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!

Tar-jay: Go International Part Deux

Holy crap. It's pretty rare that I get too entirely excited about Target's Go International line, but the fact that the next three designers are so freaking amazing... is just so FREAKING AMAZING! First up starting on December 20th we have Rodarte. See the outfits below:
April 25 through May 30 the next Go International designer is Zac Posen!!! Queue the choir of angels PUH-LEASE! The only thing better could be Marc! And rumor has it that Jean Paul Gaultier is next!

Inspi-red!

Recently, I was at Target and I was directed by Jake to the "value" DVDs that were on sale for $4.75. I checked them out thinking there would be nothing that I would like or that I would already have the good ones. But as I was browsing I found one of my favorite movies that I didn't own, Clue! If you haven't seen this movie, you need to go out and rent it or add it to your Netflix queue because it is full of eighties amazingness and has probably one of the greatest casts ever.


One character in that movie that I was perticularly intrigued by was Mrs. White played by Madeline Kahn. I love her hair, her clothing, and her personality in the movie. Her character has a lot of subtlties you just have to keep an ear and eye out for because they are some of the funniest parts of the movie (particularly her actions towards Wadsworth played by Tim Curry).

Above: Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White

When I was thinking about Mrs. White and how she "immasculates her husband" it made me think of a similar female character, Lilith from Frasier. With her clothing style being masculine and feminine at the same time, just like Mrs. White's, I decided to design a line inspired by these two women.

Above: Bebe Neuwirth as Dr. Lilith Sternin

For Fall 2010, WGSN has forecasted something like what I had in mind for this line. So far I'm thinking that there are going to be a lot of mix and match garments and lots of suiting. And the color palette is obviously going to be a lot of neutrals and metallics but with pops of red too.

Homemade Bottega Veneta

As I was perusing my Blogger account this morning, Martha Stewart's Craft Department posted that the creative director of Bottega Veneta, Tomas Maier, was doing a segment on Martha Stewart's show about their bags but also the weaving technique behind the bags. And basically what we have on that post might as well be a tutorial as to how to make a Bottega Veneta style bag. Enjoy!

(Photos via Martha Stewart)

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!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Mad Girl!

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