a labor of love

Well, it should be known by now that whenever I disappear for awhile without posting so much as a peep, I'm either working on a collection and it's close to fashion week or I'm working around the clock to finish a wedding dress, and trying to out-do myself.

I recently finished the wedding gown of a friend that I have known since childhood. I have known Erica since I was probably about 10 or 11 years old. We were in all the same dance classes and pretty much inseparable during and out of class, sometimes having to be separated by our teacher for giggling too much.

Erica was a dream client to make a dress for. She trusted me completely, and let me have total freedom with just a couple of guidelines: She wanted a low back, and no rhinestones or sparkles. Imagine that! After all those years of dance where costumes could never have enough sparkle or glitter, we've both decided we've had enough rhinestones for a lifetime. Ha!

The dress that we ended up with, is my favorite wedding gown of all, I think. I'm glad it went to a good friend. I was lucky enough to come out to California and attend the wedding up in wine country on one of the most beautiful days. Such a lovely couple and a beautiful wedding!
This was the first time, that I have actually been able to see one of my wedding dresses walk down the aisle. Well, any of my dresses walk down any aisle, actually. I never have gotten to sit in the audience during one of my fashion shows either. It was so nice to be able to enjoy this rare occasion.

I also did the bridesmaid dresses as well, and will talk about those in a following post. I took tons of pictures! Enjoy!

polaroids

My favorite iphone App of the moment: ShakeIt Lite. It makes a polaroid camera out of your phone and is hours of entertainment!

Fall 2010 lookbook

first look

This is one of the images of my Fall 2010 lookbook, which I'm finalizing this week.
I ended up taking all of the pictures this time, because I just wanted to get it done and out of the way. I'm learning a bit more about lighting techniques, so the next photo shoot that I do will hopefully be even better. It's fun having another creative outlet and I'm excited to experiment more!

(the model is Karalyn!)

working pics

I snapped a ton of pictures these past few months, but I've been too busy to go through them all until recently.

Here are a couple that I took while creating textures for my Fall 2010 collection.
And this one, which I may have posted before, but I'll post anyway because Monkey's just too cute sometimes and also a very good assistant. Actually...moments later she probably growled, hissed and stormed off. She doesn't handle constructive criticism very well, apparently.

spring cleaning

(eventhough, technically not yet Spring; especially not here in NY!)

I've posted some samples up on Etsy this week, because currently my rack is pulling out of the wall because it's too heavy. And now my cutting tables are all covered with clothes to alleviate the racks, and so I've been cutting on the floor.

I do need to get more racks, but a quick solution is spring cleaning the studio of things I've been holding on to. I need to do more than just a few samples, though. It's so hard to part with some these pretty things, and I am definitely a pack rat! :)

I need to make even more room, because I'm currently having a few styles from my Spring collection produced that I'll be selling on my website and in NY.This is one of the lovelies I'm letting go of. I might have a few more throughout the week, too.
(photo by Caitlin Bellah)
This is how my racks used to look last spring, shortly after I moved in. Color organized and all! Ahh, memories....

Fashion Week Fall 2010

I've been so swamped with work for the last month preparing for fashion week, that I didn't have a moment to even post my typical "sorry, for not posting in awhile" posts.

Ahh, it's so nice to have it all done and over with, and considering having an incredibly stressful past couple of weeks due to my late start on the collection, it all went pretty well and I'm quite happy with it. There's definitely more of a healthy dose of commercial pieces that I'll be able to do production on and that can be worn everyday, and then there are my artistic pieces that scratch the itch of my desire to sculpt and create.

The inspiration was topography, but done in a very feminine romantic way. Yes, an excuse to make lots of noodles and layers that I love in plenty of eco-friendly and organic materials. Basically, I made a lot of things that I enjoyed creating and would love to have in my closet.

I was so lucky in the last week to have help from not only my friend Suede from my season, but Maya from season 7 came to my studio the night before and helped me until about 2 in the morning. What a dear and a life-saver!

I think my favorite two pieces ended up being the last two that I worked on: This eco-felt topographical dress which I hammered out in the wee early hours of the morning the day of the show (The material is made from recycled plastic soda bottles), and the long teal low-back gown (which Suede and I were affixing the skirt embellishments on backstage before the show). And of course I see so many little things that I nit-pick at and will be fixing before production.

All I can say is, I will definitely be starting for next season this week. No more last minute stressstravaganzas like this. For some reason, I reverted back to bad old habits of thinking that I can do everything myself on this collection. And I did mostly, but without the help of other very talented people in the final hours none of this would be possible. I can't thank them enough, and know that things are going to change and be very different for next time.

I feel bad for anyone who talked to me after the show. At that point I hadn't slept in 3 days (or showered) I didn't make any sense at all, and I probably stunk! Haha! Oh, lesson learned my friends. ;)Photos ©Wire and Getty Images.


Here is a link to more (but not all) looks from the show:
http://www.coutorture.com/New-York-Fashion-Week-Leanne-Marshall-Fall-2010-7403123