sunday-organicday!

starting off with an inspirational quote...

"...holidays come and go, clothes wear out, bank accounts go up and down, but PHILOSOPHY... LASTS A LIFETIME..."

so lets work on that PHILOSOPHY people...

anyhow, back to business:

today I FINALLY recieved my eco-butterfly ORGANICS & PAKUCHO yarn color card- and I have to say- I was very positively suprised. YES, I payed $25.oo for it, but I am satisfied. I think the pacage was beautifully put together and with lots of educational material to back up their prices... I'm in.

ecobutterfly organics is an online source for eco-friendly, mostly vegan, completely fairly traded yarns. they are member of the Organic consumer's association, the organic trade association, carbonfund, and green america. RARE I must say!

I'll post more of the info they provided because knowledge is an amazing tool and I want to share what I learned today...

but for now- let me tell you about bamboo, soy, corn, milk and seaweed:

BAMBOO- although starting from natural/sustainable form- must go through very harsh toxic chemical processes to evolve into simple soft yarns that will then be conventionally dyed.

SOY and CORN go through the same harsh processes BUT what makes them even worse is that the crop remnants used to make the yarn are GMO-which- Due to their proximity and wind (GMO pollen drift) ARE WIPING OUT the few organic crops. Moreover, the toxic interferes with the butterflies and bees' breeding cycle, killing their potential offspring which is essential for pollination.

read more at www.organicconsumers.org

*taken from the ecobutterfly packaging

study-ing!

happy sunday everyone...

yes- school has not started- thats why I'm actively blogging.. hopefully I'll be able to keep it up throughout this semester because I'm sure I'll have a lot of interesting experiences and would like to share them with you!

SO- I've officially started my senior INTERNSHIP - at STUDY NY (www.4equalsides.com) with Tara St. James!

LIFE is full of casualties and I found her through them. I got an email from the TEXTILE ARTS CENTER's blog which I follow telling me about the launch of the AWAMAKI LAB pop up store!

Awamaki Lab is "a four-month fashion design residency that gives young designers the opportunity to develop a capsule collection in partnership with Awamaki and its weavers' association. The goal of Awamaki Lab is to create value-added channels of growth for the Awamaki Weaving Project, provide economic opportunities to women in the district of Ollantaytambo, Peru, and demonstrate the innovative potential of traditional weavings" *

(*from awamaki lab blog)

It sounded so cool and I immediately RSVP'd... the next day I got an email from one of my friend's roomates telling me about a possibility of interning at STUDY (i had mentioned to my friend about my frustration finding an internship, and she offered to talk to her roomate who was working with a sustainable design company)... and then I found out that (the roomate) was interning with Tara/STUDY, who was the mentor for the AWAMAKILAB project... we decided to meet for an interview and now- IM INTERNING WITH HER- and really excited to learn EVERYTHING about sustainable design...!

In these past years my career goals have changed incredibly,I'm embarking on this new "journey" because I was really unsatisfied and almost disgusted with what I saw my future career would be if I didn't change paths (if I followed the "herd") because I no longer agree with, or aspire to be part of the mainstream fashion industry.

There are so many things that we can do as designers- after all- "fashion" is something we can't ignore and that most of us are participants of... so why not try to USE ITS POWER to create POSITIVE CHANGE... perhaps by "thinking and working as modern day anthropologists"* who now consider every aspect of how their design is made, used/interpreted by the wearer, mantained and even disposed of (end of life).

*from Berlin Fashion Week A/W 2011 Report x ecco*ecco

I'm trying to focus on learning from unconventional companies that are ethically responsible and concerned about sustainability, fair trade, etc or are at least moving in that direction. ITS ALL NEW TO ME, and I'm starting from scratch- BUT BELIEVE ME- I am passionate and I am STUDY-ing!

check these out!

1. ABIGAIL DOAN at ecco*ecco: http://eccoeco.blogspot.com/2011/01/berlin-fashion-week-aw-2011-report.html
2. STUDY NY @ www.4equalsides.com
3. BODKIN @ www.bodkinus.com
4. YEOHLEE @ www.yeohlee.com/
5. AURALIS @ www.auralistudio.com/ (I used to intern here and he is a fellow puertorrican, making us proud)
6. Geoffrey B. Small @ http://www.geoffreybsmall.net/
7. AWAMAKI LAB @ http://www.awamaki.org/awamakilab
8. ECO-FASHION x Sass Brown (former professor and current "guidance counselor") @ http://www.ecofashiontalk.com/

urban foraging?

