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.
Christmas cards
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!
Program description
Today I have to submit a 3-4 line description of myself and my work for the fashion show program. I am pretty nervous because I don't think of myself as a word smith nor do I like describing myself in anything. But this is what I came up with:
"Tressdress brings you stylish and feminine designs for both day and night. Dressed up with heels or worn casually with flip flops, these versatile pieces bring out the classy and fun-loving woman in you. Designer Michele Ng is delighted to bring you 10 different looks in her very first collection. Inspired by the sand, sea and patterns in nature, these pieces have a modern touch, to be worn anywhere, at any time."
I hope this works because I think my collection has somewhat digressed and expanded from my original inspiration. And I didn't include my profile because I feel it would be weird. Think: "designer hailing from the small sunny island of Singapore" or "designer presenting a collection after having taken a couple of classes in dressmaking and classes in fashion studies in Parsons". I guess I'll just go for a vague professional-sounding description. Hm. And thanks rae, for input and assurance!
Behind the scenes!
Long day today. Honors class from 9 to 12. Dropped dresses in with the coordinator. Lunch with some friends and then photo shoot from 2 to 6. And then a group meeting from 6 to 10. And all I had to eat was a mini chirashi (the size of a small bowl of rice) and a cup of hot chocolate!
Anyway the photo shoot for the flyers for the fashion show was held today. We were meant to meet at Mercer and Spring for an outdoor shoot - the poor girls would have to stand in the cold wearing thin summer dresses! But when we started, there was not enough lighting so we moved into a studio in the Tisch building instead. Phew!
Here are some photos of what went on behind the scenes:
Looking at some fashion photography poses and illustrations as inspiration for the flyers. I met the girl on the left - Tigist - for the first time today even though she's a Stern marketing major too! She's an awesome girl and I'm glad I got to meet her today. Talking to her and Menzer (the designer coordinator, not in the photo) made me realise I'm not alone in struggling to find the right path in the fashion world. And it was great to talk to people with common interests and goals for a change!
Doesn't she look like a doll? The photographer, Gary, was brilliant.
I love the grey background with the green dress. I made this dress yesterday and I'm really happy with the way the draping turned out! Took me a total of 8 hours and involved me dragging a table into the living room because the ceiling lights in my room blew and I had to wait for my superintendent to be free to change the lights.
Can't wait to see the actual photos that were taken today. Will post some of them up once I get it next week. Thanksgiving is coming up and hopefully I can finish my pieces in time to take a proper break. D and I are going to Montreal. Excited!
Trims and things
A lot has transpired since my last post. Essentially, I worked on more pieces and had model fittings and finalized some stuff. The result? 5-6 hours of sleep a day and the following:
Trims! Soon after the previous post, I was flipping through the Sephora holiday catalogue and felt really inspired by the make-up for some reason. That led me to trims - amazing differences almost instantaneously! I decided to spend a day walking around fashion district and spend my time browsing and enjoying looking through random things instead of rushing to buy stuff as usual. It was truly a refreshing experience.
This is the piece after adding the black beaded trim (cost me $24) in the center. Pardon the straps sticking out. I was fitting them on her before sewing to save time. I can definitely say that this piece is finished (except for the unsewn straps) and that I'm happy with it:
My collection has been finalized - it will consist of 10 pieces and use "Sea Lion Woman" by Feist. Some additional pictures from the fittings I had yesterday.
Essentially, I had the girls come to school on Sunday in 20 minute slots to try on the pieces and walk to the music. The walk: "Breezy. Just enjoy yourself. Be happy and smile on the inside and in yours eyes, but don't show it with a big smile on your face. Have lots of inner energy and just go for it!"
This is a new piece I'm working on. Although some how it'll turn out looking different once I'm done with it because I can see it happening already. I love the fresh breath of life this color is bringing into the collection.
Examinations and re-examinations
So over the weekend I cleared out my room so that I could focus on my midterms coming up. It kinda feels weird to put aside sewing for a while and after a few days of taking myself out of this sewing whirlwind, I've had time to reflect on my pieces. And man! I hate that the design process never finishes until you're forced to stop and show your pieces on the runway.
Looking back at some of my pieces I'm really unimpressed by how I wasn't really challenging myself to push boundaries more and how things didn't progress along the line. I mean they seemed to at that point in time but now they don't anymore. And I hope I change my mind again or see how I can modify things because I'm thinking of scrapping some pieces and putting new ones in. Which really agonizes me coz it would mean that I'd have to make more pieces with only 1 month remaining. There goes my weekend of fun and freedom.
Well, not entirely. I think I need a break.
Model Selections
Today we had to choose our models from a pre-selected pool. It was such a weird experience as I've never been to one before so I had no idea what to do.
Essentially they had the models walk down a hallway to music twice for us to choose them. After that, the model coordinator let the designers go up to the models to talk to them or take measurements and what-not. There were designers who wanted to talk to the models as they only wanted to work with people they liked. And then there were those who came ready with their cameras and measuring tapes and were really professional. I felt so awkward so I just tried to get their measurements by asking them (oddly, so many of them didn't even know their own measurements!) and took some photos (which I want to post but I shouldn't without their permission). Awkward. Work on your small-talk michele!!
