Vintage Dress

As promised here are the pictures of the vintage dress I got at Beacon's Closet. I can just picture myself wearing it on a business trip to Tokyo or in some futuristic world in a sci-fi film from the 60s, because both of those situations happen a surprising amount for me. This dress will be so useful!

Front


Side


A closer picture, you can see the little belt much better in this picture

Temptation

New York is a very tempting city when it comes to shopping. On my way to school alone I probably pass about 15 stores I could easily walk into and want to buy at least 1/2 of what is on sale. Not to mention the amount of well dressed women that I pass on the street and has classes with and who generally make me feel like a schlub. I've managed to resist temptation so far, especially with the economy being what it is, but today I finally cracked. I couldn't take it anymore and in about one hour I managed to purchase suede boots, a cashmere sweater, a ruffled designer blouse, a necklace, and a wool dress. Terrible I know.

Oh yeah, did I mention I only spent $90? And I've found my new favorite store ever! Beacon's Closet, a vintage/second hand clothing store, is awesome and amazingly cheap. Just take a look at my haul.

Ruffled Shirt:

I think I need to iron the ruffles down a bit, but cute none the less. $11.95

Boots:

So comfy and surprisingly warm. One thing I've definitely wanted more of since I moved here was comfy/cute shoes. I think these definitely fit the bill. $27.95

Cashmere Sweater:

100% Cashmere and Laundry by Shelli Segal. I got it for $24.95


The back, with a cute little ruffly bottom. Sorry about the tags showing

Necklace:

It's brand new, not second hand, but I couldn't resist. $11.

I also bought a cute vinatge black wool dress with a built up collar. No pictures since I immediately took it to the dry cleaners, but my roommate Lisa says it is very sliming and makes me look very long. I'll put up pics as soon as I get it back. Oh and it was only $16.

I did buy one brand new thing today at Brooklyn Industries, which is quickly becoming on of my favorite stores. It is quite possibly the cutest skirt ever.

See how cute it is? Lisa told me she wouldn't let me leave the store without it. Good thing it was on sale.

Hello Again!

Does anyone else remember that 80s movie starring Shelley Long called Hello Again? It was about this woman who died and then was brought back to life by her New Agey sister and she had to find her true love in a month other wise she would die forever? No? Netflix it. Seriously. It has Gabriel Bryne in it. Need I say anything more?

I digress... that movie has nothing to do with this post other than I typed in the title and it reminded of it. I do want to say hello again after being gone for so long. I'm terribly sorry, but school has kept a lot busier and away from the internet much more than I thought it would.

A quick update on school. It's going well, challenging, but interesting. I have to say I'm enjoying it immensely. I got an A- on my first sewing project, a seam sampler, and my teacher also complimented me on a pair of pants that I hemmed myself, not related to any project. Yay!

I'm learning a lot in my patternmaking and draping classes, I feel like I'm doing well in my construction classes. All of my experience in sewing has definitely helped me there. My Color Theory class is kind of like a basic art class. We do seem to be getting more involved though and beyond basic color wheels, so I think in the end it will be a very beneficial course to have taken.

Drawing is by far the most challenging for me. I feel like I am improving, but I still have a long way to go. I don't really have much to show you guys yet, but I should have at the very least an outfit to share by the end of the semester and maybe I'll put up a mood board or two from my computer class. Deal?

School has also allowed me experience I normally wouldn't have like a trend forecasting seminar for Autumn/Winter 2009-2010. I don't want to say too much about it, since that is how the company makes their money, but I have just one word: mushrooms. Don't say you got it from me.

I also toured the WDNY showroom with one of my classes. They sell clothing for a more mature women through department stores. Not necessarily my style of clothing, but it was really cool to see a showroom. It was for my marketing class though, so we didn't discuss the design aspect as much as I would have liked.

That's the update so far. I know my Mom is curious.

Missing you!

Who knew that moving to a new state would take so much time away from blogging? Anyway I am (mostly) settled now and ready to resume transcribing my fashion adventures. Probably the biggest news is that I had orientation this week and have signed up for class. Look at how much fun my schedule is:

Patternmaking
Draping
Sewing
Fashion Drawing
Fashion Industry (sounds fancy no?)
Photoshop/Illustrator
Color Theory

I had orientation yesterday and I was really worried that I was going to be the worst dressed person there amidst a sea a fashionistas. While everyone was very well dressed and cute looking. I definitely felt like I fit in fashion-wise. I wore a cowl-neck sleeveless jersey dress from American Apparel, belted of course with my favorite brown sandals.

