Sunday, April 28, 2013

My Desk& Inspiration boards

This is wear I get ideas to write about in my blog and for my designs. One board is different outfits from my favorite fashion houses, the other all my favorite musicians and TV shows( yeah One Direction is in there. Don't judge!) Then I have my beautiful crocheted cupcake and angel statues.









Saturday, April 27, 2013

Eddie Bauer Cow Sweater

I found this beauty at a church sale. Everyone talks about cat sweaters (which are amazing), but how many people have COW sweater?



Azzedine Alaia

    Fashion and design is not a simple thing to talk about. Everyone has their clear cut opinions of what makes something amazing or terrible. Many people who aren't very well versed in fashion will just say, ''Oh, I love Chanel!'', or Dior. These are amazing fashion houses, but when you don't look past the biggest brands, you can easily miss some amazing but not as well known designers, like Azzedine Alaia.
   Alaia's designs can be described as exotic, unusual, and ornate. The detailing is well put on. Many of his designs have very lush aspects, but he doesn't go overboard and turn it into a giant bear outfit. His early designs are the best, as with many brands, the designs are becoming a bit more toned down ( Chanel sneakers?). I don't really understand why fashion houses do this. They cheapen the clothes and/or shoes, but they don't cheapen the price. That isn't going to appeal to couture buyers, and no average person (me!) could afford it.
    My favorite Alaia outfit is one that's worn by Tilda Swinton in W's May 2013 issue. It's big, with exaggerated 19th century style hips. I'm pretty sure it doesn't include the organ misplacing whale bone corset, luckily! It's a plain blackish green, with a tent like skirt. I love designers who can make a whole new look but not just add a bunch of details and embroidery.
    Ruffles and layering are another component of most of Alaia's work. They're very subtle and don't look overdone. He can design beautiful, unique,  fun outfits, while making them wearable. I think some designers make outfits that are pretty much unwearable just for shock value. Like Alexander McQueens famous Armadillo shoes. I adore McQueen designs, but by looking at those shoes we can all agree every great designers has their moments. Another ''design'' element from Azzedine Alaia's clothing is their lack of ridiculous cleavage dresses. I hate those.
      Azzedine Alaia unfortunately does not have a website, and most of his ready to wear is sold on world wide high end specialty websites. A YouTube search will show his shows from the early two thousands.
     This video was the best one, in my opinion. It shows some of his best designs and really exemplifies the key parts of his design philosophy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClzY9xo4jjg
    

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Vintage Kimono

I've had this kimono for a while now. It used to go all the way to my ankles, but now it's to my knees! Luckily it looks even better. It's handmade, yet again. In the second picture you can see the yellow silk details at the top. Handmade dresses like these are nice because their one of a kind. Kimonos have also been popular on the Miu Miu and Prada runways. This was much cheaper, though, I assure you! <3



Sunday, April 21, 2013

It's me, Cathy, I've come home!

This is another handmade dress I found at an estate sale. It has that wonderful 50's Dior esque look, with the wide skirt and pinched in waist. It also reminds of something Catherine from Wuthering Heights would wear. Very witchy.





Saturday, April 20, 2013

This is probably the best outfit I've ever owned

I found this dress at a vintage shop called Suburban Secrets, which unfortunately is closing :( I tried my best (my little sister did the first one) to capture all of the details. Pictures two and three are appliqués on the skirt, four is the embroidery on the top, and five is the sleeve. The best part of the dress is that it is one of kind, handmade. Perfect for a vintage prom!









Friday, April 19, 2013

Some of my own designs

I hope you like my designs. My inspirations come from engraved shapes on mirrors, blemishes on faces, babies in utero, my cats, pine trees, and whatever is floating around in my head. I definitely am inspired, also, by Alexander Mcqueen and his unlikely inspirations.























My Magazine collection

These are some of the fashion magazines that inspire me, and are just really beautiful to look through

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Meow!

