Project Runway Episode Six: The Art of the Matter

Project Runway’s Episode Six paired the designers up with students from The Harlem School of the Arts. The designers created a piece of art with the students, which served as the inspiration for their avant garde look.

I hooked up with a student from North Carolina State’s Early College High School. She painted a picture of a sunflower when she was in elementary school and asked if I could use that painting as my inspiration. Once I saw the painting, I immediately thought I might try my hand at a garment, but after several disasterous attempts at installing a zipper into a skirt, I settled on a circle scarf instead.

The tricky part of this challenge was to “interpret” the painting and not to re-create a sunflower accessory, which might turn out more costume than couture. I found a printed silk print which incorporated all of the colors of the initial painting (brown, yellow, and green), and paired it with a solid mustard fabric.

I have to say that personally, I love scarves, so you will be seeing them in my accessory collection. What makes this scarf special in my opinion, is the beautiful print.

So, it’s onto textile challenge. Keep an eye out next week for two posts (the first of which will feature my recent visit to Spoonflower). Until then, auf wiedersehen.

Project Runway Episode Five: Off to the Track

Episode 5 of Project Runway’s Season 9, finds the designers off to the track… The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory. The designers had to work in teams of three to design three looks for Heidi Klum’s New Balance sneakers.

“I love a fashion sneaker that doesn’t look like it belongs in the gym, which was the inspiration for my new Heidi Klum for New Balance sneakers and my Project Runway challenge this season,” said Klum.
Klum’s sneakers come in gray and black suede and pink suede and denim, and the designers were directed to use suede and denim in their designs.

For this challenge, I designed a black and gray suede “fan shaped” purse. Inspired by the “fan shape”, I used an Asian inspired cotton for the lining.

I have to say that at this point in the Studio 109A Project Runway Challenge, this is my favorite bag. The oversized purse would work with practically any of the looks in Klum’s New Balance collection, including Joshua McKinley and Viktor Luna’s winning looks.

I want to thank all of you Project Runway fans who stopped by Studio 109A last Friday night for the First Friday Gallery Walk. I hope to see you next month to show off my New Balance sneaker inspired purse and upcoming avant garde design. Until then… auf wiedersehen.

Project Runway Episode Four: All About Nina

In Project Runway’s Episode 4, the designers had to create a day-to-evening outfit for Nina Garcia, a Project Runway Judge and Fashion Director of Marie Claire magazine.

Season 3 Alum Laura Bennett blogs: “Nina starts out by giving the designers a list of her likes and dislikes. She likes tailored clothes. She doesn’t like volume, muted colors, bright colors, pattern, short, long, tight, loose, flashy, boring or ‘Dynasty’.”

So what constitutes “don’t bore Nina” style…

“…classic with an edge, streamlined, clean silhouettes,” blogs Season 2 Alum Nick Verreos.

After checking out Garcia’s web site, it is clear she likes classic style. Her home page is filled with images of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn and vintage looks from Balenciaga and Nina Ricci. She even posted a close-up of a Giambattista Valli dress (below) she wore on the “stilts” episode of Project Runway.

That in mind, I set out to create a clutch/wristlet out of Marie Claire… not inspired by the fashion images in the magazine, but out of the magazine itself.

I started with an inspiration image… a black and white Guess ad (below), which I cut into half-inch strips and wove together with other black and white images from the magazine.

I interfaced the back of the woven paper, and sewed in the zipper and lining. The strap is also created from woven strips of paper cut from the magazine, interfaced, and sewn together.

The biggest challenge with weaving paper together (aside from sewing it and its tendency to tear) was to ensure that I wasn’t re-creating a “candy wrapper” purse, which needless to say would not be very Nina.

The end result, I am happy to report, is part Nina, but very me.

So, it’s off to the track for the Heidi Klum New Balance Challenge. Until next week, auf wiedersehen.

Project Runway Episode Three: Go Big or Go Home

Episode Three of Project Runway Season 9 had this artist living large (literally). On the show, the designers were broken into teams of two to create outfits for stilt-walking models.

“Whoever came up with this idea A) must have just been to the circus and thought, ‘Gee, this might be a fun challenge filled with TACKY outfits that have nothing to do with being the Next Great American Designer’ or B) was smoking something that’s only legal in certain ‘cafes’ in Amsterdam,” said Season 2 Alumnus Nick Verreos.

So, like the designers, it was off to the fabric store for the first time since I started Project Runway in Studio 109A. Unlike the designers, however, I had a budget of $50 (not $500).

After crawling around on my studio floor for a week cutting, pinning, and drowning in fabric, the end result is a flat bottomed, lined, oversized tote. Although it isn’t what I initially envisioned for this challenge (my vision was a Hartmann inspired tweed bag), this bag helped me realize the sewing skills I have mastered over the past eight months and has helped build my confidence. As an artist, I have found it is easy to get bogged down in my deficits rather than embrace the skills I have acquired. This bag illustrated to me how far I have come as a sewer and not how far I have to go.

That being said, my Tim Gunn wannabe husband said it’s a good thing I have immunity on this challenge, and my daughter (after I asked her to climb into the purse for a photograph) told me that this kind of craziness should be against the law. So, until next week…. auf wiedersehen.

Project Runway Episode Two: My Pet Project

Last week, I shared with you the fact that I am bringing Project Runway to Studio 109A. Since I started a week late on completing the challenges, I am running a week behind.

In Episode Two of Project Runway Season 9, the challenge was to create an outfit using pet store supplies. Tim warned the contestants that the judges frown upon using “fabric” for unconventional challenges. For example, you can’t take a dog bed made of fabric and reconstruct it. The idea behind the unconventional challenge is that you use unconventional materials (although you can use muslin as a base).

Keeping that in mind, I headed off to Pet Supermarket with a $25 budget (I didn’t have the lofty budget $300 the contestants did). I ended up purchasing all natural moss used in terranium bedding (pictured above), a bird perch (made of driftwood), and assorted bird toys strung on a wire. I wasn’t interested in the toys, but wanted the wire on which the toys were strung to attach the perch to the purse. After I got to the studio, I was disappointed I hadn’t purchased a leash. When I told my husband I was headed back to the pet store to get a leash, this Tim Gunn designer/mentor wannabe said that returning to the store was against the rules and told me to “make it work”.

The end result is a small purse resembling a bird’s nest. The handle is created from the bird perch (perfectly pre-drilled to attach to a cage). The centerpiece is made from one of the bird toys (a copper cow bell I hammered flat). After spending an entire Saturday afternoon gluing terranium bedding to muslin, I have a new appreciation for Project Runway Contestant Anthony Ryan Auld’s bird seed garment. Now, it’s off to make a “larger than life” purse. Until next week, auf wiedersehen.