RESEARCHING for my thesis project continues.. and although I cannot remember how, but I bumped into this article about urban foraging

IN LONDON!

Now, London is an incredible city, and incredible were the days

I spent there.

BUT- I do not recall ever seeing much that could be picked up and eaten on the spot.

Maybe we just have to know what we are looking for in order to find it... and that is that!

http://www.thefirstpint.co.uk/2010/10/02/urban-foraging-not-just-for-hobos/

Also... yesterday I went to HABU textiles, on 29th st, to hunt for some yarn. I am looking for sustainable yarns for MACHINE KNITTING, but the resourses are scarse, and my options very few. A friend had told me to go to habu even if I wasn't going to buy anything because their yarns are so beautiful that you get inspired by just looking. AND SHE WAS SOO RIGHT>>> even though expensive, I couldn't leave the shop with my hands empty.

I bought:

1 oz of handspun tassar silk

content: 100% silk

3 yds.x: $12.95.

and

.5 oz of kibiso silk

100% silk

150yds x $ 6.50

and here they are on my table.. waiting to be taken in consideration.

I figured that they are artisanal yarns, handspun and produced in low quantities- and hopefully under good working condirtions. SO, since they are just going to be an accent in my collection, I can commit this sin- they are just too beautiful.

Can you believe that dread-lock looking yarn is 100% handspun silk? JUST AMAZING!

I am still on the hunt! NEXT: SILK CITY and Lion Brand!

buenas noches!

researching about creative moulding and critical weathering

Dear all,

Its the time of truth. This FIT journey is about to be over and the beginning of the end-STARTS on monday- so, here I am, preparing myself for the "thesis" project!

Last spring, while in Milan, I came up whith one of the projects that I consider my "best- in the

sense that I researched the concept, it was backed up technically, and I was really happy

because I enjoyed every second of it!

Since I was not exactly satisfied with my work this past (7th/fall '10) semester, I decided to pick up HUNDERTWASSER's manifesto's and ponder.He is one of my biggest phillosophical ispirations... and he goes:

"When rust sets in on a razor blade, when a wall starts to get mouldy, when moss grows in a

corner of a room, rounding its geometric angles, we should be glad because, together with the microbes and fungi, life is moving into the house and through this process we can more consciously become witnesses of architectural changes from which we have much to learn.

from his Mouldines Manifesto @ http://www.hundertwasser.at/english/texts/philo_verschimmelungsmanifest.php

thanks SAM (x thinking about me)

I discovered the work of :

1. laerke Hooge Andersen @ http://www.laerkehoogeandersen.com/,
2. and Malousse Bastien.

Both AMAZINGLY innovative and related to what Im trying to achieve...

• plus a great article that PUMPED ME UP- x the textile arts center blog: Thread Reviews- The million dollar art market.

I am now ready x bed... but tomorrow the FIT LAB AWAITS (sample stitches) , just as the following questions by ABRAHAM MASLOW (thank you DORIANsito):

1. IF YOU WERE GUARANTEED TO SUCCEED, WHAT WOULD YOU DARE TO DO?
2. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT?
3. WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST STRENGTHS?
4. HOW CAN YOU GET PAID DOING WHAT YOU LOVE?
5. WHEN, IN WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES AROUND WHAT PEOPLE DO YOU FEEL MOST ALIVE?
6. WHAT WERE YOUR 5 GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER YOUR LAST 5 YEARS?
7. WHAT WILL YOUR 5 GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS BE?
8. HOW ABOUT THE NEXT 25 YEARS?
9. HOW CAN YOU BEST SHARE YOUR GIFTS WITH THE WORLD?
10. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T AFRAID?
11. WHAT OTHER QUESTIONS SHOULD YOU BE ASKING YOURSELF?

just to make us think: ABOUT FASHION

zaida adriana goveo balmaseda

FIT knitwear

20th century style and fashion

Final Exam Exercise

B. Barzini

15.06.2010

After a semester of 20th Century Style and Fashion lectures with professor Benedetta Barzini, I have reflected upon some of her suggested subjects and gathered several thoughts and information that should express a bit of the knowledge I’ve acquired. They might be rather ambiguous and subject to eternal debate, but it has been definitely great to exercise my mind and challenge it to define the ideas for which I want to stand.










