I haven’t really blogged in about 3 months! I know, that’s awful! Whatever 2 readers I had are probably blowing in the wind with the tumble weeds by now. Whatever the case, I was so busy in my final semester of fashion courses that all I could think of was projects (I had 28 papers) and portfolio’s!!! My entire life was and still is under construction. I’m not sure how many readers I have, if any, but blogging can really be demanding if it’s something your trying to do well. Lately I’ve been invested in Twitter and I’ve come across a lot of blogs with different niches who are great! It’s inspiring to see creative people and their point of view. I decided to use these two photos (above) to represent Nerd In Vogues “under construction-ness” because they represent #1 construction (sewing), and #2 a new chapter in my life now that I’ve graduated. I plan to dedicate more time to my crafts which include blogging and of course all things fashion related. It would be a dream to start this new chapter off with sewing rooms that look like this! The second picture came from a D.I.Y fashion blog I just found called EricaBunker.com. I believe this is her studio (though I could have read it wrong). I would LOVE to have a studio like this, mixed in with some of this…
I probably would never leave the studio. This summer look for a new design, web site/blog layouts and templates, and social media news on the new Nerd In Vogue! Until then I’ll be trying to be better at updating my blog and you can catch me on Twitter tweeting and retweeting the lastest news, fashions, and daily behaviors of myself. Smooches!
I have finally finished by second degree and I want to wish a happy congratulations to the Class of 2010, especially those fashion design, merchandising, product development, and textile grads! I know it’s been a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and missing skin from all those threading of needles but the hard work WILL pay off. I admire anyone who has graduated and received a creative arts degree because BOY DO I KNOW of all the snickers and back-handed comments like “what are you going to do with that?”, you may have received. Luckily I was blessed to have family that believed in me and supported my decision to get a second bachelor’s in a totally different field as opposed to being a doctor (as they orginally thought) but I digress. All of our hard work will not be in vain and NEVER let anyone think that your gift and passion is any less important than being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, nurse etc…If it weren’t for us everyone would be naked and without iPhones because there would be no designer’s or product developers to handle biz! LET’S GET IT
Tonight’s Episode of Project Runway was very fast pace, cute, and as always… HILARIOUS! Their task, to create a child’s garment with accompanying adult look. I don’t know what was funnier, watching those kids run amuck in the studio or watching the designer’s eyeballs spin out of control because they had kids clothes. There’s nothing cuter than kids size couture (though it isn’t really couture u get the drift). This episode was awesome but I do however disagree with the bottom 3. I thought FOR SURE that Heidi Klum’s comment about the “cheap flea-market” kiddy dress was aimed at Ben’s design. They could have swapped him for Amy because his dress looked like a well sewn sheet to me! However, he was safe.
I actually thought Amy’s design was cute. I had to question myself because all 4 judges gave it the THUMBS DOWN and hey, if professionals say it’s bad, it must be bad right? Maybe they have a point for the wearability regarding the adult look but I still thought it was unique, different, and NOT that bad. I’ve previously admitted that I like whimsical looking stuff so maybe my taste is off but that child’s outfit was too adorable in my humble opinion so I guess there goes my dreams of being a P.R judge. Many of the fans and subscribers to the mylifetime.com blog agree with me so maybe we all like circus looks? But who doesn’t like the circus, that is, unless your afraid of clowns! Blogger Caitlin from Lifetime had this to say about it…
Poor Amy. With such a strong showing in the Heart Health challenge, she has truly been a contestant to watch. But when Tim Gunn is throwing down the “clown alert!” yellow flag on a challenge that lends itself to fun — and, worse still, your very own child model is telling the workroom that your fashionable children’s look resembles circus pants — you’re in some serious trouble. (Et tu, Caitlin?)
I also have to mention that on the runway her child model happily defended her look. She liked it and I respect a child who can stand up for their own personal style at the age of 6, while on television, in front of people harshly criticizing the garment. Her mom raised her well! In the end, Janeane Ceccanti went home and that wasn’t a shocker! She isn’t a bad designer but I’ve noticed a P.R trend. Anytime a designer starts the beginning of the season crying they generally go home. I’m glad Amy was spared to sew for another day because I love her aesthetic. To Amy I say…I LOVED YOUR DESIGN GIRL! And the colors weren’t that bad to me.
