I was invited to customize a pair of Brown’s shoes for the Frugal Fashion Week Gala at the Bata Shoe Museum on Friday. The shoes I received were bright red patent, just like the Dr. Martens I customized with Ashley Rowe. I wanted to try dripping instead of splattering and Ashley kindly indulged me in her studio.
She did a super-hot pair of boots which you just get a blurry peek of here. Want to see Ashley’s and so many other customized Brown’s shoes? Best blog friend Anita is also doing a pair, among others. Buy a ticket to the gala on Friday here.
Julian Roberts came en route from Kent State in New York to Ryerson University in Toronto this week to demonstrate his Subtraction Cutting technique. This is an event I have been lobbying for, for a long time, and thanks to Sandra Ericson of the Center for Pattern Design, Robert Ott, the Chair of the Ryerson School of Fashion, and Charanya Bala of Balanche Communications, my wish became reality this week. To say that it was a marvelous day would be a vast understatement. It was so much fun.
Julian cut a dress live, in front of us. The class was full of fashion design all-stars – Heidi Ackerman, John Hillifer, Adrienne Butikofer, Cristina Sabaiduc, and Canada’s own fashion fairy godmother, Linda Lundstrom, were all in attendance, among other students, teachers, and professional designers. The cohesion and enthusiasm of the class was obvious once we all cut our own dresses – there was a remarkable atmosphere of playfulness but also the cool sense of proficiency you get only when you are surrounded by talented people immersed in something they find fascinating.
This is Julian showing his dress on his assistant, Rachel.
I made my own dress out of a length of white bemberg lining and pink plaid sheer sparkle poly organza, intending to create something light which showed the inner seams to display some of the construction of the garment.
This is the “tunnel technique” where the dress is made of a long tube, through which the body passes in and out as if through a winding cave.
I also used the tunnel idea to create two more holes at the front and the back of the bodice, but just for the white linear effect, these holes are too small for the body to go through.
It was such a thrilling day, it was almost overwhelming – and just like that, it was over. Julian is now in Vancouver at Kwantlen, and then on to California. Thank you to Julian and everyone who made this day such a dream come true, and I hope very much that we can do it again.
I have received several generous donations of post-consumer plastic objects from readers for the paillette dress I am making for the Trash Fusion contest, and this latest one of Metrocards came with a cute illustration of me by NYC connection and arbiter of adorableness, Joi of Stereoette.
Joi has captured the essence of how I plan to walk the runway on Saturday at Ecofest Barrie, though I do plan on wearing (customized!) shoes. This week I am getting myself into top-model form, finishing hand-stitching every lovingly-snipped piece of plastic to the dress, making accessories, and otherwise anticipating what should be a very amusing/slightly nerve-wracking Saturday. The big reveal of the finished dress on the blog will come next week – hopefully with video because this dress has to be seen moving.
At this late stage, the project has reached a point of absurdity – no matter what, making something like this is a slightly ridiculous way to spend time. Making physical things is a tremendous amount of effort compared to working with pixels, and there is always the risk that it won’t turn out. Yet nothing is quite as satisfying as making a physical thing either, so I am having fun with the experience, no matter what the results end up being.
Thank you to Rachael, Helen, and Joi for donating bits of plastic towards a new life as a swingy, kicky eco-paillette dress.
Now that Julian Roberts’ Subtraction Cutting Tour is coming to Toronto (June 14 & 15, get tickets here), I’ve given myself the challenge of persuading people that its a class well worth taking. Beyond this city, the tour is also making stops in New York, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Portland – so if you’re near any of those places this summer, this post is for you.
I met Julian online at the end of 2005, back when I was fairly active on The Fashion Spot. We were looking at some of his work, and me being the skeptical little troll that I used to be (sometimes still am), I posted something to the effect of “what’s so special about it?” – well, if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands you can read through the whole thread here. To my great surprise, and eventual delight, Julian found the thread and engaged the forum-dwellers in a discussion about his work, took the time to answer our questions, and successfully showed me what was so special about what he does.
Julian Roberts is a designer who is experimental both in how he develops his designs and also how he shows them. This video, called “killing labels” records highlights of his portfolio.
As someone who is obsessed with the transitional, ephemeral qualities of fashion (hence, Final Fashion and this site’s old subheader, the last collection) Julian’s act of killing labels inspires me. He captures the most exciting parts of the process – the creation, and the showing, and turns the act of being a fashion designer from a very pragmatic act of creating objects for sale into the very radical act of allowing fashion to be ideas, events and images and nothing else, eliminating all of the material aspects that weigh down the process, leaving only the physical act of designing. As someone who loves the act of design but has no desire to see my name on labels, Julian’s career showed me that it is possible to design outside of the boundaries of the existing industry, to celebrate and share fashion as action rather than as a commodity.
Subtraction Cutting is one of the techniques that Julian uses to create, and the one that he is teaching on this tour. It is difficult to describe, so I would like to compare it to life drawing, or those creative writing exercises where the student is encouraged to write within parameters, but without planning. Its an exercise that boils down the act of designing, cutting, and sewing a garment into something that is fast and free, uninhibited and playful.
This is a technique that even those who have never sewn before can easily dive into, and those of us who are trained in traditional ways of doing things can recapture the original sense of wonder and discovery that first attracted us to designing.
Plus, Julian is just a very generous, candid dreamer of a professor, the kind of professor who you will always remember, and that comes across in the conversation I had with him.
This class will be a tremendous, transformative treat for anyone who loves to make things. I invite you to come and share this experience with me. Please buy a ticket – Julian and I would love to see you there!