I still haven't gotten all of my possessions delivered yet, so I'm basically living out of a suitcase. So no pictures or new projects for a while, but it certainly forces you to be creative with your wardrobe.

The cat is out of the bag

A couple of weeks ago I gave my notice at work because (drumroll) I'm going to design school in the fall at Parsons. Yay! Since I can finally discuss my future plans freely I thought I'd share some of my sketch work from the past year. Now, I know that drawing is not my strong point and that's definitely something I have been working on and will be working on in the future. I do feel like I'm improving bit by bit the more I work on it.

The following four sketches were part of a design test I had to do for one of the schools I applied to. The assignment was to create 4 articles of clothing that could be interchangeable for a weekend trip. I choose a weekend trip to London in the fall and was inspired by some prints of blouses from the 40s.








The rest are all from the fashion illustration course I took last summer. You can really tell what the assignment was when looking at each.

Darts


Ruffles


Darts and Pleats


Fringe


Draping


Gathers (Hard to see, but the gathers are at the neckline) I want to point out that I was inspired to make this dress after seeing the Arnolfini Marriage Portrait by Jan Van Eyck.

Field Trip: Lorraine Fabrics

I took a trip on Sunday with some friends from my sewing class to Lorraine Fabrics in Pawtucket, Rhodes Island. It is hands down my all time favorite fabric store. Not only does it have the best selection of fabrics that I've ever found, but the second floor is all $1.99 a yard. They also have a great selection of stretch fabrics, which can be really hard to find.

We arrive!


Brianna and Tara look over some striped cotton fabric.


All this is just $1.99 a yard!



See! I'm not lying.


My haul. I ended up spending around $50 including some notions which are not pictured. The red splotches on the blue fabric are actually cowboys on horses.


Oh yeah and all patterns are 50% off. This particular one was on sale for 99 cents. Get there fast though, Lorraine's is discontinuing patterns soon.

Inspiration: Chicago

While home I made a quick side trip to Chicago. Chicago is a great city for artistic inspiration. Not only are there several art museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago and Museum of Contemporary Art, but there are many public works of art located around the city. Below are a couple of shots of some of the public art works in Millennium Park






Chicago currently has a public exhibition on Michigan avenue of dresses made out of recycled materials. My favorite is below, the bodice is made out of vintage broaches and the skirt is an umbrella.


I also love how the creator of this one used aluminum cans. The skirt almost looks like cogs in machine in motion. Love it!


The Art Institute is a great place to go, especially because they allow photos taken with the flash off.






I especially love looking at Renaissance Flemish art for all of the detail that is included on clothing in portraits. You can really get a sense of the texture of the fabric in the portraits below.
















I always keep an eye out for cool patterns.

Fashion Notes from the Midwest

One of my favorite things about going home to the Midwest is the opprotunity to go vintage shopping. There is no better place to go shopping for vintage clothes than Midwest. Clothing and accessories are always inexpensive and (usually) in better condition. While I did not get to go shopping as much as I would have liked there are couple of new places on the scene in Madison, WI that residents should take not of.

These pictures are from Epoch Vintage located on State Street. I was impressed by the low prices of shoes and accessories here and the condition of the items on sale. This is a new store since I've lived in Madison, but I think it is a good addition to the scene. It should be noted that the owner was very obliging when it came to taking pictures of me and my sister-in-law Jennifer.






I also managed to make a trip to the Madison Antique Mall. While there was a very small selection of clothing I did find the gorgeous tooled leather bag pictured below for only $23. Many of the stalls will give you discounts if you pay in cash.


And I just wanted to point out my sister's adorable outfit for the 4th of July. The theme for her outfit is 4th of July 1976. You can't really tell from the picture, but her scarf says "Spirit of '76" on it. Awesome. I'm a fan of theme outfits in case you were wondering.


This doesn't really have anything to do with fashion, but I just have to show off how cute my niece is.