modelfittings!

FINALLY!

I was able to put the garment on a model! 

LIZA is from Belarus- and she is gourgeus!

it makes me feel guilty to admit  this 

but I have to say that those girls make your clothes look A_MAZING!

more on the adventure of the "fitting" later!

bisous!

 

shoes shoes shoes

As you may know one of my garments was selected to be a part of the BFA fashion show:

this coming Wednesday, May, 4th.

I had not thought about shoes or accessories -or anything other than knitting and dying and figuring out how and if to go to Europe after graduation- but- being that my garment will now be going down FIT's runway...

 my girl needs shoes.

With my crazyly-insane scedule I didnt have much time to go around the city trying to buy the PERFECT shoes

- so... i went back to my crafty origins and-

bought some $7.50 super high-heeled "booties" 

(they were on super-clearance)

 and decided to "CRITICALLY WEATHER" them.

I am in the process of covering them with wood-chips and "moss"... 

Must seem like an easy task, but these babies take hours!!!
trying to find the right woodchip to put next to the other is 
"like finding a needle in a pile of hay" 
(do you have that saying in english too?) 

well, you get what I mean. they are like puzzle pieces...

more on the finished product later! 

besos!

SETTING-up!

and the mannequins come in. photo by DORIS LU

Monday: PRE_JUDGIng... TUESDAYpm: SETup_x_judgingday, WEDS... judgingDAY... crazyness!

After the critic/professor selected the garments that would go on for judgingday we had all of monday afternoon+tuesdayam to make all necessary modifications
- ONLY THAT-
 i worked on monday evening and woke up at 11 on tued, because my body was claiminfg the hours of sleep i had neglected it from in the last 2 months...


for modifications:
I mostly worked on my "nude" bodysuit for underneath my cottonINC garment and the "nude" tights i would put over it.
I ran to school at 5pm because that was the call time, but only to find out that not all of the mannequins were there.
We had to wait until 7pm to get -the ones that did come- dressed. However... my 2nd pant form didnt was not going to be ready until weds morning, so i waited around for "nothing".

I have to say that those couple of hours were full of reflection.
I mean.. seeing so many amazing knitwear pieces in that Great Hall, was super inspiring, and heartwarming because I know EVERY one of the creators...
the knitwear class did such an INCREDIBLE job!!!

Unfortunately, FIT's and this Industry's burocracy elliminated some pieces (during the pre-judgement) that were equally mindblowing and (in my opinion) everyone DESERVED to be there.
I've asked my colleagues to send me high-res pics of their work so that I can do my part in honoring them.

for now- here are some pics of my cottonINC garment!

note that this is the one piece that my professor commented on saying that:
 "ugh... I can't believe that having a blank canvas to express yourself and THIS is what you are deciding to create, the judges won't get it" "and no-one is going to wear something like it, its too complicated, it wouldn't sell"
well... that thursday, I found out that the "industry judges" selected it as part of the BFA show.
(more on that later)

i also wanted to share a link to the BFA fashion design class blog: http://blog.fitnyc.edu/futureoffashion/
my friend olgabely is the blogger for the knitwear class and she's done a great job w it!

 

last minute basting.me my mess and I. photo by DORIS LU

glad a big part of this is over!

much much love

pre-judging

one week later/after the last critic meeting- OUR GARMENTS WERE DUE!

once again- no sleep the night before. 

it doesnt matter how much you work in advance...

little things keep happening and your to-do list keeps growing

I re-hung the panel I ruined (not all of it was ruined so i just re-knit was was bleached) and fixed it in class, now i just had to:

look1 | look 2

1.  re-dye it
2. mattress stitch the panels together
3. work on the back "roots" piece/tulle
4. make trims for neckline/attach them
5. clean all loose yarn ends
6. attach strips
7. crochet all edges
8. clean all loose ends
9. dye garment bottom
10. wait for it to dry
11. work on closure

I went over to my friend Jessica's house the night before (Saturday) so that we could help each other stay up and work all night- considering we were so exhausted-

 and so that we didnt have to do an "all nighter" on sunday

 right before our meeting with Reiko for pre-selection.

i am always amused by the power of collaboration, sharing ideas an discussing design,

 specially when you do it with people that have been on this journey with you since day 1, 

and know what you are all about. 

their comments always make you re-evaluate/grow/perfect your work, 

because they see the things you don't

Jessica and I stayed up all night (like we did for fusion) and yet we were really far behind, so we decided to head to school the next morning at 9am- even though we were running on virtually no sleep.

it was 11 am and i felt like it was 8pm.. twilight zone!

 and imagine, gowing through this while having to knit in a place WITH NO WINDOWS!!!

well... the only way possible is when

 YOU DO WHAT YOU LOVE,

 YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU DO,

 and YOU ARE IN GREAT COMPANY

i mean... it was 3am, and i was done with look 1, but i was STILL crocheting the edges of all the strips of look 2: which meant i still had to dye it, clean it and wait for it to dry

not to mention- get ready and get to school by 9am.

I DID IT!

my second look/cotton smells like curry and coffee... LOL.. this is what I "dyed" it with!

look 2: COTTON inc:

made on a 3gg bulky brother® knitting machine with  recycled cotton yarn, donated by Lion Brand (this is from USA T-shirt production waste)

 and dyed with greener dyes® + curry + coffee

look 1: BFA

made with 100% muesling free xtra fine merino wool annd handpainted with greenerdyes® +curry, backpiece made with handfelted recycled sweaters.

 

last meeting with critic

i know, i know... its been a longlonglong time since I've updated you, 

but its difficult to see outside of the storm when you are right in the MIDDLE of it...

I am now officially OUT

- well, of the big storm-

please enjoy some images of the process...

 these are from out LAST meeting with our critic... Reiko Waisglass 

for this last meeting we were supposed to have at least 90% of our garments complete

 so that Reiko could give us her last comments 

and allow us to make adjustments a week before -PRE-JUDGING- day.

AS ALWAYS... we run out of time. 

I was in pretty good shape with the main pices of the garments themselves but of course,

 too many hours of knitting and hand painting fabric/embroiderying, ecc...

 are sometimes dangerouse because IF YOU DONT TAKE BREAKS,

 you might have LITTLE ACCIDENTS... like I did!

 LOL! (its funny now, but not when it happened)

I spent my whole saturday painting my bubbl-ED knit panels with my amazing non-toxic dyes, and they were looking so incredibly perfect. But - i hadn't looked at anything else for days, so i allowed a divine inspiration to tell me to completely immerse the bottom of one of my panels

-IN GREEN DYE- 

ERROR!

oh gosh... terrible

 I ruined it -and in my desperation- ran to the supermarket and bought a bottle of bleach

- like tara says: YUCK- 

(which completely contradicts my vision and statement, BLEACH is the worse chemical ever... but i had no time to knit that panel again since it took me about 10 hours) 

the bleach- DID NOT HELP- 

the fabric actually turned yellow and the chemials sort -of  "ate" the fiber... so part of my panel was not "poofy" :(

sssSAD story... but you can't let that stop you...

then on Sunday night, i spent many hours hand-felting the "roots" that would hold up the flounce of my dress...

 and painting the  100% organic cotton flounce i knit... 

just to decide the next day- AFTER ONLY SLEEPING 2 hours- 

that IT WASNT doing anything for the dress and that I wouldnt use them.

so- i made them into a hair piece (its not finalized, just an idea)

 

this is what happens when you don't sleep!

reiko said...

 "omg, it really looks like your sketch", i didn't know if that was good or bad.. but, she was definitely surprised!