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.