Lace's and Chiffon's

In the drawing part of Visual Communication we were learning how to render chiffon and lace in class this past week. I was very relieved to learn this because most of the fabrics in my 1950's inspired collection for Integrated Studio are chiffon's, organza, and lace.

We were also working on composing 2 figures interestingly on the page and for my homework I tried looking specifically at different poses that feel like my inspiration of the 1950's by viewing pictures of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.

1950's seductive housewife

While my designs are in their early stages, the project is to create a narrative in a 10-12 piece collection. I started my research/inspiration looking at 1950's housewives and the social media around the time. This lead me to create a very elaborate narrative about a WWII widow who has to deliver her baby after finding out her husband was killed in the war. She suffers from postpartum depression in the early years of her child's life and when her child is old enough to be home by herself, the mother fills the void of missing her dead husband through sexuality and promiscuity with the other men in her town.

While I was in a taxi cab one night this Guess commercial came on and I immediately thought to myself "this is the girl!" This is the woman I picture when thinking about who I am designing for in my project. On the outside she seems cute and sexy but she has an evil and selfish side.

Inspiration Video-for Integrated

Integrated Studio

For this project during week 5-10 I designed a nautical collection. This idea came initially from research of the classic white work shirt. This then progressed into wrinkle and non-wrinkle shirts and then ways that shirts purposefully create wrinkles. Finally I took this idea of creating wrinkles into cinching fabric at the waist or bust line with a rope or bow which lead me to the sailor/nautical idea of sailors knots.

The shirt that I sewed has a sailor collar and a drawstring under the center of the collar to tie all the way around the body in the form of a "wrap" shirt. There is a subtle silver metallic horizontal stripe in the shirt's fabric.

How the other half lives

I tutor and nanny for a family who live on the upper east side. Their penthouse apartment on Park ave is decorated like a Better Homes and Gardens magazine and is probably close to the size of my suburbian home. Whenever I am in their apartment I cannot help but look around at all the beautiful art, decorating details and monstrocity of the place. Specifically, my favorite room in the apartment is the dining room. The details of the room are filled with extravagant textiles and patterns. The color palette is blue, brown and gold. Brown being the enormous table in the center of the room, gold on the beautiful vine and leaf-like chandelier above the table and blue in the textiles of the chairs and floor length curtains. When I step into this room I feel as if I am a character in a movie or have been taken back in time to the Victorian age. Either way, to the kids this room is nothing but the space where they can spread out and do their homework or be tutored.

Plaids, Plaids, Patterns

After learning nothing but patterns and plaids for the past 2 weeks in Visual Communication I have been taking more appreciation for jackets and clothes that I see with patterns knowing the detail it takes the designer to design such a garment. Specifically in my drawing class while we've been working on rendering plaids and patterns, while its a time consuming technique, it has been fun to learn and see my improvements.

Through these past 2 weeks I've been looking out for plaid jackets for inspiration and I started seeing how many different patterned jackets I found. There are all types of prints and plaids used for patterns, no one print is the same.

In the past fall 2011 fashion shows specifically Valentino used a lot of prints on his jackets. I could only imagine how beautiful these illustrations looked when designed because after learning plaids and prints I feel a lot of appreciation towards the skill it takes to create. Needless to say, feeling surrounded by plaids makes me feel inspired by the beauty of the print which I never noticed before.

Under Water

In the background of the second image you can see the back drop of the show and how the space was completely transformed into this modern underwater feeling. The clothes reminded me of the beauty in the fountain and the textures in the garments reminded me of the patterns and ripples the drops of water create.

As I have posted before, the fountain in my neighborhood has inspired me in a very beautiful way. This week as I was passing by the fountain I walked up close to it and looked at the ripples and water droplets falling and the patterns in which this creates. The movement in the water and the sound it makes is so peaceful and as I began to think about how it could relate to clothes and patterns I remembered the Chanel spring 2012 show which was an under water theme.

