Remember that belt I made?

It was featured in Zink magazine! This is my first editorial under my own label! How rad is it that it’s in a magazine I love so much? And I think the whole spread is fantastic. I’m proud to be part of it.

Much thanks to the amazing stylist Opé for contacting me, and to the husband for supporting me in my no-plan plan.

P.S. Dear Danielle, I told you I would blog when I had something to say. Heh. Love, Zoe.

I’ve been on twitter for a few years now but it only just recently occurred to me to post about it here. Follow me: http://twitter.com/zoehong

My photographer friend, Deborah Atalig, asked me to help her realize her concept of shooting a designer surrounded by all of her random work paraphanalia for her portfolio. At some point I randomly picked up a piece of yellow tulle and put it on my head as a joke and D fell in love with the idea, as you can tell from some of the other photos. These are my favorites from the shoot. (This is not what my studio looks like normally.) Click for larger images. To see more of Deborah’s work, check out her website. She also took the photos for my website, zoehong.com.

Here’s the Good News: Designers and Execs See Positive Points

The good news revealed here is as diverse as the companies and people surveyed. Some identified modest gains — reorders, healthy sell-throughs, traffic increases at retail — which once might have been taken for granted. Others spoke on a more universal scale, about shifts in consumer psychology. Though points were often highly brand- or retailer-specific, much of the information fell into categories, a veritable fashion “Jeopardy!” of thoughts positive enough to please a latter-day Dr. Peale. Many noted that while the fourth quarter of ’08 was unquestionably horrific, sales picked up, albeit modestly, in the first quarter of ’09. Numerous executives spoke of continuing to open around the world, as Dries Van Noten put it, by choice and not because the decision “was made before the crisis started.” 

Perhaps the most significant information gleaned from these interviews is that the industry is holding up a great big mirror to itself. Time and time again, in describing the runaway prosperity of the past decade, people used scatological terminology like aberration, gluttony and laxative, the latter noting the process of major cleansing as necessary and inevitable as it was unexpected. Some said success had bred sloth among the established, who came to think that if hyped enough, anything would sell, and arrogance among the aspiring, who wanted success on their terms, on a platter, right now. (“They made [Michelangelo] copy paintings for six years,” offered Bud Konheim.)  

As for the consumer? She had become a witlessly overlabeled glutton, busting out the plastic at the drop of a shoe, careless of sticker or price-value relationship. But no more. People “are getting a more discerning eye,” noted Michael Kors. And both retailers and fashion houses professed new devotion to her worship and to the product that best serves her. To that end, there were numerous shout-outs to the price-value relationship, regardless of price. “Hermès is doing very well,” said Diane von Furstenberg. “Why? I can still use my mother’s bags.”

But the biggest news: Dialogue, sprung from the realization that we’re all in this together. For example, both Sidney Toledano on the fashion-house side and Ron Frasch on the retail side noted the importance of catering to regional markets, knowing full well the compromises involved. Said Frasch, whose insightful comments will run Tuesday, “All the political barriers have fallen away, and all the defensiveness has gone away, because we all know that we’ve got to do something different and better. What could be more exciting than that?”

Read the rest (twelve pages!) here at WWD.

Or belt-type things.

Wanna hear a bunch of trend forecasters get really defensive about what they do for a living?

Click on “Podcast Three – Jan 09 Trend Master Class.” An hour and 15 minutes long, it’s quite an interesting panel. The array of different accents are also fun to listen to, but I’m random like that. The other two are quite interesting as well and I’m looking forward to more. You can also download the podcasts off iTunes. Check it out and let me know what you think.

north to south:

1. rack of clothes, all in various stages of deconstruction and experimentation, from clothing exchanges and thrift stores.

2. wall of sketches. loose and fast, not very detailed, with some scribbles. it’s the next  collection, coming together like clouds.

3. drawing horse w/ drawing pad and brand new soft pastels. happiness, thy name is new art supplies.

4. bills and papers to read. index cards strewn across the drafting table, each with a new idea to ponder. other ideas on post-its stuck to the bottom of my computer screen like so much dribbling food off a baby’s chin.

5. bin of things I should take upstairs to the bathroom, like nail polish and the new toothbrush from the dentist.

6. camera. the big fancy one. it’s there for a good reason, I just know it.

7. jar of nuts. operation: snack more healthfully.

8, research materials for next collection.

9. new filing system! 98% done!  just need to add a few thing. see item 4.

10. bin of clothes that are victims of item 1 gone awry.

11. pattern for a wedding dress for my model, along w/ corkboard of notes. 

12. wall of sketches, big ones, of the next collection, with more details and even more scribbled notes, coming together a bit more concretely that clouds, like, say, slurpees.

Check out this Forbes article. It’s all about disastrous results of goals set for goal-setting’s sake. An excerpt:

“… goal setting had negative and sometimes disastrous consequences for a company. Indeed, executives and business experts in those cases frequently failed to realize the prominent role that overly ambitious targets played in causing the eventual problem. One famous case … is the storied 2002 collapse of the energy-trading giant Enron. They cite literature noting that the once high-flying Houston-based firm used goals and an incentive system for its salesmen that was based solely on the volume of revenue that they generated–and not whether the actual trades were sound or profitable–which became a key factor in Enron’s implosion.”

 

Ok, so it’s not exactly 2 snaps in a circle in defense of my no-plan plan, but you get the general idea. Recession = reminder to not always stick to the same old same old. Now is a really great time to analyze what you’re doing and why you’re doing them, what’s going wrong, and become more self-aware of your attributes and shortcomings. Anyway, something to chew on.

is there is no plan.  

My entire career has been a result of planning. Methodical, like a template chess game shown online to teach new gamers. Sure, I could blame things partly on the economy, but mostly, I blame my erroneous planning. Not that planning is bad, but now is a good time to shake things up some.

I got laid off from my day job. I worked in an unessentials field, money dried up, our projects dried up, so now the two owners are on their own, trying to ride out the recession. There were some tears involved–I really like them.

So I, for the first time in a long long time, have only 1 job. Sorta. If being a 1 man show could be considered 1 job. And I’m really happy. Grateful. I don’t have any debt and I don’t have kids to feed.  I’m looking for work–the one I want the most is a technical illustration teaching job. *crosses fingers* I’m socializing. I’m relaxing.

Best of all, I’m making stuff. I’m drawing stuff and I’m liking the stuff I’m drawing. I went to a clothing exchange last month I’m doing little sewing experiments while I fix things. I’m slowly making things for a collection to show in the nearish future. My no-plan plan does not mean I’m shuttering my business, just approaching it differently. Now is the only time I can indulge in so much freedom, when I have no employees.

Blogging may or may not resume. Like I said, there is no plan. Just trying to go day by day making as many cool things as possible.

How are you?

Happy birthday, my dear. It has been almost 3 years since we’ve “met” through our blogs. Three years of good times and long talks and watching each other’s careers soar and falter and take off again and swapping anecdotes and advice and laughing till we cried and crying till we laughed.  You are so ridiculously talented and it has been a joy to watch more and more people recognize that ridiculous talent of yours over the years. I hope you have an amazing day and I hope lots of people come to your party to celebrate you in lieu of those like me who are far away.  Love you lots and I hope to see you soon!