Tag Archives: Cotton Ensemble

“Murder Was The Case That They Gave Me” -Snoop Dogg

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Hello Fashionistas,

Last week was a big one for all of us here at F.I.T. Say it with me, “jury time”! A lot of us were working around the clock and had time for very little.

And believe it or not, some of us didn’t even make it downstairs to the Great Hall for the jury to give our garment a verdict on whether or not it will be in the show.

Where did I stand in the midst of all this beautiful chaos? Upstairs, mad salty, (insert that line from Clueless from the driver’s ed scene) but alive to see another day and continue my thesis by year’s end.

MY PERSONAL JOURNAL...

MY PERSONAL JOURNAL…

The synopsis of my collection is the exuberance, opulence, and pure sophistication of the 1920s with an emphasis on “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

So far, so good with my use of the finest cottons used for high-end mens shirting such as broad cloth and Oxford, along with the proper accents such as a silk taffeta with Ascot and cummerband. It was great to communicate so closely with vendors and place orders for send outs to save time on things such as pintucks and pleating. Don’t worry I still sewed my little heart out!

SENIOR THESIS LOOK NO.1

SENIOR THESIS LOOK NO.1

I will admit that the smell of defeat has grazed my skin just as much as a bottle of Yves Saint Laurent’s L’Homme Eau de Toilette spray, but the aroma has yet to become neutral. I am not sure of the lesson learned, but I do know this much, having a complete collection means a lot to me and will be so beautiful to behold in the end.

A SNEAK PEEK AT MY ROUGH SKETCHES...

A SNEAK PEEK AT MY ROUGH SKETCHES…

While the lucky few chosen to have their garments in the “Future of Fashion” show are scurrying about doing their fittings with professional models from some of the best modeling agencies in New York, the rest of us are nearing the end of our academic careers, finishing our senior thesis, and moving on to bigger and better things. Hard work pays off and I have a lot more to do so stay tuned…

 

XoXo – Mark E.

 

Pre-judging and Judging days

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Pre-judging and Judging day!

Last Monday was a stressful day! After spending the night finishing to knit my collar, I had a 45 minutes nap before getting in a cab and heading to school. We all put our our outfits on dress forms and waited for our critic Reiko to pre-judge our looks. We left the classroom for an hour, the time she needed to carefully look at every-one’s work and choose a critic award winner, and eventually deselect some looks for the judging day.
We all came back, dead tired, waiting to quickly pack up our things and have a little nap.
Reiko said she was very impressed with our class and our designs. We went much further than the expected. She would have liked to give many of us an award and added that it was very hard to pick a single one.
The winner was announced, and to a big surprise, it was me! So kudos for that. I am very happy to be the winner – as I have never won any fashion prize or award before. She added that the reason she picked me was that everytime I met her, I had developed my ideas. Also, I seriously listened to all her advices, stepping back from my original ideas and design, looking at my work from an objective point of view, and changing what needed to be changed. Indeed, at the beginning of the process, I was experimenting with plastic very much. I wanted to “glue” plastic bags directly onto my fabrics with latex. The idea was interesting, but not looking as attractive as it may sound. I had many ideas, but eventually, they were all over the place. A few weeks before I started knitting the final fabrics, I decided to change the colors and leave behind anything that looked too “crafty”. I still used the plastic, but knitting black garbage bags.

On Tuesday night, we set up all of our pre-selected outfits in the great hall at school. They were judged for the fashion show (May 4th) and a cotton award was chosen for each specialization track. My roomie and friend Elin got the knitwear cotton award with her amazing cotton paper handknit jacket.

Now it’s spring break and we are looking forward for some chill time! Take care and enjoy the pictures!

Toy Story said it best: Strange things are Happening!

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We are approaching the final stretch!  D-day is only 5 days away, and stress levels have already begun to overflow.  As we finish up our second ensemble, we are already sketching our third.  We are in FULL OVERLOAD mode, and are neglecting classes left and right.  We’ve stopped showering, eating, and sleeping. Our normal body functions will slowly start to fade, and we will forget to do simple things such as blink and regulate our body temperatures.  What keeps us going?  A mix of fear and hope.  Fear of the wrath that comes with not completing a garment on time, and hope that somehow or someway this will all be worth it.  These next days will be filled with sore fingers, ravenous trips to the garment district, and hallucinations of red flags.  Apparently most of us have lost our minds and strange things truly are happening… which makes for great video footage ;)   Enjoy.

