No More Fashion Shows!

That's right! I have just completed the third and final show in a long round for fashion shows over the course of a month. It's SO great to be able to finally relax! I haven't any idea how many new pieces I actually came up with for these shows, but it was A LOT! I think all of them were successful, the last show at SMoCA being the most so, of course, and had a really great time doing them. But I definitely need a break. Especially that now most of my attention if going to be focused one trying to find somewhere to live and work in NYC in a month's time.

Lucky me, I got to have my hair and makeup done for the SMoCA show too!!

There were pile of fantastic photographers at the event, and there are a whole lot of photos online for to check out. There are some here, courtesy of Gary Millard and Four White Walls Photography. My pieces start on the bottom of page four from that link.

One of my designs at SMoCA Nights, modeled by Alyssa la Fortune Holt.

Another link for good photos is here. There were taken by Kevin Burgess of KODE b Photography. Here my pieces start on page 6, image # 113.

The gorgeous & glamorous Chasity Kenny, modeling a dress made just for this show.

There were also several shots taken from azcentral.com, the online extension of the Arizona Republic newspaper. Mine are mixed in with a bunch of other photos from that night, but you can definitely tell which are my outfits. Click here to see those. There are also a few images here, on the Arizona Foothills Magazine website.

The always beautiful and never camera-shy Amparo Elizabeth, wearing a wool and silk 2-piece.

All of the photos show in this post were taken by the amazingly talented and ever generous Nicky Hedayat-Zadeh. Nicky and her friend Chadwick came to the event with an entire setup and took some incredible photos backstage. She took so many fantastic shots of some of my new designs that I just had to post a LOT here. Hope you'll enjoy viewing these pieces as much as I loved making them!

The skirt of this outfit is trimmed in rows and rows of zippers. It weighs a ton, but looks great on the runway!

One of my favorite dresses, made of wool tweed and silk charmeuse, modeled by the enchanting Daynalyn Wain.


This piece was definitely the star of the show. Made from an amazing print silk, and modeled by the lovely Megan Accordino. This dress sold that very night, but luckily I have JUST enough fabric to make one more to keep for my own.

P.S. Most of these are still for sale if anyone is interested!!!

SMoCA Nights, my last fashion show in Phoenix!

The Herberger Theater show is tonight, and after that comes SMoCA!!! It will be my last fashion show in Phoenix before I get ready to move to NYC, so don't miss it! It may be your last chance to actually see me before I leave, cause I'm going to be crazy busy packing and cleaning after that. I don't think I could possibly word this better, so here's the scoop, as per the press release:

WHAT:

Summer SMoCA Nights

To Celebrate the Opening of the exhibition Branded and On Display

WHERE:

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA]

7374 East Second Street

Downtown Scottsdale

WHEN:

June 19, Thursday

9:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m. midnight

ADVANCE TICKETS:

$15 ($10 for members)

$45 VIP runway seats
480-994-ARTS (2787)

SUMMER FASHION, MUSIC & CUTTING-EDGE VALLEY CULTURE @ SUMMER SMoCA NIGHTS

(Scottsdale, AZ) The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] presents the 2008 Summer SMoCA Nights on Thursday, June 19, from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. SMoCA Nights is the exclusive tri-annual nightlife event where the Museum is transformed into the ultimate art party, complete with artists, fashion, DJs, bands and performers, for an eclectic evening of cutting-edge culture. This summer event launches the premiere of SMoCA's new exhibition Branded and On Display. To accompany this opening, SMoCA is tipping its hat to all things that revolve around how culture defines itself with marketing and advertising and the consumerism that colors our lives and leisure time. The Museum encourages those in attendance to embrace our media-infused world by flaunting favorite brands and logos during the event. The evening's fashion show will feature Phoenix-based designers Jes Switaj and Devani Weaver with wearable art by artist Bobby Castaneda and dynamic hair and make-up styling by Dolce Salon & DoCo Damask.

Among the event's highlights will be a live outdoor performance by Valley favorites, Peachcake-the band that takes costumed antics on the stage and happy indie-pop revelry to the next level. Peachcake will be followed by a mesmerizing fire dance by Mali, a former Cirque du Soleil performer and new transplant to the city, straight from Spain. Inside the Museum, DJ d'strick will hone his fusion of organic and tech elements to get the crowd charged up for the fashion show. d'strick, best known for spinning groovy blends of deep and funky house, will synthesize an eclectic mix to best communicate the pulse of the runway fashion show.

Guests can mingle and cool off in SMoCA's galleries while glimpsing into their future with expert tarot readings by the famed clairvoyant, OZMA and seeing all three new summer exhibitions: Branded and On Display, Pae White: "Lisa, Bright & Dark," and Pushing Paint Around: selections from the permanent collection. *[Lisa, Bright and Dark, a novel by John Neufeld, 1969 ©SG Phillips.]

As always, SMoCA Nights features free appetizers, a cash bar, prizes and other unexpected guests and happenings. Visitors can catch a satirical feature on consumerism and brand choices by Portland's own Modern Conditions of Production (MCOP), on view in the Museum lobby, along with other surprise artist appearances. And, for all those who love to shop, the event will also boast one-of-a-kind products in the Museum Store specially created by the evening's guest fashion designers and artists including silk-screened ties, bags and hand-painted, graffiti-inspired shoes.