But I really felt bad for those models who weren't really noticed by the designers since everyone was just standing around in the hallway. Most of the designers talked to the same few models who had good walks and looked good and just looked past the rest of them. Man, would I hate to be in their shoes! I mean, they definitely were good enough to get this round but it's maybe just that their look or walk didn't suit what we wanted. Life.
Back to the designers. It's really cool - there was this girl who was making shoes and then there were many others. Some of them had 15 looks and I feel so amateur thinking about my 6 looks that I'm rushing. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm starting small and that simple designs are also good.
I guess today's experience was something that I was totally unprepared for and that kinda makes me feel so unstable about my collection. Hopefully I'll feel better bout it tomorrow :P
That one dress.
Today I got back from class at 11am and started working on my fourth piece. 11am to 7pm and I'm still not done. Here's why: silk chiffon that likes to move around, circular hems that run on for miles and too many layers. I wonder why I plan these things sometimes. But you know, silk chiffon feels so heavenly that I wanna just wrap myself up in it and call it a dress.
But this is what I managed to finish today, including the bottom half of the back too:
The inner lining typically isn't as shiny as it seems. It's more because my flash is extra bright. The top is still work in progress coz I intend for it to be a round-neck sleeveless top. Don't ask how that's gonna happen!
And I have decided that my dressform seems extraordinarily wide from the front view and thin from the side view. Hence most things look bloated and fat. Gah.
Oh and I tried on one of the other pieces for fun and realised it would look much nicer as an off-shoulder top:
I love this top coz it's so comfortable and you could wear it to the beach or for a fun night out and it'd still work! I might make a few extra pieces of this eventually because I fell in love with it after I tried it on. And it's generally free-size too! The neckline/collar sucks to make though. I might have to change it slightly. Anyone interested?
Slowly but surely
This weekend was crazy. I set out to make 4 pieces and I've only barely completed 2. I feel like I've been trapped in my apartment for forever and it's STILL not done! Okay, so I did go to a pub to watch South Africa beat England in the world rugby finals for a bit on Saturday afternoon with some friends, but that's about it.
This is what I've completed so far. I must say though, that I am surprised and happy that I managed to create these things considering I used to make jersey stretch dresses without drawing lines or making measurements.
This is the second piece in the sketch earlier. The blue thing sticking out in the center isn't meant to be there. It's part of another piece that I didn't unpin.
This crooked photo is a heavy sateen top that I'm making. Again, ignore, the blue thing inside. The black top is going to have a wide satin ribbon joining the middle. I wanted to put swaroski crystals all over it (dense at the bottom and spreading upwards) coz I feel my latin costume urges coming out plus it'll look good on the runway. But practically, who'd wear it out?
This is the back of the black top. I really like the tailoring involved in this and I'm really happy at the way it turned out. It took a lot more effort than it looks like it did because I had to do the interfacing and what-not on the inside.
The weekend is over and now it's back to studying and sewing only in the pockets of time I can get. Tomorrow: Japanese oral mid-term exam. Gambate kudasai!
Keep on keeping on...
So just when I was thinking I'd have lots of time to relax and spend time with friends, the email comes. Yes, I got into the Fashion Business Association Fall Fashion Show! It's not a huge show and nothing like the New York Fashion Week shows but at least it's a start.
So now (ahhh!!!), I have to churn out an average of 2 or 3 dresses in the next few weeks and hope the NYU models selected are actually sized like models. Not that I mind how they look, but more of that I don't want to be busy making alterations all over. The proportions I'm using for this round are 33-24/25-33 which is pretty reasonable I think.
Oh and design-wise, I've scrapped a lot of the sketches I made earlier. But I've gotten some really good ideas (at least I really like them for now) and things should be moving along pretty soon. Two days ago I had a mental "weather-change" and wanted to scrap my original color palette to bold and bright colors - think hot pink and bright orange and cyan. But thankfully a few days later I decided I can save that for another time and I don't have to redo my entire line on a whim.
Here's to a busy weekend sewing my guts out! I can't believe I'm actually excited :)
Making things final
So I'm trying to finalize my 6 pieces and I got home today after school to try to bang my designs out and be happy enough to stick with it. After all, I've been changing my mind every couple of days and it's much harder than I thought to make a small collection. Coz then I can't really let my mind wander and I have to keep it tight with around a maximum of 3 colors or types of things in order to maintain a flow.
So this is what I came up with today (of course, most of them are ideas that have been floating around in my head so it wasn't like a one-hour miracle) :
Yeah, I know my sketches are still not perfect but at least they're much better than what they used to be! Been learning a lot at my design sketching class where the ultimate goal is to make good 10 minute sketches. So I think this is going pretty well.
The first dress is the one shown in the post earlier and the last one obviously is undone and I haven't quite figured that out yet. I know it's gonna be black cropped pants like the second figure and gonna be put before the last dress to even things out and to be a transition between the two dresses.
