Design Blog Session

Today's assignment in Drawing Studio was interesting and fun because Vasi asked us to draw a figure using fashion illustration styles of notable fashion illustrators and combine it with fashion photography. Inspired by the menswear collection of Mugler in which Rick Geneist hosted as one of the runway model, I used this tattoo inspiration to create a girl with skull tattoo on her face and a white sheer cloak over her face to give that ghostly effect. Using marker, pencil, and color pencil, I made a couple of quick dashes as to emphasize line quality and the diagonal pose of her body as well as the direction the cloak hang. As a result, this was my best attempt in emphasizing that diagonal line as well as having her disappear into the darkness.

Pulling an "all-nighter", I successfully finished and achieved my satisfaction for my fabric, mood, and illustration board of Integrated Studio. Using my desk wall to lay out my figure drawings, I realized this was the most effective way of putting together a collection and organizing as well as coming up with more ideas in terms of designing clothing. Throughout this semester, I have been trying to become familiar with my creativity, continually searching for the comfort spot that allows me to produce innovative ideas. For this project, I decided to find innovation simply by looking at a piece of fabric swatch. I carefully examined each swatches and closed my eyes and pictured if the fabric suits along with the rest of my collection already in progress. As a result, turns out that I had a huge variation of swatches for only twelve looks which startled me.

Design Blog Session

For Integrated Studio, I made a series of sketches for my next project collection based on skirts. I used the character Avengelyne who was exiled to Earth from the heavens and afterwards slays demons. She used the cross symbol repetitively in her outfits. She aso used a lot of leather and tailored collars as well as fish nets which I try to incorporate without making the clothing too costume-y. Having difficulty making costume-esque clothing, I sneaked-peeked at modern ready-to-wear runway collections today to adjust to a more suitable ready-to-wear and using the collections as references to avoid using the same od black I always use. As a result, this collection was more challenging than the previous two projects as it requires more thought into the flow of the collection. But I feel ever more relaxed in terms of illustration than from how I felt since I first arrived to the Fashion Building.

In drawing studio, we had a male model coming in wearing a Scottish plaid in order to follow up on how to render a plaid using markers. Vasilijia also taught us how to create a leather effect when light is reflected upon the leather. Drawing male model was most difficult simply because as a class, we only had three sessions involving male figure drawing as well as the proportions of the body is difficult to follow up mostly because I mostly drew female models which in the end inevitably creates a female-esque body of the assigned male model figure which comes out awkward. As a result, time and practice is all that is needed to succeed in order to artistically understand the male proportions and the drama of their actions. I was able to survive my attempt as a male figure drawer and I am yet to find out if my figure succeeded in proportion and posture or if it needs touch-ups.

Design Blog Session

This was the second part of my Integrated Studio Project based on striped shirts. After deconstructing a white shirt, I went to local fabric stores near the fashion building of Parsons and took some striped cotton
swatches, considering the grain line I want the stripes to follow. Next I created a mood board inspired by the striped suit of Beetlejuice and incorporated one of my favorite character, Lydia Deetz into my project giving a gothic inspired theme of the collection. To further enhancethe “gothic” feel, I incorporated a graveyard in the background followed by floating shirts (images taken from the deconstructed white shirt) and made them appear as ghosts, recalling the scene when Lydia takes photos of two ghosts with literal white cloak over them. Considering all these ideas and swatches, I created a mostly tailored collection where the collars, yolks, and sleeves are all considered for the collection. To make collection appear less static, I incorporated a black shadow reaching towards the left of the background giving a film noir comic feel to it as I continuously aim for the superhero comic and film noir aesthetic. I attempted to mimic the anatomies of the comic figures as well as medium, using strokes of micron lines as shadows. As a result, my teacher told me that everything was coherent but wished to see more images of Lydia. This project was a great warm-up and practice.

 

These figures were rendered from Drawing Studio Class. We focused on creating patterns and textures of different types of fabrics, ie. the houndstooth pattern. Using gouache for the first time, I used the number sign and overlapped it onto each other lightest number to the darkest number. After piling layers of numbers, I finally added the white number layer as touch-up to emphasize the black and white materials used in the jacket. After applying all the colors to where they should belong, I added the shadows to give the figure more depth. The other figure was drawn from a magazine depicting Lady Gaga dressed in every houndstooth pattern there is possible, ie. houndstooth in hat, glasses, suit, skirt, stocking, and heels. Vasilijia taught us how to imitate the pattern which is an easy zig-zag "Z" under other "Z's". The medium comprised on gouache as well as micron. As a result, I fulfilled the assignment requirement which is due tomorrow.

Design Blog Session

I created patterns influenced by the fetish Catwoman theme. I incorporated black cats and played with the red and black colors by making red hearts in contrast to the black background and black cats in contrast to the red background. In deciding the colors, I always referred back to the color choices used for my stripes and plaids in order to avoid pandemonium within the collection of reflective journal week 6-10. As a result, I feel the patterns correlate back to the stripe and plaids theme creating a unified relationship.