About the use of fashion and our “need” of the Fashion System. Is fashion a disease a cure or neither?

“It is truly difficult to draw a line between clothing and body and between life and dress” (Diana Vreeland)

Fashion (as described by Immanuel Kant) is the open game of imitation, it is a natural inclination of man to compare his behavior to that of a more important person or someone he admires in order to imitate the other person's ways or be associated to them. In the fashion system there is a compulsion to subject oneself slavishly to the mere example which society projects to us. It is a capricious game of imitation related to self-importance in which most of what we imitate is the example from society. We imitate a mediated version of self instead of our true individual singularity.

Why is it so hard to move away from our “set” beliefs and adopt new points of view? Why cant we be neutral and take advantage of what it has to offer with out being blind? For some, it becomes an obsession, a disease, an addiction and go to the extremes. We just can’t let our lives be ruled by some “system”… which basically establishes that you have to live up to other people’s standards of beauty…As a designer it puts me in a difficult position- hating the system that my “career’s industry has established…

Clothes have gone from being a necessity to an object of pleasure, desire and whim. Especially since the 80’s when fashion was about consolidation of ideas, money and business, cult status and brands. Getting the branded look even if things were false because what was apparent counted the most. Brands try to sell us more than just an object, a product- they are establishing an idea, a lifestyle that we should all adopt. In theory, this should not be such a big dilemma, they are stating something, expressing themselves, just like we independent designers do. But the problem is that masses, following the “trends” have lost their sense of autonomous judgment. It’s a cultural overload; its in the media, in the magazines we read, in what we ear, in everything. Brainwashing and morphing our perceptions, and ideologies until the point where people have become passive individuals who rely on the brand to make them look good, to make choices for them and tell them how to do things. If we ponder, its similar to the theory of the shaman or the magician of the tribe who women went to for a secret potion that would make them live forever or fall in love.

The world around us only continues to become more complex and self-obsessed and on cases people will put aside important things such as food/family/rent just to get the latest “Luis Vuitton” bag or the new Burberry coat and sadly not because they like it or need it but because of the status symbol they are…] As consumers, we need space for debate and critical though and as designers and artists it’s important that we define the personal meaning of our profession and that we have an inner statement, an individual way of expressing ourselves, a point of view. We need to make it clear that our mission is to go beyond the superficial interpretations of fashion.

“Styles change rapidly and allow us to look back into the past and forward into the future, performing many social, aesthetic and psychological functions; if we look at it as a sum of experiences and abilities (of the creator, the technicians, the wearer), as a passion for attention to reality, as capacity for application and inventiveness, as love of past traditions and the desire to find out more about them but without feeling compelled to uncritically reproduce styles and forms that may no longer be relevant to our time

The most useful instrument for interpreting the future is the desire for new horizons. A pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo and expanding the frontiers through aesthetic experience… Fashion being an art that we wear calls on its artists to "serve as [the people's] avant-garde," insisting that "the power of the arts is indeed the most immediate and fastest way to reform.


About the dialogue between art and fashion:

Art in its origins was meant to be idealistic to represent perfection, the Gods, the divine, the spiritual. Using Greek and roman principles of equilibrium and proportion; artists were anonymous and worked mostly on commissions. Fortunately, nowadays there is artistic freedom: almost anything that we can call original and creative could be a form of art. Even if its not academic or classical: “The zeitgeist has come and is on its way for a much broader approach to fashion and design and its inclusion in the fine art market and being taken more seriously as an art form in its own right. Everything becomes much more interesting when you give it a platform.”

