Works in Progress

Photos by Joe Tanis

It's been fairly hectic the last fews weeks, (hence the quiet on the blog front) and there are some things that I've been finishing up that I can't wait to share with you. Alas, the Bride always gets to make her debut before I get to share anything with you!

In the meantime, here's some of my works in progress. Joe Tanis always takes the best photos of things I'm working on.

Cheers!

Bridesmaids Dresses, a study.

Photos by Joe Tanis

 I've watched 27 dresses, (it's actually really funny, don't judge me) and there were some amazing dresses in that movie, all of them terrible. I learned, that most of these dresses were bought for this movie! They were made ON PURPOSE to sell to the public, not just dreamed up by a costume designer challenged to make 27 terrible dresses!


We all know these dresses have a really bad rap. As a designer, I've given this a lot of thought, why are they so often unattractive? And when they are really great, why doesn't anyone say anything about it? You'd think it would be similar to seeing a unicorn. You want it to be true, cute dresses that could be worn again! And yet they get so little attention.


There is something about the "Bridesmaid Dress" that just has a specific look to it. I haven't figured out why that is.


In full disclosure, the only times I've been a bridesmaid, it's been for my siblings and I designed my own dress, (theirs too) so the only person I had to complain to about what I was wearing was myself (I'm a designer, it happens).


Pictured is the outfit I designed to be a "bridesmaid" or bridesmaid-like (it was a nontraditional wedding) for my brother's wedding. And remarkably, I have worn it again (not always together). I love this outfit. It's a corset with a circle skirt with pockets. It was really fun to wear. (It was also 103 degrees that day and really difficult to breathe in this corset.)

Now, I'm in the happy position to be inviting people to stand up for me, and I'm totally stumped! How to make something lovely, (nursing friendly) practical, flattering and affordable. Oh! and that hopefully that they can wear again. Okay, go!


Thoughts? I'm open to suggestions.

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

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!

Happy Valentines Day!

Well hello strangers. I've been neglectful of this blog. So where to start to sum up?

Basically, I fell in love. Am in love....

December was a wild kind of month, I was working on a bunch of custom projects and I launched and completed my You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too Campaign on Kickstarter. As soon as that finished, I went with my most amazing boyfriend to meet his family for the holidays. We came back to Brooklyn and as I was mulling over my New Years ideas and new designs, my most amazing boyfriend put a ring on my finger.

 (Photo by Joe Tanis)

We met at my sister's kitchen table. But we became friends working on photo shoots together. See above.

(me plus Joe!)

I'm now finding myself in the most interesting place as a wedding dress designer. I've been designing and sketching lots of dresses for the You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too collection. But now, I'm also thinking about what a bride might want from a brand new place.

Will I design and make my own dress? Yes. Will it be white/ivory/cream? No. One of my top commitments in designing dresses for weddings, has always been that people end up feeling and looking like themselves, their very best selves. I don't feel so much like myself in white/ivory/cream. It has also been lovingly pointed out to me that because I am so pale, I look terrible in it. So there's that.

Am I telling what color it will be or will look like? No. You all will have to wait same as the groom to see it. :)

My theme this year is You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too! (Its also the year of the Dragon. (I'm a dragon!)) I'll keep you all posted on the collection! and on all the Cake!

Wishing you lots of love for Valentine's day! xoxophae

Shoes! Fall 11 samples (sale!)

So, remember when I was working on starting my shoe line? Well, ta da!

However, things with the shoe designing have taken to the back burner.. In the mean time, I wanted to share my designs.

The ankle straps (left hand side) are called Fifi (yep, inspired and named after Ms. Queener's character), seen above in grey leather with a black and white wool herringbone trim and straps and the "oxfords" are called Cha Cha, seen above in black and white wool herringbone and grey leather with black grosgrain trim and laces.

Here you have Cha Cha in cranberry leather and blush pink satin and grosgrain trim and laces and Fifi in just the blush pink satin and grosgrain trim.

So, my heartbreak about this process was, I only got to make samples. Currently there are no plans for production of these. My goal (still) is to make smaller runs. And the factory we were working with didn't really want to help us with that. So for now, these are my sale samples. And that really means, these 5 pairs of size 7's are on sale.

Above is the only pair of "flats" I designed. (Flats give you bunions, you have to be good to your feet! When I find flats that don't ruin your feet, I'll totally promote them. In the meantime, be careful and wear heels!) Okay so they aren't totally flat, they have a 1" heel.

I digress... I was actually really pleased with how these turned out. Someday I hope I can make a production run on Fifi and Cha Cha (it's because I don't what you to have bunions that I am reluctant to produce flats, even the ones with heels.)

So if you are a size 7 (the fabric shoes are a little more snug then the leather ones...) and you are interested in buying a pair, please let me know (phaedra.elizabeth at gmail(dot)com). I just want them to have a good home. Where someone will love them as much as I do... :)

Also can we give a round of applause to my super awesome (size 7 and 6.5) models! Keiko in the white jeans and Kya in the black pants... they were super helpful and have such great feet! And are generally just wonderful women to hang out with! :) thanks guys!

xoxophae

More Pants!

As I mentioned in November, my pants assignment is to make cute, warm winter pants. So here is the newest pair. (I have not yet mastered the art of photographing myself in clothes.) After finishing these, I was discussing the things I wanted to change with a couple of my design school friends and my friend Jenn suggested a correction that hit me like, "ohhh yeah!". Now I'm itching to make more, to see how these little tweaks will change the fit. (I love the experimenting part.)

