Bi-annual Update! (from the world's worst blogger)

I think I'm actually just going to give up on promising that I will be a better blogger, and everyone will just have to be satisfied with a new post from me when it happens, be it tomorrow, or next year. As sad as it is to say and as ridiculous as it sounds, I am just too busy to ever find time to sit down for an hour or two and focus on blogging! Today I'm working at Better Than Jam, in Bushwick. After hand-basting 6 huge circles of silk organza for a wedding reception dress for a client of a client, I have an hour or two left to do this!!!

Now, let's get caught up on what I have been doing for the last 11 months. Firstly, I did NOT achieve one of my goals and audition for Project Runway this past season. I have to say that actually turned out to be a great decision. I would not not not have wanted to be on there with that group of people. Most of them were fine, some of them I might have strangled, and the overall scraping-the-barrel lack of talent was really disheartening. I'm not about to start recapping, but suffice it to say that I'm in the group of people with the opinion that this season was extremely disappointing, from start to finish, ESPECIALLY finish.

I DO plan to still audition for Season 10. I have already started working on updating my portfolio with fresh looks and some new photo shoots. I did a shoot last month with the lovely and fabulous DaleAnn Clancy. We shot with two models on and around the High Line park in the Meat Packing District. Here are a couple of the photos:

Model - Tatiana Eurochkina

Silver metal organza Cloud blouse, navy raw silk Tidal Wave skirt.

Model - Nelly Santiago

Black silk chiffon and duchess silk strapless dress with metal sequin detail.

Black wool Ruffian jacket with metallic organza detail & gold hardware.

Tatiana is a model whom I worked with previously and Nelly I met via Model Mayhem right before our shoot. A note to fellow independent designers - signing up for Model Mayhem was an AWESOME thing! I wish I had done it years ago. Due to the word 'model' in the name, I never really looked into it as a resource for myself. DaleAnn suggested that I sign up and do a casting call for models via it. I got tons of replies to my posting, and since setting up my account only a month ago I have already had some of my items pulled for a shoot by a stylist and have been contacted by at least 6 photographers requesting to work together. To me it's always seemed like one of the trickiest elements of getting your line up and running was getting good photos from a variety of talented photographers. Model Mayhem seems to want to do all the work for me, and no, I am not a paid spokesperson. I'm collaborating on another shoot with someone I just met through it around the end of the month and hope to have photos from that before the end of the year to post here!

Another exciting thing that just happened is I was chosen to be in the Better Homes and Gardens Handmade Holiday Gift Guide! You can see my little feature as well as the other handmade items here. This is the picture they took of my tie:

Bicycle Silk Tie - Slate Blue shantung w/ black ink

I was hoping for an in-print feature, but I'm pretty sure this was web only. I have not, however, picked up a copy of their December issue and looked yet. I'll get around to it! So far it has not been a huge driver of traffic to my store, by any means. However, I don't think most people are even thinking of perusing gift guides yet. Also, while BHG does feature 3-4 posts on their Twitter and FB daily, I don't think they have started posting this link yet. Crossing my fingers and waiting for the sales to go nuts!

On of my goals this year has almost come to fruition! I have hired a web designer and my site is under production. I couldn't be more excited. I have had my URL and a place holder page for about FOUR years and it's really just time to get the whole mess in up-and-running order. It should be ready by the end of November. A birthday present to myself! I'll be sure to post a note when it's in place for viewing.

Just this past week I went on a little foray outside the world of serious fashion and whipped myself up a Halloween costume. I was inspired by some beautiful photos of Dia de los Muertos costumes and make-up I had seen around the internet and wanted to do my own interpretation. I spend about 6 solid days working on everything, from the fully boned historical corset (not my design, used a pattern) to the bajillions of gorgeous silk flowers I plastered everywhere. Damn, my little $5 hot glue gun did a fantastic job! Here's a picture of me!

My fiancé and I went to the NYC Halloween Parade on the 31st. Even though we both love Halloween, we had not attended before and were excited to join the marchers. Nick was Randy Marsh, from South Park. My assistant Dani made his mask and he looked GREAT! People loved him and we were surprised and thrilled by how many people wanted their photo taken with both of us. When the parade ended and we were diverted down a side street, one of the last people to ask me for my picture was Dr. Takeshi Yamada. He's an INCREDIBLE artist who makes all sort of creepy, awesome and fantastical creatures. You can see lots of his work here. I had not heard of him prior to meeting him on Halloween and I definitely regret that, I would have been doubly excited! As it was, I was in love with the Sea Rabbit and delighted to get a photo with the Dr. and his furry friend! It was the highlight of my night.

