brought to you by the letter N

In order to get the organic cotton materials the colors that I wanted, I ended up hand-dyeing everything in the collection. Well, that is after the eco-friendly dye-house that was going to do it, somehow managed to ruin every fabric I gave them. Hmm, still not sure how they did that.

Thankfully, I had better results. The cotton took the peach really well, and in these folds it somehow almost glowed orange in natural lighting. 

studio snapshots

More shots of the work-in-progress when I was creating what I like to refer to as the monster-gown. I ended up having to cut each and every one of those petals out, and I was going to use those scraps on another dress, but they ended up as some really cool swiss cheese curtains instead! Also, yes, the machine I prefer to work on is a very cheap basic home-sewing machine. I know it's silly, but I prefer them. Mainly because if and whenever they ever break, I can usually repair them myself instead of having to call in a service guy, which is kind of nice. 

Tip: I also just posted a couple of samples up on Etsy, which will probably go fast. There will likely be some more after New Years.

Go Janeane!!

Hooray, it's finally been announced, and I will obviously be rooting for fellow-Portlander Janeane Marie. She is not only a very talented designer, Janeane happened to be my very first intern and helped me out last year right after I won and still lived in Portland. 

I have known this secret for awhile. I actually somehow had a strange feeling when they were filming, and so I played Detective and realized that Janeane was MIA during that month, which was a huge clue that she was probably there doing it. I emailed her, and sure enough it was true! (FYI, to any designer that leaves to do the show: have a friend log into your Myspace and Facebook accounts while you're away. It helped me throw off my suspicious friends...just a little.)

I am very excited for her. She's so talented, and I have my fingers crossed she'll go very far. Yay Portland designers! Janeane, hold on to your hat: this is where things get crazy and every person you've ever met in your life comes from out of the woodworks. ;)

Tuxi Dress

I think this was probably my favorite of the collection. A tuxedo married into a dress, brought to you by the letter M. (That's what those layered, folded things are).

lookbook

Wow, multiple posts in one day! :)

Here's more from my SS10 lookbook. Enjoy!

bridal-whipped

I finally finished two wedding dresses I had been working on for nearly a solid 4 weeks. This one in particular, totally consumed all of my time. I was working around the clock, consecutive 16 hour days, 3 weeks straight with a couple of all-nighters to ensure that I got done in time. Of course, my big mistake was initially grossly underestimating the time it'd take to finish. I was able to do my PR finale wedding dress in 2 days, and that somewhat misguided my estimation here.

It came out beautiful, but I have to say, it is one of the LAST custom wedding dresses I will be doing for a very very loooong time, if not ever. It killed me, kicked my ass and put me severely behind schedule for my next collection.  I will likely have some ready-to-wear styles available in the future, but no more customs. I still have not fully recooperated, but it's a nice feeling to put that behind me and move on to the collection I've barely started. A collection which, after all this petal-palooza, makes me long for simple clean lines, minimalism and very light embellishments.