these.

Right now I'm finishing up 3 more designs based off of a contemporary art gallery show we went to see called "I can see your underwear" Once the class critique for those is done I will post them along with some photos from the show.

-BAMF-

Comics and Fashion?

We talk a lot about "inspiration" during my schooling. It seems like every time I turn around it's all about who or what inspires us. We even discuss what inspires other designers, a nod to my last project; creating an inspiration board for a pre-fall collection based on the designer's quoted inspiration. Creating inspiration boards is definitely a key aspect to the beginning of any collection. 
Well lately I've been feeling rather, uninspired. It doesn't help with the pressure of starting our own collections in a couple weeks looming over me.


So in an attempt to remedy myself I made a list of things that have inspired me in the past and discovered the list was a lot of things that I don't have time or have chosen not to par-take in for a long, long time. Things like comic books, videogames, japanese culture, history and sci-fi just to name a few. Yeah, I'm a total closet geek. So yesterday, rather than a starbucks, I picked up issue one of Widow Maker published by Marvel. It features my favorite Russian spy Blackwidow, Scarlett Johansson please marry me her former love interest Hawkseye and his former love interest Mockingbird. When I got home I even played some of my roommates PS3 games!

I seriously have never felt better and am starting to feel more and more inspired as I re-read old issues already in my collection and continue indulging myself in my nerdy pastimes. Although, it kind of stumped me how I could incorporate my comic book love into fashion, the two really couldn't be any less related. Or so I thought?

Truth is, they're no strangers to each other...

 Spiderman

 The Hulk & The Thing

 Catwoman

Iron Man

 Wonder Woman

Hello inspiration, it's good to see you again.

More frequent updates to come :)
-BAMF-