2011 daap fashion show

Tomorrow is the night we've been working toward for 5 years - the 60th annual DAAP fashion show! I am so excited to have my work shown in such a professional manner for my family, friends, and neighbors. I've just gotten home from tonight's dress rehearsal, and it was incredible. The work that my classmates have done is inspired. I am so proud of the fashion design class of 2011.

If you can't join us at the University of Cincinnati tomorrow night, I encourage you to spend some time watching our live webcast of the event, starting at 8PM EST.

http://www.uc.edu/ucit/digitalvideo/daapfashion2011.html

I promise to post photos and video of the entire collection as soon as possible!

final collection preview

So... maybe I forgot I had a blog over the last week or two. :)

I've been so ridiculously busy! We had our final critique for our collections, which went amazingly well. It was a really rewarding end to 9 months of working my butt off. Jay Ott, a DAAP alumn and designer for The Row, led the critique and said that some of my pieces really reminded him of Margiela. That was a pretty sweet moment.The weekend after the critique, my family had a big graduation party for my little sister and I, because she graduated high school that night. I had relatives in town all weekend, and my birthday was on Memorial Day, so the celebrating continued.Last week was a whirlwind and I can barely remember what I did. Thursday my mom, my sister, and I left for Dallas to look for my next apartment. We drove 16 hours there, spent a few hours looking at apartments, found a real cute one, shopped for an hour, then started the drive home. It was pretty nuts. Now I have 4 days until our huge fashion show, 5 days until COLLEGE GRADUATION (whoa!), a week and a half until I leave for Australia, and almost exactly one month until I permanently move to Dallas.

Doesn't it feel like life is moving awfully fast all the sudden?

Well, while I'm waiting to get back the professional photos of my collection, here is a sneak peek of my senior thesis, Linguistic Relativity.

senior thesis: look #6

This is the sixth look in my collection of 8 for my senior thesis in fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. To find out more about the concept development and inspiration I took for this project, check out my posts here and here. The first post explains a bit about my concept for this collection, which I've named Linguistic Relativity. The second post goes a bit deeper into the concept and shows the charts I made based on research.

For this project, I took a lot of inspiration from words in foreign languages, masculine and feminine perceptions of garments, the different ways cultures perceive color, and the number (plural vs. singular) of certain words.

View look #1

View look #2

View look #3

View look #4

View look #5

This dress was designed with the feminine figure in mind, and is all about the color blue. The Russian language has more words for blue than any other language, even having different names for light blue and dark blue. Because of this, Russian speakers are typically better at identifying between shades of blue. This inspired a gradient blue gown.

More on this blue theory here.

This is going to be my grand finale piece, although I'm showing it sixth to you. I am working on it right now, I'm about to put in a shelf bra and then start the lining. I just tried it on for giggles, and was amazed to see that it actually fit me! Now, my model will be 3-4 inches taller than me, actually, more like 8 inches taller with her shoes on, and she'll wear a tulle slip underneath it, so it will be a lot bigger and more dramatic, but you get the idea. Anyway, I'm thrilled it fits me because the materials for this one dress alone were about $300....eek!! Now I just need to be invited to a ball.

senior thesis: look #5

This is the fourth look in my collection of 8 for my senior thesis in fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. To find out more about the concept development and inspiration I took for this project, check out my posts here and here. The first post explains a bit about my concept for this collection, which I've named Linguistic Relativity. The second post goes a bit deeper into the concept and shows the charts I made based on research.

For this project, I took a lot of inspiration from words in foreign languages, masculine and feminine perceptions of garments, the different ways cultures perceive color, and the number (plural vs. singular) of certain words.

View look #1

View look #2

View look #3

View look #4

Without further ado, here is look #5. This is the only look that I really haven't started in final fabric, despite the critique being in 6 days. It's just taken a backseat to some of my more favorite designs, and I guess since my model wasn't around much it didn't motivate me to work on it. I'll likely start it tomorrow.

This dress has a corset style bodice, representative of the word "corset" being masculine in most languages, although being an extremely feminine garment. It has a "collar" and button down placket in the front, mimicking a men's shirt, flowing into an ombre chiffon skirt. The color palette derives from a word in Latin that means "watercolored" rather than a specific color.

senior thesis: look #3

This is the third look in my collection of 8 for my senior thesis in fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. To find out more about the concept development and inspiration I took for this project, check out my posts here and here. The first post explains a bit about my concept for this collection, which I've named Linguistic Relativity. The second post goes a bit deeper into the concept and shows the charts I made based on research.

