Shame on me! I have just realized that it is August and it has been forever since I last posted! I probably have to change the title and what-not since I won't be in New York for a long time to come... (oh New York!! What I would give to be back...)
Progress on the sewing front has been slow since I started work full-time. However, I am pleased to introduce you to my two new babies:
After some time of searching on the internet and hoping that sewing shops in Singapore were actually listed online, I came across a shop in Clementi that sold machines and supplies. Who knew that the Great Singapore Sale would extend to sewing machines! Got these for a nice discount. (Note to self: Go out and explore more sewing supply options!)
I'm back!
Time to say goodbye...
It's finally the end. College is over and it's time to go back to Singapore to start working. As much as guys are emotionally attached to their cars, I've become emotionally attached to my machines. The thought of leaving them behind is seriously making me sad. This post is in memory of them. :(
Ivy Dress
This dress was made out of a nice printed cotton that I found in Little India if I recall correctly. It was really sheer so I had to use a cotton lining underneath. Fitted bodice and gathered skirt at natural waist. It'll be a nice dress for spring if only it'd stop raining...
Blue Lotus
It seems I'm starting to love this lotus flower design phase. Made this bag for a friend. The center of the motif has the "A W" initials. Thought this was much nicer than screaming her name out on the bag.
The bag was made much longer than usual tote bags just because I thought it made it look more unique. And who doesn't love a bigger, deeper bag?
Graduation cards
Hand-drawn designs that I photocopied on cardstock and colored for graduation cards:
I felt the brown envelopes matched the best but they were kinda solemn so I got some purple ones as well. Would have preferred a darker royal purple but this was the only ones they had at Kate's Paperie.
Blue shirred tube dress and green vinyl bag
It's been forever since I've last posted but thankfully I think my sketching has improved by miles. A few days ago, after one of my accounting midterms, I finally decided I needed a break. And voila! A new dress after a long break from my beloved machines. I finally figured out how to work elastic thread shirring on the sewing machine and it goes really well with this printed fabric I found in Singapore. I love it!
The green bag in the background was also made this semester out of vinyl for my 14x17 inch marker paper for my advanced design sketching class. I found this straw fedora hat recently and I'm quite in love with it although it's probably too windy to wear out for now. And by the way, I am going to try different methods to block out my face just because.
Christmas cards
Playing around with sketching and photoshop to make cards this Christmas! Not sure how they'll turn out but I'm liking this one so far. Somehow I always make tons of cards but get so carried away making them that I don't send them out. It's quite a terrible habit actually.
The next stage
It feels weird now that the semester is ending (only 1 accounting final left!). But now it's on to greater and better things - I've slowly realized that I'm a workaholic. I think many people can attest to that.
Anyhoo, I've been playing around with the idea of going into production with some of the pieces I made for the fashion show. Many people gave me great feedback and comments (thank you so much!) and some wanted to buy the pieces off me. However, after talking to people and doing some research online, I decided that it'll be really hard to go into production. This is because I'll only be in New York for 5 or 6 more months before I go back to Singapore for good. The amount of money that has to go into pattern and sample making just doesn't seem quite worth it at this point and I'm completely risk averse. Haha. I'll probably start doing something more large-scale once I'm back in Asia and closer to cheaper production facilities.
In the meantime, I'll try to bring my samples to Henri Bendel's open calls if I can to see if I can get a lucky break. Basically what happens is that the buyers hold open calls for designers once in a while and if they like your stuff, they order them from you on the spot. And then you go into production. They've kicked off the careers of Anna Sui and many others so it's an amazing opportunity. But then the line is always round the block for the whole day and out of hundreds, only a couple of designs are chosen each time. We'll see how that goes :)
Also, last night I decided to scale down my designs and focus on cotton and jersey stretch dresses and tops for sale instead. I plan to buy a serger (a machine that creates finished seams and makes the job much faster) and start making simple nice designs to sell. This way I can do things in my free time and sell dresses to raise funds for the orphanage in Africa I volunteered at in the summer. Starting small seems much less daunting and more manageable for me.
FBA Fall Fashion Show Video
The video is here! It isn't the proper one - my friend filmed it for me with Jane's camcorder - but I'll load up the professional one if I get my hands on it. Enjoy!
And as usual, they spelt my name wrongly.
Interview for a newsletter
The newsletter for the Fashion Business Association at school just came out and my interview with one of the writers was published:
I especially like this part:
"...Michele Ng was the talented and innovative forerunning designer whose extremely wearable and aesthetically pleasing collection was chosen for FBA's Fall Fashion Show advertisements."The writer was such a genius with her words. It wasn't really a big deal I feel.
The fashion show is over and I'll be loading up the video this weekend once Jane finds the wire to her camcorder. She is such an incredible roommate-slash-friend :)
Beauty looks
These are examples of the look I want that I put together for the coordinator to communicate to the hair and make-up department. Putting this together reminded me of how amazing style.com is because it has a huge database of fashion photos and you save your favorite photos to your own lookbooks and you can access other people's lookbooks as well.
Photoshoot and accessories
A quick picture that I sent to some friends to invite them for the show. Here are more of the shots that came from the photo shoot.
Model above: Rebecca / Model below: Sonya
It's less than a week to the show and I still have quite a lot of loose ends - straps, finishings, seams, etc. I went to buy more trimmings today for the pieces and walked past an accessories store that was 50% off storewide today! Got the bangles below and hopefully they'll make some of the pieces work. I'm also making a necklace to go with another dress. Bought some cool feathers too.
I'm putting the costs here per bangle before the sale. I decided to start keeping track of how much everything cost per piece. Hopefully my stack of receipts is still intact!
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