Knitted Headbands

In a moment of boredom this week I began to create some knitted bow headbands that are now one of my favorite headbands I've ever made! I have added them to my etsy accessories page at www.birdsnestaccessories.etsy.com so hopefully they will sell well, especially during the Christmas season. As with all the other items, I am offering free shipping with these, so check them out! They are all handmade and absolutely adorable.

Keep in mind, all this talk about hair accessories does not mean that I have moved on to accessories from clothing. I am still creating clothing and am in the middle of creating a new collection and shooting my last two. I just really enjoy creating hair accessories and find it a great way to make a little extra money. Keep your eye open for new Incroyables by Melissa May pictures soon!

Christmas sale!

For any of you looking for the perfect Christmas present, my other company Birds Nest Accessories is offering free shipping on all its products at www.birdsnestaccessories.etsy.com. You can also buy anything you see (plus some extras that are not online) from me directly or from Fancy Tiger, Mona Lucero, The Fabric Lab, Rebelle Salon, or Denver's Buffalo Exchange. My mother and I work hard to keep the quality and the price far better than any other hair accessory you are going to find out there, so what are you waiting for?!

Martha Stewart Weddings

I just learned that a few months back my Etsy shop was featured as a favorite shop on the Martha Stewart Wedding website. I wish I had known before now, but I'm so thrilled to have been featured either way. My Etsy shop is currently empty because I removed my last collection, but I will soon be adding my Signature Collection, some vintage finds, and also some great clearance items.

October Photo Shoot

About a month ago I got the opportunity to shoot with local model Fallon who is currently going to school in California. She was back in town for a few days so we put together a shoot with photographer Matthew Novak.

I wanted to use simple, dark clothing and a black cap so that her beautiful face could shine through. It was a theme I had wanted to do for a while and I would actually like to do a twin shoot with a girl with darker skin against the opposite side of the wall that features women instead of men. I am absolutely in love with this location and I am so grateful Matt showed it to me! Here are my favorite images from the shoot.

Birds Nest Accessories

For any of you who do not know, my mother and I started a sister company to Incroyables by Melissa May back in March called Birds Nest Accessories. Birds Nest is a company specializing in hair accessories, specifically feather headbands. We also carry hair bows in five sizes and several colors. The company started as a way to make a little money for my mother when she was unemployed, but has now expanded to something a lot bigger.

The feather headbands are currently available at The Fabric Lab until the closing date in December, Mona Lucero's, Fancy Tiger, Rebelle Salon, and Buffalo Exchange in Denver. They are also available at www.birdsnestaccessories.etsy.com. Pieces range in price from about $8-$22 so they are very affordable and make fantastic gifts. Here is a small sampling of what we are currently offering.

Halloween

This Halloween, I wanted to make sure to go out and do something fun so that I could create a costume that has been more than one year in the planning. I didn't want to start actually creating the costume until I knew I would be doing something though, so the costume could use a little more finessing, which I plan to do next year if I choose to wear it again. I got the idea from a co-worker last year to go as the woman from the birds, with the birds attacking my head. I was really excited by the idea, but it took some figuring out. First, there was the suit- it had to be green, which is not always an easy color to find. Second, there was the matter of how to get the birds to float above the head. I commissioned my dad to create me some kind of mobile-like device that I could attach the birds onto. I think next year I need twice as many birds and some more special touches, such as a bird with a piece of hair in its beak (I tried to do that this year but the birds were plastic inside so I couldn't just stick pins into them).

I went to The Sounds concert and had a blast, but I suspect the people standing around me hated me! Haha, that's their fault for standing near the girl who obviously has unstable parts to her costume. The best part of the costume was that the birds really did peck my head as I walked!

Holiday Collection

I recently made three dresses to use up some small scraps of fabric I had and when I was done realized that they all looked like adorable holiday dresses! I felt so inspired by what I had made that I decided to create a whole mini-collection of holiday dresses/skirts/tops/maybe some jackets. I am trying to figure out how to have a small fashion show to show them off, but I am not sure if I will be able to do that before the holiday season. I will most definitely be shooting them in the next few weeks though. When I do, I will post the entire collection and give information on how to buy the originals or order a similar version. Keep your eyes open!

303 Magazine/Style Wars Update

I recently realized that I never posted anything about my 303 Magazine Shoot back in June or the Style Wars Challenge back in July. Life gets hectic at times, but both of these events were super fun. Here are some pictures:

This is the picture they chose for my page in the July issue of 303:

I look so incredibly different in this picture for better or worse! Even my friends didn't recognize me at first. This is right after I got my bowl cut which I still rock in some form today. Everyone in the picture is wearing something by me.




