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

The Green Velvet Dress

Photos by Joe Tanis Photography

I mentioned in my post about Keiko's Orange dress that I would some day share the original dress that has inspired these variations.

So, this is the original dress.

This is also the dress I showed Karolina when we were talking about her Tango dress. She needed a lot of other design details for the Tangoing, but the back was inspired by this dress.

So, this dress was inspired by not having very much of this fabric. A friend of mine gave me 1 yard of this beautiful green silk velvet and I was determined to really use as much as possible of it, hence the inspiration to make a wrap dress. All the draping in the back creates the cowl. I did give it the cut away neck line in the front with the panel of silk organza.

Originally I designed this for a New Years Eve party. It was a big hit, but I'm sure you won't be surprised that I was fairly cold. Ah, winter party dilemma's ... :)

Keiko's Orange Dress with Navy Fascinator

 I just got these amazing photos from my photographer, Joe Tanis and I'm so excited to share them!

Keiko needed a dress this summer to go to a wedding in Japan, we talked about me making her a fascinator and I did (see below), it kind of inspired our Fascinator Making Workshop, but then we also got on about what she would wear with this fascinator and one thing lead to another and well, we both thought she needed this...

Someday I will make a post about the original dress that keeps inspiring new versions, but for now, I think this might be one of my favorites! This is one pattern piece, it's a wrap dress. This one is in a lovely 4-ply silk crepe.

 And I love how the orange dress and navy fascinator look so elegant on her! Really it can be so fun to wear color!

You may remember the fascinator from our flyer... :)

It's always so fun to work with clients that want a little adventure in their party clothes... I'm totally for adventurous party clothes!

Karolina and Wayne, Part 2: TANGO!

I mentioned that Karolina had more then one project. Well her other project was a very specific kind of reception dress. She and Wayne were going to Tango at the reception, she needed a Tango dress!

I grew up watching muscials and I love to dance so I loved the idea of this kind of project! (And not just because I loved her shoes!)

Based on some ideas she had and some ideas I had, this is the dress we designed for the dancing.

What's tricky about this kind of dress is, how to make a backless, cowl necked dress stay on when dancing the Tango? Well, you can imagine it took some engineering. But it seems, it worked!

Don't they look amazing? They just look so happy and beautiful! Makes me want to learn to Tango, badly!

Cheers! xophae

Trouble.

This is Trouble.

Trouble got her name because she seemed to invite trouble whenever she was worn. Because she is this bias cut little simple thing, she seems to fit women between about a size 0 and an 8, and she seems to look as worthy of trouble on every body that takes her on.

Then an odd thing happened, as my sisters and my friends seemed to evolve, people started wanting to borrow her because of her reputation.

This is how she ended up in my sister Briana's procession when we lived in different cities. Her friend had borrowed Trouble and returned her to Briana, thinking I'd get her back eventually.

And I did. But first, I got a call at about 3:30 in the morning on the first of september one year with Briana saying, "Sis, I'm wearing Trouble with blue panties .. . and I'm in Reno with Troy" (I so wish I had a photo to share of THAT trouble!) Yep, Trouble fills in when you need to elope!

Then, a few years later (but very recently) my sister Tara called late one December, "Sis, I'm turning 35 and I'm trying to get knocked up, can I borrow Trouble?" I sent her the dress.

Now I have a very handsome nephew!

It seems, that at this age, we want trouble. We want this trouble that leads to happy unions and beautiful babies. Both welcome and happy additions to the family.

What's funny, is Trouble got made in about 2 seconds, from a scarf that got left behind at the restaurant where I worked at the time. (oh if I found the person that left that scarf, I'd write her a thank you note!) I simply held one end up in front and pinched where I figured the "back" should meet and stitched her up, simplest, most successful dress I've ever made. I promise.

So now, it's my turn to have this birthday and it's given me pause. What kind of trouble am I trying to stir up? And what kind of dress wants to usher in this year?

I'm not sure. But I do think my older sisters have set some very good examples.

Alterations meets Reinvention

I used to say that I would rather make something from scratch then take something apart and alter it. but this has a very narrow definition of "alter". That alteration is like, replacing a zipper or making something a little bigger or smaller.

Lately I have been working on projects where "altering" the garment means recreating it. For these currant projects are taking older, vintage dresses and turning them into something new for new celebrations. It's really fun to see these kinds of family history be passed down and then updated for a new generation and new memories. Giving these dresses a new life. It reminds me of the pieces I made for last September's Fashion Night Out.

So with Oscar night and the party that went with it last weekend, I was inspired to revisit some old "reinvention projects" that have been neglected in my studio. (Going to a party is the best motivation.) This originally was a skirt sample that I got years ago when I freelanced at Jcrew, too pretty to decline even though it was 3 sizes too big. I opted to turn it into a dress, obviously...

(I'm not so photogenic these days...)

I did this once before with another skirt I got during the same time. This one I added the bodice to make the skirt into a dress. The beading and detail in this piece was too brilliant to turn down just because it was much too big. (The beading also made the idea of just fitting the skirt a very daunting task... much more fun to add a bodice and call it a dress!)

(You'd trust me at your wedding with a camera, wouldn't you?)

Brings the idea of recycling to a whole new level, yes?