Archive, Jenn's Emmy Dress

I posted photos of Jenn in this dress when she originally wore it, but she was kindly willing to be photographed in it in the studio for my archives.

It was 2 years ago that I designed this dress for her trip to the Emmy's, but I still love this dress! And this color!
As always, Joe Tanis takes such beautiful images..... :)

Sara's Wedding Fascinator

Sara arriving for her wedding!

I just got this photo of Sara arriving for her wedding. I love this photo of her! Full of excitement and love (and maybe a little nervousness?). I also love that she choose a grey dress! For her fascinator, she made me a Pinterest page of things she liked and the main colors of her bouquet. 

Since she was wearing grey, I covered the headband with grey silk, then for the flowers, I worked with pale pale green, gold and ivory fabrics and some sweet white feathers. Sara lives in Texas, so we did the whole thing via email. I'm so flattered that she trusted me to work out the colors and proportion from so far away! It worked out well, yes? 

I couldn't be happier for Sara and her groom! And hopefully she'll be able to wear her fascinator again! 

her fascinator

You Will Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, update!

Right before we all went on vacation, I had a fitting with Katie, my model for You Will Have Your Cake and Eat It Too! This is the beginning of the line! 

Katie was good enough to come to the studio on a day that was getting pretty warm and was then willing to try on these samples while Joe took photos of the process.

Getting to work like this is super indulgent for me, it's pretty exciting. I've always loved to explore what the fabric will do in any particular design. It almost feels like cheating, "The fabric told me it wanted to do that! I just listened..." .
This dress is one I designed a while ago, I keep making little or not so little changes and rebuilding it. I know fashion trends tend to move very quickly, but I've always been inspired by the idea of things/styles/silhouettes that have a longer life.


Years ago I read an interview with Isabel Toledo, she said, some of her designs she would wear for years before she'd add them to her line. She wanted to make sure they worked and that they would last. (I named my first dress form Isabelle after her.) I just loved that idea, of living with a design to see if it works.

I also just finished a great biography on Coco Chanel, Chanel; A Woman of Her Own by Axel Madsen and Chanel had a similar philosophy on design. She was always refining what worked, what was elegant and comfortable. And who really was chicer then Chanel?!

 So, here we are! I'm working on the fit and the right construction, what needs bones and what doesn't. I'm loving working with colors and pushing the ideas of what colors make great wedding and party clothes.

What do you think? Here's to more Cake! cheers!

All photos by Joe Tanis Photography

Interstellar Songbook!

Last summer, I was contacted by a friend of a friend in need of a dress to wear on the cover of her soon to be released CD.

We had such a great time working on this "costume".  Joanne Weaver is an amazing singer, I won't try to explain what her music is like because I'm not fluent in music at all. But, her fashion style is totally inspired by the sultry styles from the 40's. And that era makes my heart flutter a little faster too! So we had a great combination of using that inspiration and still wanting to make her look a little like a star filled midnight sky...... (with great legs!)

The Intersteller Songbook is now here! If your in NY, check her out this weekend in person! If your not in NY, check her out via social media from her links below..

and yep! that's the dress on the cover! :)

Joanne Weaver Interstellar Songbook CD Release Party Saturday, June 2nd Doors at 7pm Show starts promptly at 8pm Theatre80 80 St Mark's Place New York, NY $20 + $5 service fee Each guest will receive a complimentary CD and free entrance to after party. We kindly ask that you buy your tickets in advance. Buy Tickets Here
		Join my mailing list
		Follow me on Facebook
www.joanneweavermusic.com

Creative Collaborations

I love collaborations. I think I've mentioned this before. It's part of the reason why I love designing custom dresses, clothes and tiny hats. I love that interaction between an event, the person going to the event and me.

You can imagine that I also love bigger creative collaborations, photo shoots involving other artists and designers, collaborations with other designers, other communities... like, my Kickstarter community. While my "You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too" Backers have been endlessly patient waiting for me to finally release the finished designs, I have been really struck by how much a community makes a difference.

collaboration between Hair Artist Cynthia Torres and Photographer Joe Tanis

So, my new collaborative effort is the photo shoot for "You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too." Using other local creative professionals, we'll all bring our best talents together and see what we come up with. One of the coolest parts about getting to work with other creatives, is getting to see how every one's input helps to tell the story and move it forward.

One of my sisters got so excited when I started telling her about this photo shoot collaboration, she works in Arts and Education Development (my siblings are all brilliant.) And she said, that collaborative teams like this is what the world is moving towards and it's how they are finding that people work successfully together. Really, they are cutting edge. So fancy that! Here's to cutting edge collaborations!

Real Wedding on Snippet and Ink!

I just discovered one of my favorite Brides from last year was listed on a wedding blog and it really show cases how lovely the bride and groom really are!

They danced a Tango! so beautiful!

See the whole post and they're story (which is so lovely and romantic) here. They're actually coming up on their first anniversary, what a nice way to revisit such a beautiful wedding and joyous celebration . .  Happy Anniversary Karolina and Wayne!

Fascinating You . . .

We thought it was very light and airy but still had a nice drama.

 This is long overdue.

In April, Urban Girl Squad and I put together a Raffle to for winning a custom made fascinator. And happily, we had a winner!

Our winner, Kristen, brought herself and  her friend Adi all the way from the Upper East Side to my Brooklyn Studio (such a commitment!) on a lovely Saturday afternoon and had a little champagne, while we worked out this design.

Here's the winner with her friend Adi.

These are my new favorite kinds of feathers.

It was really fun, everything I love about doing collaborative custom work. She sent me some photos of fascinators and tiny hats that she liked and could also see herself wearing. Which is key, there are so many great hats out there, but there are some that even though I think they are amazing, I can't really imagine wearing it. She was the same.. despite our shared love of giant plumes.

And here she is in her fascinator!

And then we just hung out and looked at lots little pieces of feathers and fabric.


 So this is what we came up with, what do you think? I hope Kristen was able to wear it out for Kentucky Derby Day!