21 May 2009

So onto my coat for Episode 3…. As I was saying, this challenge was something that I was really excited about because clothes that “do things” have been the hallmark of my own collection.  However, I knew that 14 hours and the limited selection at B&J was not going to help me create much.

Innovation requires time for development and to do it properly is very time-consuming and expensive. My self-heating vest from Fall 2008, for example, required an insertable battery-powered silver heating system that took  Noble Biomaterials 7 years to develop! The wool tweed (custom-made) took 3 weeks to be made and shipped directly from a mill in the north of Italy. It then took 3 days for my patternmaker to incorporate it into the right silhouette, 2 days to get the cashmere ribbing made by a knitter, and 2 days for my samplemaker to piece it all together. If you add up the R&D phase and one design season, you’ll see that the start to finish process took 7.5 years to create the final product. 

As you can see, my technology-based collaborations take longer than what most fashion houses are willing to spend on a single design. The increasing speed to market these days really hinders the level of innovation we see in the marketplace.  New ideas take time and effort to develop.  It is rare to see innovation in clothing today, and this is why I am so committed to investing my time in it.  

So what can we actually create in just 14 hours?  

There was no time to make my disappearing map print fabric or burn-out patterns: those require inks to be shipped all the way from Japan and other far-away locales.  So I decided to focus on zippers because those were the most “innovative” things I could find within such a small time frame and budget.  Oh, the limitations!  

For this challenge, “innovation” would have to reside more in the concept and the application of the zippers.  Yes, I am aware that zippers are not that innovative, but I like their history and that it took 20 years to develop in the late 19th century in Britain. They were being used to close car hoods before Emile Hermes  so cleverly incorporated them into his handbags for Hermes in 1922.

My coat was a classic British trench silhouette that transformed into a funky Harajuku-style vest. It was intended for a jet-set traveler like Kate Moss who has lots of style but little very time to pack. With pockets in the facing and collar to store pajamas, socks and eyeshades for the long-haul flight, her coat now doubles as a carry-on tote bag!   

It’s looking a bit lumpy because it has all those things stuffed into a hidden storage area between the facing and the front of the coat. The construction concept itself was inspired by the expandable bags I often use when making my own trans-Atlantic flights. 

So there you have it: a trench coat that doubles as a carry-on tote!  

If you like my design and the concept behind, please vote for me here on the Bravo site. You will be graciously thanked when you see next week’s episode!

21 May 2009

Last night we saw Episode 3 of The Fashion Show.  The challenge of creating a coat that does something is something that was most in line with what I do in my own collection.  It should have been a breeze, right?  Well, again, TIME is a major factor in these challenges.  I’ve been reading other blogs that complain about the lack of sewing skills we designers have on the show.  Well, I want to see those viewers actually attempt to make something from scratch in 14 hours!  Go ahead, try it!  I’m sure it will turn out like crap, and then you’ll say, “OMG, I can’t believe those designers were actually able to make something awesome so quickly!” 

These garments cannot be compared to clothes we are used to seeing in the real world.  Viewers must judge these pieces within the extremely unusual context in which they were designed: 

1)    The tight 14 hour time frame  

(A dress at Donna Karan takes 4 days to create in-house, and that’s with a team of people.)

2)    No time for inspiration research or design development

3)    Functioning on 4-6 hours of sleep a night

5)    Working with the limited selection of fabrics  

(Designers normally buy fabrics from the extensive collection of a textile mill, not from a jobber like B&J or Mood)

6)    Being surrounded by loud personalities 24/7  

(A designer needs “space” to think and concentrate during the creative process)

7)    SEWING OUR OWN GARMENTS (read below)

In the real world, FASHION DESIGNERS DO NOT SEW THEIR OWN CLOTHES.  I’m sorry if the general public has been led to believe this.  We are not home-sewers and we have advanced beyond our amateur fashion student years.  Yes, I did sew my clothes from scratch once, but that was when I was 16 years old making a dress for prom.  I stopped sewing after that when I moved to New York and learned how the fashion design process really works. 

