1.5.2009

hmm...the past 2 weeks have been a bit of a blur.  since most of the decorating on the first floor has been completed, my parents decided to host not one, not two, but THREE holiday parties: one for my mother's friends, one for her business partners, and one for my father's employees.  and guess who was left to in charge of most of the preparations?  yours truly, of course.  don't get me wrong, i LOVE to host.  and because my parents are both slight workaholics, i was happy to help out.  i guess i just underestimated how much work it would be.

anyway, i must apologize to those i have neglected these last couple of weeks, including this blog.  as promised, here are the scans of both my yves saint laurent and my celebrity day-to-evening dress collections.  the scans came out a little dark, and i tried my best to get them back to how the originals were.

YVES SAINT LAURENT FALL/WINTER SUIT & COAT COLLECTION, inspired by french pirates:

a bit difficult to see the lapel details on this one

originally, i wanted to render this one with a glen plaid pattern but i ran out of time on the project

my personal favorite of the bunch

brown leather-backed toggle coat in red double cashmere with embroidered trim

DAY-TO-EVENING DRESS COLLECTION, for natalie portman:

my least favorite of the bunch--satin and lamé 3 panel dress

my favorite of the bunch--shantung and wool knit dress with tucks on sleeves

double wool crepe dress with flare effect in double charmeuse

a bit difficult to see the silver in the netting on this one--black and silver netting over black satin 

you may recognize this as one of the losing candidates for my term garment in another class.  i felt this one fit quite well with miss portman's style so i used it here--navy wool crepe dress with deep cowl back

let me know what you guys think.  i'll leave you with my spring schedule and the music video to what has been the most popular song in korea for the past 4 months.  i seemingly heard it playing in the background almost everywhere i went in new york this past semester.  i particularly like the 1960s motown feel to the video...

SPRING 2009:

nobody - wonder girls:

but they can never take away our FREEDOM...

i finished my first semester of fashion school last thursday and i've been sleeping a lot since.  at one point i didn't sleep for almost 48 hours last week.  it was fun.  if i were to summarize my semester in FOUR words, i would say this:

i learned a lot.

...about fashion design, about the fashion industry, about myself and what i want for my life, and about how all that fits into what God wants for my life.

fashion design is HARD but REWARDING.  you'll often spend many hours working on a single garment until you get the fabric to do exactly what you want.  it's both fun but extremely frustrating. there are so many things to consider when designing and constructing even one garment, not to mention a whole collection. designers are thinkers.  even the most talented ones have to give their collections a lot of thought--it doesn't just come to you. i hope it becomes easier the more you do it though because i don't like the amount of time i currently have to devote to it.

like anything else, success in the fashion industry depends more on HARD WORK than TALENT, which is why i have a problem with celebrity designers: they have no talent and they don't work hard. a travesty, really.  generally, most people in the industry aren't as snobby as hollywood likes to portray them (i.e. zoolander and the devil wears prada).  although meryl streep's character in the devil wears prada is based on the real-life editor-in-chief of vogue, anna wintour, who they say is indeed as crazy as the film depicts.  i find that people like her however, are the minority. though some of the most famous designers may look crazy because of the way they dress (i.e. karl lagerfeld), i hear that they're actually rather nice people.  i guess that means i need to be nicer.

i want to eventually have my own CLOTHING LINE that is managed using Godly business practices.  i want a FAMILY.  i think being a Godly PARENT is potentially one of the most noble things humanity can aspire to.  i want to live and work in LONDON.  i think these are some of my more realistic goals.

i also want to be knighted by the queen of england, but that one's a little iffy.  wouldn't it be cool though if everyone had to address me as SIR FRED?  haha.

ultimately however, nothing is of more importance than the things of the Kingdom.  as humans, our values and the self restraint to live by these values is what sets us apart from the animals.  as Christians, biblical values are what makes us salt and light in our dark world.  in times of economic downturn, in times of war, in times of uncertainty, God is the only constant we have.  i just pray that i may be given the grace to live at all times like one who has been saved.

i'll try to post photos/scans of some of my work soon.

without self restraint, we are but animals; without God we are but dust.

crunch time...

i'm back!  or perhaps more accurately, my internet's back after being out for about a week, which you would think would be good for my productivity, but it wasn't.  in fact, i got almost nothing done this break.  i don't know how i'm going to get all my projects done in time, other than not sleeping for the next 3 weeks.  here's my to-do list:

things i have to make:

1. evening garment

2. suit jacket

3. 2 blouses and 2 skirts

things i have to design (illustrate):

1. 5-piece celebrity day-to-evening dress collection (my chosen celebrity is, of course, natalie portman)

2. a small collection for my computerized design class, which i haven't gotten the details of the assignment yet

thus, updates to this blog may become short and sparse over the next few weeks.  i'll leave you with these 2 great videos before i head to the studio...

a rather sexy arrangement of stand by me:

and highlights from one of my favorite fashion shows in the past 2 years (embedding was disabled on this one, so you'll have to actually click on the link):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFeVhYJ28j0

the fastest...

year of my life...sigh...

you need something to sell...

now this could be anything.  it could be a thingamajig.  or a whosi-whatsi.  or...a "whatchamacallit." now, you need to sell those in order to have a "payday."  and if you sell enough of them, you will make "100 grand."  satisfied? [holds up a snickers bar]

hello!  it feels like it's been so long.  school is really picking up now with our term garments and such and this past weekend was probably the busiest of the semester so far but i love it.  other than the evening dress that i'm making, i'm really excited about this project i'm doing on yves saint laurent, the premise of which is that i've been hired by a top fashion house as creative director and my first task as such is a small fall suit and coat collection (3 suits, 1 coat).  we were given a choice of designer from a short list of about 12 top designers who established their names before 1960, including saint laurent, dior, balenciaga, givenchy, chanel, courreges, james galanos, charles james, bonnie cashin, adrian, claire mccardell, norman norell, and pierre cardin.  these were essentially the best of the best back then and even now some of them are still revered for their contributions to fashion.  anyway, the project is progressing quite nicely and i look forward to posting scans of the collection when i'm done.

i hate outlining my sketches in black pen so you can see the lines when i put marker over them.  it's so nerve-racking that hold my breath when i do it.  i sometimes wonder what if...i got so into it...that i passed out...wouldn't that be the funniest thing you've ever heard?

i'm also close to choosing a church: either redeemer or a small church called trinity grace.  i problem is that i like both very much.  although i like prefer the worship style at trinity grace, the sermons at both churches have been relevant and engaging. trinity grace's congregation is on average much younger, which i'm not sure yet if that's a good thing for me or not.  hmm...a difficult but good dilemma to have i suppose.  i could theoretically go to both, since trinity grace meets at 7 in the evening, which still feels strange to me actually...

on a more sober note, i was reminded this week of the terrible consequences of sacrificing your family for your career.  not that i ever intended to do that.  but good intentions don't always welcome the best outcomes, which concerns me.

i'll leave you with a peek at what i do on a day-to-day basis:

psalm 40:16

but may all who seek you

    rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

             always say,

    "the LORD be exalted!"

and the winner is...

dress no. 4!

oh and barack obama too...

thanks for voting!  but let's not start the celebrations just yet...