Dr. Takeshi Yamada, Seara & I.

Time to wrap it up and got back to work! I just got a bunch of new t-shirts in and I have to sew my labels into ALL of them! It's that time of year where my main focus is prepping inventory for craft shows and online sales and getting all my boutique accounts stocked up for the holidays. That means sewing my own stuff non-stop as well as working on a few freelance projects, like making a wedding reception dress and a plethora of home items for an interior designer I work with. There are simply not enough hours in the day! Keep an eye on my calendar on the right for upcoming events. My first craft show of the season will be in LIC on December 4th. I have also applied for the Bust Holiday Craftacular (Dec 10th & 11th) and the Brooklyn Lyceum Holiday Market (Dec 17th & 18th) but have not confirmed the last two events yet. More information forthcoming. And now, on with the sewing!

This year goes to 11 !!!!

So, I may be right up there in the world's top laziest bloggers ever, but I have big plans for myself this year. That includes being better about posting updates on my projects. LOTS of time has gone by since last I wrote and I'm not really sure what I have been up to during it all. A little bit of all the usual, I suppose, getting caught up with life and other things.

One of the major things I did in 2010 was to audition for Project Runway again. I tried out for Season 8. I did much better this time than last! I actually made it to the semi-final auditions, which were held at the Liz Claiborne offices in NYC. I was SO excited! It wasn't any less intimidating than last time, but at least in this interview I got to talk! I waiting for about 2+ hours past my call time for my interview. Other people waiting whom I noticed and then later saw on tv were Jason Troisi (He was exactly the same in real life, there was no special editing to make him look wacko. He talked loudly about himself the ENTIRE time.) and Casanova. I particularly remember that before my interview but after Casanova's I went into the restroom. Two of his models were in there getting changed. One of them kept saying to the other "Wow, that went REALLY badly." I guess we all know talent isn't the only thing they are looking for in those interviews! My interview was ok. I took about 7 or 8 designs with me to show. Tim was one of the interviewers, obviously, as well as Irina Shabayeva. There were at least a dozen or so other people off in the sidelines, producers and whatnot, but I didn't have time to even look at them. Seth Aaron was there also, I saw him walking around, but he didn't sit in on my interview. They made me try on one of my pieces, asked lots of questions about the others, wanted to see and touch a few of them. Tim kept saying that my designs all looked very organic, when in fact I think they are actually very structured and planned. He also kept calling my very intricate seam detailing 'applique' and I kept saying 'no, it's not' and thinking he of all people should know the difference. In hindsight, it's possible he was just trying to get me riled up. He also told me that he didn't get this look:

Green & Black dupioni dress. Photo by Azzurra Piccardi

I told him I didn't know what there was to not get. He said it didn't go with the rest of the pieces and I said they weren't being presented as a collection, just a sampling of my designs. Again, looking back it's most likely he just wanted to get me to start arguing about it, to see if I could get crazy for tv. I should have been MORE crazy! Oh well. There's always next time. Here are a couple other pictures from the portfolio I submitted with my application.

Silk Organza Cloud blouse and one-of-a-kind 26 gore raw silk skirt.

Pleated dupioni blouse and black metallic wool Lightning skirt

I have NO idea when Lifetime will be casting for Season 9 of PR, though I am almost positive they are signed to do 7 more seasons. Any day now I should start getting my act together and creating some new portfolio pieces so I can apply again! 7 more seasons, how could I NOT get there eventually? The question is do I really want to? Ha!

On another note, I am excited to say that I ended last year with 25 boutiques carrying varied assortments of my ties, t-shirts and bags. I shipped out 928 ties total to all of those stores in 2010! I'm so excited to think that there are literally thousands of my ties being worn all around the world!

Some of the PILES of ties I shipped out last year.

