NEW YEAR, NEW COUNTRY

I do not know if I can say that 2017 was the worst year ever. Politically, it probably hit an all-time low but considering that we could be in the midst of war by now, I would say there are some silver linings. 2017 was also not the best for my social life and confidence in my work. I was not the hardest worker when it came to sewing and while it is not my strength and probably never will be when compared to my illustration, I should have worked harder than I did. I made some actual enemies this year(which I did not know was possible in college because I thought we had all grown up passed high school, but I guess some never do). It was not because I was mean or gave anyone any reason to hate me, it was simply just me being me and the jealousy that resulted in that. It is hard for me to understand how everyone else can give up a friend so easily when it takes so much for me to hate a person. I did lose some friendships and not because I was the one to walk away. But not only did I just lose a friend, I gained a person wishing ill-will over me and sending hatred my way. I cried a fair amount this year, partially due to the friends I lost, but also due to stress. Stress was tough on me this year, especially as I was headed into the winter. I pulled one all-nighter this year and it was especially painful as it was the last day of school in December. I worried about my brother getting into college and completing his boy scout project to become an eagle scout. I worried about my parents sticking to their diet and committing to exercise. I worried especially about my dad and how he would deal with keeping the house in order. I worried most this year about my mom and my best friend after they lost their fathers. Those moments were perhaps some of the lowest points of the year. This year was painful and brutal. And it seemed to drag on for forever.

The year had a few shining moments though. I received a great deal of respect in my major by the means of winning a scholarship, being recognized as the outstanding fashion design sophomore, and having my talents showcased on a mural in a prominent location in Richmond. I was selected by my department to represent VCU in a scholarship for the CFDA(which I will be completing in 2018). My parents did start a new diet and my father kept up with his walking. My brother completed his college applications and got accepted into a great school as of right now(we are still waiting to hear back). And 2017 more than anything else showed me who my real friends are. Although I lost some people I though cared about me, their loss only made the friends I had shine brighter to me. I know who I will be friends with until the day that I die. And realizing these friendships has made me incredibly grateful and blessed. I am so lucky to have the people I have in my life that support me and love me as much as I love and support them.

My only hope is the next year will be better. I am headed to Scotland in four days and I am still having a hard time believing it. I hope to make new friends, but if not, I know who I can call back home. But I am extremely excited to share my adventures in Scotland and hopefully be more proactive with this blog in the new year.

Please enjoy my New Years Eve look from yesterday. I just thrifted that top but it is from Urban Outfitters. The turquoise color is the absolute perfect color of velour for me and I loved mixing the fancier vibe of the crop top with my casual high-waisted jeans.

Happy New Years everyone, let’s make 2018 amazing!!!

TEE-SHIRT TUESDAY

Today’s shirt probably has more of a spring vibe to it than anything else. But in these dark, winter days, there is nothing I need more than a sense of pastel light. I found this shirt with the goal of gifting it to my brother, because he normally likes preppy, colorful shirts like this. However, I may have to look for something else for him because I am too much about this watercolor wash look. It is just subtle enough to not be annoying. And again, I need this mood with the days getting so dark, so fast.

I am so tired of being cold already and we have barely gotten into the thick of winter. In fact, we are technically still in fall. But my lizard self needs the warmth that justifies tee-shirts again. I used to be the type of person who, while preparing my winter wardrobe and boxing up all of my summer clothes for storage, would think, “I cannot put away this tee; just throw a jacket over that and it is still a winter look!” But lately, I cannot even bring myself to peel away my jacket because that one layer is the difference between bearably warm and comfortably warm. And boy do I want comfort now more than ever. I cannot recall a period in my life where I have sacrificed fashion for comfort so often as I do now.

But that is why this tee-shirt is so important to me right now. It’s colors are dreamy and ethereal reminding me of the heaven that was warmer times. I see myself wearing this shirt in my dreams and being so warm at the same time. That is true bliss. For now, I must not expose my bare arms to the cold. And so long sleeved shirts and sweaters are my home now. But this tee-shirt is where I would rather be!

LATE FALL FALLEN LEAVES

I needed an opportunity to post photos with all of the fall vibes of a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Thank goodness that Halloween has passed, and so the pumpkin craze has gone the way of actual pumpkins rotting on November 1st doorsteps.

