Design Project + Finished Illustrations

Do my two fashion figures look  familiar to you? Hopefully your answer is yes and they didn't get lost in digital translation. Before fashion design and art, I studied graphic design for a while and I really wasn't very good at it. I like this set of boards though - perhaps the difference at uni this time around  is that my assignments aren't developed exclusively during a sleepless 24-hour deadline countdown. And I actually love what I'm studying. That helps a lot.

It's all (kind of) happening.

This post was going to start with... "I'm the luckiest girl in the world" (free dresses etc). However the place I was interning at just gave me a "courtesy call" to let me know they're going to drop the number of interns down from two to one and that this one position has already been filled. It was all rather weird because I was also asked if I "accepted" their decision. They had already hired me you see, so I think they were trying to be tricky with their wording in an effort to cover their bases, but it really was falling apart at the seams (so to speak). I ain't even mad. I've got so much work to do and before I was officially hired I had decided that I would rather spend my time developing my own business (If you could call it that right now) instead of someone else's. But I found a piece of me during the whole short-lived experience, so it was definitely worthwhile.

Uni is going well. I had been feeling down for a while and then I decided to relate to my sadness as if it were a demon. So then it kind of became a project - sad thoughts were words from the demon and needed to be challenged then and there. You probably already know this but I personally just realised that it's so much easier to externalise things. Depression is still you - so trying to fight yourself is harder to think about - even in writing it down it sounds like a conflict. If the demon is putting thoughts in your brain, you do whatever you need to do to kill it dead in its tracks. So I've been great since then. I talked to people at uni (and I think they were confused by that) and just got on with things, happy and content within my own space.

Suddenly I'm also getting much more creative and invested in uni. The things I've been making are getting noticed - in particular, there's this skirt I'm working on that's shaped like a chatterbox - and I must have had at least 10 people in class today comment on how cool it looked. Also our tutor kept pointing it out to people who came into the studio. There's a woman at uni who is seriously intimidating - her lectures are hilarious, she's so intelligent and she's also one of those brilliant older people who cut right to the chase (unafraid of offending you in the process). Anyway, today she said my design was cute. So proud. My skirt. Cute.

Simply Dresses Review #2

This dress is gorgeous. Its fabric makes the design more of an evening piece than a daytime one, which I'm ok with because the bodice is actually quite structured and stiff. For this fact alone I wouldn't elect to wear it all day, but it will certainly make the rounds at the many social events I frequent (joke - I'm such a hermit these days - but if I were more popular than you'd catch me in it all the time). Yep. It's a keeper. Head over to simplydresses.co.nz to choose your own customisable design!

Stay tuned for ramblings about a weird phone call and a run in with the scary lecturer who told me my skirt design was cute. My life.

Contrast

Thrifted vintage dress/ Tony Bianco boots/ Chilli & Lime necklace/ Urban Code belt

Witch

The boots/ tights/ midi skirt combo made me feel like a bit like a witch, so I complemented it with my new moon phases necklace from Chilli & Lime (I saw it pop up on Tumblr and immediately bought it). My Monday was hectic and involved uni, interning AND work, but I secretly dug the pace. It stimulated my brain and I'm kind of proud of myself for being able to pull it all off.

+ thrifted jumpsuit reworked as a dress/ (knotted) t-shirt/ Tony Bianco lace up boots

Process

There are a few things happening right now. I just scored an internship on James St at Jules & Roc. I'll be doing some social media and design work (which is scary because it's been years since I studied it). On the plus side, the position assumes that you're not yet a pro so I'm just going to throw myself in the deep end with it. After an initial freakout, I became more than a little excited about life and have gotten into gear with regard to the uni work I won't have as much time for. I've suddenly been gifted with a great deal of momentum. This is a peek at a preliminary sketch I'm about to illustrate for real. It's ambitious to say the least and contains unnecessary detail but I wanted to push myself as I'm already familiar with Adobe Illustrator and most of my classmates aren't. If it works out, they're going to hate me (but at least I will have their respect ... muahahaha).

Retrospective: a fun set of old/ unpublished things!

OH MY GAHD - when I was looking for pictures on my phone from the (most amazing) gig I just went to at Rics, I found that Blogger had stored all my old photos. I have previously deleted my blog to start from scratch and lately have been mourning the loss of my documentation so this is such an amazing present.