As professional designers, we understand how clothes are constructed and how the end product should look. We rely on the highly skilled patternmakers and samplemakers to execute our vision for us. They are the backbone to any fashion company and why someone like Valentino gives them so much credit in the documentary The Last Emperor. One dress sold in a store is actually a collaborative effort between a whole team of people.

Patternmakers, tailors, samplemakers, and cutters are all losing their jobs as the New York Garment District continues to shrink because companies are moving production overseas.  In Italy, they are a dying breed – literally; the techniques of highly-skilled artisans will not be passed down to the younger generation, and these skills will be lost forever.  Any shows or movies that lead viewers to believe fashion designers are a one-person phenomenon are doing a disservice to the global fashion industry. 

I hope all viewers will understand that what they are watching is counter to how fashion designers really work in the real world.  Designing a collection is very hard work, takes 4-6 months to create, and involves a big team of people each with their own skill set.  A fashion designer rarely ever sews an entire garment themselves (that’s what a “tailor” does), so please keep this is mind when watching The Fashion Show.  It will help you understand just how impressive these designers really are and why they were chosen to be a part of the show.

My BFF keeps telling me that I need to come up with a logo.  This is what he sent me…

19 May 2009

New York (Manhattan, to be exact) is one of those extremely densely-populated cities where we pass by hundreds of strangers each day…on the street, on the subway, while sitting in a park.  These high-traffic areas also happen to be places where you will find six-foot long ads for The Fashion Show.  I probably pass by five of these each day during my 10-minute commute to my studio.  They are hard to avoid.  Any time I find myself standing within five feet of an ad, I hear my name being called (”Angel?”)  somewhere behind me.  It is indeed weird (even a bit freaky) to be experiencing this.  

If anyone is interested in reading what happens after two weeks of appearing on a reality TV show, here are some experiences I’ve had in the last couple of days…

1)   A trendy girl approached on her way to the L train, claimed that she never watches reality TV (I know, it’s a guilty pleasure), said she went to school with Daniella, and said she hoped that we beat her in the competition. My photographer friend Amber just happened to be with me, so she took a picture of the funny moment. 

2)   A middle-aged man passed by me as I was exiting the West 4th St. subway stop and said, “Angel?” like we were long lost friends.  It was a quick encounter with a long impact.  My friend Ce Ce thought he looked like a homeless guy on crack and is still freaked out about it.  Bravo reality TV fans come in all shapes and sizes, it seems.  

3)  Five seconds later, a wholesome tall guy with wire-rim glasses and a long pony-tail said, “Angel?” in the same manner as the man above.  However, this guy really was an acquaintance…a former high school classmate from Indiana that was in New York for the weekend.  We never spoke in high school, and I only recognized him by name.  Apparently, we had exchanged tweets last week on Twitter when he was in Indiana.  How he happened to be walking behind me a week later in NY’s subway station is beyond me.  I know what you’re thinking….

4)  I passed by Blue Ribbon on my way home on evening.  One girl looked out the window, saw me, nudged her friend, then both sets of eyes were staring out at me.  I felt like a fish in a fishbowl as I was lugging my heavy groceries back to my apartment. 

5)  Four classy women standing together with champagne glasses smiled at me during a small private reception at the Cartier mansion. Did I know them?  Was a chunk of the arctic char hors d’oeuvre stuck on my face?  It turned out that they were all editors at Harper’s Bazaar, the media partner for The Fashion Show. One of them was the Publisher Valerie Salembier, another was Senior Fashion Editor Michelle Robinson. I also met Glenda Bailey and Laura Brown there. They had been following the episodes, of course. Yay for the fashionistas!

As you can see, the people who watch The Fashion Show are varied in gender, age, lifestyle, and region. It is weird to meet these viewers in real life.  I hope I don’t say something in any of the episodes that is really offensive.  The worst thing would be getting tomatoes thrown at me on my way to work! 

15 May 2009

Last night, we saw Episode 2 of The Fashion Show.  The challenge was to design a classy look for socialite Tinsley Mortimer with only $40 and 12 hours at the sewing machine.  I watched the show on the giant projector screen wall at Norwood this week and was pleasantly surprised to see well my 3-layered cocktail dress looked on TV.  

