the anti-doily (2007)

Fabrics: black leather, charcoal woolen, black denim, red satin, grey babyrib, white jersey.

More details and fabric/storyboard coming soon.

I always try to tackle something new with each project. This time, I focused on:

1. Clothes that are less “experimental”, and more “wearable” than I usually do.
2. As I (and the rest of the world) think that eveningwear is my forte, I definitely wanted to work on day clothes.
3. I wanted to do black leather in the least S&M way possible. (The black leather are the ruffled drapey pieces. The hard-edge jacket silhouettes are done in black denim and charcoal woolen with lots of hardware.)
4. Interesting layering, proportions.

Of course, there are always elements that are just part of my “style”:

1. Menswear elements.
2. A dance of masculine and feminine without veering into androgyny.
3. My love for mixing textures.
4. My tailoring leans towards a square, strong, but non-Crawfordesque shoulder.
5. My “muse” has always had a bit of an attitude problem.

This project, of course, reflects my ideas for Fall 2007:

1. No more freakin’ doilies. Minis do not need to equal to Lolitaesque tarts, women do not need to dress as little girls, not even the young ones, and there has been enough white cotton lace on the runways to choke a cow.
2. Seasonless dressing. Who actually has a completely separate winter wardrobe anymore? I think it’s more modern and sexy to wear good undergarments and several interesting layers than pulling on a sleeping bag with sleeves big huge coat. This also leads to more personalized outfits, which is the biggest trend in dressing, as opposed to wearing exactly according to outmoded designer dictats.
3. I’m totally loving red right now, a soft red, with a touch of yellow and brown, not scarlet or anything blue-based.
4. Lean silhouettes, lean, square, narrow, not to be confused with “skinny”.

Initial inspiration? My brain went this way: back to basics–too boring–let’s make it not boring–not basics, the building blocks for a wardrobe–blocks–kiddie toys–circles, squares, and triangles–angles–corners–“rounded corners” (it’s a Web 2.0 geekerati joke made at the house often)–ooh, my red couch is so rectangular, with rounded corners–I’m totally digging this red–of course, I picked it out, duh–and that’s pretty much when I started sketching.