Christian Louboutin / Bergdorf Goodman : The Contest, Part 2...

All the 20th anniversary capsule collection shoes were published in the February issue of InStyle magazine. I ran to the store and flipped through the pages to find them: my shoe was the biggest one on the page! The pressure was on... I had three weekends / 6 full days to make it all happen. And every night after work, I'd come home and sew. Since I didn't have a dress form, I ordered an inexpensive adjustable one online and had it shipped overnight. There was a mix up with FedEx and after a mini melt down (The BF had to calm me down!) we both travelled to the middle of no where in Queens to pick up the dress form at the FedEx depot. Once I had my form, I started draping the bodice in muslin...

Next I transfered the drape to pattern paper, cut out the pieces again in muslin and sewed it up to double check that everything looked right. I had never worked on an adjustable dress form before and the knobs were a little difficult to work with... definitely not made for creating fitted garments. But I did my best and tried to work around them.

The bodice was the hardest part to get right, the lace inset was difficult and I ended up re-doing it twice. Tears... curses... hair pulling out... but finally after a trip to get more fabric, I was in a better place. I bought some fabulous faux fur at Elegant and found the perfect leather for the hot pink snakeskin embossed belt at Leather Impact.

There was a fitting at the Bergdorf PR offices on Friday before the final event. All the designers met their models and we got the chance to try our garments on an actual person. I was worried sick that it wouldn't fit at all... those dress form knobs are in the worst places... but luckily it zipped and I knew I could make it work. I did have to re-make the shorts underneath longer in the torso so they would meet up with the bodice. But my model, Ashley, looked gorgeous!



After the fitting, I finished the hem on the skirt part of the dress, hand tacked the bodice lining in place, and sewed the snaps on the belt. I was so relieved to be finished... but I still had to find something to wear! Stay tuned for party pictures...

*Missed Part 1? Don't miss part 3!

Christian Louboutin / Bergdorf Goodman : The Contest, Part 1...

Wow. This past month has been unforgettable. I want to document everything and share it all with you because I'm so relieved and happy that it was all worth it in the end! Let's start from the very beginning...

Back in November I received an e-mail from my alma mater, Parsons, alerting 2010 and 2011 graduates of a design contest collaboration with Bergdorf Goodman and Christian Louboutin. This past year marked his 20th anniversary in the business and to celebrate, he challenged recent alumni to design a look based on one of his soon-to-be-released capsule collection shoes.

There would be 5 winners in the end, all would receive $1,000 to fund the creation of their look as well as press at the launch party event and gifts from both Bergdorf Goodman and Christian Louboutin.

I jumped at the chance to participate and received an image of the shoe I would use as inspiration for my look. It was a beautifully sheer, lace stiletto boot- the Alta Dentelle. I immediately thought of an image I had saved from the November issue of Vogue Mexico... fur, lace, a pink lip and attitude. I did a bunch of rough sketches before settling on my final design then sent in my mood board and hoped for the best.

The top 20 designs were selected by Parsons faculty and sent to Linda Fargo and Christian himself to choose the top 5. Just before Christmas, I found out I had made the first cut. At this point I was half thrilled and half scared to death.. it had been over two years since I had draped anything on a form, my sewing machine was covered in dust, and I knew if I won, I'd have to actually make the thing. And that was terrifying!

Either way, I figured it could at least go on my resume that I was a finalist, so I was pretty much content with the way things were. And then after New Year's I got the congratulatory e-mail from Parsons... and couldn't believe it! The next three weekends I knew what I'd be doing. Armed with all my supplies, I got started that very weekend and worked on it every free moment I had for the next three weeks... stay tuned for pics of the dress in progress and the final reveal at Bergdorf's!

* Continue to Part 2... and 3!

Corner Studio...

At last, my own space. Here's a peak into my apartment and little studio that has taken over one corner in our living room. My goal was to create a fresh, clean space that would make me want to sit down and draw. It's nice and sunny by the window which provides great natural light for drawing. The fashion illustrations on the wall are from my previous street fair purchase... yes it's taken me this long to find a place for them!

I picked up this octagonal glass container at Housing Works and it's the perfect size to house all my markers. It's so nice to see all my colors at once instead of digging through a drawer to find the perfect color. I've started to collect vintage biscuit tins which happen to be great for hiding extra drawing supplies that don't have a home. I love that this one has little feet. I'm still in the market for a tray to keep my erasers and pencil sharpener... perhaps I'll save up for one of these. So that's my new studio, I hope you like it... back to the drawing board for me!

Inspiration Organization...

I'm a huge fan of fashion magazines. I love them for their glossy pages, beautiful editorials, colorful advertisements, and of course reference images for my illustrations. In design school, we were taught to collect magazine tears religiously, which I thought was great because I already had a massive collection of fashion magazines I had been hanging onto since high school. But magazines are heavy and take up a lot of room (especially 5 years worth of them) so now I go through collective purging when they start to take up too much space in our little NYC apartment. I've been meaning to take all those tears and organize them somehow but the task seemed so daunting. Over the past four weekends, I've been working on this project a little at a time. Over 300 cellophane sleeves later, I have my book and I am so thrilled at how easy and wonderful it is to flip through and get inspired. Here's how to make your own:

Step 1: Gather a collection of your favorite magazines.
Step 2: Flip through and pull tears of your favorite images, products, clothes, editorials-- anything that catches your fancy and makes you happy
Step 3: Trim the edges so that each page will fit nicely in a cellophane plastic sleeve
Step 4: Slide your tears into a protective sleeve and organize them in a binder however best suits your creative method. I like to arrange my images in two page spreads that relate to one another by color, theme, mood, etc.

Once you're finished, you've not only organized that messy notebook/folder/pile of loose pages that's been hanging around, you've created the best magazine ever, curated by you! Now if you're ever feeling uninspired, lost, confused, and unable to find your voice, open this book and it will be full of everything that you find to be beautiful. Think of it as a bible of your personal aesthetic. Enjoy!

p.s. Doesn't Emma Watson look beautiful on Vogue's July cover? I may just have to draw that...
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