In Visual Communication, our assignment was to create two menswear look based on the clothes that were modeled in class as reference. Using marker, I first started off with lighter shades of grey purposely leaving white spaces within the tuxedo to give a highlighting effect. Then I constantly overlapped with larger shades of grey to the eventual black giving the tuxedo depth. As a result, I am extremely satisfied by the way Vasilijia really taught me how to draw male figures as I am always learning something new from her class every week.

In Integrated Studio, our job was to go swatch hunting as well as creating a collar for our stripe shirt project. The swatches had to be woven and were obtained at Elegant Fabrics. We are in the process of learning piece by piece each components that make up a shirt. As a result, basic construction was the only learning I have done so far.

Design Blog Session

Referring back to the aesthetics of femme fatale and film noir, I set myself in these movies imagining myself as the femme fatale character. I am looking out the window at New York city as if I am dominant (referring back to the domination of dominatrix) of the city I live, like a Superhero looking down at what he or she feels responsible of. Film noirs tend to be black and white so the background as well as me are rendered achromatic and I am in low opacity to give the behind-the-window effect. Position is also carefully considered as placing me in the center of the background will draw eyes less on the city and more towards me. As a result, I am looking down upon the city though my head is tilted upward to give the responsibility or domination feel of the femme fatale version of me.

In creating plaid, I have created a rouge feel giving it a coherent flow of the plaids. The plaids were inspired by red, the color of blood, love, passion, femme fatale, couture, as well as pinup girls. I thought pinup girl's style was more aloof from gothic fashion, until I came across the word of existence "halloween pinup" which inspired me to create plaids of dark colors mixed with thin stripes of red combined with the cute playful colors of the pinup girl's attires. Using the stripes created last week, I played with the position of the stripes' direction, ie. horizontal, vertical, diagonal. As a result, the plaids as a collection is bipolar as it shows a cute fun side then brings out its personal evil side similar to the narrative about the evil, hot high school vampire.

 I deconstructed a white shirt for Integrated Studio creating a spiderweb pattern on the deconstruction. Using the deconstructed model as a reference, I created 26 looks inspired by spiderwebs and the shirt aesthetic creating a cohesive spider collection. By tearing bits of woven fabrics off the shirt, I created a series of strings to tangle the newly formed outfit. As a result, the collection which included a wedding gown as a complement were filled with spiderweb patterns though I have yet to grasp the shirt aesthetic idea.

For visual communication, I am required to draw a figure wearing denim with a crazy movement as well as a flat for a denim jacket. Using markers, I considered starting off with a lighter shade towards the darker shade to avoid smudging. To draw denim requires a shade of white pencil to emphasize the yarn's color--white and indigo--and seams needed to be included. As a result, the figure does not seem to have a crazy motion as her legs are in one position but she seems to almost go crazy by acting like a cat ready to jump at the viewers.

Design Blog Session

 The stripes of red patterns are repetitive throughout my studies as it correlates to the American flag. The vibe the stripes offer is a very young American girl, particularly the nineties girl I am focusing on. These colors are randomized on the internet at http://stripedbgs.com/ and I carefully thought out which colors I want to stand out more by emphasizing the size of the lines and color choices, etc. As a result, the bright colors of red and white are emphasized to give the teenage vibe.

Drawing Studio for Visual Communication helped me to render a 3 angled face pose: frontal, 45 degree, and side view. Using brush marker and sharpie, I first started off using the lightest medium towards the last finishing touch of dark medium, like continually adding layers and layers of colors. As a result, I gain control of highlights as well as shadows and satisfying facial drawing.

These are scanned images from a page of reflective journal depicting the Catwoman collage.

These are figure drawings and flats based from the Catwoman aesthetic.
They are works from Integrated Studio.
For my Catwoman collection, I used a lot of sharp edges on my flats so as to mimic Catwoman's ears. Using the poses from Drawing Studio has helped me to flash the clothes on the models and follow the light impacting the vinyl leather. As a result, it feels like a brand new extension from the simple catsuit of fetish fashion.
Setting the mood of romance are what I hope for in my color palette. By focusing on fire, romance, Valentines, hearts, sexiness, couture, vampires, RED, I attempt to bring about the characteristic of the Fire sign from the color RED. As a result, I feel as an Aries, these embody my character.

Design Blog Session

 

Looking back at the good old days of high school, I remember missing the style the students would dress to school. The look looked very much like he or she does not want to "grow up" but stay young forever. That style achieved that particular attitude in that the attires of the socal students had teen spirit such as the preppy, grunge, skater, punk, emo, surfer, etc. Living in New York City, I learned that I cannot grow up like everyone else here as being young is what makes me more happy. However, as I associated with the environment of New York, my cali style seemed to have disappeared (not fully) and I dressed more different though I still have that youth attitude in me. 

The habitats of New York usually dressed professionally, ie. women pampered in makeup and designer high heels, rather than the laidback, ie. women without makeup and morning hair, which correct my messy hair and my trashy biker pleather with sleek black hair and more simple clean leather silhouette. To combine the two--trashy but professional and sexy--I would come up with a result in which it will suit my style, a traveler living LA and NY. However, whenever I do get the chance to visit socal, I walk and remember every moments of every footsteps leading me to become inspired from the style of the past to influence the style of the future. 

