The Big 1-0-0!

That’s right, this is my 100th post in this blog! So, partially to celebrate (but mostly because the timing worked out impeccably), I now bring you… my trip to NYC’s Fashion District! (Warning: This is going to be an extremely image-heavy post.)

One of my friends and I went up to NYC for the afternoon (a couple hours’ drive from here) and spent the majority of the afternoon browing fabric shops. I do have to admit that it was difficult to find fabric I could actually use— the selection was heavily geared towards formalwear, and much of the remaining fabric was sadly out of my budget. But if I ever need to make a really fancy dress for a performance or a wedding dress or something, I know exactly where to go shopping now. The area between 7th/8th and 37th/38th Sts. are loaded with shops for this type of fabric. I did, however, come home with this:

It’s a cotton voile, and slightly greener than the picture shows. I think I’m going to use it to make this blouse from BurdaStyle, minus the elastic at the waist and probably with 3/4 sleeves since this is a springier fabric. $14 for 2 yards, and the people running the store were quite friendly and helpful, even if the selection seemed a bit disorganized (but it was like that in all the stores, really, they were more like fabric warehouses than the vaguely more organized setup I’m used to at my only local option, the friendly neighborhood JoAnn’s. So I would recommend USA Fabric, which i s on 38th between 7th and 8th.)

Then we had dinner at a place which claimed to have the best grilled chicken on earth– not sure how accurate that is, but it was quite good, and almost as quick as fast food (and so much healthier. I even liked the broccoli served with it, and that’s saying something!) Then, on to the highlight of the evening… one of the fashion shows at Mercedes-Benz (formerly Olympus) Fashion Week!

The friend I went with is studying fashion design online through the Academy of Art University (with the goal of doing costume design), so she got two free passes to their MFA show. I took a ton of pictures, of course, which aren’t the best quality due to being several rows back and the fact that it took me till about halfway through the show to figure out the best spot between peoples’ heads to get relatively full shots of the models, but here’s a few highlights from most of the collections shown.

#1: By Andrea Vence, who designed both the textiles and the outfits, and was inspired by Japanese bamboo basketry/kites.

Didn’t get any good pictures of the second collection, so on to the third, by Kathryn Scully, who did beachwear inspired by family vacations to the Jersey Shore:

The fourth was a collaboration between a fashion designer and a textile designer (James Yoest and Sharon Chia-yu Yeh, respectively). I missed several shots in this one, unfortunately, but did manage to get these two, which were fashioned from a recycled parachute:

#5: By Jiyoon Yeom, a knitwear collection inspired by nature’s spirit:

I didn’t bother taking pics of #6, which was a menswear collection inspired by “soccer thugs”. #7 was by Yi-Ting “Maxim” Lee, and was another knitwear collection inspired by the manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki. (Not big on leggings, but I really liked the knits themselves!)

#8 was by Haa Cheng Thai, and was inspired by kirigami– the laser-cut fabrics on this one were amazing!

#9: By Kyung Min Kim, who is primarily a textile designer but came up with some simple designs to showcase her fabric. I sincerely hope she becomes big enough for her designs to be sold to the general sewing public, because I absolutely loved the graphics and would buy it in a heartbeat. The photos really don’t do them justice, but here’s my attempt:

#10: By MinSun Lee, a knitwear collection inspired by, of all things, Russian nesting dolls. I was curious to see how the layers would translate, since that can get bulky, but it actually worked.

After this, we stopped at Starbucks just long enough for drinks (since I’d been craving iced chai all day) and then headed home. But now I’m feeling very inspired to get back to my sewing– probably a good thing, since lining quilting has made me very unmotivated! (It still stands at 6/12 pieces quilted, since pretty much all I’ve done in the way of craftiness since the last post was make one scrapbook page from that painted paper, and assemble 3 more layouts that still need text.)

One last picture: Saw this dress on the way into the show once I was in the tent, and just liked it.

Edit, 5:47 PM: Ok, make that 7/12 on the lining. I would have gotten more done this afternoon, but I spent a little time reenforcing the strap on the Gothic Rose bag, since it looked like the stitching at the corners was already beginning to pull a little and I do not want to mess this one up by the end of the cooler season (I really like this bag). That, and went to JoAnn’s with my mom (she needed some stuff, and as it turned out, I never actually used the gift card that one of my friends gave me for my birthday about 6 months ago. Spent more than what was on it, of course, but I now have a nice piece of dark denim for once I figure out a working jeans pattern, some army green twill that I want to make the Ellen pants from Burdastyle with, and a navy blue/tan/royal blue stripe to make a blouse from. I may make Burdastyle’s Emily with it, but I think I’m going to look through my stash first and see if I have a blouse pattern that I’ve already tried and liked first.