I didn’t realize how odd our team’s concept of “stealth fighter” seemed to everyone else. It’s actually not that out of line with what most designers come up with as inspiration.  After all, I was inspired by military warfare for the 3-D skirt in my Spring 2007 collection.  

My asymmetrical black taffeta dress came with black and pink tulle overlays and a satin origami belt (with paper airplanes).  

The 3-layered number could be worn three different ways:  1) on its own as a black dress, 2) with a black overlay for more coverage, or 3) with a pink overlay for a hint of color.  Tinsley really got her 40 bucks worth in that one. 

What amazes me is that no one seems to be surprised that all those runway look were made in 12 hours — yes, 12 HOURS!  The pattern, the muslin, and the sewn sample are all done in less than two days for each of these challenges. I hope the general public does not assume that whipping dresses up so quickly is the norm.  It is actually very close to impossible. We are like super-human seamstresses in this show!  

Just to put some things into perspective here…the turnover rate for a dress at a midtown factory is 2 weeks.  And that’s with professional patternmakers and samplemakers with 20 years of experience.  12 hours vs. 2 weeks is a huge difference, no?  

Well, I hope that viewers like my dress and vote for me here on the Bravo website.   Also, text 83733 to the word on my necklace (WACKY or STEALTH) to see what happens.  It will tell you the location of a group show I am in tomorrow in Brooklyn.

13 May 2009

My map print dress from Spring 2008 is going to be in an upcoming group show at Spring Gallery in Dumbo.  The opening is this Sunday, May 17th, to time with the International Contemporary Art Fair (ICFF).  

I was just playing around with the fabric again and am amazed that the thermochromic ink is still just as reactive as when I first created it two years ago.  Here is the color-changing effect for you all to see again:

9 May 2009

I had my first Twitter TV group party during the first episode of “The Fashion Show” on Thursday night.  My friends Sunny, Maurizio, Carole, Amber, and Viktoria all watched at Ken Li’s apartment in Chinatown.  I was so nervous to watch myself on TV for the first time and, yes, it was painful to relive the drama between Merlin and Daniella.  Once was enough!   

It was crazy fielding questions from so many viewers on Twitter during the commercial breaks.  Andrew Christian and Keith Lissner were also chatting with us at the same time.  It was so much fun!    

In the episode, I wore a necklace each day with a different word.  The first word was ANGEL.  Actually, there was a second word much later in the episode, too:  WACKY.  We had actually filmed the episode over two days so it turns out that viewers would have seen both words!  

When viewers texted the word ANGEL to 83733 on their cell phones, they got a response back telling them to meet me at An Choi in the Lower East Side this Sunday at 3pm.  My friend Tuan just opened it up, and Sunny and I have been going down there every weekend to munch on yummy Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches.  I hope viewers got it right and will come hang out with us this Sunday!  

Text the word on my necklace to 83733 and see what happens!

8 May 2009

Whew, the first episode of The Fashion Show aired last night on Bravo! I was so nervous leading up to  it. I didn’t know how I was going to be portrayed and, to be honest, I was so sleep-deprived that I really forgot much of what I did or said during the filming. Last night was the first time that I saw the episode after it was all edited down, so you can imagine how anxious I was to be seeing it for the first time with TV viewers across America!

What amazed me is how smart all those producers are.  I mean, take a step back and think about the concept of reality television…or TV in general.  These shows are made to look real, but it is still a false reality.  To make things more confusing, that false reality really is happening so…yes, it is real.  I remember at one point when I was alone in front of the cameras and it suddenly hit me how surreal and bizarre the whole thing felt.  I would normally explain it as, “it was so surreal, it was like a scene out of a movie.”  Now, I am speechless because it was exactly that: a scene out of a movie.  What else can I say?  

The casting process was also incredible.  Out of the thousands that the producers had screened across the country, how did they decide to go with the 15 of us?  Surely, there is some deep science behind putting together a group of individuals that have absolutely nothing in common.  We’re like stripes next to polka-dot, stripes next to houndstooth. I’m surprised we were able to survive all that time together in one room! 

You can read my response during the original filming here on Bravo’s website.  These blogs were written after each elimination while we were filming this winter.