Sheer Style

I just finished my last day interning at Sheer Style yesterday and it is very bittersweet for me to leave there! It's a small design business based out of Seattle but we've had and have some high profile clients that we work with. I started there in April of this year and really learned a lot about the whole design and manufacturing process which I feel has given me enough knowledge to enter the fashion industry with confidence. My friend Shannon offered me the position and I am forever grateful because of everything I learned. But while I was there we were working with a brand called Society of LES and a vest that we (Shannon, Alyse and myself) worked on for them is in this month's issue of InStyle, something we were all very excited about and that I had to share with you! It's something I am VERY proud of so please enjoy!

R.I.P. Laptop

My laptop has (almost) officially kicked the bucket. For the past four months or so, probably longer, it has been freezing for no reason apparent to me. Has it been dropped a few times? Of course, I've had it for three years, but that doesn't make this any less upsetting.

I dragged my friend Anthony with me to University Village on Friday night to take my baby to the Apple Store and see if I could get it fixed. I knew the warranty was going to be up soon if it wasn't already, but this problem had to be solved regardless. So I take it in and the guy who helped me, Steve, has helped me at the Lynnwood store before so I just had a good feeling about this. The conclusion we come to is that we have no idea why it's freezing so it got sent out to be repaired because the equipment at this other place is more comprehensive. I also find out that my warranty had expired four days earlier, but Steve got a manager to override the expired warranty since I had brought my laptop in for the same problem before and since it was so close to the expiration date.

Now you may be wondering "why the hell is Chelsea explaining all this?" Well, me, without a laptop equals no for real blogging for a while. And once I get it back, I'll be making up for lost time, catching up on all the homework I couldn't do this weekend. Also, finals are coming up fast so blogging time will be taking a back seat. But I do think that finishing up this quarter and not totally failing is a legit reason.

More updates and posts as soon as possibláy!

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.

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!