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. 

first look

Here's the first look at my Spring 2010 lookbook, which has taken way too long for me to get wrapped up. It's finally done and off to the printers, and I'm happy with how it all turned out. Now, hopefully I'll get some sales off of 8 months of hard work and investing heavily. Sometimes this all just feels like a very expensive hobby. ;)

The photography is by the talented Anna Wolf, Makeup by Nathan Johnson, Hair by Caroline Prince. Models: Holland Stevens and Liz from Major.

PS: I'll be posting all the other looks here soon. 

congrats, Irina!

Well, I don't have much too much to say on the subject (okay, yeah I do) because I didn't watch this season. I watched the first episode, but I wasn't compelled enough to seek out cable or online streaming to watch more. And I used to be a die-hard fan of the show.

First of all, congrats to Irina, and I truly hope she has a lot of good come out of the experience. For me, the best of it, honestly, has been the exposure to such a big audience. The hundred grand goes too quickly (especially running a business in NY), but having world-wide exposure for my line has been the best of it. I've had some amazing opportunities, and for them I'm very grateful. The show made several of my dreams come true, and I hope it has for her too.

 After seeing the show in February at Bryant park, we knew clearly that the last collection was going to win, and that possibly took the fun out of watching the process. After reading T-Lo's blog, I see I didn't miss too much. Ouch. Harsh, guys. ;)  

So let's open up the critique section of this post, based upon little viewing, some word of mouth from others, and personal experience:

1. Okay, no more LA. Just...no.  

2. Is there some way, any way, we can have the Magical Elves produce the show again? It's not the same without them. 

3. No more easy "design pretty dresses" challenges. Come on! That's not fair to those of us who made dresses out of car parts, and it's not fair to the viewers looking for entertainment.

4. What's this business of giving the designers 6 months or so to do final collections? We had 7 or 8 weeks, and that was it. Time crunches = meltdowns. Meltdowns = entertainment.

So, I hope Season 7 is going to be better. I will be watching then, because I know someone on it that I'm rooting for. Ultimately, I feel bad for the designers of Season 6. All of us, really. The reason why a lot of us do the show is because we are struggling to make it, and in situations where we desperately need money to invest in our line (pay rent) or exposure to get our names out there. The show used to be somewhat respected, and if it loses that the designers involved lose too, whether or not they win the prize. 

Oh, one more suggestion: I think they should start paying ALL of the contestants to participate. There's nothing that irks me more than the rich getting richer off of people who are struggling. I guess that's how much of the world works, but it doesn't make it right. I don't even want to know what the profits are like there because it's probably too upsetting. But really, the designers deserve a little more for their time and courage of putting themselves out there to possibly be ripped apart than just exposure, which may or may not be negatively perceived by the world and the fashion industry itself. 

Those are just some of my thoughts on the matter. All things aside, let's hope it redeems itself with Season 7. (And Season 6 designers, don't feel bad. With each current season, everyone seems to complain about how much more horrible it is than the season before it. They did it to us, too. It's not your fault!)

caribbean shows

I had the great opportunity in the last few weeks to do two different fashion shows in the Caribbean, which meant that as soon as the shows were done, I got to enjoy the warm sun, swim and have two little vacations in both the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, where I just returned from yesterday. 

The show in the Dominican Republic was impressive: gorgeous models and a Bryant Park-quality runway. After the show, my good friend and makeup artist, Nathan Johnson and I enjoyed one of the best meals we've ever had at Boca Marina, an amazing restaurant where we dined way out on an extended deck right over the crystal-clear water. If I had dropped my fork, I would have had to dive in to fetch it back!

The show in the Bahamas was a ton of fun, and the beaches were incredible. On the last day, Nathan and I hit the water slides and aquariums. I wish we had had more time there to cruise out to some of the many other islands that I saw from the plane. It's a pretty quick and painless flight from NY, and I'm sure I'll be back soon.

They were both amazing experiences, and much needed vacation. Now, it's back to work for me (and back to cold weather) and catching up on wedding dresses, production and Fall 2010!