Photo Shoot

Some shots from the photo shoot for the fashion show advertisements.
Models: Rebecca and Sonya. Photographer: Garrett Chang

Fashion Show Video

NYU Fashion Show

Photos from my first full collection at the Fashion Business Association Fall Fashion Show 07 at NYU. Photos courtesy of Arthur Eisenberg and Slam Images.

Tree Dress

This is the first piece that I've made to be part of the collection I am showing at the Fashion Business Association Fall Fashion Show at NYU.

The collection will be rather small due to time constraints and will only consist of about 6 to 7 pieces. Hence the color palette will be limited to about 3 colors - muted blue-gray, beige/flesh tones, black.

Looking at these colors for too long makes me want to break out into something bright and cheery like fuschia and cyan but thankfully I've got those impulses under control for now :)

All Tied Up...

Voila! I've bought a Uniquely You dressform which after fitting, seems to be slightly broader than what I actually am. But in any case, it more or less suits what I need it for.

I made this dress over the weekend in an attempt to finish my brown jersey lying around the apartment. The yellow hand embroidery came after and I wanted it to look deliberately hand-sewn instead of machine-perfect.

The two loops on the side are meant to go round the back to form a larger ribbon but I haven't fully decided on it. I like the idea design-wise, but then it doesn't seem like something that I would wear if it becomes so loud. That, and I would have to troop down to the store to get more yellow thread instead of finishing what I have on hand.

Samuel

Bummed! I wanted to start making bags to sell to raise funds but now I realised I'm totally not well equipped in Singapore to make anything! I don't even have a long ruler anywhere in the house!!

Guess who this is.. It's Samuel from the orphanage. What a beautiful face. :) I wanna print this on canvas in the pop art kinda style and have half a face on my bag but alas, I'm getting nowhere.

In the meantime, I'm trying new things and spending more time with my mum. Went for yoga class with her at True Yoga (Pacific Plaza). It's really nice there although I totally can't catch the inhalation (hold... gasp gasp) and exhalation. I always feel like a strangled cat when I hold my breath. Tonight we're gonna try the Bollywood dance class there. Woo!

Time out in Africa

These are some photos from this summer where a couple of friends and I volunteered in an orphanage in Ghana, Africa. Although it was only a short period of time, we managed to get quite a lot of work done such as organizing a library, buying textbooks, building a table tennis table, bringing them for HIV testing, getting health insurance and ringworm medicine for the children. The HIV testing and health insurance was a continuation of the good work that Trevor and Marie -- volunteers who had to leave soon after we arrived -- had started. I'll put more of the photos on Facebook or Snapfish to share. Also, check out the video that Gangwei made -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co-nGwg568c

(To be continued)

NYU SSA Website

Total side-track from sewing here, but I wanted to keep a record of this anyway. This was a website I designed for the Singapore Students Association at NYU when I was the webmaster. It's been handed over to Edwin so it'll be in good hands yay! On the splash on the left, the five links turn into colored versions when your mouse rolls over them. Pretty photos courtesy of Weiyao. You can view the site here if you are interested.

First Latin Dress Ever

This was made entirely on a whim and I used the Yale Dance Competition on Dec 2nd 06 as my deadline. The material is actually purple lycra although cameras have a weird way of turning it blue.

I didn't take many photos on that day so I don't have a proper full length photo of the front yet. Parts of the top and skirt had lighter purple Swarovskis glued onto them although you won't be able to see it in detail here. The skirt was a circle skirt with gathers on the hips and the bra top on the inside was black with black flat sequins.

I was incredibly paranoid about my costume falling apart on the dance floor at first but then had to convince myself that everything was secure, and it was. Jayson wanted to wear a purple bandanna with my excess material and thus, the purple ninjas were born. Boy will I miss him when I graduate and leave.

Green Latin Dress

This was my second latin dress I tried to make. The dress was inspired by a large pink jewel flower hair pin trimmed with gold which I bought at H&M. Will load photos of that once I'm back in my New York apartment.

The sequins on top and behind were painstakingly hand-stitched but I ended up just gluing the individual sequins below instead.

Gah, I'll edit the layout later.

Navy Gown for St John's Mayball

This gown was made for a May Ball I was going to in Cambridge, UK. I wanted to challenge myself to make a gown instead of buying one as usual. This turned out pretty well considering I didn't have a dress form and I had to create a pattern from scratch without having any proper measurements.

Unfortunately, it rained like mad during the Ball and so a long dress with heels that sunk into the muddied grass probably wasn't the best idea. The food was typical Brit together with free-flow alcohol - not very impressive in my opinion. However, the fireworks display with music was the best I'd ever seen and that made trotting around in the rain and mud worthwhile in the end.

Purple Dress for Central Park!

Some of these photos were on my facebook note but I decided to post them here to keep better track of my progress.

This was a purple jersey knit dress I made in 45 minutes to go to Central Park with the Singaporeans at NYU. Although the location was changed due to rain later on, I was happy with my attempt to finish using up some fabric. Voila!

Oh yes, the halter has pleats on one side in case the photo's not clear.

Monaco Blue Dress

Sorry for the terrible picture but until i get a mannequin/model/photographer this will have to make do. This was a blue dress I made to wear to a party some time ago in which the theme was Monaco Blue if I remember correctly.

This was a light blue stretch jersey that I bought from Spotlight. Knee was injured as usual.

Sally dress

Blue dress made from cotton squares originally made for quilting with navy stretch denim on the top. As usual, being impatient, I made this dress without a ruler or any form of measuring tool whatsoever. That's a result of shuttling between 2 countries and having your stuff all over the place.

The dress would probably puff out less if I had ironed it. But it's nice nonetheless! The brown belt is my only elastic belt at the moment but it seems to go well with it anyway. I'm planning to buy more coz they're oh-so-convenient!

And don't ask me why this dress is a Sally dress. I just felt like naming it.

Patterned canvas bag

This bag was made from table runner fabric from IKEA. I saw it and couldn't resist. Some people have likened the patterns to ovaries but let's not go there. I love the colors either way!

The bag is lined with champagne satin and I hammered on my own eyelets and snaps in gold! It would have been much easier had I used an actual hammer instead of a rubber one -- any donors? The bag flap (between the handles and in the same pattern) is trimmed with gold.

First bag ever!

This was my first bag ever! That's if you don't count some corduroy bag I tried to make for Lily which I ruined by sewing the handles the wrong way round.

I made this for a final term project for a Parsons class in beading, embroidery and applique. Some people made blouses, home decor, etc but I decided to make myself learn how to make a bag so that I could put the embroidery on it. Turned out pretty nice although the struggle with the plastic core made me realise I needed a proper non-slip sewing foot.

First vinyl bag for Ching

So this bag was for Ching. White vinyl with hand-stitched detailing in the front. What I like best is the handle design which was totally unexpected. I knew I wanted thin black handles but I couldn't decide how to attach it or whether to go through the blue loops I made instead. So this was a nice surprise. :) The handles are a bit thin though, so I'll have to rethink that next time.

Vinyl work bag for Cass

This was a black vinyl bag with a navy blue embroidered trim around the top edge and a blue satin tie around the handle.

I learnt my lesson this time and decided after 6 broken needles and sore fingers, that hand-embroidering so many stitches into a few layers of vinyl was probably silly of me.

But I'm glad it turned out fine and that she liked it! I made it more subtle so that she could carry it to work and anywhere else. Here's to you Cass, and the many great things you'll do over at Georgetown.