Alexander Wang for Parsons?

So....now I've pulled the Photoshop skills I learned in digital class and have started applying them to my Public Relations class! My final project in my elective is to come up with a 12-piece collection of Parsons logowear that is in collaboration with a successful Parsons alumni, as well as plan, market, and budget the launch party. I was given Alexander Wang, so my collection focused on soft tees, tanks, and loungewear.









I was able to flat my collection, then scan the flats into Photoshop and add color and my signature logo for the collaboration.






















Hopefully I can continue to add the digital effects into flats and specs for IS and other classes in the future!

Digital Collection Beginnings

In class we are learning to finally bring our hand-drawn flats from Integrated Studio into the computer to add color, prints, and specs. This adds a whole new dimension to the clothes we can design-- the addition of digital prints and colors gives a wider variety of choices at our fingertips that otherwise would be overlooked using goauche.



Starting with the basics, we've scanned and played with the thresholds of two tops, two bottoms, and a dress that we've designed. I used flats from my Salt collection in September.



We have to create two color palettes for our flats to include a large number of the prints we worked on last session. One palette of mine is based on New England sunsets, focusing on deep desaturated blues with shocking golds and reds.



The other color palette is inspired by a Technicolor Garden. There are pop-colored florals and prints along with sorbet hues.


Both palettes will be interesting to further develop for the final. Onto applying the prints to figures next!

Making the Stripe Shirt

For my Integrated Design class, I was assigned to design and sew a button-down shirt with stripes somehow incorporated into the design. The stripe part was assigned after the button-down shirt part unfortunately, so I had already planned out the perfect puff-sleeved blouse before realizing there was more to the assignment. Despairing re-sketching my idea with striped fabric, I realized as I drew that there were other ways to work the stripe into the project. It would require a lot of patience and exact measurements, but I could work a stripe into the actual pattern of the garment and eliminate the need for a stripe shirting fabric.

I cut a basic fitted shirt pattern from my slopers, then worked in a continuous stripe by slicing, building upon, and taping my pattern pieces. Many hours and yards of pattern paper later, I had my shirt pattern, consisting of 16 paper pieces and over twice that number in fabric pieces.


I purchased a nice khaki cotton weave, a tad sturdier than normal shirting but with a more interesting texture to its surface. For the stripe, I took a chance and used scraps of Zac Posen floral organza. The organza was difficult to cut, and only time will tell in terms of how it sews.


I hope to achieve a continuous stripe on my shirt, going from front to back around the sleeves. I want the stripe to look almost fluid, like in the designs of Miuccia Prada for both her Prada and Miu Miu lines.

Electricity

It is completely natural, and yet completes that which is completely unnatural. Electricity runs our world. We can’t have light, heat, power,
communication, just about anything without its presence. It is the juice that fuel New York City every single waking moment. It’s hard to imagine that human life existed for such a long period of time without it.


Electricity is colorless, matterless, and locationless. Yet at the same time, it can be every color, moving, and everywhere around us. It is incredible the power it holds, and yet it is generated through simply the attraction of a negative ion to a positive ion.




I love walking through the city at night and seeing the brilliant colors and life that electricity runs. Neon signs and backlit displays in stores create a distinctive ambiance, and their glow is so bright that it leaves a mark on my vision when I look away. Building churn with energy and buzz; the Empire State Building changes colors and forever has its many windows lit.


These neon colors inspire brilliant apparel. It makes perfect sense: naturally we want to look as captivating, eye-catching, and impactful as the powered lights and building around us. Designers like Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore, and Celine have incorporated these bright ideas into their current resortwear collections.

Just like electricity, I want my designs to power and inspire those who see and wear them.

Subway Submersion

I find myself on the subway most days for one reason or another, be it classes or my internship or going out with friends. Because every station is so similar and so ingrained into my routine, I barely notice my surroundings as I sit on the nearest bench and wait for the Downtown 1 train. However, today I decide to inspect my environment a little more carefully.



Subways, also so seemingly simple, are incredibly designed. Not only are they engineered to transport hundreds of thousands of people every day, they are also aesthetically considered down to every last tile. Today I stared at the geometric patterns on the terminal floor that formed zig zags. They merged into the canary yellow dotted strips alongside the tracks, marking the area as a dangerous place to stand when trains were coming in. Inside the silver train cars are carefully-placed steel poles to hold onto, accompanying the desaturated blue-violet seats. The color of the seats particularly gets me; they are such a beautiful, calming shade, one that would certainly look beautiful on a gown.

Then there are the more blatant designs. In every subway stop, there are mosaic tile designs that characterize the stop. My favorite is the beautiful and intricate ceramic tiles at the Museum of Natural History.

I love both the subtle and sleek color choices as well as the more fine arts-like mosaic work of subway stops. These characteristics in combination remind me of sportswear shown this past September by Alexander Wang and Rag & Bone.

Nerdy Bliss

This year was my first Comic Con. And I have to say, I'm sad that I haven't come to one sooner. We all have those deep, dark, secret obsessions over video games, comics, or anime. Basically everyone falls into at least one of those categories of obsession, if not more than one; if they aren't, then they would were they exposed to it. The New York Comic Con is a chance for every person to embrace that obsession with pride alongside other closet nerds. They are then joined by not-closet, more open nerds, making for quite an eclectic mob united by their obsession.


The numbers that turn out for the Con are immaculate. So many people are present, young and old, some in elaborate costumes, some decked in merch, some just dressed normally. I struggled through crowds of Pokemon and Zeldas, getting stopped repeatedly to get my picture taken. I nabbed a few shots of my own with the likes of the Silver Surfer, Wario, and some anime cosplayers. It's amazing how high the enthusiasm is, how low the shame is, how everyone is not themselves.


That element of a second, perfect identity is what gives the Comic Con its allure. The anime chicks and video game characters and superheroes are written to stand for something. They are visually trademarked, fabulously colored and styled, loved by all. And by going to Comic Con, you can get the chance to be one of them just by putting on their costume. It serves as a reminder to me of the visual and psychological power of costume and fashion in general; it changes not only who people perceive you to be, but also how you perceive yourself.

Bookworm

In order to design a collection in fashion, like any project, you have to start with an idea, or a base inspiration. So my Integrated Studio teachers tell me, assigning me homework to retreat to the New York Public Library's image library and find 10 images that resonate within our creativity. Internet research is not allowed, all images must be taken from the library.


I had always intended to eventually make it over to the library when I had free time. (Which does not actually exist for fashion students.) But now the assignment forced me to go and delve into the resources there.


One day, I headed over after class, and was intrigued by what I saw. The library's old building was statuesque and full of pride in its old age. The lions in front, the classical influence on the architecture, the location near Bryant Park -- certainly the building was a step above the skyscrapers that surrounded it.


In the newer building of the library, there is a startling number of books, more than a few lifetimes' worths of reading. Getting in and out is rather serious business with metal detectors and police officers, but once inside, you feel extracted from the city outside. There is information and imagery on every imaginable topic; in fact, the librarians are often hungry for a challenging topic to search.


My first trip to the library was on behalf of my school, but my next few trips have been on behalf of my own desire and hunger for knowledge.