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Who wants a 16-yard cotton Petticoat?

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To execute my cotton ensemble, I needed volume and LOTS of it.  I decided to execute the second petticoat of my life using cotton organdy.  Of course, the organdy only came in white so I had to dye it to ivory- which in turn, washed out all the starch.  I spent over 6 hours (actually almost 10 hours)  ironing and starching this fabric over two days.  Now that it feel like paper, it is perfect petticoat material.  I realize it kind of look like little house on the prairie, but it’s so pretty!  Onto the robe at this point.  The robe with be made of sheer cotton tulle which will drape over the petticoat.  8 days and counting friends.

 

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Did someone say Cotton?

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10 days and counting until D-day.  I remember when that looming date of April 11th seemed light-years away.  The general mood among the class: PANIC.  Welcome to the REAL Project Runway.  The Challenge?  Complete an intimate apparel ensemble in 10 days made using at least 95% Cotton.  Now while you’re making this ensemble, make sure you are also interning two days a week and taking at least 12 credit hours to stay a full time student.  Which brings up another good point:  Our professors in other classes ACTUALLY expect us to do THEIR work this week!?!?  I mean, can you say BIG PICTURE?!?!

Well, for all the griping, second ensemble is actually coming along pretty well.  I have the bra and garter finished, and am currently trying to dye the panty.  I would love to start on the robe, but I decided to try to save money and buy my cotton tulle on-line.  Only yesterday did I find out that the guy sent it PARCEL POST after I specifically said I need is ASAP!  Utter FAIL.  I’m trying to knock out anything else that can be done while I’m waiting for the arrival of this grand package.  This includes but is not limited to dyeing, cutting lace, beading, making bows, making a petticoat, and draping the robe.  No big deal.

 

Oh, and apparently we’re asking to much to have the supplies we need actually available in the garment district!  Since Greenberg and Hammer went out of business last year, it has been impossible to find garters!  Steinlauf and Stoller only carries the VERY large vintage ones.  So what do we do?  Typically we do one of two things:  Cut apart a garment from a previous semester that has garters; OR buy a really nasty lingerie piece from H&M or CONWAY and steal the garters!  I bought a DISGUSTING fuchsia pink thing they called a bustier at Conway for $9.99 and cut the clear plastic garters off to be used on this ensemble.  The garters are covered with ribbon anyways so you don’t really see them.  But the fact that there are CONWAY garters on my thousand-dollar masterpiece, well, that will be our little secret.

Week 3

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So, a few weeks ago I delted facebook because I found myself being distracted by the nothingness that happens on the site. In this video, you will hear my roommates ridiculous reasoning to why I should still be on the site. Feel free to laugh. You will also see my dying process for the cotton dress….and my distractions in between. Feel free to laugh, again. Finally, you can see kids “dancin’ for change”, the work of my classmates, my skype date, my very “lived-in” room and one of the subways that I depend on every single day! Oh, btw this is one of my favorite songs —U2~ “It’s a Beautiful Day” <3

ENJOY, my friends!

 

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The sweet taste of success.

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Finally, its over.

Last night was the infamous BFA fashion show. All our hard work for the past 4 years amounted to this one night, and it was amazing. I hope you all got to watch the 7:30 show online, I did, and the live feed was great!

We each got 3 tickets to the show to bring our family and when we got there to be seated, a lot of people were left out in the cold- or shunned to the “3-D” experience in the auditorium (which I heard was not good, a lot of the detail was lost). Some people gave up extra tickets so people with bigger families could bring everyone, but that didn’t matter. Typical FIT nonsense ensued at the doors and a lot of ticket holders were turned away because they were not actually partaking in the show (having contributed a garment).Luckily, I got my family in plus one extra-  I was NOT going to have a family member watch one of the most important days in my career, a building over with paper glasses on.

The set up was amazing, it was a floor show, meaning that there was no actual raised catwalk, but a sprawling U shaped runway, which I thought was nice. The room was done in all red draperies, a red runway, typical fashion show seating and goodie bags (eyeliner, lipgloss, a notebook, a $50 gift certificate to a salon, and a magazine).

