Enough of the past... What am I working on now?
Last spring I was introduced to the Seven Feasts of the Lord, and was VERY inspired by them. So much so that I am doing a fashion show based on them. This is my second dress so far, but I will have a total of 12. (If all goes well.) They are all pretty blatantly symbolic of the history or prophecy of the feast they represent. This one, about the Passover has a "wool necklace" that will be dripping with red beads to remind us of the "Old Covenant Passover", and the rest of the dress is symbolic of the Passover fulfillment  that Jesus accomplished on the cross. The back straps will also be dripping with red beads, and the fabric itself is striped and quite matzah-ish.

OK, I promised I would post some from my college years...
Here goes.
During Freshman year we were not in our major yet, so the pictures will start with Sophomore year.

This is one of the earliest illustrations I found from college. The date says 11-3-94. There are so many things wrong with this. lol. In the beginning we did a lot of lingerie and swim wear to get a good feel of the body before we started covering it with clothes.
This one's date says, 3-18-95. I remember the assignment had to do with illustrating textures in fall clothes.
I know this one is from Sophomore year too, just by the drawing style, but it doesn't have a date. It was a bridal assignment obviously.

Here's one from model drawing class towards the end of the year.


These are more from model drawing class, probably my junior year.






















These are both projects from the beginning of Junior year.




















One of my critics that year was Anthony at B.U.M. I ended up working there during summer break cause I liked him so much.















These first two illustrations were done during the design process...


And this last one, was my final garment. My son Tallon, who is ten can wear the jacket now. :-)
 Not that he ever wants to, but it fits. The shorts were worn out long ago by another little boy I knew named Cody.






My other critic when I was a junior was Anne Cole swim wear. This is my suit. It never made it in the show... only to a window display off Rodeo drive.









I have blocked out the name of our first critic Senior year. It was a terrible experience. I had a wonderful time designing, and all was going well. We started taking computer classes and learned how to do flats with the computer. That was a nightmare. My designs got stunted because of my inability to make flats. Then on top of all that our department chair decided to single me out and tell me everything I had done was completely wrong. What was interesting is that though she did criticize my flats (and rightfully so), she also criticized my designs saying they did not follow direction. The direction was a 'Jackie O' look done with very specific fabrics that were given to us by the critic. My design teacher ...and all the other students thought I had it nailed.

To make a long story short, I re-did all of my designs the night before, changing the collars from wide standing to close to the neck, etc.  Just to have them ripped up by the critic, and told to change them to wide standing. Not being allowed to speak against my department chair, I stood and took the insults. Cried brutally afterward, and was slightly comforted later by my classmates who told me they knew I had it right before.







The last critic of the year for me was Barbie.
There was a motorcycle wear men's challenge in between, but I'm not going to did up those photos now.
This is the Barbie final look, that I made. I'll have to look for actual pictures of these Senior projects.
My Barbie was "ivy". We all had a plant or flower.
I made the trellis out of ribbon. The gown was beaded, and the other leaves were wrapped around with wire.



These are some other designs...

For a little fashion stimulation... Go see "Alice in Wonderland".
When I was young I used to take pieces of my own clothes, hair accessories, or clothes from baby dolls and wrap them around Barbie. The movie totally threw me back to that innovation that exists in my history and deep in the recesses of my mind.
I love how Tim Burton pulls out his inner child (how ever dark it is) in his movies.
I was thinking while watching... among MANY other thoughts, that God was surely smiling on Tim in the process of making the movie. Tim (unlike so many others) is true to himself (unless of course, this "look" of his has just become a trademark and is no- longer his true style). I really hope it's still him. I was inspired, to say the least. No, it wasn't the best movie ever. But for a dreamer, an artist, a designer, an imaginer ...like myself, It was great!

I watched a video of Jessica Simpson meeting with an anorexic model from France. I cried. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/03/jessica-simpson-meets-ano_n_484773.html
Then I went to the next page about Curvy models hitting the runway in Milan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/milan-fashion-week-kicks_n_475542.html#s70708

Awesome creativity. Impeccable tailoring. I love his work.
It is so sad that he is gone and in such an awful way.
I pray for his friends and relations... for insight for them; for revelation from God.
He was truly talented, but lost none-the-less.

A prayer for the fashion world... that lost-ness would not be the norm... but the exception to the rule. It's a big leap, I know... but all things are possible!