Also, all these snow storms are a big inspiration for more winter clothes....

New year, new adventures...

(this image above is from the steam whistles at Pratt, it's a Brooklyn New Years tradition)

New years is my favorite holiday. Hands down. I like all of it, new years eve, new years day, new years resolutions.... What I love about it is it's so simple. It's just a celebration of time. One year is over and we're on to the next. It's the newness I love, like a new sketch book, the year and often in New York the city is all white and blank.

It makes me feel really optimistic. Also it's an excuse to make a new party dress.

So for this year, I'm making 2 sets of new years resolutions, 1 set for my life and 1 set for my studio. So far for my studio, my resolutions are to:

1) make more. and post more about what I'm making more of.

2) take on more projects that make me nervous, these projects always end up teaching me so much.

3) Try more of the "I'm not sure that will work" variety, just to see what will happen. (I think I started this one while working on my new years eve party dress. . .I'm still not sure what will happen with it.)

That's it. I like to keep the resolution list short, makes it all feel more achievable.

My parting thought, and maybe my mantra this year, is this:

I love this, I found it on pinterest, but it is actually from madebysean.com. It's right up there with my other favorite new poster, the "You will have your cake and eat it too" one my sister found on Esty.

I don't think these count as resolutions, maybe they are just reminders to do what I love and see what happens. I guess, in a nutshell, that is the resolution... to do more of what I love and see what happens...

Here's to a wonderful new year! cheers, xophae

Chuppah ideas lead to all kinds of things...

I really love collaborations. I know I must say this all the time. But it's really one of my favorite parts of working on design projects. I also, really enjoy getting involved with projects that I normally don't know anything about.

Recently I've been helping a friend create a chuppah for her sister's wedding. We had lots of conversations about possibilities for the design of the sides that would be draped down around the poles that hold up the canopy, one of the options involved cutting the fabric into a vaguely organic lace-like pattern.

I started a mock up, to see how it could look and how long it might take, as we don't have that much time before the wedding. While we decided this idea won't ultimately work due to the time crunch, I liked the idea so much I came home and kept working on the first curtain.

I love the way the cut pieces hang down and the light filters through. I've decided to use my mock up as a curtain in my bedroom since I only have one window, this mock up will work quite nicely.

In the mean time, I totally want to try this for a party dress, so many ideas of what to do with this kind of texture in a dress, something with a lining....

You see way I love collaborations, such fun things comes of it.

Pants!

I love dresses, I often call myself a dress maker, as in, one who makes dresses.

But, I don't love tights, or more specifically, I don't love wearing tights. And with winter sneaking in, I have to admit I also love pants. In fact, from November to April it's most of what I wear. (Find me the warm tights that don't pinch my toes and I'll keep wearing dresses...)

Designing pants is not always my favorite, but after years in menswear, I have developed a love of some of the traditional touches... and the fabrics! I love the men's wear fabrics.

So every fall/winter I come back to my pants patterns and work out the ones that are good and worth making again. I make myself rough drafts, my rough drafts never have pockets. (Which drives me batty when I actually end up wearing them.) Rough drafts are exactly what they sound like, rough. I make them for fit and adjust my pattern. Getting it right is tricky. Using a fabric with Lycra does not make up for pattern-making sins. Making the perfect fitting pattern can be a slow going process. (But it's really so worth the effort.) I don't have many pants that I love. I have exactly 3 pairs of pants that I love. (the pair not shown came from Club Monaco... I don't make all of my clothes, I just want to.) My favorite winter pants (hanging on the hook in the photo above) are lined in flannel. Flannel. They are so warm and easy to wear. I need more flannel ASAP. I could have 7 pairs like this during the NY winters. The other pair, they are new, made from the narrow strip of leftover fabric sent back to our office from the factory after they made a suit. This lack of fabric demanded these pants be skinny and short. The fabric was so beautiful I knew I could find a way to make it something. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

Despite this week's beautiful mild weather, I have pants on the brain. Need/want always inspires me, 'I am cold, I want warm pants, with pockets. That are slimming, look good with my shoes and are cute.' This is my assignment. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with... :)

Fall!

I've had fall fashion thoughts on the brain for weeks. And now, suddenly I am pulling out all my sweaters, thinking about socks and wishing I had more plaid pants!

There is always a newness to fall, maybe after years of new school years and that crisp new-ness that fall weather brings, the relief after a hot muggy summer.

And this fall there is lots of new-ness going on in my studio. Namely, I'm moving! I'm not going very far, 2 floors to be exact. But my new space will have a different view, more windows, a new color palette and more space. I don't move often since I love where I live, but I do love the opportunity to stir up my work and living spaces. I'm really excited! (I've been day dreaming of having these rooms on any floor in my building for YEARS!)

And with the beginning of October comes thoughts of Halloween and all the holidays that follow . . . So I'm putting together my list and sketches of things to make as gift ideas. . . is there anything you'd like to see? Warm winter hats? Party dresses? What do you fancy for this fall?

off to LA!

I've been working on all kinds of things for my trip to LA. There's works in progress all over the studio and a nice group of pieces I'm really pleased with to take with me. Here's a glimpse of a couple pieces I finished yesterday. . .

Hopefully my trip will be productive and I'll have much more to share . . . . .