Here’s her sketches and finished looks from episode 6 that you can watch on mylifetime.com
Side note: I did something I should have done years ago. I signed up for Women’s Wear Daily! I was really tired of not being able to read their articles every time I went to research for my thesis style graduation paper so I finally gave in to the “subscribe” button. It cost a pretty penny but I think it’s definitely worth the insider knowledge. Its definitely something I should have done years ago.
Back to the topic…
While reading WWD, I found an article dated back in November 2009 on Primp. Primp is a clothing line developed by Wells Butler (featured above)–a young woman from the Midwest (I think Detroit Michigan area) who started the brand in 2004 out of L.A. The most interesting thing about Wells Butler is how she got started, which is similar to my life story (minus the doctor parents). She graduated with a degree in economics and biology, a compromise with her parents in order to later receive a fashion education. She knew she wanted to be in the industry and right after she received her first degree she went to FIDM in Los Angeles (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) for a year and enrolled in their Apparel Manufacturing program. A few months after her second graduation she launched Primp! She sent a box of her clothing to Jessica Simpson, back when she was the “chicken of the sea blonde” on her MTV reality show. Simpson opened the box of clothing on air and VOILA…the story of the Primp buzz begins. When you visit itsprimp.com you’ll be able to see the list of celebrities that wear her line.
Right now Primp is re-focusing their target market to Tweens and have launched the “Primp Girl” line that hit stores last Christmas. They will be coming up with new designs in stores this Spring and have aggressive plans to feature more clothing in stores by 2011. I love their promotion scheme! They send boxes of clothing to celebs who wear the clothing which results in free publiclity…Brilliant! Wells Butler has a blog on her website that features webisodes of how Primp designs and manufactures their clothing. It’s a MUST SEE for any young person who plans to work in the fashion industry in the future. The video shows the conception of their designs from start to finish (featured below). That means you’ll be able to see the making of their signature “repeat” prints, specification sheets, fabric dying, and swatches. In other webisodes on their site Wells shows some of her Spring collection, it’s so cute. It’s also good to know that Primp isn’t just for Tweeny Boppers. They also make apparel for the Primp woman. Her clothing is cute, casual, and feminine. I admire young people who follow their dreams and make it big. Kudos to Wells, I hope to see more from her in the future!
A fews months ago a good friend of mine who designs menswear in our fashion program text messaged me saying he found a new favorite designer, “Alexander McQueen”. He’d just found out who he was after watching a video that displayed his works and I thought that was nuts! To be in fashion (especially as a male designer) and not know McQueen was a jaw dropper but I didn’t hold it against him. I first saw McQueen’s designs myself in 2005 so I was pretty late myself. I always loved his oyster dress (featured below) from Spring/Summer 2003 among so many other designs. The first thing I always thought when I saw his creations was, “Wow–how amazing!”. This man was truly a genius and it seems that genius minds have tortured souls. I pray for peace to his family for the loss of life in such a manner. Truly devastating! Good-bye McQueen.
(Tribute photo taken from Twitter, outside Alexander McQueen store 14th street)
(one of my favorites: Alexander McQueen Oyster Dress S/S 03′)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest fair of all?”
And the mirror answered, “O Lady Queen, you may not be, as fair as all these chicks I see.”
So recently poor Vanity Fair has been under scrutiny for their fresh faced new Hollywood 2010 cover. For the past 15 years they’ve tried to predict who will be the next young hot thing and for their 16th cover the newest starletts, those of whom they feel are the brightest and best new talent, happen to be all women–oh yeah, and all LILY WHITE! Generally when I buy magazines I go straight for Marie Claire, InStyle, Vogue, or something fashionably novel that features an ethnic muse so I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention if it hadn’t been for the media backlash but once I was introduced to the blatant lack of diversity it did bother me a bit. So for those of you who don’t know Vanity Fair is getting SLAMMED for their lack of diversity in their March spread that features Kristen Stewart (the vampire chick), Amanda SeyFried (who gives Big Love and kissed a girl), Emma Stone (Rocker House Bunny girl), Evan Rachel Wood (crazy chick who dated Marilyn Manson), and a bunch of other actresses who I pay no attention too. I could have done a background check on the other’s, they are very familiar, but I’m not really interested! Here is a direct quote from an article that I found from Shine on yahoo written by Joanna Douglas who has some thoughts on the total lack of melanin…
We can think of a slew of non-white, non-rail thin actors who made a splash this year (Gabourey Sidibe from “Precious” anyone?). In the accompanying article, Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz calls out the young cover stars by their best attributes: “downy-soft cheeks,” “button nose,” “patrician looks and celebrated pedigree,” “dewy, wide-eyed loveliness,” “Ivory-soap-girl features.” Roles for black, Asian, and Latin actors are scarce in Hollywood, but surely Sidibe, Zoe Saldana of “Avatar” and “Star Trek,” and Freida Pinto of “Slumdog Millionaire” are having their moment. Vanity Fair may have been looking for the most promising batch of talent for their issue, but they should have been looking for a diverse group of women as well.