View look #1

View look #2

For this project, I took a lot of inspiration from words in foreign languages, masculine and feminine perceptions of garments, the different ways cultures perceive color, and the number (plural vs. singular) of certain words.

This particular look was inspired by menswear, and is a representation of a notched collar. I focused a few of the pieces in my collection on classic mens or women's fashion details, and tried to twist them toward the other gender. So this is my feminine version of the notched collar. Since photographing my sketches earlier this quarter and now, the end of the quarter, I've changed the fabrication a bit. I started with the idea of using this nice brown suede and adding horsehair and structure within the coat. A friend gave me a great amount of this wonderful dark brown wool, which ended up being perfect for this coat. I also used a brown leather piping to kind of highlight and maintain the shape.

This piece is almost finished being made, I just have to add the lining and decide on a closure! What do you guys think - a giant button on the hip, as shown? I came across some kilt pins that I thought could be interesting too. Any suggestions?
More of my looks coming soon! Our final critique is in 2 weeks and the fashion show is in 4. Crazy!

senior thesis: look #2

This is the second look in my collection of 8 for my senior thesis in fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. To find out more about the concept development and inspiration I took for this project, check out my posts here and here. The first post explains a bit about my concept for this collection, which I've named Linguistic Relativity. The second post goes a bit deeper into the concept and shows the charts I made based on research.

Click here to see the first look from my collection.

For this project, I took a lot of inspiration from words in foreign languages, masculine and feminine perceptions of garments, the different ways cultures perceive color, and the number (plural vs. singular) of certain words.

This is the first look I've finished in final fabric this quarter. It has two pieces, a sweater and pants. The sweater was developed after learning the German word for cardigan, "ein strickjacke." To me, this word sounded a little like "straight jacket," and that's where the idea took shape. It's basis is a simple cardigan sweater with an industrial zipper closure, but with draped pieces wrapping around the body and even constricting the arms, it begins to take on a straight jacket feeling.

I'd like to surprise everyone at the end of the month with photos of the whole collection, but I worked so hard this week completing this look in final fabric that I'm giving you a little sneak peek of what the back of this garment looks like.

I've finished the pants in their final fabric as well, a lightweight wool gabardine, but I haven't taken any photos. As I studied these languages, I noticed that in some languages, like French, the word for pants is singular, "un pantalon." But, in others, like Spanish, the word is plural, "los pantalones." I began to wonder what a singular pant would look like as opposed to a plural pant, and this is what came from it. I didn't want my singular pant to just end up being a skirt, so the pant has the crotch dropped so low that it's hard to tell if there are actually even two legs. You'll see my ideas for plural pants over the next week or so.

What do you think so far? Do you have any opinions on these designs or the concept in general?

senior thesis: look #1

I'd like to continue to explain my senior thesis here on the blog, and today I'm going to start introducing each look and explain the specific inspiration behind it. To find out more about the concept development and inspiration I took for this project, check out my posts here and here. The first post explains a bit about my concept for this collection, which I've named Linguistic Relativity. The second post goes a bit deeper into the concept and shows the charts I made based on research.

For this project, I took a lot of inspiration from words in foreign languages, masculine and feminine perceptions of garments, the different ways cultures perceive color, and the number (plural vs. singular) of certain words.

This is one of the looks I actually sewed during Fall quarter. The look is made up of a leather vest and a chiffon ombre dyed dress. The leather vest is a kind of integration of masculine and feminine details. On one side, you have a very structured vest - gold metal buckles, a tailored bodice, a notched collar. Then spinning around, the back curves upward and transforms the other side of the front to something more playful and feminine, more like a cropped jacket or bolero with strap detailing.

The dress was inspired by the way that the Japanese culture (and a few other cultures as well) views color (source). I found it really interesting that they do not distinguish between blue and green - they're seen as the same color. You can use the words for "blue" and "green" interchangeably. For example, if you came to a Japanese stop light, and the green light came on, you could say that it was a blue light, and not be incorrect. If this isn't making sense, I suggest skimming that wikipedia link above, it's really interesting!
Anyway, I wanted this dress to be a reflection of this color phenomenon, so I hand dyed an ombre effect onto my chiffon, creating a light green to light blue gradation. I wanted the audience to almost not be able to tell if it was really green or really blue.

I'm going to get some better photos of the collection when it's all said and done, the color isn't completely accurate, but I suppose you get the idea. Check in later this week to see more of my collection!