Taking It to the Blog

It's probably not obvious to anyone but me, but I have slacking on my posts. Working on my portfolio is taking up all of my time but now that I've been making tons of progress I actually enjoy working on it. As of right now we're in Week 8 and my entire portfolio including designed business cards and leave behinds are due in two weeks. I've finished quite a few boards and just have to add the final touches to them. Right now I'm mostly focusing on my technical boards and I'll soon be making a trip to Pacific Fabric in Northgate to buy my fabric swatches for each line.

Last week the tutor in my Portfolio class was helping a fellow student out with starting her website and while said student was working, Kristin, the tutor, noticed that I was having trouble learning how to use Adobe Photoshop. Alena is a good teacher and helped me a lot with the program but it was a little like the blind leading the blind (since she's new at it too) so I was really glad when Kristin asked if I needed any help. What I was trying to do is fairly simple; to make my boards have some sort of continuity between all the different lines I decided to put a frame around each technical and concept picture that coincides with each line's main theme. Alena taught me how to outline the frame and make it so I could put a picture behind it but Kristin helped me with how to use all the different layers and really do exactly what I was thinking in my head, which has made my portfolio really come together.

Now that I've got those necessary Photoshop skills down along with those in Illustrator I've been gaining some serious momentum on my entire portfolio. So much that I've sort of neglected the fact that I need to design a business card and leave behind along with planning out gifts for employers as if I was really graduating. While I know my "company" is going to be Chelsea Purcella Designs, I still want my business card to revolve around the whole Mad Girl theme with my logo being what reflects that. I'm currently working on designing some sort of girl pouting and figuring out the format for the actual layout of the business card.

Something else I've been working on, that I mentioned in my first post, is applying for scholarships and internships. I've applied for a couple scholarships through my Dad's union, one of which I actually won a couple years ago, so hopefully I've got a shot this time around. Also, in February I attended Magic, which is one of the largest apparel trade shows in the industry. And while exploring the Green (read: environmentally friendly) section we ran into a Seattle based company called Alchemy Goods. They make messenger bags for bicyclists and other accessories that are made out of recycled bike inner tubes. My teacher, Karin, exchanged business cards with the woman we talked to so she could send us opportunities for internships. Just within that last two weeks Karin was contacted about an internship they had for marketing and gave me the information about it. She helped me spruce up my resume and we sent it off to them. While the internship is for marketing, as opposed to design, I think it's going to be a really valuable learning experience. What I am really excited about though is that Alchemy Goods focuses on accessories, which is something I'd like to do later in my fashion design career and I'm all about getting my foot in the door anywhere I can.

As you can see, my life has been pretty busy since I'm juggling a full class load, a part-time job and trying to maintain some sort of personal/ social life. So if everything goes as planned, I'll get scholarship money and be able to cut my hours at Urban Outfitters so I can intern and make my life that much easier.

On a final note, I was walking home from the Folklife festival with my friend Anthony today and I was telling him how I thought it was a little pathetic that I was really excited to be at school all day tomorrow (on a day I don't even have class) just to work on patterns and boards. That was when he pointed out that that wasn't a pathetic thing at all because it means I love what I do. Good point.

Jelly, Jelly, Jelly Time!

Lately, I've been going window shopping in Nordstrom to do a little trend research for myself and for a little design inspiration. What I've been noticing, not only when I go shopping but also when I scour my fashion magazines, is that jelly sandals are making a comeback.

The first time I noticed them I was shopping with my friend, fellow fashion designer and blogger, Eunice. We were admiring the designer shoes when we, inevitably, walked to the Chanel and saw black jelly flip flops with a big white flower on top. My immediate reaction was "Oh, that's just Karl Lagerfeld for you..." But a few weeks later, I missed my bus so I walked into Nordstrom to kill some time. Again, I walked by the shoes and some Tory Burch flats caught my eye. When I got closer I saw that they were jelly flats! That was when I realized that this was no wacky Karl Lagerfeld reinvention.