Advance tickets are highly recommended to avoid long lines and a sold-out event: $10 members; $15 nonmembers. ($45 for VIP runway seating) Call 480-994-ARTS (2787).

SMoCA's LOCATION

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [SMoCA] is located at 7374 East Second Street in downtown Scottsdale, four blocks south of Indian School Road and just east of Scottsdale Road. Free parking is available in the public parking garage located to the west of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and directly behind Los Olivos restaurant on Wells Fargo Avenue. Additional free parking is available at the Old Town Parking Corral at East Second Street and Brown Avenue and at the library parking garage located on Drinkwater Boulevard at East Second Street.

If you're still left with any questions after all that, just contact me! Hope to see you there. Feel free to bring flowers, chocolates, etc. ;-)

Herberger Theater Second Act Fashion Show

This is the next big event that I have coming up in my future! I already mentioned a little bit about the show and the other designers involved. Lots more information about the event can be found here. Also see the flyer below. (Double click it for a larger image you can actually read). The event Tuesday June 10th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10, $5 if you have a student ID, and you can see more info about purchasing them through that link. There will be food, music, art and also lots of goodies for sale! I even believe that we'll be able to sell a lot of the fashions and accessories we made for the show, so now is a good time to snag a one-of-a-kind Jes Switaj original at a great price! You know you want one to call your very own.

Starting to organize the pieces and color scheme of what I'll be showing at the Herberger on June 10th

If you're in Phoenix, definitely pencil this in to your calendar. If you know someone in Phoenix, be sure to pass this info along to them. If you can't make it out, don't fret. My next show will be June 19th at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. More info about that one really soon!

One Down, Two to Go

The 5th Annual Frock n Roll for charity event was this past Saturday night, and it was a big success! The location was changed at the last minute and although the venue was smaller than originally intended, I think it was actually better than the previous year at Alice Cooperstown.

Designers included myself, Angela Johnson, Jennyvi Dizon, Paul Hazlett, Sommer Christine and Rhonda Zayas. Here are a few photos of some of the pieces I showed.

Modeled by Amparo Elizabeth. Photo by Nick Moore

Photo by Nick Moore

There was also at least one professional photographer at the event, Christopher Cashak, who attends ALL of the local fashion events. He hasn't put photos up on his site yet from this show, but as soon as he does I'll post some here and post a link to the rest as well.

Red duchesse silk satin corset and matching skirt. Can you tell that corset works?!
Photo by Christine Johnson for azcentral.com Modeled by Bella.

So, now that Frock n Roll is over it's time to start thinking about the NEXT show! This will be the Second Act Fashion Show at the Herberger Theater on June 10th. I still don't know very much about the show at all, but some of the other designers who I know are participating are Angela Johnson, Arte Puro, Debra Davenport and Olga Ptashnyuk. My collection for this show is going to be pretty much entirely new things, or things that haven't been show before. It's going to be very dressy, but not TOO formal, with the color scheme being mostly brown, cream, orange and maybe a little deep red. Most photos of that to come as soon as I get some sewing done. Have to go design some new things now!

Frock 'n Roll Location Change!

Anyone in Phoenix who is planning on attending this year's Frock 'n Roll event or who has already purchased a ticket should know that the event is changing location! Currently Alice Cooperstown is having some big fight with the city and is not allowed to have any live music. That's about all I know. So, Frock 'n Roll 2008 will now be held at Club Mardi Gras in south Scottsdale. The address is 8040 East McDowell road and you can click HERE to view a map of the location.

A piece I hope to have ready in time for this show!
Dupioni silk, the top will have lots more zigzags.

Tickets will be available at the door for $12, and if you already purchased and printed tickets from the internet, those of course will still be valid. Keep an eye on the Frock 'n Roll website for more and probably better information than I'll have about the event, since I'm pretty much in the dark right now. Feel free to email me if you have any questions you think I can answer. Hope to see you there!!!

UPDATE!!!
Just got a digital flyer for this with more info. Here it is:

I'm graduating!!!

Tonight was my last night of class! Hooray! It's been a long time coming, and I am SO glad to be done, at least for the time being. Who knows if I'll be attending school again in the distant future. I can't even remember how long ago I began my college education. I got an associates in general studies from another community college several years ago, and started working on my AAS in Fashion Design at Phoenix College probably about 3 years ago. This is the first time in about a year and a half that I've even had a class. It was the only one I had left to take before I graduated, it was required and it hadn't been offered for 3 semesters. So I was just waiting and waiting and assistant teaching and waiting some more.

The class I just finished was Computer Assisted Design. It focused on using PhotoShop (a little) and Illustrator (mostly) to create fashion designs. I had a little bit of experience using Illustrator from my previous job at Antigua, but I hadn't used it in a while. I did actually learn a LOT from this class and I'm glad I took it at the end of my school career rather than the beginning because I probably would have forgotten it by now. Hopefully I'll actually be able to use it in a job in the near future so I get more practice and experience.

One of the designs I created in class

Graduation is tomorrow night, but I'm not walking or even going at all. It's HOT out and I am perfectly fine to just have them send me my diploma in the mail. Besides, I live literally across the street from the school and I can see the fireworks from there. That's the only fun part. So, that's all really. Time for me to go kick back and relax before I dive into a full day of work tomorrow and all weekend. It never REALLY ends, does it?