3/15 photos of the week and some updates

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone!! I have been so busy with work (and am on a fitness kick so lots of running to prepare for a 5k, knitting to finish up some projects, and general studying about how to begin a fashion brand) so I haven't totally been focused on blogging lately.  But here are some images that have been inspiring me recently!

 In love with this neon orange layer over a simple tank and shorts.

 Again, another entrancing detail - an alluring, exotic cuff with casual jeans.

 Minimal beauty at its best.

 A gorgeous use of color and pattern.

High-rise jeans lend themselves well to a peek of skin in the back - demure and sexy.

Tomorrow, I have my last day as a graphic tees co-op at Abercrombie & Fitch.  And oh my goodness, how wonderful an experience it has been.  I have learned so much about the ins and outs of a successful company - from organization and production, to execution and review.   A few weeks ago I ordered a book off Amazon called How to Set Up and Run a Fashion Label and it has definitely gotten the juices flowing in my head... 

This summer my university transitions from a quarter system to a semester system - unfortunately for our class, we end up getting the short straw and have a mini co-op period over the summer (7-ish weeks) and then our first "semester" co-op back to back with the summer one, for 15 weeks I believe.  Some of my classmates are rolling this into one long co-op, but I have chosen to break it up and use that short period to my advantage to do an entrepreneurial quarter, in which I develop and execute a mini collection (7 weeks is much nicer to go without pay than 15, and good thing I work fast!).  I am very excited about this - I think this opportunity will allow me to better formulate my ideas about my future. During the summer I will be able to have this experience to compare to the others I have had, to understand if I truly want to be my own designer and live out my own aspirations, or work in a collaborative team much like that at A&F, to which I will return in the fall for my semester co-op.

So, there is much to think about!  With the book I have been reading, I have been doing a lot of ideations on branding, where I would want to take a line if I had one, etcetera - so during the next quarter at school I will be doing a lot of background thought on what kind of line I would like to do over the summer with the potential of further developing that brand into senior year when I do my senior collection. It isn't that impossible to get contact with a factory for production - you just have to do all the pre-production work and send it to them in a format that is clear. However, I think this is something I could definitely achieve.

In other news... my CFDA portfolio has been selected to move on to the competition!  A panel of professors reviewed the class portfolios and selected the few to send in for the scholarship - each school has a limited amount of portfolios that can be sent in for the final judging.  I am eager to find out what happens next...!

Stay tuned for more! I am ready for a relaxing spring break and the start of knitwear!

CFDA : final lineup

And the illustration is DONE!!!!

CFDA updates

The project is almost complete!  Today I finished my last of the illustrations (I redid three, and within those three redesigned one).  I also finished the layouts for the flats and re-ordered the looks.  In total there are ten.

My next steps are to scan in those three redone illustrations, and start mounting the fabric swatches and assembling the final thing!  Pretty exciting.  I also need to figure out a title.

Why is that part always so hard?

In other news, I hopped on the Tumblr bandwagon and started one for my own personal styles.  In it I post photos of things that inspire me personally, for what I would like to wear/exude as a fashionable person.  It is helping me really nail down my own style - something that for everyone is much harder to do than we think.  Hopefully it can inspire you as well, and maybe you will make one yourself!  Right now I am trying to limit it to fashion-only photos (which is hard .. there are so many food photos and house photos and bunny photos I want to post).  But, the point is that when I'm feeling stumped I can click through it and be inspired again.  I think I may also do a weekly Tumblr post for the blog, like a "photos of the week" type thing.  We will see.

Hope everyone had a lovely three day weekend!  I was lazy, and it was great (besides doing three illustrations, so I guess that's not really lazy).

More to come soon.

CFDA class project

For those of you still wondering if I exist ... I do!  The thing that has been robbing me of my free time lately has been our new design class, in which we design a well-considered collection complete with swatches, full illustrations, and an essay and submit it to the CFDA for a scholarship at the end of the quarter.  As you can see, a lot of work must go in to this project!

Here are some shots of the process work, and a couple explanations along the way:

 

My mess as it is currently consuming my bed, and my working color palette, inspired by the colors on a scan of a brain during a migraine.

Preliminary sketching

Wool jersey and alpaca yarn; inspirational palette of lilac-beige-grays

My knitting pattern charted out and in progress; a swatch of a variegated yarn that happened to match my palette

More color inspiration; watercolor print design based off of the brain scan

Sweater to be done in a kid lace, shown at right

My concept evolved around the migraine - tension, twisting, tightness, a wrapped up feeling.  Since knitwear is my passion, the collection will be of knits - I also found this fitting due to the way each loop is interlocked and interacting and when stretched, tension forms between each stitch - entrelac and cables will be featured in the designs as well, to further propel this idea of twisting, intertwining, knots and tension. 

Stay tuned for illustrations!

2 days left to vote for my design! Want to see me on Ellen?

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to remind you that you still have today and part of tomorrow to vote for my t-shirt design here.  Just vote "Rachel".  I am the first contestant listed.  You may also vote once a day.