The music was great, and the models looked hot hot hot. I can’t say much for the menswear, not thoroughly impressed. My intimate apparel girls did amazing though. Each lingerie piece stood on its own with an aura of classiness and sex appeal, a few jaws were dropping.

I was very happy with my model and ensemble. At first, I admit, I was not happy my other ensemble wasn’t chosen, but after seeing the show, I have zero complaints. On the fitting day, I had to take the bra cups in a full inch on each side, so I didn’t know how it would turn out on her, but Gloria did a great job working it down the runway. The accessories were chosen by the director (I chose shoes), and I must say, I LOVED the necklace. The model really fit into my design aesthetic and I was very pleased.

If you are in FIT this coming summer, be sure to check out my ensemble which will be displayed in the C-lobby!

Gloria and my ensemble

Gloria and my ensemble

cotton ensemble on runway

And the judges have spoken.

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So after much stress and a very long night yesterday, I went in to school for 10 am to see the infamous “list” of who got into the show. I made it! With which ensemble you ask? Go figure, the judges favored my cotton one. Though a little disappointed they didn’t choose my first ensemble which I slaved over for months, I am grateful I am in the show!

Bodice side view with antique lace

Bodice side view with antique lace

The model fitting is on monday and I need to get shoes and accessories to match my ensemble. Shopping day tomorrow!

We will know the award winners for the Cotton Inc. competition and the critic award winner on Wednesday. I have already been chosen to be part of an exhibition here at FIT for my cotton design for the fall 2010 semester. Also, I was selected to display my artwork at the BFA art exhibit which will be in the FIT museum. All in all, it has been a success!

BFA art board #1

BFA art board #1

BFA art board #2

BFA art board #2

Congratulations to every single BFA fashion design student, we all worked so hard to create our visions and bring our garments to fruition. We are all design stars!

Patience is a Virtue

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So after a weekend of hardly any sleep, a tedious Saturday session at school, and a few snafus, ensembles 1 & 2 are done! Finally, a sigh of relief. I honestly do not know how I finished second ensemble (the cotton one) for Monday, seen as how I started sewing it the Tuesday before.

My cotton garments came out a lot better than expected, A LOT better. The pintucking I decided to do came out with precision (so I got to keep my $98 from Stanley Pleating) and looked amazing. I had some fellow class mates come up to me after it was on the form and say “Christina, I can’t believe that you did all that yourself, I was standing there looking to see if any were uneven, I couldn’t find any!” (hooray!). It did look good on the form, and I am proud of it. After class was over, the critic came up to me with the professor and commented on how much she was drawn to my cotton ensemble, and how disappointed she was that she could not be part of the cotton judging committee. I think I could be in the running for the cotton award on Wednesday, but I do have some stiff competition. Everyone has done a beautiful job, I am proud of my classmates.

bodice with pintucks

bodice with pintucks

Bodice side view with antique lace

Bodice side view with antique lace

Bustier with Petticoat and Panty

Bustier with Petticoat and Panty

I was a little disappointed that the critic award winner was not announced in class on Monday, as I thought it would be. We got to class and put our 2 ensembles on the forms and were told to take a 1.5 hour break so the professor and critic could deliberate on who gets to show their second ensembles Wednesday, any aesthetic or construction changes, and the decision of the CA winner. We did not get a personal critique from the critic, just a general overview of what she thought at the end of class when we returned from the 1.5 hour break. She was very impressed with the work that we did and understood that each and every one of us put our hearts and hard work into every piece we created. Success.

Tomorrow is the ALMOST the final judging day. We will do everything that we did on Monday all over again for the fashion show judges to come in and select our garments for the show. Also, the Cotton Inc. committee will come to see our cotton garments and choose their prize winner. We will not know who was chosen for the show, nor the award winners until Friday when “the list” is posted outside of the fashion design office. Feels a little like volley ball try-outs in high school, right? Its only Tuesday and Friday feels like months away, I am very impatient to see how everything will turn out, hopefully you will be seeing one of my ensembles strutting down the runway. Keep your fingers crossed!