Fashion: Swan Song

Swan Song.

A folk myth about the first and last song a mute swan sings before it dies.

Also, an idiom referring to a final great 'act' before one death an interesting factor one has to consider is that the 'actor' has to know he's going to die.

An ironic name for a dress I consider my #0 or my first dress but I can't help associating the mood of the fabric to the said idiom. Plus it's a very very good reminder that a designer is only as good as his last dress...

Dress.

This dress is from my archives. Done way back in December 2008.

Dress is made of blue silk (most likely synthetic) with pleather detailing

and black wool base. All by Mara Chua. Leggings also by Mara Chua.

Shoes are store bought.

To contact:

chua.mara@gmail.com

Fashion: Black Cloud

My client, Lyan wanted a vintage themed tutu dress,
What makes this project so unique is the time element...
I had less than a week for this one.

Time.

Pressed for time, my best option was to utilise fabrics that were readily available in the studio. I used dupioni for the bodice. Obviously, a tutu dress isn't a tutu dress without the tulle skirt. Also, old lace and some leather that I cut into swallows for the embellishing.

Vintage.

I avoid doing or at least calling this a period piece as I feel like I'm disrespecting a certain era of fashion by not really capturing the substance but merely the form (plus it's very easy to go way over the top with period pieces and end up with a dress looking too costume-y so I guess my bit of reluctance is 'healthy'), With that in mind, I exercised a bit liberalism in the details to balance out that 'old world glamour' with something more current and unique and fun like steel zipper for closure and leather swallows.

Ultimately, my aim was for this to be a subtle but firm statement of who I am as a designer (as always, but I only seem to have articulated who I am and what I want to be as a designer a few days ago). And that is sensible but still clearly bespoke and one of a kind clothing.

For contact:

chua.mara@gmail.com

Fashion: Smaller and smaller Circles

Circle.

This headdress was made entirely of circle shapes of varying sizes.

Circle is prolly the most used shape in garment industry.

The way circle makes for the most perfect bias (championed by Madeline Vionnet, bias is a general term for items/clothes cut on the 45 degree angle of the cloth. Bias is loved by many as it lends much needed 'give' and allows fabric to fall more gracefully as opposed to the stiff hemlines landing on the cross-grain [the width of the cloth]); and it being the shape most flattering to the body- as circle has a natural tendency to follow the curves of our body; makes circle such a subject of exploration and experimentation by a lot of designers as circle seemingly promises myriads of possibilities and applications... from clothes (the best example I can give is the NYC avant garde collective of threeASFOUR) to drapes to embellishments (most ruffles start their lives as circles) which is the case in this blog entry.

Bespoke headdress made of dupioni and net circles.

By yours truly for my client Nicky who's attending a vintage themed party.

To contact.

Email: chua.mara@gmail.com

More Relevant Matters: The Cost of Your Dress and That Nice Lady Who Makes It

Stemmed from a conversation I had with my mom earlier today.

Injustice.

I really find great injustice in how people treat the local fashion designers... especially when it comes to the labor side of things- which involve 2 kinds of people under my direct employ

a) the seamstresses and b) the pattern maker/ cutter (the embroiderers and embellishers and the iron/ steam lady and the quality control are excluded in this discussion because most the the time the same people double for the said jobs and of course, for the purpose of simplicity.)

It infuriates me that people (clients) can take for granted the extremely highly specialized and skilled type of labor these people (seamstresses and pattern makers) can offer and ask for DISCOUNTS. Armed with the thinking that sewing and pattern making are 2 very easy jobs! How dare they?!?!

Here's a reality check:

I function as the designer and the master pattern maker in the studio.

I've been doing this for at least five years (3 years semiprofessionally and 2++ and counting professionally.) In that time span, an entry level employee in any corporate office setup can make his/her way to a junior manager position on average.

Pattern making for the uninitiated involves geometry. I employ 2-3 of the 12 postulates every time I do my patterns. Yes, aside from the pythagorean theorem and pi, I also use the sin, cos , tan functions. While, cutting involves precision, cutting right before the outline, nothing more, nothing less.

To be honest, I don't mind being paid less than a junior manager because I acknowledge the fact that the bulk of the labor comes from my seamstresses.

Nice ladies who expertly and perfectly piece together intricate puzzle pieces made of fabric to make that dress, YOUR DRESS. AND that's just the beginning... I could go on and on and on about the 1/16" double hemming, the hand draping, the blind stitching, the hand finishing and those zippers! that you think takes no more than 5 minutes to sew can make fledging designers cry with frustration. Let's not forget, you want SWAROVSKI on your dress too! that's countless hours of individual application of crystals and beads.

