Band of Outsiders Spring Lookbook

Before the holidays, my Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. It took me a few days to come up with exactly what I wanted aside from her mailing me some of my stuff from home and then it came to me: a Polaroid camera. Since then I've been taking it with me every time I explore a new place in New York or go to one of my favorite places. But anyway, my obsession with Polaroids goes on and when I saw that the new Band of Outsiders lookbook, featuring Kirsten Dunst, was taken in Polaroids I got very excited. Two of my favorite things: fashion and film!

The 3 RRR's

This past Friday was a culminating point in my fashion design existence; I had my very first photo shoot (EVER) and my senior collection was the subject at hand, plus a few garments that had never really been in front of the camera before. My FANTASTIC photographer AJ Ragasa does amazing work so I knew from the start it would be him to shoot my work. I also enlisted my equally talented friends Alexander Aesthetic and Jake Treat to do makeup and hair respectively, and the looks are modeled by Kaylee Petter and Christina Wu-Martin. The shoot took a little over 9 hours and I am so thankful for everyone there to help! This collection is designed for Spring/ Summer 2011 and I hope you enjoy seeing my work! (Please be aware that if you click on the photos below, they will become larger and clearer!)

This is the first delivery called Revelation. There is very little structure, lots of draped fabric and pastel colors.


The next delivery, Reformation, is all about illusions with fabric layering, cut-outs and bright colors matched with muted colors.


Revolution is all about the bright and metallic colors, structured silhouettes to the extreme with a serious Lady Gaga influence.

Art Institute of Seattle "Wear in the World" Fashion Show 2010

It wasn't until today that I a) had time to write a blog post and b) got the pictures from my school's "Wear in the World" fashion show. On March 11, students from our Fashion Department participated in the Art Institute of Seattle's annual student fashion show. Last year, all I entered were purses, but this year I entered the best garments I've made yet: two menswear outfits and a dress I like to call "the Circus Tent." Here are the photos below:

All pictures by J. Andrew Towell

Dear Blog, You Haven't Been Forgotten, Love Chelsea

Well, this must seem like an epic fail to my peers in the blogging community. I have been on Winter break for the past seventeen days and haven't written a single post. But it's a new year so here's a new post with a short recap of the last month and my plans for the next month.

Fall quarter finally ended much to the relief of my sanity. I finished out finals with a respectable 3.0 and finished my internship at Alchemy Goods as well. I've been gone from Alchemy for less than a month but I miss being there! It's like I have this extra chunk of time that I haven't had available to me for the past five months and I don't even know what to do with it. Sleep in? Do the dishes? WHAT?! The possibilities were and are truly endless.

Once finals passed by, I skipped town less than 24 hours later and went to New Mexico where I relaxed with my grandparents and ate and made some of the most fantastic Mexican food along with massive amounts of baked goods (which will be elaborated on the othah blog). The awesome thing about this trip was that I had time to detox from various things such as school and other things (heh), but my Grandma Geno also nursed my fashion needs with a simple task: shopping. I bought some awesome pieces including, but not limited to, some Rodarte from Target.

After eight glorious days in New Mexico, I got home to Seattle just in time to celebrate Christmas with my fam. I got a little Betsey, TONS of bath products, and Martha's Craft Encyclopedia (ya know, because we're on first name basis). And any money I got basically went to buying shoes and clothes, DUH.

Now that 2009 is over and 2010 (the year a I graduate college!) is upon us, here are the things in store for this blog. Many, MANY more outfit picture posts and more posts related to trends and inspiration I like. I was also presented with a spectacular opportunity maybe designing something for someone of a famous (!!!) nature, which will be elaborated upon later. Also, I've decided to write my blog in a way that more represents my real voice and attitude: my sarcasm and complete annoyance with most things around me, in my own unique, funny sense of detachment.

Something small, yet oddly enough FASHION related, I have to offer my readers who are perhaps bored enough have even read through this entire post is In Style's List of the 100 Best Dresses of the Decade. Here's one of my favorites:

Kate Hudson in Valentino in 2003

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a BIG fan of Valentino. This dress is a little off the beaten path of what he normally designed, as I had no idea he even designed anything without beading, feathers and/or sequins.

Happy New Decade!

Weekend Update

Again I've been a little M.I.A. but in my defense, midterms were a little crazy. Wanda is loading the homework on us in both of the classes I have with her, the Gerber system for computer pattern drafting still isn't working, and my marketing class is sort of obnoxious.

But even besides that it's been a bit of a high stress environment at Alchemy Goods where I intern. For the past couple months I've been prototyping something (I'm not exactly sure if I can mention it on here since it's not yet in production and I signed a confidentiality agreement) and I've been working on the bill of materials, or more lovingly known as the BOM for us fashion designers. Every company does theirs differently but it's even more complicated when you're working not only in yardage but in inches as well.