(Zoe Saldana; Avatar & Star Trek and Freida Pinto; Slum Dog Millionaire)
A Nerd’s Take on It:
I totally agree with Joanna Douglas’ picks! I can’t take away from some of the talent Vanity Fair has chosen but these two talented and beautiful women featured above could have added a better balance to the spread instead of some of the “dewy” wide-eyed women they picked. I’m sure there are more people interested in seeing Zoe Saldana and Freida Pinto over some of them any day. They look pretty fresh faced and wide-eyed to me! Heck, they could have added Selena Gomez and lied to us and it would have added more dimension. I’m not sure if I would put Gabourey Sidibe along-side them though. In my opinion its more to do with her lack of short acting/Hollywood resume than her weight. I think right now Gabourey is more of a novelty than a leading actress, but I could be wrong and only time will tell. A few other writers have only made mention that the cover lacks Black actresses with no mention of any other race, in which I totally disagree. I hate making things into Black and White issues. I do feel that EVERY race should be equally represented and if there aren’t any leading women (or men) of other races appearing in feature films right now what does that really say about how far we’ve come in the past 50 years? In the meantime, the future of Hollywood according to Vanity Fair is apparently bright…and still all WHITE!
The epitomy of purity, confidence, style, and grace, the Pure Fashions movement is on the rise and quickly being celebrated by young ladies 14 to 18 all around the globe who want to be seen for their natural beauty instead of their natural booty! After finding out about them almost two years ago I finally decided to post on this organization. They’ve been getting a lot of media attention lately. You KNOW your behind when your flipping through one of your favorite fashion magazines and come across an article on modesty that is neatly sandwiched in between risque advertisements. I barely had a blog last year so I guess I have a small excuse.
So what is Pure Fashions anyway? In summary it’s a faith-based program that teaches young girls to keep their cloths on and their legs closed and we definitely could use more programs like this! They have a pretty cool modeling training program for young women that teaches them poise, public speaking, and manners. They didn’t abandon the beauty aspect either! They teach young ladies how to style hair and apply make-up in artistry training. I am down with ANY program that shows young women how to present themselves in a dignified Godly manner. I’m so tired of seeing girls look like baby hookers a hot mess. I mean, here it is Winter in Michigan and I saw a group of girls at the mall with mini-skirts and UGG boots! So their feet were cold but their legs weren’t? Or how about those winter bomber coats that barely come past abdomens? How does that keep you warm in 28 degrees? I digress! Maybe now that Pure Fashions (and trending fashions in general) seem to have more fabric and materials more girls will look a bit more classy. I guess you can’t really gauge success until Summer months when all the skin comes out (apparently even more than in Winter). It’s good to see the outreach program made headlines on the ABC news Nightline segment entitled “Girls Gone Mild“. This is pretty empowering! Girls and women in general shouldn’t be made to feel like looking and dressing as scantily as Britney or Beyonce is the hot thing to do. Less is so much more.
So I just fell in love with this store in Ann Arbor called Vintage to Vogue! I’d heard of it before but I’d never been in there before and I really didn’t know where it was. They have 3 locations; two in Michigan and one in South Carolina. First let me start by saying, it’s located in the shops at Kerrytown but it also has it’s own entry way. This store is DY-NO-MITE! It has everything a fashionista ever wanted. It’s a lifestyle store, sort of similar to the love of my heart, Anthropologie, except in addition to what Anthro offers it also has chic wedding dresses. It actually has an entire bridal area where you can sit down and look through books, purchase picture frames, and wedding gifts, but that’s just a small portion of what this place offers.
There are two stories of super cute clothing, handbags, and accessories!