Some of my goals for this year along those lines include sending out MORE ties than that, as well as acquiring at least 10 new consignment or wholesale accounts. A few months ago I set up my wholesale page for my ties on Trunkt, which you can see here. Just today I set up a separate linesheet for my silkscreened t-shirts, which is here. I only have a couple (literally) t-shirt designs right now. Getting these things to happen is harder than it seems, especially when it's just ME trying to make it happen. I plan to have at least two more designs and several more color options by the end of March. Just this week I got my first batch of Bicycle t-shirts. Super excited about those and already sent out about a dozen to some accounts, Sacred Art in Chicago, and The Fool on the Hill in Jerome, AZ.

My men's Bicycle t-shirt in Concrete gray.

Another big thing on my t0-do list for this year is to get my personal website up and running and not looking ridiculously out of date. Fall 2009 collection??? BWAHAHAHA! Well, that certainly didn't happen. That's ok, because we'll discuss Spring 2012 in a second. Geez! Where does the time go? I have simple goals for my website. I want a portfolio, a functioning store with shopping cart, a list of all the places I sell to, including addresses and live website links and a bio. This can't be TOO hard, can it? I'm more worried about it being too expensive. I have a referral for a web designer, but haven't contacted them yet. If anyone knows someone in NYC or Brooklyn who does good work at a reasonable cost, please let me know!

Yes, one of the other plans I have for my website is to FINALLY feature an actual collection, mini though it may be. I really really want to get my act together this year and do a very small collection for Spring 2012. It would be for sale through my site, hopefully somewhere locally and wholesale as well. I'm thinking 2 dresses, 2 skirts, 2 blouses, a jacket and some bags. I CAN do this! I am actually going to use this dress as part of the collection, in this colorway.

Pale green wool sheath dress with silk charmeuse trim and lining

This is actually an older design, but it's never been for sale before. I'm quite fond of it and think it's a perfect color for spring! I love getting colorful with my designs, I don't feel there's often enough color in fashion. Walking down the street in Manhattan in the winter almost EVERY single person is wearing a black coat. I'm usually wearing my camel-colored coat, because it has a hood, and I feel like I stand out. When I wear my bright blue vintage Harris Tweed coat I REALLY look like I am not melancholy enough to live in this city. Fine by me! Anyway, the other colors I am leaning towards for my spring collection will be burgundy and possibly a little golden yellow or metallic gold. I also plan to offer some limited edition purses, most likely of existing style designs but in custom colors and fabrics.

I am also thrilled to say that I am going to attempt to do a couple of local craft fairs this year! I did one very small show over the holiday last year and it went rather well. I plan to apply for the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this summer! This involves much planning, like table display, packaging, advertising, labeling and of course MASS production of inventory. I have none of these things. Thank goodness one of the awesomest things that happened to me last year was the acquisition of my fabulous and talented new assistant, Dani! I definitely without a doubt could not have made it through the '10 holiday season without her. Looking forward to another great year too!

Dani & I having fun on NYE, after months of hard work.

So, these are my seemingly small, but time and money consuming goals for 2011. I will do my very best to keep an update of my adventures here, with lots of pictures of course! Check back soon for more highlights of the insanity!

I Moonlight as a Reporter

Well, not really..... but occasionally I do get to go out and cover some great events for Blogging Project Runway! Most recently it was the Season 6 Finale Party! BPR posted my little write-up and some photos from the event. Check it out here! Since Season 7 starts in January, I'm hoping to have some new stuff to cover really soon, so keep posted!

Carol Hannah Whitfield, myself & Althea Harper

Malan, Fashion Week and I

Although this post has been sitting on the back burner and getting dusty, since Fashion Week is past and we're already thinking Spring '10, I swear it's only because I've been so busy I haven't had time to sit down and write a good bit about it all.  So for those who have been pestering me (in a nice way) I offer you something here to suffice until I can post again, hopefully much sooner than a 5 month gap.  Geez, I'm a slacker.

So, the 8 or so months I've been in NYC now have just been a complete whirlwind. And some of the most recent exciting news is that I was able to work with the fabulous Malan Breton.  Malan, if you don't know (and shame on you if you don't!) was a contestant of season 3 of Project Runway.  He's been designing his own collection for 6 or 7 years. Shame on me, because I can't say for absolute certain, but I'll find out and correct!  I had been put in touch with Malan through a small chain of friends.  Laura Kluvo, from BPR introduced me (online) to Christian, an AMAZING artist and good friend of Malan.   She encouraged me to write him and ask if there was anything I could help with, as if was right before Fall fashion week.  I did, and he wrote me back but as it was only about a week away from the Bryant Park shows we never had time to get in touch.  In January, I saw a post from Malan looking for interns to help with his Fall 09 collection.  I responded immediately and he called me the very next day.  