My mind has also been filling up with ideas from numerous sources of inspiration like Day of the Dead, Clue the Movie, Plush You! and that's just the start. I am also going to be extremely busy over Winter Break because I plan to open my Etsy store and start my line of menswear for the Art Institute's fashion show in March. And last week I learned how to screen print (pictures to come) from one of my friends through Fuel Magazine, David Gallo.

So I have a bunch of posts in mind, I'm going to try and focus more time on menswear posts and I have a lot of outfit posts in mind which I hope to take care of next weekend. But with how my procrastination is going on this Sunday evening, you may even get a post out of me tonight but no promises!

U-District Visit

A month and a half ago (I'm big on procrastinating, what can I say?), I was on my break between Summer and Fall quarter so I made my way up to the U-District to see one of my very best friends that I've known since middle school, Shelley. We went out to lunch where she ate and I just drank some Horchata (yum!) and then to Haagen-Dazs to get some ice cream for me! It was a beautiful windy Fall day and the perfect temperature to walk up and down the Ave. A few streets over, I made Shelley take an outfit picture of me and then I thought it would be a cute idea to take an outfit picture of her too, to show how the styles between people differ and work well on that respective person. Here's the results:

On me (left):
Faux Leather Jacket: H&M
Red Shirt: Target
Pinstripe Jeans: Gap
Boots: Urban Outfitters
Purse: Harajuku Lovers from Macy's

On Shelley (right):
Hoodie: Marshalls
Husky Shirt: Vintage
Jeans: Old Navy
Belt: Thrifted
Converse: Nordstrom Rack
Helmet: Bell
Backpack: REI

Photoshoot!

At the beginning of this quarter, I decided that I wanted some cool pictures taken of me for this blog and I am just now getting around to putting them up... two months later. Better late than never is my new motto!

Modeling turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated! I had watched America's Next Top Model for years (before getting sick of Tyra Banks' ego) and wondered why some of those girls just couldn't take a good picture. But it is not about smiling and looking pretty. You have to get the perfect angle so it doesn't make you look like you're missing a limb or something.

Above: In the Art Institute's Photography Studio.

Dress: Betsey Johnson's Vintage Re-issue
Leggings: Target
Shoes: Delicious

Hair and Make-up: Jake Treat

These three pictures were pretty much the only three that came out but that was enough for me! Standing in heels on a concrete floor for an hour or so is not my gig. But not only do I now have a cool profile picture, I can upload them to Lookbook.nu, and use them as outfit pictures on here!

My Trip to New York

A few months ago, my Grandma Merrell called me and left a voicemail saying "Hey Chelsea's voicemail, it's Grandma, I just wanted to know if you wanted to come to New York with me for your Uncle Louie's wedding and I'll pay for everything. Gimme a call back and let me know." I got this message just a few minutes later and was screaming with excitement, as you can imagine. And I, of course, called back immediately accepting this once in a lifetime offer.

So August 5th through the 8th I went to mecca, a.k.a. New York, New York. The purpose of the trip was to go to the wedding but how can anyone expect a fashion design student to be focused solely on family activities when in the Big Apple for four days?

Grandma and I flew into JFK around 5PM EST. We took two different subways into Manhattan and got to our hotel and checked in around 7PM. Fast forward an hour or two and I was on a subway uptown to hang out with my cousin Geena. We decided to catch another subway back downtown and ended up chain smoking throughout Times Square, just taking in the sights.

Above: Outside the Virgin Records store in Time Square.
Dress: Mac & Jac (Macy's)
Shoes: Vans (Urban Outfitters)

The next day we caught a cab to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The wedding was very intimate and very beautiful. How could it not be in a place like that?! Anyway, it followed 8AM Mass, so after the reception we took our tired selves back to our respective hotels for a cat nap and met up again that afternoon to walk around Central Park. The rest of our family got preoccupied with some guy and his collection of hula hoops, so while they were busy, Geena and I headed over to one of the park's many large rocks for a smoke or two. There we met some guys and one of them, Justin, had five passes his Mom scored from work and took us to the Museum of Modern Art. The art was amazing, to say the very least, and hanging out with three cute guys didn't suck either. On our way back to Geena's hotel, we walked through Central Park again and found a charming little bridge.

Above: Somewhere in Central Park.
Dress: Pinkerton (Anthropologie)
Shoes: Rainbow Sandals

The next day, Geena, Carly (her sister and my cousin), my Grandma and I went shopping all across town including Mood Fabrics, Canal Street, and Century 21 (a discount designer department store). I bought some amazing fabrics for my upcoming line, Valentino and Balenciaga knock-off bags and a little white dress. The last day we were there, Geena, my Grandma and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because I wanted to see the Costume Institute. Let me tell you now, that if you plan on going to the Costume Institute in the next two years, don't, because it's closed for the next two years. However I did get to the see the Model as Muse exhibit which was just as well.

Above: Outside the Model as Muse exhibit at the Met.

The wedding was amazing, Grandma had a ton of fun being shown around the sites (she hadn't been to New York in fifty or so years), we shopped 'til we dropped, and got to see all the art I had could have ever dreamed of. I'd have to say it was a very successful trip!

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!