Here's an even bigger reality check, any man can till the soil and plant rice stalks. Any man can fry chicken, burger and fries. Any man can mix up coffee and cream and syrup and reheat that puff pastry in the display. Any man can lay hollow blocks on top of one another and put cement in between (fine, any strong man can. I went through a bit of construction worker phase too, so I know how hard it is). BUT, to sew a perfectly straight line takes weeks of practice and then you move on to sewing a perfectly curved line and then to piecing fabrics together while you avoid puckering at all cost... NOT any man can do that.

And to pay them 402 PHP/day (minimum wage in Manila, Philippines, that's around 9-10USD for the foreign readers)?!?! Tell me junior manager how your ass would feel if you get paid the same amount for that much work. Take note, my seamstress might me the more useful and productive employee between the two of you.

So the next time you go to your local designer. Please think about this. All of us, me and my seamstresses would have to shoulder that discount you ask for. We can't make our prices like the ones they have in SM Department Store because a) we don't have the capacity to produce enough to simply demand a wholesale price and b) you don't have the capacity to buy 1000pcs of the same design per color per size to even dare to demand an SM price.

Please bear in mind as well that what you're paying for isn't just a dress but also personalized service. Don't expect me to dish prices like ZARA because unlike ZARA, I make clothes that will fit you and only you. Unlike ZARA, your dress is one of a kind.

Ask for discounts if you can make your own dress and still think it's a piece of cake. Until then, you avail of my or any of my co designer's services precisely because it's beyond your capacity and skill to make a dress. It's high time you value the hard work that goes into what you wear because honey, it's a lot more complicated than you could ever imagine.

Fashion: Migrant

Digging through my archives as of the moment. This dress was done way back in 2009 for my exhibit in New York City. Inspired by the yearly emigration of jellyfishes to the banks of Bantayan Island, Cebu during the month of May where I used to spend my childhood summers and the parallelism of this phenomenon with the Filipino diaspora ('nomadism').

About the dress:

Dress is made of (very expensive for 3rd world/ developing country standards) pure linen and sating bias strips the lining is very delicate impossible to work with charmeuse.

Fashion: 003, Calayan-Sevilla. 12/20/2010

A little late a post. :)

Held last December 20, 2010 in Hotel Intercontinental Manila,

the event was an intimate exchange of vows.

Marriage isn't an available option for these two wonderful

loving people. As the Philippines doesn't have Same-sex Marriage laws

and to some extent, Gender Identity Recognition provisions in the constitution.

To this point, the only real 'advancement' in the rights protection

of the local LGBT ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community

is the still-yet-to-be-passed more than a decade old Anti Discrimination Bill...

I salute Lalen and Selina for being courageous in showing their commitment

to one another despite the moderately hostile environment of conservative Philippine society.

About the dress:

I was thinking of clouds when I made this dress. :)

Credits:

Bride and groom both in Mara Chua.

Photographs are a mix. My own cam and Nice Print Photography.

Fashion: Cotton

A preview of my client Patti's grad ball dress.
It's a double dress with a detachable long skirt.
She was less specific about the design of this dress so
I did exercise quite a bit of liberalism in designing/making this one. :)

I don't really see myself as the go to designer for pretty feminine dresses.
I love my edge. haha. Yeah, as you might have guessed, the color and the material isn't exactly my thing. Sooo, in this particular exercise I tired achieve compromise (femininity and edge) by creating soft geometries.

The dress is made of around 19 yards of chiffon. Dull satin base.

19 yards coz I did at least 3 layers of chiffon per skirt. I'm not a fan of single layer chiffon overlay. It's not diaphanous enough. hahaha (I would have used ethereal but diaphanous is a more apt description of the effect I wanted to achieve)... If I had more chiffon I'd have gone all the way and made 6 layers and made do without a base to really get that light airy effect.

The bodice is 100% hand pleated.

Also, loved the fact that my base is a few tones darker. It give the impression that the dress is glowing.

Fashion: Anatomy of a Prom Dress

My wonderful prom girl Patti was practical about what she wanted. She wanted a dress that she could wear more than once. It was decided to do the ball skirt separately and have a nice litte bubble dress as the main dress. I also added a draped detachable single sleeve whose draft you can see in Pic4 to make the dress even more versatile.

Fashion: Works In Progress. Pattern vs Hand Draping

PIC 1. Dresses in their current state.