I don't want to talk TOO much about what I helped out with.  I'd rather let the pieces speak for themselves.  I'd like to make it clear that I did not design ANY of the items that are shown here, I only constructed them.  Malan does every bit of his design work on his own.  On February 13th, a special showing was held at the Eli Klein Gallery in Soho.  Here are some pictures from the event of pieces I made and people I met, with details:

Ruby Silk Faille & Black Silk Organza V-neck Dress

Malan & I

 Ruby Silk Jacquard Gibson Jacket

Garnet Silk Jacquard Long Wrap Coat

PR Alum Diana Eng and I

Onyx Tulle & Silk Organza Capelet Blouse.  Tulle lined in tulle, whoo that was tricky! I LOVE the cape!  And I have to say, I think this was the prettiest model of the night.  I hope that doesn't cause a catfight somewhere!

For now I'm taking a little break and focusing on working on my own collection.  It will be more everyday wear, as opposed to eveningwear. It will be ready for Fall 09, and available online sometime this summer.  My color palette is rich, deep blues, purples and greens, with a hint of grey and black (and maybe a fab coat with hot pink lining!) thrown in for good measure. My pieces will be mainly wool and silk combinations, my two favorite fabrics!  All designs will be very limited edition, some there will be no more than 5-10 pieces available, some even less. Several pieces will be one of a kind.  My size run will be 2-20.   I'm just now in the middle stages (sewing and patternmaking) of getting all this worked out.  Will be sure to post more details as I go along!

I definitely hope and expect to be working more with Malan in the future.  I think we work great together, and I couldn't ask for a kinder, more inspiring designer to be learning from.  I'm sure we'll be starting Spring '10 soon enough!  And there may just be some side projects underway already.  

That's all for now!  Hope that will tide everyone over in the meantime.  I'm in the process of getting more and better photos from the event.  Expect those to be updated in the next day or so.  If you can't wait, there are some other great photos from this show as well as Malan's Spring '09 show here.

More soon!  Another post in the works too.  Stay tuned!  Thank you Malan!  And thank you BPR for linking this, what a nice surprise this morning!

New York - The 1st Two Months

Ah yes, here I go with a challenge. Trying to fit everything about my first two months living in NYC into a post that doesn't get too long and boring. Deep breath...

Moving here was one of the most miserable experiences of my life!!! Packing took seriously over 2 weeks. It's actually so awful I don't really want to relive it here. Suffice it to say, if you ever hire a moving truck. PAY FOR THE INSURANCE! We paid a shipper to send everything here and then flew nonstop with two cats. Moving day we arrived at the airport, cats have been properly drugged so as to stay calm and sleeeeep. Airline announces there will be a 5 hour delay! Because of "weather" in NYC. Meaning: Phoenix pilots don't know how to fly through a raincloud. We made it though and pulled up in a cab in front of our apt. we had never seen at about 11:30pm. I won't talk about our neighborhood more than to say it's DIRTY, in a bad way. We have a 3 month sublet, the only thing we could find since we hadn't secured jobs here before we move, and we will be moving to a nicer area at the end of October. Enough about that.

