Spotlight On a Dress #2

This dress was designed far before my Spring 2011 collection was thought up but seemed a perfect fit for the collection as I was putting it together. The dress began with the thought that I wanted to combine stripes and polka dots in the same colors. After I purchased the fabric that it ended up being made of, I also realized that I wanted the stripes going in two different directions and for there to be opposite polka dots. It took some time for me to decide where I wanted the red/white polka dots and where I wanted the white/red polka dots, but at one point I just had to make a decision and stick with it. I could easily make ten different versions of this dress, but for this project I only needed one.

I chose the color combination of red and white because I think it is a classic combination and this collection was inspired by a mixture of Parisian youth and old timey circuses. Besides black and white, red and white say circus to me the loudest. I have a bit of an obsession with bows and ruffles which is how those two elements got incorporated onto the dress- and besides, what says youth better?

I chose this dress to be the opening piece for my fashion show because I thought it really summed up the collection as a whole and was one of my personal favorites. I wanted the model to walk out with a bunch of balloons because my inspiration for the collection and the music in the show was a young Parisian teenager walking through the streets with a bunch of balloons.

Besides all the elements you can see, this dress also has a back invisible zipper and hidden side pockets. I love putting pockets on my dresses so that you don't have to wear a purse if you don't want to! Check out this dress in action!

At a French Charity Event

Backstage Before the Fashion Show

-Melissa

Focus on Fall 2010 Trend- Knee High Socks

If you asked me a few years ago what I thought about knee high socks my thoughts would automatically focus on schoolgirl and cheerleading costumes. Lately though, fashion trends are taking knee high and thigh high socks out of the costume-y range and into an accessory worthy of the streets. The great thing about knee socks are that they can be styled for any season depending on what you pair them with. I have seen them pulled up to the thigh, scrunched around the ankle, or even layered.

In fashion editorials, thigh highs are often styled in a way that suggests lingerie as outerwear, but this is a hard to pull off look in real life. I would stick to the look of layering, with a great mixture of casual daytime pieces. Another way to keep this look from becoming too costume-y is to wear dark colored socks, rather than white. White suggests the school girl look too strongly, but grey or brown socks look great for everyday wear.

Some designers added their own touch to this trend, including Alexander Wang's football inspired collection that featured backless knee socks. Other designers layered socks, paired them with ankle boots, or styled the socks with more evening-like pieces.

Alexander Wang's Spring 2010 Collection

Gaspard Yurkievich's Spring 2010 Collection

Cynthia Steffe's Fall 2010 Collection

Besides the runway, this look has been featured in many fashion editorials.

Vogue Portugal

Vogue China

Assorted Magazines

There are so many fun ways to wear this trend. Here are some suggestions:

With ankle or knee high boots

With Short Shorts

With a Short Skirt

For Colder Weather

For Warmer Weather

With a Dress

Casual Daywear

Dressed Up For Evening

Layered Socks

Worn with Tights

-Melissa





*I do not own the rights to any of these pictures, most are from fashionising.com or lookbook.nu

Inspiration Song- Ghetto Love by Spinnerette

I am extremely inspired and influenced by music. Sometimes one song is all it takes for me to get a whole collection planned out in my head. One such song was "Ghetto Love" by Spinnerette. I don't consider myself too much of a fan of traditional rock, but something about this song has me all fired up for a collection inspired by rock 'n' roll.

Brody

I love her top on the right.

My brother absolutely hates Brody Dalle and will undoubtedly give me crap if I ever did create this collection, but he hated her back in the Distillers days and I think shes way better now. When I listen to this song I think of girls with dark straight hair (that maybe looks a tad dirty) and smudgy eyes stomping like they are pissed at everyone in the room. I see black (of course), leather (of course), and tight pants (I know, totally obvious). But I would add my own semi-sweet touch to it. The pieces would never look sweet, but they would also not look over the top tough either.

Some inspiration pictures:

My favorite part starts at 1:49. The little beeps really add a great dimension to the song. This video cuts the song a little short, but you get the idea.

-Melissa

My Current Future Plans

I have more "collections" in mind than I could ever really make, especially right now. I have so many wonderful ideas in mind that I am just saving for the right moment. Some of them rely heavily on a very theatrical show, that to be honest, I'm just not willing to waste on Denver. My goal was never to become the go-to small town designer, but rather someone who shows at fashion week and maybe does business from a smaller town (I have little interest in living in NY or LA). But I always have some sort of plan that I intend to do "right away." I put that in quotes because between money, interest, or just being too busy, I rarely actually put these plans into the next stage.

Though I have done little actual designing, I have done quite a bit of thinking for my next idea. I saw Katy Perry's trenchcoat "dress" at the Victoria's Secret fashion show and was reminded of how much I love trompe l'oeil pieces. My immediate thought was to create a mini collection of pieces that fake different accessories or parts; such as collars, belts, or lace. I don't have access to a textile printer right now so I would accomplish all of this by hand embroidery.

Katy Perry

I want to keep the pieces simple in color, using mainly black and white with a little bit of red. I also have a vision of the models wearing black skull caps and dramatic eye makeup. Here is an example of the type of headwear, as seen in Chado Ralph Rucci's lookbook:



What I have in mind would make for the most sophisticated and mature collection I have done to date. The silhouettes would be both basic and slightly more complex. I might have a basic shift with a faux belt, but then in the next outfit have a more complicated jacket with minimal use of the trompe l'oeil effect. Although I may do some jackets I do not plan on doing any trenchcoats as I feel that this piece has been overdone in the trompe l'oeil style. I see myself doing mainly dresses, skirts, and high end jackets.