Patterns on the Brain

After working in class on Tuesday on creating patterns I found myself noticing patterns out of everything. As I was sitting in a restaurant that had dimmed lighting I realized that the position of the lights created patterns within itself. The lights hanging from the ceiling created a perfect grid pattern and I found myself noticing stripes in the light. There were square shaped lights on the wall which were in a diagonal position which I recognized as diagonal stripes. Also the ceiling was painted in different vibrant colored stripes which I found myself being able to imagine on a dress or shirt as the print.

Where ever I am I find myself pointing out possible prints. Even in a place where I am so familiar with and have walked by for almost everyday since I've lived in New York, Union Square. When walking home from class one night I looked up at the lights lining the DSW and realized that they were striped and lit up in such a way that reminded me of some sort of metallic or sequin pattern. These lights could be replicated on a dress in the form of a metallic fabric. I find myself drawn to shiny objects more so than dull because I love sparkles and shimmer. Not necessarily directly in my designs but definately the shading which the shine of shimmer creates inspires me in a whole different way.

Pattern Crazy

After talking in class on Tuesday about patterns that could be turned into textiles I was incredibly inspired by the things around me that I might see everyday but never really stopped and took a moment to thing about the beautiful patterns. This is an image of the clouds while it was dark out. This was a huge gray storm cloud that stuck out against the black night sky and it was one of the most beautiful night skies I had ever seen. I immediately thought about how the beautiful and organic outline where the cloud and the dark sky meet could become a repeated pattern on a textile and snapped a picture.
I was browsing through Anthropologie this week and found that all the different decorations on the walls and around the store were beautiful patterns. These different shaped circles fit within each other I found myself particularly attracted to. I am usually attracted to and inspired by circular and organic shapes more so than much angular and hard lines. I can imagine these circled patterns on a textile giving a cute accent to a dress.
These organic, natural shapes inter-twined within each other I found to be particularly beautiful and can imagine it as a Jacquard fabric. This could even be embroidered onto some sort of fabric as a design.

Window Displays

While I was babysitting this week uptown and walking the dog I stumbled across the beautiful window displays of Madison Ave. Most displays consist of beautiful extravagant lighting and chandeliers. These bright lights lured me to the window where I would stop and stare at the beautiful jewelry, clothes and shoes in the window.

These chic window displays inspire me to hope to have a beautiful window display someday in a store that has my name on it. I think along with a lot of students here at Parsons this is the dream but seeing these displays makes this goal a huge priority for me. I would love to design a beautiful window display one day or be able to walk by my store and stare at the display and know I had something to do with it. It must be such a great sense of satisfaction to these designers who can look at their stores and think, "i did it."

Shiny Things

For my accessory design class I had to buy the materials for the bag that I am making. Although my design is black and has gold studs, I found myself ooing and ahing at the shiny embellishments that were glittering behind the counter.

Seeing these kinds of embellishments make me want to become an accessory designer or focus on accessories. I do love clothing design though so I can always think of ideas how to add these embellishments to dresses.

I felt very inspired by the different shapes and colors of the crystals. Whether they were gold or silver, black or even pink I found them all to be beautiful and thought of ideas on how to develop them into my clothing or accessories. The organic shapes also caught my eye. The crystals could be transformed into many different shapes and even look as if it is knotted string such as the one seen on the top of the second picture.

Time to relax...

The heated room where this takes place is incredibly relaxing with dimmed lights, mirrors with flowered frosted glass and a huge mural of woods on the far wall. This room is sort of like a little oasis from the noise of the city. As I am sitting in the room I can almost imaging the leaves rustling and hearing birds calling above. Nature is one of my biggest inspirations with organic shapes and natural colors. The area, for me, is the perfect recipie for inspiration. Many break throughs in my work have came to me here.

Not only is this class relaxing but I find it incredibly inspiring. Inspiring in the sense that it is a place to simply clear my head and think about things other than school. Then also on the other hand it can be a place where I focus on nothing but a project that i’ve been having trouble with and most likely I will come out of the class feeling completely rejuvinated and knowing exactly what to do with the project. Even though as school gets easier it is hard to set aside an hour to go to the gym, I usually try and force myself to go on even the busiest of Tuesday’s because it will help me to relax and maybe give me a whole new outlook on my work.

Crunch!