Monday, August 2nd, two days after we arrive. I had an interview for an internship with a small, luxury fashion design company of Cynthia Rose. The VP, who interviewed me, told me I was overqualified and that she thought I would be bored working as an intern. I insisted I wouldn't and I was so excited when she wanted me to start the following Monday! Nick (my boyfriend) was waiting for me at Bryant Park, right up the street, and I was walking on air when I went to meet him there, so proud of myself! Things have evolved (or devolved) at the internship rather quickly. For the first two weeks I was excited to be there, but I was a little bored and wished that they would require more from me so I could show what I could do. Then the VP decided she wanted me to work mainly with the Production Manager (she was the only person running that entire area of the company). I was fine with that as it was something that I didn't know about and I felt that it would definitely give me skills, information and contacts I would need in order to start producing my own line in the future. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with this person, as the designer's personal assistant quit after my second week of work, and I ended up taking on a lot of her responsibilities, only working for free. After about another week or so, the VP started asking me if I thought I could do the Production Manager's job. I told her probably, as long as I would be trained and knew what I was doing. It didn't seem that hard. Boy was I wrong. Shortly after that the P.M. quit and I sort of got bumped into her position, temporarily or permanently was yet to be determined. Keep in mind that I have ZERO experience or training in production, but I am very organized and this is what they thought would make me good for this job. I didn't make it more than 3 weeks. In reality, I was doing a job, single-handedly (trying anyway) that there need to be 2-3 people handling; full time and on the payroll. I got so overwhelmed right away, that I knew there was just no way I could continue without crashing and burning. On top of that, it was taking up ALL of my time (I was there from 9-7 many days). I know that's typical of lots of jobs, but I originally took the internship to help me learn things to forward my own career and my own design work, not make me a personal slave for someone else's profit. There are many other reasons why I did not stay with the company, but on a professional level it's mainly because I'm not qualified for the position and I was SO stressed out about it's all I could think about all the time. I just moved to New York! I love it here. I don't want to spend all my time hating it. I would have made a GREAT production assistant, and they NEED one, but they don't want to have to pay for one, and it's just too much work for me to offer to do for free.

On to some more exciting and upbeat news! I've had several Project Runway sightings since I've been here. I almost ran into Suede on the street a few weeks ago, literally! He was talking on the phone and walking with his head down and we nearly collided. Also, right before fashion week I had to take some pieces to have buttonholes sewn in to a nearby embroidery shop, and Joe Faris was there having buttonholes put in those gold and pink pants he showed at Bryant Park. He looked tired and a little older than on the show, and I wasn't sure it was him. About two weeks ago I SWEAR I saw Keith, who was kicked off in season...3? I can't even remember. It looked JUST like him, but I'm not positive he even lives in NY. I also met Annida Greenkard, one of the models on the drag episode on season 5. She was awesome! And looked even better than on the show. And she was SO mad at Daniel for making her that boring dress! She's amazing. I'm hoping she and I can work together on a project, but haven't had time to discuss since I've been with everything else. And the biggest one of all, Nina Garcia! During fashion week I was lucky enough to get to go to one show! The assistant designer at Cynthia Rose got us on the list for the designer she worked for previous, Douglas Hannant, and Nina was one of the guests at the show. I somewhat candidly snapped a few photos of her while the models were walking. Unfortunately none of them were that great. Sorry Nina! If you go to the Douglas Hannant website and look at the Spring 2009 photos, you can actually see me with my sunglasses on on the right side of the very first image. I didn't want to steal it off their page and post it here though, so you'll have to go see for yourself.

Nina Garcia having some coffee at the Douglas Hannant Spring 09 show.

Many other exciting things have happened since we got to NYC and I'm sure there are many more to come! I'll save what I have for now for another post, this is getting plenty wordy as it is. Check back soon for more!

Project Runway Auditions

So, I just got back from Project Runway Auditions only minutes ago. I was done at the audition 2 hours ago, but just made the track back to my friend's apartment where I am staying in Chicago.

What a long day! I got up at about 6 am, left the house at 7, took a train and then a taxi to get there and arrived at the W Hotel around 8:10 am. Auditions started at 9 and we and we waited around in line for a LONG, cold and windy time. I took three pieces with me to show the judges. Two of them are pictured in this post and the third was the plaid skirt in fall colors with silk trim that's shown in two of my other posts. My friend Dalla went with me and patiently waited out the whole day. I was 52nd in line and didn't get inside to the holding room until around 1 o'clock. Then we waited around for another really long time, because when we got in there they were only interviewing #30, but at least it was warm inside, and we could feel our toes and fingers again. Did I mention I was wearing heels? I wanted to look nice but I knew it was going to suck.

Me, in line at PR auditions, on a blustery Chicago morning

So, we waited around in the holding room for almost another two hours, watching person after person come back upset and clearly having been turned away. There were large clothing racks set up throughout the room and you could see everything that everyone else had brought with them to show to the judges. There was an awful lot of really costume-y and unrefined types of things that you didn't have to be a judge to know that that person was going to be shot down. The more I saw the more I felt confident in the pieces I had brought with me.