There I met this young woman, a graduate of University of Michigan and trendy sales associate whose name I shall not mention due to confidentiality who also has a business devoting her time to social media. I took a picture of her because her outfit was so cute (although I don’t think my picture phone does it enough justice). She got her top from H&M but V2V has a cute equivalent. She had on some cute boots that I didn’t get a photo of. I paired them up with a pair of Franco Sarto boots that V2V sells. I also paired it up with a cute jacket from Modcloth and scarf from Anthropologie for a complete look.
(Vintage to Vogue H & M equivalent tiered top)
I loved the looks they put together as well. Who ever does their visuals does a great job! I guess it’s not difficult when you have hot items to work with.
The yellow coat is called “Sun”. Since I’m a fan of Modcloth and I check out what’s new every week I happened to find this coat on their sites front page. Lucky me huh! It’s really cute and I’m vibe’n with the asymmetry.
I was really digging the scarves they had! I loved them so much I forgot to actually look at the prices! I heard the store was “expensive” but I’m not sure about that. Comparing some of their handbags to Antrho the prices weren’t bad(on some handbags). I found a bag that costs around $38 at V2V that would be an easy $78 at Anthropologie. Not to mention Anthropologie’s hobo’s can go all the way up to $300 and some.
Don’t get me wrong, V2V is going to have some pricey items because their apparel is all branded. They carry Lucky, Free People, Marimekko, Matt & Nat, Nicole Miller Bridal, and more chic brands that makes your bank account scream but your wardrobe will sizzle…with hotness (Oh the price us girls pay to be dazzling)! In addition to the clothing they have great items for your home as well as luxury beauty items!
I was also drawn to the artwork inside and outside of the store. LOVE IT!
So if your ever in Ann Arbor on N. Fifth Ave stop by Vintage to Vogue and check out there stuff. I’m going back this weekend! I was so excited by the interior design and visuals that I actually forgot to check prices on stuff! Plus, I want to get some of their house items. They had some trendy parisian note pads and erasers (sounds lame I bet).
Every time I sign into yahoo to check my mail I am forced to look at Demi Moore and her unflattering silhouette-less oopsie that “OMG!” loves to report. I could only see her head shot so I decided to actually look at the dress. OMG! was right and it is such a HOT MESS that I won’t even do Demi dirty like that and post about it. Instead I’ll just link back to it so you can see it for yourself! There are times however that OMG! just doesn’t get it right to me. They have missed the mark on numerous occasions and I think this diss of Ginnifer Goodwin from the HBO’s show Big Love is one of those times. I love love love anything “Mod” sixties style and if that was the look she was going for I can “dig it” man. What do you think?
(Pictures taken from my below average camera phone)
So this weekend I had a lunch date with my mom, who also happens to be my best friend (which most people can’t say) and she just HAD to go to Zingerman’s on Ann Arbor’s cute cobble stone Detroit Street. She heard all about the hype of their corned beef sandwich and heard that “Oprah” supposedly came all the way from Chicago to sit at Ann Arbor’s ever-so-cute delicatessen/bakery/restaurant. She’s not exactly an Oprah fan but I guess she figured if it was good enough for Oprah it was good enough for us!
I don’t really live far from Ann Arbor and being a native of the area, I was surprised that I’d never heard of or seen it considering that it’s one of the top 25 food markets in the world. I guess I gotta get out more. This place was pretty cool and the first thing I couldn’t help but notice was the line that was LITERALLY wrapped around the building outside. Any place that has folks lined up must be pretty decent if not fabulous! It didn’t take long for us to get inside. I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised to see a cute little deli and bakery with Michigan made foods. They had everything from blondies, to muffins, assortments of cheese’s, jellies, wines, ice creams, and books galore!
We ordered our food and I got the Blintz……
which is similar to a crepe and served with warm strawberries and sour cream. I shouldn’t have gotten 3 of them though! The cheese was TOO MUCH for my belly to handle. Next time one will be sufficient. Nonetheless, it was tasty (but after one of them I think I got dizzy). The seating is unusual, especially for a brisk Fall afternoon. You can be seated outside, in tents, or in the restaurant and believe me it was JAM PACKED! So we had to sit upstairs which was better than out in the cold. Anyway, if your ever in Ann Arbor Kerrytown district, you should check this place out! They have rave reviews on their site. I don’t think I’ll try the blintz again! Maybe next time I’ll go with the corned beef…my mom seemed to enjoy it!
