I've been crazy busy doing couture embroidery for another designer and have not had time to blog for a few weeks. Now it's time to catch up.
The other night, my friend Kat and I went to a fashion event organized by a local industry networking group that's based in the Bay Area. Regardless of where you live, if your dream is to become a fashion or jewelry designer or even if you plan to have your own boutique, you need to network with people in your local community who can provide valuable assistance as you build your business. For some, that may be a local school or club that can help you build skills and knowledge to help you move forward. For others, there may be business networking groups tailored to your industry that can help you navigate everything from local business regulations to sourcing and finding skilled labor.
In San Francisco, we're lucky to have a variety of resources available. One of these is the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance aka SFFAMA. It's targeted toward startup Bay Area indie designers and fashion boutiques and helping them network, and build their businesses. I don't remember exactly how I found out about SFFAMA but it was while I was trolling the internet shortly before I graduated. SFFAMA has periodic networking meetings where a roundtable discussion of people from the local fashion industry discuss how they got their business off the ground. The speakers range from bloggers to designers to store owners. I've found the info extremely helpful because you can ask questions of people who know what you're going through.
In addition to meetings, there are indie bazaars, fashion shows and other activities and events that bring the local fashion community together. The other night, the event was something called Fashion Feud. It's like a speedy version of Project Runway, conducted in front of a live audience. Knowing how long it takes me just to draft a pattern, the thought of designing and making an outfit in an hour is enough to give me nightmares. My friend Kat and I are both recent fashion school graduates so we were intrigued to see what these designers could do.
To make their task even more difficult, the designers have no idea what the fabrics will be until the start of the competition. Apparently, for the evening we were there, someone had contacted Mood Fabrics (the same supplier of fabrics for Project Runway designers) and received fabric donations. All I can say is, Mood must get a lot of these requests and they must be getting REALLLLLLYYYYYYYY tired of them. The donations this night, consisted of an orange and white reversible gingham/ dot printed fabric and a solid black fabric. Yes folks, it's bad enough that you have to design and make your outfit in one hour, you also have to do it with Halloween colors.
While the designers cut and sew their creations on a stage, the models are having their hair and makeup done on the same stage. This makes it difficult for the designers to fit the garments since they have to interrupt hair and makeup each time they need a fitting. It was interesting to watch the creations come to life and try to figure out what in the heck the final garment will be. It also made me want to try this at home to see just what I could make in one hour's time. One designer seemed to spend most of the hour making an overly large sunbonnet with really long straps. We wondered whether the model would be naked. The other designer used the aforementioned orange and white print fabric to whip up a cute little bubble skirt that used both sides of the print. I later realized she'd brilliantly used double stick foam tape to create the bubble shape to cut down on sewing time. The top (from the black fabric) started out as a cute and modern tank with an asymmetrical hem that curved up in front and down at the back. Unfortunately, what could have been an adorable and wearable outfit, was done in when the designer couldn't stop designing. The back of the tank got a reverse appliqued patch of the orange and white fabric which reminded me of a scarecrow. Out of scraps of the remaining fabric, she tore strips and knotted and looped them around the models neck to create a neckpiece that unfortunately overwhelmed what had been a cute top. The skirt, which was the best part of the outfit, was slashed and shredded for no apparent reason. Finally, a strip of orange fabric was inexplicably knotted and wound around the model's wrist. At the last minute, it turned out that the first designer had actually sewn a very simple tube dress with a center gather at the bust and an uneven hem that had a reverse fabric detail inside to imply a lining. The dress was very ill-fitting but that was hardly her fault since it was nearly impossible to properly fit the sitting model while she was getting her hair and makeup done. I don't even think these girls had time to sew zippers or snaps. In the end, the sunbonnet's straps were pinned to the tube dress to keep it from falling off and then the straps wound around the dress several times to fit the dress to the body. It was an interesting concept that in the end, won the designer points with the audience and judges. The winner of this competition will go on to compete against the winners of two previous Fashion Feuds. I have no idea whether there's a prize or whether they just get bragging rights. I took many pics but I wasn't happy with the quality (grrrrrr to all the "press" photogs who rudely jumped into the way every time I tried to snap a shot) so I've posted a link to the SFFAMA website if you'd like to see pictures from the event.
http://sffama.com/post/3639077044/photos-by-alexander-jacob-scion-presents