I thrifted this sweater a week ago and I am simply in love with it. It is a men’s sweater so it is oversized on me. And to be honest, I think I need oversized everything this winter because I cannot seem to produce my own body heat. With so much extra fabric overflowing from my closet this winter, it will be hard to pack up in a suitcase when I bring it home for the summer or travel anywhere this coming winter. But I honestly feel that I need so much extra fabric. I want so much fabric in my clothes, that I want to be able to wrap it around my body at least five times! Just layers on top of layers so that I can pretend that I am still in my warm bed.

My issues with winter aside, my friend, Bailey and I, went to Cold Harbor Battlefield in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The leaves were so pretty on our hike through the fields. And the trenches were so deep that you can almost imagine the soldiers huddled under them for weeks.

Great day of adventure getting away from Richmond for at least a few hours.

QATAR DAY QOOL

Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond has many ties to several places around the world. But perhaps the biggest connection that VCU has in the world is their school in Doha Qatar. The school in Qatar is especially known for their arts school just as VCU’s School of the Arts.

So November 1st was apparently Qatar Day. Students from the various schools in Qatar came to Richmond to show off their work and talk about their home for students looking to study abroad there. My part in all of this was that my teacher roped me into walking in the fashion show because I am somewhat tall? I am of average height but at least I could fit the clothing nicely. So here are some pictures of my short self in some beautiful clothes!

MIDTERM MODE

I am so deep into the semester that I am growing so lazy of leisure. The things that need to get done get priority and then everything else gets chipped away at slowly. But so is the life of a fashion design student. I know that I have already shared this top that I altered from my father’s shirt, but I still really wanted to show it off!

This time however, I wanted to take my top to it’s masculine roots and give it a preppy edge. The theme of this look was French private school boy from the 30s. Then again, the top still features plenty of fraying along the raw edges so an element of grunge sneaks it’s way in. I paired my top with my mid-thigh wool shorts which definitely bring in that 30s schoolboy look. It is hard to wear these shorts however as they can so easily make me feel too masculine if I do not wear them with some type of heeled shoe. So I wore my pleather black heeled booties that elevate pretty much every outfit. And the finishing touch was using a black ribbon as my tie. I actually really love the concept of tying ribbons as ties. But I need to actually learn how to tie them and not ask my father every time. It resembled the skinny tie made famous by the Beatles. All I need to do is pull my hair back into a slick ponytail to complete the whole vision.

REI-CATION

Unfortunately, the exhibit closed September 4 so I am sharing old photos. However, the exhibit was so beautiful that I have to document it.

All summer, I was waiting to see the Rei Kawakubo, Art of the In-Between exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York City. Finally, my family was able to indulge me with a long awaited weekend trip to the city. When you are a fashion major, exhibits like this are worth an entire mini-vacation. And boy, was it worth it!

Rei Kawakubo is first and foremost, my all-time favorite designer. She is the founder of the design house, Comme des Garçons, which means “like the boys” in French. I consider her work to be some of the most complex, meaningful, impactful, and visually stunning that I have ever come across. I believe her to be a feminist in the design world and if nothing else, a true artist. Something I hope to emulate in my designs as well as she does is her eye for detail and her storytelling. I could go on for hours about her and her legacy but I would recommend researching her further because there is so much to learn about her designs.

I decided to wear a new top that I had just altered that was my father’s work short and then I added some ruffles to it. i am quite pleased with how it turned out. I wanted to wear something with a lot of drama to attempt to match the type of drama seen in Kawakubo’s designs. I strongly emphasize the word “attempt” however, because I honestly do not know how to match the drama and boldness that is Comme des Garçons. But I was dressed slightly more eccentric than your average museum visitor, so that was nice:)

I hope to design clothing that makes the wearer feel and look like they are from another planet! Much like these wonderful ladies look like aliens in the best way possible.

This jacket has two sets of sleeves and I am still in awe. Who even comes up with stuff like that?

This collection featured garments that are a bunch of different fabrics sewn together.

I had to get some shots down in the subway before I left. The subway stations are a lot nicer than I remember. I am quite proud of good ole’ NYC!

LAST GARDEN PARTY

Sherwood Gardens, you will not look the same when I return home again. Taking winter’s lead, you will slowly desaturate yourself until you fade completely to greyscale.