Dalla took a break at one point to go and try to find some coffee and ran into Nick Verreos (he was the guest past-competitor judge in Chicago) in the elevator. She didn't talk to him as he was talking with someone who just auditioned and telling him that his (the guy who was auditioning )personality AND designs were just amazing. Other than that we didn't see anyone who looked like they had been moved on to the next stage until the very end.

The whole time we really only talked to two other people, the designer in front of us, Lia Joy and her significant other, (whose name I somehow managed to not catch the entire time I was there), who was there as moral support and to help carry large clothing items.

At around 2:50 it was FINALLY my turn to go in and talk to the judges. I was sooo nervous but I don't think it was showing too much. I went down the hall to the audition room, they put a mic on me then sent me it. As I walked in they all said hello and asked how I was doing. I put my three pieces up on the clothing rack and Tim asked me to spread them out so they could see them, right as I was doing just that. Tim said that everything looked excellently constructed, Nick agreed. Then Tim said "But it's just to basic." To which Nick agreed, but I didn't! I know that of all the tips online about auditioning for the show it always says stick up for yourself against the judges. I was totally prepared to defend my work but Tim says "We're going to have to pass, thank you" before I can even get a syllable out of my mouth. Honestly, I was really surprised. They didn't even ask to look at my portfolio, which has much stranger things in it. I couldn't even manage to say thank you as I took my designs off the rack and walked out of the room, I was too shocked. I kind of felt a little bad about that, but whatever. I'm sure that's just a second of time I saved them to talk to someone else.

This dress made from brown and cream wool tweed fabric and lined and trimmed with a nude colored silk charmeuse. I gave it some interested style lines which I thought were really unique. It's hard to see in the photo, and I'll take a better one later of me wearing it and replace this one with that. It came out gorgeous, fits like a glove and I couldn't have been happier with it.

So, yeah. I'm a little bit upset right now, but I went into this knowing that there was only a SLIM chance that I would be moved on to the next round, and also knowing how to-the-point the judges are in these auditions, so I wasn't totally unprepared. Holy run-on sentence! I felt that the work I took with me WAS really good, and maybe if they had actually taken a second to ask me about it I could have explained to them why it WASN'T basic and what made it special that maybe they couldn't see in the 30 seconds they looked at it before sending me away. Literally, I was in that room for less than a minute. I wanted the pieces I took to the audition to look like they came from the same collection and also to look like something that every woman would want to wear every single day. They are by no means plain, but they also aren't over the top crazy either, because that's not what's going to sell to the general market. They were flawlessly constructed by the way, so that must count for something and at least they were nice enough to compliment that. I think that the judges and producers were so caught up about how "couture" the 4th season was that that was all they were looking for. The girl that came out of the audition room 3 or 4 people before me got passed on to the next round. Her clothes weren't interesting, they were made using horrible fabrics and they weren't constructed nicely at all. However, one of her pieces had layers upon layers of the same fabric and looked EXACTLY like something that Christian would have made, just not as nice. Really people, it's not new, hard or exciting to sew a million layers, it just takes freaking forever. Note to self - take pieces to audition that you copied from the previous season's winner.

Also, advise to any future hopefuls - stay away from the sequins!!! I only saw ONE person all day long be asked to leave before she even made it to the holding room. She had brought store-bought jeans which she hand-sewed sequins all over. Frightening, to say the least. And people, please! That does not make you a fashion designer. It might make you crafty and handy with a needle but don't waste your time. Especially to stand in 40 degree weather for 5 hours.

One of the pieces I took with me to the audition. it's made entirely from the same piece of dupioni silk. The silk the body was cut from was washed about 5 times and the fabric used for the collar, cuffs and bottom trim wasn't washed at all. There are tucks at the front neckline to create that extra fullness, and stitched down tucks up center bag that add more interesting detail to the piece. I made this in one day!

So, I guess that's all really. I am a little disappointed but I'm certainly not going to freak out and say "I quit designing because Tim Gunn says my stuff is too basic!" He's not the only opinion that matters in the fashion world, just one of them. And it must be really difficult for them to actually evaluate you thoroughly when there are 150 more people waiting in line that they need to at least try and audition as well. I've had friends who auditioned be told MUCH worse things so I'm not losing sleep over it. If there is a 6th season I will absolutely audition again and this time I'll be even more prepared and have WAY more stuff added to my portfolio (should they decide to actually look at it).