I was meant to start making paper patterns today but at the rate this is going I think I'm gonna sit on it (yet again!) and look at it tomorrow to see if I still like the pieces. I think I'm happy with most of them except number 4 which I'm still feeling iffy about. Well, if I don't get into the show then I guess I won't be facing that much time pressure then I can expand the line and do some of the original pieces that I wanted to do that didn't fit into this. Or maybe I'll just try to get more sleep :P
Well, I try.
So I obviously haven't been as disciplined as I wanted to be. But I've been pretty good in terms of areas other than blogging!
Last night I submitted my application to the Fashion Business Association Fall Fashion Show at NYU. Admittedly it wasn't a highly professional application - imagine raw edges on cropped photos of me shooting myself in clothes I made in front of the mirror. But I did submit a photo of one of the almost completed pieces I wanted to be in this collection. And here it is!
I am especially proud of this piece because I've been thinking of making it for some time. I was really stuck on the collar part because I wanted that exact design but didn't want to have to sew the insides and find a way to make it seamless. So I decided to use my usual hand-stitching etc and it turned out nice coz it adds something more raw to the already chic dress body.
The blueish cloth is made of two-toned blue and beige/tan threads and is sateen I believe. I originally wanted to buy silk but that was like 25 bucks a yard, which I figured I'd save to use for the second piece if this design works out.
The theme for this collection of 6 pieces is basically nature - the water, sand, trees. The color palette stays simple with a subdued blue, beige, tan and some black. These pieces follow my general design aesthetic - clean cut lines, classic designs but with some extra detailing that is both different and fun. So... Let's hope the people at FBA see some potential in this collection!
Love affair with shoes
This has been on my mind lately so I just have to write it down. Coz of my knee injury, I can't really be wearing heels anywhere in the near future so I've taken to buying some flats to walk around the city in. But alas! These babies like to cut in from every angle possible. Why can't everywhere be like Tokyo and sell their shoes in different widths?
Admittedly, one good thing bout flats is that I can find my sizes in New York (perhaps it's the wide feet) but when it comes to heels, the size difference is telling and it's only in Tokyo and 5 shops in Singapore that I can find my size 3's. Most of the time I'm trying to stuff them with padding or trying to fit my feet into them and getting blisters in every imaginable location on my foot while dragging the shoe around town. And thus the hunt for the perfect pair(s) of shoes.
And it's only when I had this conversation with D that I realised how silly I can get sometimes:
Me: Look at this new pair of flats I bought!
D: Why have you been buying so many new pairs?
Me: I can't wear heels now that I'm injured and most of my shoes previously were heels... So I need more new flats.
D: But how many feet do you have?
Me: (Crap. He got me there.) Two...? But I like happy feet. You remember happy feet right? Happy feet!
Fashion blogs
Hurray/ Hoorah! Today I was surfing around and came across a couple of blogs. The Clothes Project is a great one that goes around photographing people with interesting get-ups. I've always been surfing through Japanese ones and I've been so heartened with the discovery of this blog! And then there's fashion nation and fashion is spinach which I haven't had time to go through entirely. But this is making me so happy :)
Anyway, for my Honors thesis this year I'm thinking of working on Asian fashion businesses and its spread regionally and internationally and hopefully distilling certain common factors behind them. I'm planning on going more in-depth by separating them into couture and ready-to-wear and then also by technicalities such as funding, advertising budget and strategy as well as the fashion aspects such as sizing, design appeal to where they are expanding into, etc. I'm trying my best not to make it sound fluffy coz it really isn't I hope. I'll be meeting my prof on Tues to discuss this and then I have to churn out a proposal pretty soon!
The Starting Line
So... I decided to start this thing afresh and to be a disciplined blogger and not abandon my site after 3 random posts. We sure hope this attempt works out! Somehow it seems that my first post is always at 3 in the morning when I can't sleep and my mind is going wild. Yes, yes. Get a diary mich!
Anyway, I'd love to get input and opinions from you guys from time to time and it would really mean a lot to me. This semester I've been thinking of starting my new clothing pieces especially with the newfound time I have without dancing. Most of you would probably know that I've stopped dancing in general because my knee's worn out and that I should have probably stopped at 14 instead of continuing and dancing in heels for Ballroom. But better to have loved and danced and lost than to have never loved and danced at all right?
Anyway, back to my point. I'm maintaining a separate blog -- tressdress.blogspot.com -- for my finished pieces and what-not. So I really have to tidy that up. God help me! And then there's this. I didn't think I should combine the two because it'd get messy but we'll see how it goes. And I'm thinking of starting to make some items to sell. Partly because I want to know how it'll work and also because I want to start generating funds for the orphanage in Ghana that we volunteered at in the summer. There's a project proposal that we're working on in order to generate funds for the children there. And by the way, any donations for clothes and English books for children would be greatly appreciated - please let me know if you have any to give away!
I realise I ramble way too much so I do apologise in advance. Love!
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