Revisiting past work, I incorporated and image drawn from the very nature of LA which refers back to the psychedelic pot culture of high school.

Design Blog Session

This collection was a work done in Integrated Studio in which I would like to share into the class of Visual Communication. The style is based on fetish fashion easily noticed through the texture of the clothing material of the figures. I emphasized the bright streak of white highlights on the flats to get the feel of vinyl leather--a typical material use during the 1990's fetish fashion trend. The style combines the Catwoman and super-hero aspect with fetish fashion. Sharp corners of the silhouettes mimics the cat's pointy ear aesthetic. I have for a while been studying fetish fashion in pretty much most of my classes, i.e. Integrated Studio, Design Studies, and just now for Visual Communication. I personally have a fetish for fetish fashion as others have fetishes for Christian Liboutin shoes. I enjoy the tight silhouettes of clothing rather than the structural costume-like attires because first, it's sexually appealing; second, it appreciates the silhouette of the natural body, thirdly; they are referred to as the second skin almost feeling as if one is bare naked.
My first impression, before moving to NYC, of New York was this Gotham City world, home belonging to the Catwoman, but it wasn't. As a matter of fact, it was completely the opposite. By bringing out the Catwoman aesthetics, I'd like to teach New York something about the world of Gotham City.

The concept of Catwoman fetish fashion and Gotham City of New York correlates to a collage work I did for 2D first semester of Foundation year. The collage brings out the dark fantasy of New York by combining a forest with textures from the streets of New York, most notably the graffitis.
In every city lies a superhero. What New York needs is some sexy woman in rubber latex to save the day.

Design Blog Session

In my perspective, fantasy comes from the very organic nature of this Earth via trees, bushes, grass, etc. These are photographs taken from my very old community circle in LA. The community was filled with trees and grass almost a replica of a forest whereas wild animals such as raccoons and coyotes prey. I enjoy these photographs as part of my reflective journal as it gives a narrative of a girl living in a world of fantasy. She feels lonely just like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

Many of the art forms at the bottom emphasize the trees and the forest. I am fascinated as well as fantasize about the forest that I'd like to make clothes that fit the personality of a fairytale princess character like Sleeping Beauty. These works I painted in acrylic are fantasy-like as well as dark in taste which creates a character of goth fantasy.

This particular piece of work made by me is bringing about the California's nature into NYC using images of the Northridge Park from the San Fernando Valley of LA fused with the city life of NYC. Though fashion focuses on various societies, New York can get a sense of Cali's fashion. Instead of a style of flashy attempts, a more relaxed style makes up my personal style. By bringing down images of the city, I'd like to revive the organic nature of New York before pilgrim's set foot on the New World. The sense of relaxation in an attire characterizes the Cali style and I'd like to further incorporate the culture taste and apply it to my femme fatale look. I find relaxation more appealing than Lady Gaga.

Design Blog Session

Maintaining the femme fatale look is key for the development of this reflective journal. The colors are not red but rather playful colors such as baby blue and pink. These colors are to be focused as well for a dreamy theme I'd like to focus as well. Bringing about colors of fairytale aspects to NYC is a dream come true. Instead of the dull city daily life of walking through the disturbed streets of New York, these outfits above revives the dullness of the city.

 

Hearts are an inspiration. Playing with the patterns of hearts is another role I'd like to take role in. Hearts are symbolized as "cute" and instead of the all out sexy look I seemed to have approached from the session 1 blog, I'd like to incorporate some aspects of "cute" patterns and colors.

 

Shrooms create color, beauty, amusement, a dream come true. It reminds me when Alice meets the caterpillar who smokes habitually.

 

I keep track of my dreams because I believe they mean something. Beautiful places I travel to is never forgetful and I try to incorporate those places to create a narrative for fashion ideas.

 

Synthetic fabrics and materials consistently drives my ideas to create this theme of femme fatale.

Design Blog Session

Girl in Red

Red stands for money and couture in the 18th century.

Until the invention of synthetic dyes, red was equivalent of couture. Only wealthy wore it because its production required dyestuffs, driving up costs and a lust for it along with it.

femme fatale n. An attractive and seductive woman, esp. one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her.

Valerie Steele gives examples of colors and symbolism such as black relating to sin, the devil, and the contrast with light skin and red with passion, flames, vampires, and blood.

Story about a high school girl, the "hottest" girl in school, who uses her love spells to seduce boys. She uses this power to consume the flesh of their skin, killing every high school boy in school.

Most of these movies are typical nineties movies and its styles. Clothings are mostly tight to the skin in femme fatale and stripped closer and closer to the body towards the nineties.

 

Tamara (2005)

 

Nikita (2010)

 

 

Jennifer's Body (2009)

 

Devil in the Flesh 2 (2000)

 

Colors of Inspiration:

Summer assignments:

Embodies the teen rebellion trend