In the meantime, I have something that might be a little more exciting and DEFINITELY less stressful, up my sleeve, but I won't know more about that til the end of this month. Happy April Fool's Day everyone! I must have definitely played a joke on myself thinking I had this one nailed. :-/

Prepping for PR Tryouts

The past few weeks since the Project Runway Season 5 casting information was posting have been likely the most hectic weeks of my life. As we neared the Season 4 finale I knew that if there was going to be a Season 5 it would be announced soon, but I didn't expect to have less than a month to get ready for it. Yikes! Good thing I work best under pressure.

So, I've been sewing like a mad woman since then trying to figure out what I am going to take with me to show the judges. Since it's only days away, good news is I have at least decided. I'll be taking two pieces that I've made this month and one that I made at the end of last year. I'll post photos of the new stuff later, I think these three will be nice and cohesive. I actually started about 3 other pieces that I thought I wanted to take with me, got about halfway done and decided that they wouldn't be what the judges are looking for. Not that they weren't good or interesting, just maybe not good ENOUGH. I am planning on finishing them all and showing them at Frock n Roll in May.

Close-up of one of my designs. Modeled by KT Mayer

On Easter Sunday I did a photo shoot with an amazing local photographer, Nicky Hedayat-Zadeh. She was featured in the March 2008 issue of Java Magazine. You can view the article here. I needed to get some updated photos for my portfolio and there's no better time than now. We shot at Nicky's studio in downtown Phoenix and the shoot lasted about 6 hours and showcased 10 of my pieces. The photos came out GORGEOUSLY! I was so excited I could hardly wait to get home so I could start sewing new stuff to do another shoot with.

My design. Modeled by Amparo Elizabeth

Will wrap this one up in the morning... getting sleepy...

Project Runway at-home challenge

I just recently discovered on BravoTV.com that they have a Project Runway at-home weekly challenge. Each new challenge is somewhat related to the challenge that was given to the designers on the actual show that week. When I found out about this, the challenge was "sketch an outfit using ONLY candy as your sketching materials." BLAH!

So, I skipped that one and waited for the next week's challenge. It was awesome! Make a prom dress for the year 5058. I was so excited I started conjuring up ideas instantly and was sewing my outfit the next day. You only have one week worth of time, until the next episode airs, to complete the outfit and submit your entry online. I sewed like a banshee and was done Tuesday morning with bleeding fingers and tired eyes and this is what emerged:

My outfit was made from faux ostrich leather, ultrasuede and a slew of random interior decorating fabrics that I had had lying around the house. Is it a two-piece outfit with a fully lined corset style top that buckles across the front. I spray-painted a super sweet pair of Italian leather boots that I had had since 11th grade, borrowed a wig from a friend and voila! The look was complete. I was so excited and so was my model, KT Mayer. She looked fantastic and the outfit was exactly what I had pictured from the very beginning. Here's a close-up shot for a better look at the detailing:

I touched up my photos and made sure they were the right size for the contest regulations, filled out the entry form and sent everything through. I should probably say that if you win, and there is one winner each week for each challenge, you don't win a million bucks or anything. You get a copy of the Season 2 and 3 dvds of Project Runway and one of those 5 lb. Hershey bars. JUST what I need to help me get in shape. Regardless, I only have Season 1 on dvd, so I thought that was cool. I was SURE I could win!
As soon as the show was over last night I logged on to their website to see if they most recent contest entries were posted. They were! But wait, mine wasn't there?! Just a lot of plain dresses that looked like the same things people had made the week before and one semi-interesting ruffly dress. NONE of it looked futuristic, eye-catching or exquisitely and painstakingly crafted. Ahem! In the rules for the contest Bravo does say they reserve the right to NOT choose to post your entry on their page, even if it's the most awesome one ever, but what the heck? I worked SO hard and was so excited and to no avail.
The next at-home challenge is the best yet! Make something avant garde. I would completely rock at this! But alas, I will be out of town for the entire week for a funeral, and definitely won't have any time to make the dress I had in mind. I THINK you are allowed to submit a sketch though, so we'll see...