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.

Upside Dive at 269 Queen Street East in Toronto is currently featuring my Trash Fusion paillette dress in their window.  So if you ever wanted to get a closer look at every little piece of plastic ephemera that I singlehandedly stitched, one by one, you should take a stroll down Queen Street East sometime in the next week or so and visit the shop.

Thanks so much Mike for kindly offering to give my effort in recycled fashion such a well appointed home for a couple weeks!

There’s lots of stuff to look at at Upside Dive – kitschy knicknacks, handsome housewares, vintage vestures for ladies and gentlemen, and soft spoken sibling shopkeepers.  Check out their blog for a taste.

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.

This past weekend that I took my latest sewing project, the paillette dress for the Trash Fusion show in Barrie (as seen here, here, etc) to be judged.  I also got my brother, Jake, to take some photos.  Thanks so much Jake for the hospitality and the great photos!  My family was all there, including my Oma and Opa, and I am so glad that they were.

All of the entries were so lovingly crafted.  There were a lot of talented designers in the tent (it was raining), all with very different takes on the contest brief.  You can click any of the photos in this post to see them a bit bigger.  I especially liked the coffee-filter dress (second from left, above), I thought that this designer showed a great use of “trash”.  Some of the designers were teenagers, most were fashion students, and all of them exhibited a tremendous level of work.

Here is a little video of the final procession.

The winner was the big showboat float white dress made of (apparently unused?) paper towel.  Second prize went to the colourful doily mini-dress made out of shoelaces (with a jaunty matching beret) and third went to a previous winner of Trash Fusion Milton, a truly incredible post-apocalyptic tribal dress made out of busted inner tubes and scrap wire.

I’m not going to lie – I get competitive and I would have loved to get a prize, and I am very proud of my dress and I still think it was the best one.  I think it looks incredible on the body and in movement from far away, and close up viewers are delighted to see all the printed ephemera, consumer brands and logos, it is almost Warholian.  I received a lot of positive feedback, and the best was from my 2 year old niece who said my dress was “gorgeous” – so priceless.

You can see the winning entries for yourself from all three Trash Fusion events at The Rage in Kensington from June 15 to July 15.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed and supported this little project, and thanks to Jane Haselgrove for all her hard work putting the Trash Fusion contest together.

It is neat to get to show off a recent freelance project – a new business, MAVEN, asked me to come up with an illustration concept for their website.  I am pleased with how the illustrations were incorporated into the website design by Parade Creative – click on all the different menu options to see variations on the figures tailored to each category.  Thanks so much Erin and Marni for being great clients!

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.

What a thrill to get to work with Juan Carlos of Magnolia to create an exclusive paper doll, and an even bigger thrill to blow up the doll 800% to create a window display!  We had an intimate little party last night, made a little smaller by torrential rain, and so I freely enhanced the picture above to give you a sense of how the window really looks… below is the non-enhanced version.

Its fun, you can get a peek under her Carrie dress as you walk towards the shop.

I spent the evening cutting out paper dolls and chatting with some of my favourite people – above this is Carrie Hayes, who designed the dress the doll wears in the window.  If you visit Magnolia, you will find books, giclee prints, and laser prints of the dolls for sale, so you too can cut out and play with designer paper dolls.  The exclusive Magnolia doll herself is a gift-with-purchase – and since her wardrobe is inspired by the spring merchandise, you can choose a matching item for yourself if you like.

Thank you to all our brave friends who didn’t let the rain stop them from coming to share the night with us.

Here I am, visiting Magnolia the doll in her window while my party is in full swing.  The window will be up for the month of June, if you are in Toronto you should go visit the shop and take a closer look!  These photos (except for the top two) are all by Raymund Galsim.  Thanks Raymund!

Big thank yous and hugs to Juan Carlos and Magnolia for such an amazing project!

So, in between many other things (Where is this week going? Ack!), I have been diligently diving into recycling boxes and picking up trash on the street, plus picking up donations from generous readers. And… washing each item, cutting them into hundreds of paillettes, punching holes in each paillette, and stitching each paillette one by one on to my entry for the Trash Fusion design contest. Curious?  You can see some previous updates here and here.

The main event, a fashion show, is happening in Barrie, a town on a lake north of Toronto.  My brother lives there, so I think it is a neat opportunity to show my family (and my 2 year old niece) some fashion.  I’ve decided to model my own dress to keep the logistics simple. I am getting a hair cut from Greg May Hair just for the occasion, my first haircut since I resolved to grow my hair long. I plan on enjoying the modeling experience, it might be the last time I ever do it.

If you are in Barrie on June 12, you can come and see me walk the runway – a rare event. Check out the Ecofest Barrie site for more info.

When it comes to fashion design projects, like this one for the Trash Fusion contest in Barrie, I tend to resist beginning them.  The usual ennui – fear of how long it will take, fear that my idea which looks so great in my head will end up looking ridiculous once executed.  Then, once I get started, and I get into it, the project becomes more about delight – delight with discovery, excitement to see how it will turn out.  Until the end of the project, when usually it begins to feel like an obligation, a job I must see through to the end if only to make all of the hours I’ve already put in worthwhile.

The little a-line dress, sewn from some leftover, slightly stained muslin, a cheap acetate lining, and of course an invisible zipper and one of the 1000 “Final Fashion” labels I had woven up for my grad collection in 2006 (of which I have used about 20 so far).  I didn’t have to go shopping for any of these things, everything was in my stash, so hopefully they won’t disqualify my entry as being composed of “trash”.  I drafted the pattern from scratch, cut and sewed it in just a few hours.  It is just a canvas for the really tricky bit…

Applying, one by one, by hand, small plastic paillettes.  The paillettes are made from a variety of objects that my scissors and hole punch can snip and punch, again, one by one.  Above you can see food containers, old library cards, student cards, and metrocards, pieces of red plastic beer cups, and so on.  I’m not applying these in any particular order or colour palette, letting the pattern create itself of its own accord  – however to realize my vision, I have to cover the entire dress, front and back, with these little bits of things.  So, I am on a mission.

If you would like to donate your pieces of useless plastic, please get in touch!  I am truly excited with how this project is turning out – the pictures don’t do the texture of the paillettes justice – in person they move and make noise, and from far away look dynamic and pixelated, completely unlike trash, and up close they display little pictures and brand names, small treasures of found objects.

I am making a paillette dress out of re-used objects, and I’ll need a lot more plastic for this before I finish.  Which is why I thought I would put a call out there for anyone who wants to donate their useless plastic objects for a fashion design project.  These objects will be cut up into small rectangular paillettes, so the plastic needs to be that fairly flexible, easy-to-snip with scissors kind.  I am particularly looking for coloured plastics, and not clear plastic unless it is coloured.  Laminated paper doesn’t work.  Here’s what works:

• larger plastic containers (especially coloured ones), for instance, ginger ale bottles, yoghurt containers, old shampoo bottles, etc. etc.
• flat plastic cards and objects – i.e. old library cards, event passes, those stupid plastic gift cards for plastic surgeons, those flexible rulers that Telus gives away, scraps of acetate from old art projects, bits of old film, stuff with holograms on it !! etc. etc.

Got old plastic you can part with – especially downtown Toronto people? Or stuff that could easily be sent by mail?  Send me an email and we can figure out a way to get it to the studio.  Thank you!