Design Museum

The fourth and final week of Glam.com's Design a Dress contest is on now! Go to Glam.com to vote.

I stumbled upon the Design Museum website the other day. The museum is in London, England. It's a great resource to see and learn about design in general. Like the DX in Toronto it celebrates design mediums such as furniture, architecture, graphics, machinery (and more) as well as fashion. I was searching through some of the resources and found some images I liked, and decided to check out a designer I hadn't heard of before.

John Galliano I know, here's some images of his from 1998-2001 of some couture collections for Dior:The designer I didn't know and checked out was Philip Treacy. He is a hat designer. He makes them by hand and they are definately 'take you there' type pieces.

Treacy has made hats for Chanel, Valentino, Gianni Versace and Alexander McQueen at Givenchy. He says: “Having studied fashion design it helped me greatly when I started working with designers because I understood how the clothes draped or moved and the proportions. What I didn’t understand as a student was that fashion isn’t clothes, fashion is much more interesting than that, it’s a feeling and a mood – not dress-making.”

Here are a few of his couture hats:
I was interested to see that Urban Outs is selling high waisted styles now... See here.

Alumni Benefits

Turns out that as an alumni I'm allowed to borrow books from the fabulous library at Sheridan College for a minimal fee on a yearly basis... I've been craving a trip to Acadia to get my hands on some out of print fashion books but with my new library card I've got a wealth of books at my fingertips!! I took out a couple today, The Way We Look and The Vogue Sewing Book. They both look to be crammed with knowledge and I'm feeling uber inspired!

There used to be a fashion design course offered at Sheridan, but it was dropped over 10 years ago. Notable graduates from this program are Dominic Bellissimo, Wayne Clark and Linda Lundstrom. Unfortunately, Linda's company has just gone bankrupt, her company filed a notice of intention to file a proposal under the bankruptcy and insolvency act of Canada on January 31st. It looks like her company is looking for options right now which is good news. It's kinda cool to find out that these people (and lots of other fashion professionals) went through Sheridan, kinda too bad that the program was cut.
Check them out:

Dominic Bellissimo
http://www.shearlings.com/

Wayne Clark
http://wayneclarkdesign.com

Linda Lundstrom
http://www.lindalundstrom.com/

Welcome!

Welcome to Fashion Matter! I just took my first sewing class at The Workroom on Queen St. last week and it was so inspiring! I used to know how to use a sewing machine and even had a cheapie one of my own for a few years until it died... So the course was a fabulous refresher for me. I made a pillow case with funky pink and green pattern on white fabric and it now decorates my desk at work.
I've already signed up for 2 more classes!

I didn't watch the Oscars, but here's the Best and Worst Dressed at the Oscars according to MSN Lifestyle.
(http://lifestyle.sympatico.msn.ca/OscarStyle/OscarsBestDressed_2008)
(http://lifestyle.sympatico.msn.ca/Oscars+Worst+Dressed+2008/OscarStyle/OscarsWorstDressed_2008.htm?isfa=1)

I think Marion Cotillard, Heidi Klum's, Anne Hathaway and Renee Zellweger's dresses are gorgeous, they looks fabulous!

A couple weeks back I designed a dress for the glam.com's Design a Dress Contest... Not really realising in time that Canadian's can't enter... And even though I sent off my sketch only a couple weeks ago, I already know more about conveying a pattern and stucture in fashion illustration... (Like drawing the seam lines...) Anyway, I still like the design, maybe when I learn out how to draft a pattern I'll make the dress for myself to wear. After all, this contest got me signing up for sewing classes and highlighting facts in my Sewing for Dummies book- It basically got me into gear... So I'm grateful that this contest took place whether I can enter it or not. I can't wait to start designing and making clothes!