Fashion is not such a simple phenomenon, constantly in progress and now more fluid than ever. It arises out of individual sensibilities; it’s about the designer’s personal and subjective interpretations. The fashion designer invents; he is the only guarantor of the creative process. He can tell a story which records his work ethic, politics, and a humanistic attitude in general. Not by loosing the sense of quality and beauty, ignoring his love for harmony and balance but by innovating and experimenting to break barriers and challenges of design. Clothes in a way are MORE a product of design than “art for art’s sake”. This [product] has to be “wearable”, “practical”, and functional and is restricted by money. Which is why it’s important for me to respect and support people in this industry, because people who create fashion live around a very demanding and complex atmosphere both socially and professionally. We are required to do immense amount of research and development, while keeping an eye on budget and being practical, wearable and comfortable if we want to sell- although we probably we care more about art and struggle by having to compromise creating marvelous pieces of “slow fashion”. The liberty in the art of making clothes is far from what the majority of people in this industry are doing.

One of the closest things to art in fashion is Haute Couture. There is certainly a dialogue, there. Couture is the result of a work process that would not even be considerable without the ample range of skills on which the atelier can rely. Based essentially on manual techniques and the absolute care taken over detail; it multiplies the possibilities for an artist’s expression. At this dimension its possible to make almost any dream come true… like a picture painted by an artist, every garment is a one-off in which the methods and resources acquired by tradition are ensured and applied each time. Here the limit is within the imagination.

Ready to Wear fashion however can assert values and ideas with a stronger point of view than we imagine. Victor and Rolf's Fall 2008 collection was based on opposing the fashion system with the word "no." The models that are inside the fashion world were expressing opposition along with the designers who released this statement: "We love fashion, but it's going so fast. We wanted to say 'No' this season." it operates as counter-current within the system of images.

In the 70’s with the youth revolution, and the HIPPIES we had an opportunity to question the existing-ideal of beauty by exploring aesthetic principles far from the mathematic and Greek values. Before this phenomenon, if you wanted to be elegant you followed your parent’s fashion. In the 90’s the PUNKS came about wanting to horrify, and challenge the bourgeois, refusing the established system… everything that was considered ugly became AVANT GARDE: Dolce and Gabbana and John Galliano presented underwear as outerwear, “seeing what is inside”, Doc Martens boots, ripped jeans, uncovering the hidden, holes, unfinished hems, mended seams, the emergence of designers in Antwerp Belgium, Vivienne Westwood in London amongst others…

About ELEGANCE. How important is it to be is elegant, is it a value? And what does it mean?

Elegance is a quality that we’ve all wanted to have, its that one quality that makes you feel that you are “presentable” decent and appropriate at a place. Sadly, over the years we have “codified” the idea of what represents elegance and judged by it but I believe we are starting to slowly walk away from by understanding that perhaps if we dress to feel more comfortable while being respectful of the occasion, we can behave more naturally and consequently be more present and carry ourselves better. Respecting our individual needs is obligatory independently of the type of clothing. The important thing sis the context in which it will be worn
We should not judge someone solely for what they wear or how much the show or hide their beauty. Clothes may reveal about the way we are, but not more than the way we do things, how we behave, the way we speak, or the things we do and why. First impressions are difficult to avoid and leave always a strong mark but we should always try to look past the glass and take people for what they are entirely.

About the Fashion cycle:

We might not wear a piece of clothing more than once or twice, even if we really like it or paid a lot or it because it has gone out of fashion or become un-trendy; but why do we need to care so much about this when fashion is stepping evermore out of the human dimension by functioning at faster and faster rhythms that we cant keep up with.

Ironically, as technology speeds up, two contrasting worlds emerge:
One that considers nature, searches for ecology, people use bicycles instead of cars, consciousness about carbon footprint, inherited 60’s spirit, sustainability; and the fear of the unknown and what happens to our bodies when technology overtakes or evolves too much and starts replacing our eyes, ears, lungs etc… taking us to live artificial lives. And in another extreme we have technology: development of textiles for sports, super conveniences, research, science and the hope that it will free us from “death” and find the secret to living forever.

Fashion has stepped into a more industrial dimension – which could be good if it is taken advantage of properly. Machinery/industry can help the designer constantly improve the solutions to problems that will optimize the quality/timing of product production and help us find alternate ways of doing things, but it shall not substitute the sentiments and ingeniousness that a person is capable of rendering!