As sound as it sounds right now, Sherwood Gardens, I think you will be right on trend.

Personally, I am already seeing my wardrobe shedding colors since this moment of peak bright colors. I wore my teal tee-shirt once again and already it seemed too bright for this moment in late summer/fall. Hopefully when I do return home again, I will come back to Sherwood Gardens and take many more pictures. The gardens and I will still be matching in our desaturated winter looks:)

Goodbye my photo husband; you were the only man to match clothes with me so perfectly!

Well here is my bag trying to be extra. Just hurling itself into matching flowers wherever they are!

FASHION FIELDS

Can I be Titania, the fairy queen, so that I can return to midsummer? I do not want this summer to end, nor do I want to say goodbye to my amazing friends. But I suppose I must go back to school to see all of my other friends.

I received an old white lacy gown(see pictured below) from my friend, Kara. Since I cannot easily pull off a white gown in my everyday wardrobe, so I deconstructed it to fashion a new off the shoulder white lace crop top. I used the original bodice, but the skirt of the dress was turned into bell sleeves. I had a chance to use elastic effectively for the first time. I love that I can wear something completely unique that happens to be trendy as well. I have seen so many girls walking around in an array of off the shoulder crop tops. I love looking at them as they really flatter the neck, shoulders and collarbones. there is something very romantic about bare shoulders. After a while though, all of the tops that other girls wear start to blend together and become repetitive. Most of the blouses I see also share the same problem of falling or slipping up or down the shoulders and not staying in place. There is restricted mobility in the arms as well. But with designing my own off the shoulder blouse and controlling the elastic sizing. I love how it turned out! It is the perfect summer crop top!

So to encapsulate this bohemian perfection, Kara, Nick and I went out into a horse field in Catonsville, MD to photograph on these rolling fields. Aside from the dead deer on the edge of the field, the light was so perfect and there were too many beautiful shots to single out the images we ended up using. Please enjoy our summer moments!

Nick had a problem staying grounded during this shoot!

With the help of friends, you can really soar!!!

Long shot of our field of dreams

This is the dress I started with!

That’s a wrap on this post, now I walk into the sunset!

TOWARD TORONTO

Toronto is about two hours away from Niagara which was convenient because we were able to stop by Niagara on the lake on the way there.

I loved the look of the water, it was so blue and the sky was so clear! The indigo in my denim culottes also looked great against the blue of the water. It had such a vintage summer vibe to me.

MURAL MAKING

I have often made fun of myself and been made fun of for my mild narcissism. I blame it on many things. I think it is hard to not become narcissistic when you are a portrait artist. I have to know every detail of a person’s face when I draw them. And when there is no one to draw, the only available model is myself. I am convinced that I am the only person able to draw myself. I have had everything from carnival portraits to fellow artist classmates sketchbook entries drawn of my face, and maybe I am slightly biased, but no one has truly captured my elusive essence. And if that is not one of the most narcissistic phrases, I do not know what is. But really, only I know my face from every bone in my skull, to every crevice in my skin to every hair on my head.

It does not matter if no one knows how to draw me; what is important is that they never forget this face. And now, this is exactly what will happen. The compulsive narcissist in me is beaming from ear to ear with pride and joy to know that my face is now forever stained on the city of Richmond. I am the best stain! I got the opportunity to recreate my selfie coroquis from my fall semester drawing final. I went back to Richmond for three days to paint this mural with two of my fellow fashion classmates. The purpose of the mural is to serve as an artistic view from the ICA museum that is coming to campus soon. This mural is right on campus, next to a residence hall for VCU, so hopefully all of my friends will get the chance to see it eventually.

My classmates and I knew we wanted to do a mural depicting three fashion figures. We decided on the theme of black, white, and denim. Richmond and VCU are quite obsessed with denim so we thought it was appropriate. I would like to clarify that I was, in fact, asked to use the drawing of myself. I would have been happy to create a new drawing, but the one of myself seemed to fit the best. Just so no one truly believes I am that obsessed with myself.

I think the mural turned out so well given that it was completed in such a short timespan. My friends and I are now among the ranks of the other talented muralists within Richmond. And I can confidently say that I never would have believed that learning how to operate a hydraulic lift would become a part of my fashion education!:P

Here is an article written about our experience on the mural, please enjoy:)

https://vcu.exposure.co/painting-the-town-fashion