Friday, September 24, 2010

Fascinators added to Etsy!

These are not new, but they are new in my Etsy shop!

So now begins the process of designing new things! Despite the late summer weather we're having today, I've got fall on the mind . . . I'm looking forward to making things for winter holidays and parties...

Keep me posted if you have any special requests!

xophae

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A happy announcement!

I'm happy to announce I have finally opened my Etsy shop!

Please see the link on the right hand side of this page.

Some of you might be surprised to see I have opened it with jewelry (didn't see that coming did you?). I started making these necklaces a while back and have gotten such lovely compliments on them I thought I'd just offer them up. Here's what I have so far:

(long chain leaf necklace)

(asymmetrical ball chain necklace)

(short leaf chain necklace)

What else would you like to see available in my new shop? I will add the hats and facinators, of course. I was also thinking of adding the sweater corset (as long as I can find additional felted sweaters!).

Thoughts? I'd love to hear from you guys!

xophae

Friday, September 17, 2010

Last weeks Fashion Night Out Event

Somehow I had the very good fortune of getting involved with an event for Fashion Night out that was created by a new company called Fashion Lab in Process (or FLiP), created by Daria Dorosh.

Our assignment as designers was to take an existing garment and turn it into something else. And the end result should be more expensive looking then what we started with, we were "upcycling" not just recycling.

It was a wonderful design exercise. Starting with a garment gives you limits you have to work around and within that can be a really fun challenge.

The other designers were all really amazing. They included Melissa Kirgan and Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard of Eko Lab, a wonderful sustainable design collaborative, Meiling Chen of Fearless Dreamer and Laura Bond with her self-titled line.

It was really inspiring to see how differently all of the designers interpreted this kind of re-invention. It was really fun!

The lighting in the space it's self was not very conducive to getting good pictures, but above is a quick snap shot of one of the racks of our pieces. Also featured at the show was Gayil Nalls, who's work included incorporating smells, good ones, into the clothes, above on the left you can see her red top with the lavender flower, the flower actually smells like fresh still in the garden lavender. It's a very fun alternative to traditional perfume.

And below are the before and afters of both of my pieces.

This was an old felted sweater. I'm pretty sure it was originally passed off to me by my sister. Years ago, new to New York winters, I cut off the sleeves and made them into a "warmer". Here I took the remaining sweater vest and turned it into a fully boned corset. Since the wool is fully felted (after years of neglectful washing) the wool has a really nice hand and still retains some of the give of the knit.

This beautiful pair of pants where passed to me by my dear friend Peggy, she'd had them for years and sadly they had become moth eaten. But there was still usable wool in them if I could cut around them. She gave them too me to maybe make a hat or something. Instead I pulled them out for this. And I was able to cut around all the moth holes. To do it, I figured I needed to be clever with my piecing things together. It turns out there are 40 pieces in this skirt (it's fully lined in the same pattern, it's really beautiful on the inside also).

I ended up just returning the skirt to her. When you start with very small pants, you end up with a very small skirt. I really enjoy how the shifts in grain reflect the light differently. I'm looking forward to making this one again. . . this time in my size!

This whole project left me looking around my wardrobe, wondering if there's anything in there that wants to be made into something else . . . but let me know if you have any old felted sweaters, I am totally game to make more corsets!


Tuesday, September 7, 2010

k* Shoes, Spring 11 samples arrived!

There is a small group of us that have been working with Keiko of k* shoes for a while now, long enough that we have started to evolve. We are working on a new shoe collective that we plan to launch for Fall 11 (soon!). There will be more news of our collective to come, we're all really excited about it! I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we were also really excited to see the samples for Spring. And they finally arrived! So, last Friday when it was still very much summer in Brooklyn we had a very fun photo shoot of the new samples.

These are a couple of my out takes as all the "models" tried on all the samples.

You can imagine the pile that is left over after 3 women spend several hours trying on shoes! There was only a couple pairs in my size, so I was able to stay focused on my job of photoing everything. . . (which was it's own kind of enjoyment!)

Looking forward to all these brightly colored shoes might help us through the winter! (Though, I'm sure I could make use of a couple of pairs this fall! Patience was never my strength. . . sigh.)