Here are some pictures from Style Wars at the end of July. It was so much fun! We had 20 minutes to create an outfit from a rack of supplies. I ended up using an 80s long sleeve gown that had a strange raglan-style sleeve that ran from under the neck all the way across the chest. I cut off the sleeves, cut the dress down, and rolled the top to change the shape to a Grecian-inspired shape. I then created a puff sleeve and filled it with bubble wrap. The cinch belt is made from shelf liner and pieces of a car shade. The glove is a piece of lace from the original raglan sleeve. I wish I was smart enough to take a picture of the dress beforehand so you could truly recognize the hideousness of the dress. The sad thing is that it was a Carolina Herrera!

Many thanks to my assistant Grace and to my amazing model Kristen, I couldn't have asked for better partners in crime.

"Goodbye Denver Shoot"

My dear friend Ferren, who happens to be a model with the fiercest walk around- no seriously, ask any Denver designer- just moved last week to London for art school. Before she left she wanted to do one last photo shoot in Denver with our friend Matthew Novack as the photographer. We shot on the streets and alleyways in the Art District on Santa Fe Drive, so naturally the clothing had to be bright and colorful to match the surroundings. I brought a bag of clothing and we just walked around taking pictures. It was a lovely way to say goodbye, even though it was HOT outside.

Meghan Savage 2

These images are from a photo shoot in which I lent clothing but could not actually be there for the shoot. I am now much more involved with the photo shoots I do, but for a while I was mostly just lending out clothing and seeing what came out of the shoot. The risk in doing that is that you may not like the images or how the clothing was styled. It's a risk you take, but this shoot was with the photographer Meghan Savage who is insanely talented and a great model/friend Taryn that I would trust with any of my clothing at any time. So, it was really not a risky shoot in my mind. These are some of the photos that Meghan chose to use for her website.

Black vinyl jacket with puff sleeves and ruffled collar by me, skirt by Taryn





This is one of my favorite pieces I've made to date. The dress is covered in handmade silver rosettes that were then handsewn to the dress.




I personally love the softness of the pictures. Even though the pieces are not "pretty" there is a certain romantic feel to them because of the styling and the background. The silver dress is definitely going in my portfolio!

Unfortunately, these will probably be the last pictures I will be able to post with Taryn because she has gone to New York and Greece to work with some modeling agencies. I wish her the best of luck and I know that she is going to do some fantastic work!

Meghan Savage

Back in June I got the idea to do a shoot using clothing I had created for a retro-themed fashion show that had been at the Denver Art Museum. The dresses were all loose and very tent-like, almost like the dresses of the 1960s mod period. I had wanted to work with the local photographer Meghan Savage for quite some time and had heard that she liked vintage feeling shoots, so I asked her if she would be interested in doing a mod-themed shoot. I wanted to use two models- one who was a Twiggy look alike and a model inspired by the 60s fascination with space age.

As with every other day this summer it rained during our shoot, but Meghan was great at working around the rain and getting some amazing images!















Makeup by Katelyn Simkins, Models Caitlyn Canniff and Taryn Aichele

Kelsey Bigelow Pictures

A few weeks ago I coordinated a shoot with the fabulous photographer Kelsey Bigelow. I wanted to shoot the evening gowns from my new collection, so we wanted the shoot to be slightly romantic and not something we could just throw together in the city. We ended up shooting in a field near a windmill farm on the border of Colorado and Wyoming. It was sunny, super windy, and pretty cold, but I love what came out of the shoot. There were so many good pictures but here are a few of my favorites. I ended up choosing the pictures that were desaturated over the shots in regular light because the overall feel was more romantic and went with our slightly fairytale theme.














Thank you to Katelyn Simkins for hair and makeup and to Taryn for making the most of the crazy wind!

Forever Darling Runway Pictures

I finally found some pictures of the Forever Darling event. I absolutely loved the hair and makeup and the models were all great to work with. My collection was select pieces from my 2010 Signature Collection. Here are the pictures:

My Avante-Garde Competition Piece

White silk sleeveless dress with skirt that is covered in handmade chiffon flowers. Black taffeta jacket with ruffle collar and lantern inspired sleeves.



The Collection

Purple satin dress with chain straps and rosettes on hem.



White satin dress with pleated front section and triple bows.



Lace covered dress with pleated skirt and racerback. Red silk jacket with bishop sleeves and ruffled collar.



Black satin dress covered with hand sewn chains.



Black satin dress with pleated front section with bow. Shiny jacket crop jacket with puff sleeves and ruffled collar.



Pink silk dress with sweetheart neck, pleated detailing, and zipper rosettes.



Silk dress with chiffon strap with back bow.



Black silk gown with safety pin covered strap and handmade belt.



Burgundy silk gown with mermaid hem, zipper inserted into top seam, and front bow.



Navy silk gown with gathered section at bottom and braids surrounding it. Silk crop jacket covered in ruffles.



Final walk.