Expect to hear a lot about this from me, because I have been a fan of Julian Roberts since 2006 and am so hyped that he is bringing his Subtraction Cutting classes to my fashion school – Ryerson University in Toronto – and also across North America!
Julian Roberts Subtraction Cutting Tour. This June, at Ryerson University.
WHO: Julian Roberts
WHAT: North American Subtraction Cutting Tour – New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Portland, Oregon!
WHEN: June 14th & 15th
WHERE: Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.
WHY: To support the Master of Arts (MA) degree in Fashion commencing Fall 2010
Curious? Julian’s website is open on Wednesdays, so mark it in your day planner and get a peek of what is coming across the Atlantic. If you are into playing with techniques and experimenting outside the conventions of traditional fashion design, you will love this.
He’s captured me pretty well in this illustration wearing the jacket in this post. I like how his style has an animated quality. Thanks so much Corey for an unexpected portrait.
Today I received the most wonderful package in the mail: a hand knitted sweater by my marvelous internet friend, Nadia Lewis. Nadia and I had negotiated an exchange – I created a watercolour fashion figure for her and she created this beautiful garment for me.
It is exactly as I requested – shorter sleeves, longer body, soft yarn. And well worth the wait – if anything it is perfectly timed as the weather only recently turned wintry here. Thank you so much Nadia for all your hard work.
Thanks to Final Fashion sponsor LIV by Au Lit, I had a wonderful opportunity to invite 20 of my favourite fashion friends – writers, bloggers and stylists – to celebrate the beginning of the winter holiday season with wine and cupcakes and check out all the goods at LIV. This is the second sponsored event I’ve done in the intimate, casual spirit of my old series of networking brunches, TFBB.
Here I am looking as festive as I’ll ever get!
I love being a connecter of people – I tried to invite a mix of good pals from the TFBB days and newer friends that I’d like to get to know better – and of course people I think would like to meet eachother. I also tried to pick people I knew would love LIV’s chic, friendly style and the vintage-inspired jewelry of featured designers Edmoure Ralph. All while keeping the event small enough to be intimate. I’m lucky to have the enviable problem of knowing way too many awesome people so putting together the guest list was a happy challenge.
The girls of Fashion In Motion showing off some ornaments.
Kimberly of The Soul of my Shoes and Ashley Bartlett of She Does the City. Marta of With Love… was also at the event taking photos for LIV’s blog, I was a bit too absorbed with introductions and conversations to get many good shots so I can’t wait to see Marta’s pics.
LIV’s owner Joanna Goodman and I at the end of a lovely evening.
Thanks everyone who came! It was so much fun to see you all. Roll call:
So you may have noticed my fancy new second sidebar on the far right, constructed with geeky help from geekigirl. This is a place for me to try some new things out. Since January, I have been putting a lot more effort into the blog. It has been bringing me a lot of new energy and traffic and opportunities – a lot of work but totally worth it.
From Google Analytics, I know that there are many of you as far as I am concerned – there is usually about 400 unique visitors daily – but as far as advertisers are concerned, those numbers are insignificant. Final Fashion is just a tiny slice of a giant fashion blog demographic – and from an advertising point of view, not particularly useful. You are all too smart to click on advertising, and for the most part you are not consumers; you are creators.
The survey results confirmed it – Final Fashion readers are amazing. Many of you work in the fashion industry or the media, have your own businesses, are going to school, or have your own fashion blogs, and you are all characterized by a sense of curiousity and creativity – and influence. All of you are the greatest reason for me to put my best efforts into the site.
I have discovered that when I do put energy into the site, it comes back to me in surprising ways. The fact that I can make a living doing what I love is a credit to all of the good people I have met through this site. You are all an incredibly supportive community and deserve better than Adsense. So now that I am trying to come up with a way to use that second sidebar, I’ve decided to try something different.
Sponsorship. This word implies a lot more than just advertising. Here’s the deal:
Developing Final Fashion has helped me build a network and a small business, and I feel that this energy can also benefit other, like-minded businesses in the same way.
Many of my readers are also entrepreneurs who are looking for inexpensive ways to promote what they are doing to the people who matter, and many of them don’t have the time to develop a blog to this level of engagement. Final Fashion needs a sponsorship program that is flexible enough for bootstrapping entrepreneurs like myself to get in on it.
Sponsorship will also be tied in with what I do – all of the sponsor badges will be custom-illustrated by myself. That’s right – if you’re into being a sponsor, you’ll get your own custom illustration to use online for a very reasonable rate.
I want to know my sponsors personally – I would like them to be a part of my working life and be a part of the blog. Sponsors will be selected as carefully as I select my clients. That sponsorship is going to affect blog content is a given – so I would like to take it further and really open up the blog to those who are willing to invest in it. Sponsors will get one post a month, in the same spirit as all of my posts – candid, personal and direct. Up front, sponsors will also get some preferential treatment when it comes to referrals and posts – quid pro quo. Sponsors will also be expected to put some of their own effort and ideas into the site to get the most out of the program.
When explaining what I am trying to do with sponsorship on Final Fashion, I want people to think of it more like PR than advertising – just more direct, more authentic… and cheaper.
Any time you try something for the first time, it is a risk. This whole sponsorship deal might work out the way I envision it, or it may turn into something different. I feel incredibly lucky that Fashion Crimes has agreed to be a test case for sponsorship. They are a Queen Street West institution full of pretty dresses, a great client – and gutsy enough to take a risk on an untested idea here. My main contact there, manager Crystal Rickard, has agreed to let me take the lid off of the inaugural sponsorship so everyone can get a chance to see what it is and how it works out.
If you have any questions or suggestions for the sponsorship program, please drop me a comment here. If you want to see the sponsorship rate card and ask questions about how it works, please email me here.