Then just a few days ago I was reading the Spring 2009 V magazine and came across an advertisement for Melissa Plastic Dreams, a shoe company based out of Brazil that makes all of their shoes out of plastic.


While doing a little more digging into the Melissa website, I saw that she has had an ongoing collaboration with one of the most infamous fashion designers around, Vivienne Westwood. It took me about three clicks to even notice that this shoe was a bi-product of Vivienne Westwood; what attracted me to the shoe was that it's red and blue and has a big heart on it! So not only does it include one of my favorite color combinations but this shoe also toes the line of fashion becoming Pop art, which serves as one of my main inspirations.

All in all, I'm really excited for these jelly sandals. They've slowly been making their way back into our summer wardrobes and now that they're being designed by the likes of Tory Burch and Karl Lagerfeld, it is much to my delight that I bust out my own.

Print Designs

One of the things I'm working on for my portfolio is a set of print designs. I am picking three different regions to take my inspiration from, and at the suggestion of one of my teachers, Karin, they'll all be designed with graffiti in mind. Lately, everything I see serves as inspiration, but graffiti especially, with the names Banksy and Shepard Fairey (of the Obey fame) coming to mind.

The first region I chose was Africa. The geometric shapes and patterns seemed very unique to that lo-cal and a great place to start in the realm of print design. Also, the masks used in tribal ceremonies serve as excellent inspiration.

Japan was next on my list of locations, mostly because it is home to one of the largest and well known fashion movements; Harajuku. Harajuku is a shopping and entertainment district in Tokyo and every Sunday young adults come to this area to socialize dressed in the style of Gothic Lolita.

The last place I picked was Mexico! I've very recently been obsessed with their literature and their language, but also with the unique embroidery that is often on traditional Mexican peasant dresses. The dresses I'm talking about are usually white with bright flowers stitched on the top half of the garment.


Each of these areas have such a distinct flavor that, really, I had no other choices than these. What is going to be difficult about designing these prints is deciding which aspects of each culture to illustrate and then render in Adobe Illustrator. I have a feeling that drawing out a rough sketch of each and scanning it to trace in Illustrator later will be my best bet. And it all begins tomorrow!

White House Correspondents' Dinner

In Washington D.C. this weekend, approximately 2,500 guests from the fashion, film, and political worlds graced the city with their presence. Historically, the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been an annual event since 1920 with the President himself, this year being my beloved Barack Obama, as the guest of honor. Wanda Sykes, the guest speaker, brought the jokes, but Michelle Obama brought the fashion.

For her first White House Correspondents' Dinner as First Lady, she opted for a fuchsia Michael Kors dress. She is an excellent example of how less really is more. Also from the fashion world was Donatella Versace, in a gold creation of her own. According to the Women's Wear Daily coverage, none of the attendees dressed in overly elaborate gowns, which I think reflects the state of the global economy but also shows how economics effect the fashion industry.

First Post!

It's time to celebrate! Well for me anyway. Just this past week, I've gotten really excited about starting a blog around the realm of fashion and how it relates to what I'm doing. And now I've decided to do it; albeit I really have no idea how to get my page to look quite how I would like it to, but that will be fixed soon enough.

As I type, this is my 7th quarter in college, so technically, I'm a junior. This quarter's class load is a little rough especially with the added responsibility of perfecting my portfolio within the next four weeks. I've decided to re-do every technical board in Adobe Illustrator, apply for an internship, two scholarships and enter the Report Shoe design contest, all while holding down my part-time job at Urban Outfitters.This week is all about finalizing my plan for getting everything done by the time grades are due and we are out for our three week summer break.

I already have three to four blog posts planned out, so stay tuned! Besides those posts, one thing I definitely want to do is keep my camera on me at all times and take pictures of people whose outfits inspire me in some way. Also, I want to try to pick out noteworthy clothing and accessories that coincide with my sense of design and post them here.

Everything will be worth your while, I swear!