I am not planning on doing a fashion show for this collection, but using it mainly for my portfolio. I even have a location in mind for the lookbook photo shoot and a specific look for the models.

Here are some fun inspiration pictures:

-Melissa

Fashion Blogger Spotlight

I love fashion blogs. If I wasn't so darn busy all the time I could spend all day going between style.com and all the different fashion blogs out there. One of my absolute favorites is Style Bubble on typepad. This blogger has become so popular that I recently saw her in a Gap ad, not to mention the countless magazines that have featured her. So why is she so great?

For one, I love that she does a feature nearly every day about what she is wearing. She has a very quirky sense of style and it is great to see someone who pairs such bizarre things together and makes them work wonderfully! True, I don't love every single outfit she puts together, but I love that she was willing to go that far. I also love that she has so many pictures in her blog. I am a lazy blog reader, I want more pictures than words. Just show me in pictures what you are trying to say and I'm happy. Also, as an American, I love that she is British, and therefore is giving me the inside scoop on designers and trends that I probably never would have discovered otherwise.

I'm super jealous of all the Etsy shops that she features because I'm sure their sales go sky high once she mentions them and shows examples of how she personally wears them. I always wonder what her neighbors think since she takes all of her pictures outside on her balcony. There are so many things she wears that I would definitely wear if I was as thin as she is. Not only does she take pictures of herself, but she also does runway reviews, discusses new designers she finds, features brand new stores in London, and does close up shots of things she loves. I love that she shows things close up because it gives you a completely new perspective on how it looks.

If you have had your head under a rock and haven't checked out Susie, be sure to do so at her site: www.stylebubble.typepad.com

Here are some recent pictures of Susie in her day to day looks:

I love her fun mix of patterns in the middle picture.

I love her quirky take on the little black dress.

I find that camel coat strangely alluring.

The black and white look is my favorite and is close to something I would wear.

-Melissa

Spotlight on a Dress #1

In this feature I will be telling the background story on a piece from my current collection. Designers very rarely get to tell the story of their thoughts and inspirations behind a specific piece. Usually you have to lump everything together to tell the general story behind an entire collection. I often watch fashion shows and wonder what made the designer think of that piece or why they think that a certain piece fits into the collection.

This dress was the starting point for my entire Spring 2011 Collection.

This piece was originally made for a psychedelic fashion show for the Denver Art Museum. The thought was that I wanted to create my own textile that would play tricks on the eyes. Originally the one strap had a puff sleeve because I wanted a very modern silhouette to offset the retro fabrics. After time I decided to remove the sleeve (I thought it was overkill and took away from the textile) and found myself inspired to create more pieces off of the theme of creating my own textile. But instead of making them psychedelic in nature, I wanted a more retro feel. This is one of the only pieces in the collection that is blue and white, most pieces are red and white. I love the way that parts of the dress are mirror images of each other, but then other parts have no pattern with how the stripes are placed. I love pairing this dress with a red or yellow knit bow headband from my accessories collection.

Psychedelic Inspiration Pictures

For the fashion show I decided to show the dress on Caitlyn, one of my model muses at the moment. It was my finale piece and I wanted a model I had used often to close the show. Since this dress was made before the collection was conceived it was also used for a guerilla fashion show, a photo shoot with Taryn Andreatta, and a Parisian style show for a local charity. Below are other images of the dress in action.

On Annabelle (another favorite model of mine) at the guerilla fashion event.

At the Parisian style charity show

On Caitlyn at my Spring 2011 fashion show

This dress is one of my favorite pieces I have created and I hope you love it as well.

-Melissa

Focus on Fall 2010 Trend- Buttoned Up Shirt Collar

I decided to focus on this trend first because it is one of my absolute favorites. It can be done sophisticated, young, or androgynous. For day or night. With pants or a dress. This trend is the (all the way) buttoned up shirt collar.

This trend for women basically began with Coco Chanel and her taste for menswear inspired clothing for herself. I love that it is put together and can be done with a modern or vintage flair depending on your personal tastes. I'm not a big fan of the return of the 70s and 90s with fall fashion, so this feels like a sophisticated yet fun alternative. I also like that one can wear this look with any season and it can be used to spruce up the look of clothing you may already have. I have seen this look all over!

On Runways-

Fall 2010 Miu Miu (Pictures from Style.com)

Fall 2010 Dries van Noten (Pictures from Style.com)

Fall 2010 Jenni Kayne (Pictures from Style.com)

On Models Off Duty-

(Images from www.fashionising.com and www.altamiranyc.blogspot.com)

On the Streets-

If this is a trend that interests you, here are some styling suggestions:

With leather shorts and possibly knee socks-

Tap into the military trend going on right now-

A shirtdress paired with a long cardigan-

Under a sweater-

Paired with high waisted pants-

With a feminine high waisted skirt and a tie-

Put a brooch at the neck instead of a tie. Or you could tie a ribbon in a knot or a bow for a cute tie alternative- velvet is great for evening-

Some different types of collars that would be fun to play with are:

Peter Pan collars- oh so mod!

Tuxedo collars- Perfect for an evening gown alternative!

Contrast collar- White collar/colored body or two different colors, either are cute!

-Melissa

Please note that I don't own the rights to any of these pictures. They are from different sources, many from chictopia.com and lookbook.nu