The events for the 10 finalists begin tomorrow.  We will be staying at the Empire Hotel in the Upper West Side, and I will finally get to meet my 9 competitors.  Yesterday they sent us flip cams to record "confessional" style documentation of us packing and talking about our design, so this is what I will be doing today.  I will upload it once it is finished! 

Wednesday we will get to visit the CFDA Fashion Incubator, a space used to foster up and coming designers for 2 years with mentoring, to help them succeed.  Then we will attend the Anna Sui fashion show!! 

Thursday morning begins with hair and make up (any suggestions?) and then at 1:00 we will gather on the terrace of the hotel for the announcement of the winner!  I am already so nervous just thinking about the final seconds leading up until the reveal - I could not sleep last night very well!  That day will conclude with meeting the CFDA members and a Q&A with Chris Benz.

If I win this competition, my t-shirt will be produced and sold in a 5 day flash sale from September 14th - 19th on eBay, along with the 6 accompanying designer t-shirts designed for vitaminwater as well. 

Another amazing piece of this competition is that the winner will be flown out Saturday to LA for ... THE ELLEN SHOW. 

If you would like to see me on the Ellen show, feel free to vote for my design and help support my dream of starting a line out of college!  The $5,000 scholarship granted to the grand prize winner will be an amazing jump start to my figuring out my future. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far; if you would like to repost I will be more than happy to do a post for you in the future. 

(I am so jittery just imagining what it would be like to walk onto the set of Ellen!!!)

xx
Rachel

CFDA VOTING - vote for my design and help me win a scholarship!

Hey everyone!  The time has finally come for voting to open up on Vitaminwater's Facebook page.  You can vote for my design by visiting the link below:

Color collection voting

If you would like to support my dream of starting a line, you can vote once a day for the next two weeks.  It only takes a minute, and you only need an email address to vote (so you can vote if you aren't on Facebook, I believe.)  It would mean so much to me!  Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far!

Rachel

CFDA competition finalist

Do you remember my post back in the spring about the CFDA vitaminwater "color collection" design competition?

I got a phone call today while at work that I am one of the 10 finalists!!

In 19 days, voting will open up on the vitaminwater Facebook page.  I'll post again to remind everyone when the voting is up - but dear readers and followers (that are on Facebook), if you would like to help out and vote for me it would be amazing!  The grand prize winner has their shirt produced along with the 6 other top designers' designs, and a $5,000 scholarship.

Since concentration was scarce today (big news is very distracting) I daydreamed a lot about what I would do with $5,000 dollars if I were gifted that opportunity. 

A Superior Model Form in a size 6 (best brand on the market); $525

This would definitely be the big thing.  And I think I'd stick the rest right into savings - and use it for my senior thesis collection fabric (which shouldn't put much of a dent in it at all), and then save the rest for starting up a line after I graduate.   This would be such an incredible start to a business - so often money is what holds a lot of designers back, or causes them to fail.

If you would like to support my dream, stay posted for when I announce the date that voting opens.  I'll include the link and it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds to help me out!

I am so excited!

However, whether I win the scholarship and design or not, all 10 finalists get to go to Fashion Week for a two-night stay in NYC with a friend (I'm bringing my mom!  It's gonna be an awesome few days!).  This will be unbelievably inspiring!!

vitaminwater CFDA contest submission

vitaminwater and the CFDA (council of fashion designers of America) are hosting a contest for vitaminwater's "color collection" of t-shirts.  Six designers have already created shirt designs, but they are allowing submissions for the seventh!  Since DAAP is a CFDA-selected school, I thought I'd take a shot at this.

 

I was asked to put together a mood board showcasing my inspiration.  The flavor I chose to work with was "drive", a blood orange and mixed berry water.  I was particularly in love with the label, which as you can see above is bright orange and royal blue.  Since complementary colors are big for spring 2012 (and I'm loving orange and blue right now), I played up the color combo in my design.  And because the brand I am representing sells water, I designed my colors to look as though they were painted with watercolor paints, and used water droplets to capture the essence of the product further.  I have always admired vitaminwater for their simple logo and its beautiful sense of balance, so I kept my design centered and linear with clean edges.  I hope my design captures the brand identity while still maintaining my own design aesthetic, and that it shows a creative abstraction of a recognizable product.

I needed to submit a flat of the design on a white t-shirt (the design could be on the front or back, but not both), and then a croquis version of the design.  Both were done using a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet (love), and the actual shirt design was done in Photoshop CS3 (I know, I know).  And I am very proud of those water droplets.  

For a t-shirt, this is definitely something I would wear, so I hope that it strikes a chord with the judges for being a unique graphic representation of my inspiration.  If not, I had a lot of fun doing it and I learned how to make water droplets in Ps!  So it's still a winning experience.  The winner will get $5,000 and a two-day trip to New York City with a guest, to see their shirt produced and showcased at NY Fashion Week (September 8th -15th - WOOHOO for being down there anyway!), and to watch a few fashion shows as well!  Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.  I can't remember if you can vote for your favorite designs - I think you can - but that won't be til September.  Wish me luck!

Oh, and we had to include a head shot (they said it is so they can see what the next big designer looks like!).  If you want to see which one I picked, it's the one I'm now using in my "about" section.