Cat sweaters are so cliched, to the point if them being a part if our culture. Wearing a cat sweater is like wearing favorite band's t shirt. If you don't like cats, you don't wear one. My favorites are the ones from the 80's, because they have cats and, duh, are from the 80's. That makes them inherently awesome. A lot of them, like this one, are red sweatshirt material with a white collar.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Lilly Pulitzer: A Big Citrus Cupcake

Lilly Pulitzer, like Christian Dior and Gabrielle Chanel, created a whole era of style. The 70's were a very floral and free time, and her outfits supplemented that.
In the early days of this designer, the clothing was almost exclusively for the very rich. As with Chanel, regular people wanted those clothes, and it eventually became a style.
These outfits are all colorful and scream summer. Their high cut and go along with the naturally colorful summer season. They are truly unique clothes. People may see these dresses as simple floral dresses. Because, there are so many of those now! But before than, women were very covered up and keeping cool seemed to only be a concern for men. While Dior was a fabulous designer, he didn't have much to do about summer. Before Lilly that was the prominent style.
Now that I'm done with this article, I want summer to come even more!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"It" With Clara Bow

Silent films aren't the most popular films in this age. People say their outdated and dramatic. Unrealistic. As you may guess, most of these people gave never seen one . If you would consider changing your opinion, then you should definitely watch this film!
Clara Bow is a symbol if the Roaring Twenties. She starred in multiple movies and ''Talkies''. '' It'' is her first movie. Betty, her character, is shopgirl at a garments shop. A guy who works there reads a popular article about something called ''It'', which attracts an individual to anyone of their opposite sex. The guy decides that none of the shopgirls except for Betty have It. Multiple funny adventures ensue and Betty ends u engaged to the shop owner.
This isn't a movie review blog, so you might be wondering why I'm talking about this film. Well, for anyone who adores 20's clothing, they would live this film. One of my favorite scenes is when Betty cuts into her shop girl dress and turns into a more flapper esque dress for a girl out on the town. The pinned on flowers that descends from her neck and across her chest is simply lovely.
Her cloche hat with fake grapes dangling down bob as she gets used to the fancy flapper she's turning into. The clothing perfectly fit her spunky attitude. Unlike any film, even now in our supposedly ''equal'' society, a woman deals with a romantic situation in an intelligent and funny way. She still manages to be herself and not tone down her sassy self. She's in love, loves a man, but manages to stay strong and save a few people along the way. That's something all films need. A strong, fun, spunky flapper.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Dior paper dolls! Who doesn't enjoy the New Look in doll form!

Inspiring Beauty: A trip to the BEST Chicago History Museum exhibit!!!!!!

Eunice Johnson, co-founder of Ebony Magazine with her husband, ran a fashion tour for 50 years. The Chicago History Museum is exhibiting select outfits from this fashion fair, and if you live near or in Chicago, you can't miss this!
    This exhibit had some of my favorite fashion designers, such as Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, and Alexander McQueen (the McQueen gown was from when he was designing for Givenchy). My favorite outfit was the Picasso dress by Yves Saint Laurent. It was colorful but tame at the same time. The Dior pieces were a bit of a disappointment. A gray coat from when Marc Bohan was at Dior was very bland, and looked like it could be designer by anybody. A metallic and embroidered jacket by Dior was a better example of the Dior style, but it was much too embellished for Christian Dior's liking.
      The exciting part of this exhibit was the variety of designers that aren't the most popular, but still amazing. There were many Japanese designers and African American designers, who had designs just as good if not better than some of the more famous designers in the exhibition. A bridal gown by Manuel Ungaro was beautiful, very Valentino with it's prominent red flowers, but restructured in a very McQueen- like way. I also liked a Nina Ricci purple outfit, which consisted of a purple rouched jump suit and cape. Rare is the jump suit that doesn't make you look like you traveled back to the 80's in a time portal!
    The most striking part of it all was the way the shows were done. The models smiled, laughed... and there were normal weight! None of them were super skinny, and some of them (gasp!) were plus sized. What fashion show actually does high end plus sized clothing? And they used African American models! Even now, that's a very rare thing. The Ebony Fashion Fair showed the world that no matter what size or color or ANYTHING, you can wear beautiful clothes and look great at the same time.