There is nothing that I look forward to more in the week then my hot pilates class on Tuesday nights. After just getting through two days full of 9 hours of class back to back this class is like the light at the end of the tunnel. Walking up to the building of crunch I feel so excited for the class i’ve been looking foward to all day. Hot pilates is a form of mat based pilates which is done in a heated room. The heat combined with the breathing exercises and strengthining work outs is just the bit of relaxation I need to end two very busy days of school.

Shiny Embellishments

I’ve always thought about adding trimmings such as chain, shiny clasps and studs to my designs but at home in the little suburb outside of Philly we are not blessed with the trimming stores of sixth avenue and Joanne fabrics just doesn’t cut it for an aspiring fashion designers material needs.

The shiny gold and silvers inspired me to embellish my designs even further now that I have access to all of these resources. I am going a little stud crazy but it is making up for so much lost time when I was not able to simple buy a pack at the trim store.

"hardware happy"

I’ve always been interested in jewelry and accessory design and the materials available to me now can help me to persue this hobby further. Because of my experience at the store I am very excited for the final product of my accessory design bag and am inspired to create the perfect bag. The huge wall of different shiny chain made me inspired to create something fabulous with this shiny metal emellishment.

Philly Inspirations

While traveling back to Philadelphia with my boyfriend from our home in the suburbs I was struck by the view of the city lights as we were approaching the city on the train. These beautiful views make me feel a special attachment to Philadelphia over New York.

Home Sweet Home

Over the weekend I traveled home to Philadelphia and surprised my mom and sister by visiting them in West Chester for a day. My childhood home is full of inspiration to me. In New York, I am inspired by powerful and meaningful things which remind me why I am in New York and help my education or career goals. In Pennsylvania it is a who different feeling where I find inspiration from things which remind me of my childhood or the people I know and love.

My dog and sister are both very important to me and inspire me very much. Obviously my dog I just think is adorable but my sister means much more. She is and will always be my best friend. Her strength will always inspire me to achieve my goals and I know she is always there for me when I need her.

Library Ornamentation

The beautiful ornamentation and designs found on the walls and ceilings inspired me very much. The swirl designs in the iron stair railings were very intricate and the sort of design that my eye usually gravitates towards. This trip ended up being much more exciting and inspiring then I expected.

New York Public Library

While visiting the library this week for research on a project it had been my first time ever going and I was not prepared for the size of this endeavor. Not only was I not aware of how big the location next to Bryant Park is but that there are tons of other branches around the city too. I spent a while when I first arrived trying to find my way to the art reading room. On my way I admired all the beautiful architecture and aesthetic of the interior. I felt more as if I had stepped into a museum then a public library.

Bryant Park

The look and feel of Bryant Park is incredibly inspired to anyone passing by. It is bustling with people sitting, eating and talking at tables throughout the park. The towering trees shade the park in a way to shelter the people in the park from the even taller skyscrapers above them. The history behind Bryant Park and the fact that the name is so widely known within the fashion industry was bitter sweet to me. The environment is incredibly beautiful and classic that it makes me disappointed that they moved the festivities of fashion week to the Lincoln Center. Walking passed Bryant Park still reminds me of one of the first times I was ever in New York City with my friends during fashion week and we walked around the tents strutting like models and hoping to catch a glimpse of a celebrity.

MILK salon pop-up

The decorations and style of this pop-up salon I found to be incredibly visually pleasing and inspiring. The metallics and bright colors made the salon look very edgy and dramatic. This sort of area made me want to just sit and get made-over...and live the life of the beautiful runway models.

MILK productions

Over the weekend I interned at MILK for fashion week. It was a great experience and I continuously found myself in awe and inspired of the set-up and production of the space. This Aldo pop-up store was a crappy old storage area and it was transformed into this beautiful make-shift coffee shop/salon. The decorative prints in contrast to the beautiful, bold shoes on the wall I found myself staring at for a while.

Anthropology Window Display 2

This particular display I felt attracted to the colors and the shiny contrast of the paint cans in relation to the wood on the floor and table. The primary purple with splashes of yellow was a cool color palette to have the paint drip in. For a clothing store, this was a unique display but I found it very inspiring and visually pleasing.