About how the dominating ideology operate control over material bodies:

Fashion is created with the intention of making us look better, to flatter us; but sometimes forgets about the real concept of harmony; harmony with the body.
The human body should always be our point of reference, our inspiration and greatest concern. We should allow it to move and play with -the dynamic of the relationship between what gets covered and the rest of the body; “to sculpt the body and turn it into a second skin because it is our living space, and it should be made to measure, it is habitation and habit, like a house.”-Gianfranco Ferré . Dress should be conceived as a three-dimensional entity whose form has a function and meaning in the relationship with the human figure and that the garment comes alive because it changes and adapts to the wearer.

Designers are mostly guided by the principles of beauty, geometry and we sometimes would just like to create impossible structures, “metal corsets” and other forms of art “inspired by clothing” just to exercise our skills and express ourselves. Nevertheless, for our everyday lives, the important values of dressing today are comfort, freedom of movement and natural wearability. It is no longer possible for clothing to be experienced as a burden/ a constriction to the dynamism and immediacy that are undoubtedly part of life today.


___________________________________________________________________________
References:
Internet sources:
-Wikipedia
-http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/gfx/23Lip-glossandLacquer.pdf
-http://www.rachelkward.com/artvfashion.htm
-http://fashionversusart.blogspot.com/
Books:
- Gianfranco Ferre: Lessons In Fashion by Maria Luisa Frisa
Other:
-class notes

recogiendo los pedacitos/picking up the pieces

Hello all!

Happy New Year.. sorry a bit delayed but I've been picking up the pieces and starting from scratch. I've decided this HAS TO BE AN AMAZING YEAR...

Remember when you were younger (out of high school) and people said to you: hey, this is a very important year, there are many decisions to be made and those choices will change the course of your entire future...

Well... it only keeps on happening. This is a BIG year, one full of choices, and CHANGES. I am on my senior year in College and about to take up my senior internship, working on a very important personal art project and of course there is always work...

I feel the ants running up and down my stomach- no, they are not butterflies- they are ants because they bite!

I had a really rough semester this past fall: it was all all part of coming back to NYC after being two years abroad -IN ITALIA- and trying to adjust...

[After that year in FIRENZE my life changed completely- I used to be one of those people that thought she had everything planned out and felt guilty for being in a "vacation" year abroad- but as it was over I knew I wasn't ready to come back to NYC. I wanted more of that amazing experience!

I learned a new language, immersed myself completely in their culture, improved my art incredibly, and met some amazing people and decided to stay for 1 more year and did the Milan program/Knitwear specialization.

My time abroad was incredibly insightful and I was satisfied both personally and professionally, but also thought It was time to come back to the city and GET THAT DEGREE!

so- I came back- but now I can't wait to leave. I think all the time about how AMAZING life was in Italy! We worked really hard, but also had time to cook and eat dinner together every night, to read, and do so MUCH RESEARCH (which is KEY to a meaningful work of art)]

I was so so excited to do my senior year here in NYC, where we have so many resources, things work around the clock and problems get solved FAST- but coming back has made me understand that I have changed so much, that my goals have changed TOO much, and that I don't want to be here anymore because the life that people live here is not the one I want. I cant wait to graduate so that I have nothing holding me back here! Its hard to explain!

NEW YORK had always been good to me, it welcomed me with warm widespread arms when I was 17 and helped me grow FAST but GOOD, it gave me opportunities that allowed me to discover all that I am capable of, and to understand that anything you are willing to fight for IS POSSIBLE... but EUROPE- was just- A WHOLE ANOTHER STORY and I am starting to look into any possibility that will allow me to go abroad again.

These are some of the things I'm looking into:

• working as social artists and the change we can make in society
• what is my statement as an ARTIST
• sustainability- not just a trendy being "green" thing- BUT A HOLISTIC APPROACH
• how can challenge "the common methods of the fashion industry" and utilize my "art/gift" to create change/make a difference in the areas that concern me the most?
• the laundromat project
• Jeoffrey B. Small and Michael Seine
• going back to PR to re-connect with my roots + learning about preserving -various country's-cultural heritage
• collaborating with women's collectives
• volunteering opportunies-for my scholarship-
• leaving right away, or staying for a couple of years?
• learning french
• perfecting my written italian
• working on my portfolio (my livingroom right now looks like someone tore apart a crazy person's sketchbook)
• going back to ETSY.com
• more...

any suggestions/comments/help?