PIC 2 &3. Their previous lives (the flat worm like paper patterns is the red dress now, the white dress obviously being the white ):)

The picture of the 2 dresses showcase an interesting POV on construction. Both dresses are 'draped' or more accurately, have drapes. The white (current state in pictures 1 while it's previous life is in picture 2), is draped with hand while the bodice is on the dress from. The red (current life in pics 1, while, yes, those 2 caterpillar shaped brown papers in pic 3 are its blueprint), purely generated from flat paper pattern. Both have their pros and their cons (flat and hand draping). I'm personally more comfortable using the paper pattern. I love precision and being able to replicate my clothes. Lets just put it at that :)

Fashion: Mum's Dress, Tentatively titled: The Fall of Icarus

From the Mara Chua Bespoke Collection tentatively titled: "The Fall of Icarus".

It's my mom's dress for a wedding where she's participating as a sponsor (ninang).Im using her as my latest guinea pig (opportunity) to experiment on newer techniques and to carry out certain ideas lingering in my head for a few weeks now. Ideas I want to make a collection out of for my Mara Chua line.

I guess this dress will serve as my prototype for the other looks. And I hope I do get to finish 7 looks. Considering all 7 are pretty ambitious and costly.

I'm still not yet sold on "Fall of Icarus"... While, the gold fabric reminds me wings and flight and classical Athens, it's very easy to go cliche and extremely inaccurate if I use Icarus and Greek culture as my central theme. Considering that the setting for Icarus is Crete and the Cretan (Minoan) civilization is very very different from the Greek ones of the time. Sure, it was told from the point of view of Greek poets... I just dont want it too look all drapey drapey and flowy flowy 'Greek'.

Picset:

In the pictures posted above, you will see a bit of the development process. From the final fitting where the dress is 90% done to the beginnings when we were hand stitching pleated material onto the bodice. :)

Fashion: Mock dress

While in the previous fashion post I mentioned about my love for pattern experimentation, that experimentation is usually derived from an already drafted basic bodice pattern. That being said, an ill fitting bodice will result in an awkward and disproportionate looking shape relative to the body.

What I'm trying to get at? There's wisdom in something as basic as perfecting the fit of your bodice pattern and knowing how to make the bodice fit different body types properly.

This rule/ wisdom applies especially to designers who offer bespoke/ couture services since the bodice in question changes on a per client basis. A designer concentrating him or herself in pret- a- porter only needs to base her proportions on predetermined industry sizes... This means that, he/ she doesn't have to concern his/ herself in certain 'nuances' like say a certain individual's wider bust (apex) distance or torso and then paired with, say,a narrower chest width- considerations when you're in the business of engineering patterns and creating clothes that should fit the individual perfectly.

I could go on and on and on about the importance of knowing how to properly draft, construct and finish the basic bodice. If fashion had its own "pillars" like Islam does, a properly drafted/ draped basic bodice would be one of them. It can make or break your garment since the bodice is the foundation of your garment. Poorly made foundation is just inviting trouble and lots of additional unnecessary work and wasted time. A good fit and a bodice you can consider successful is usually achieved through detailed measurement taking and certain adjustments you only really know by instinct/ experience and a good grasp on basic mathematical and geometric equations... Before I lead anyone to believe that you only need to know drafting to be able to successfully make a garment. Drafting is only the beginning phase of the process. I feel the need to highlight what I previously mentioned: constructing and finishing are 2 very different stories since they involve a certain level of competence/ mastery of a completely different skill called sewing.

*In the picture is a mock dress made of canvass for my wedding client to fit soon. The the said dress is an additional feature for wedding clients to give them an idea of the general silhouette, determine if the length of the dress and straps are right and most importantly to further ensure that her wedding dress will fit her like a glove. As it would be pretty costly to make mistakes and wrongly cut wedding fabrics.

I chose the picture since it showcases a dress in it's most basic/ naked form. You can pretty much see an unobstructed view of the bodice. A good dress/ bodice should be clean from the inside out. By clean meaning, smooth lines and shape, no puckering, no loose thread, generally uniform seam width and a good fit.

new year

lots of things happened. most of them good.

i'm rather optimistic, positive about the coming months/ year.

the purpose for this entry was to do a bit of recap of what happened from my last blog entry until uhm now but running through everything that transpired is such a chore. i guess i should be more religious about chronicling those said events. for reference/archive purposes of course- the main reason i probably created this blog in the first place.

i'm posting this particular piece (refer to pic) to, at least, fulfill the purpose of this entry. this piece is a personal favourite and to be very honest, i consider this a personal milestone. it's symbolic of me (reluctantly) embracing the world of weddings and bespoke garments. as for the reason behind the reluctance, i think that deserves yet another blog entry. :)

this piece is "002". it's made of cream chiffon circles and bias strips on charmeuse base.

dream catcher

decay.

a peculiar source of inspiration to some, including me. everything descends into decay/ chaos. this is a fact of life. a law ,even, of science. by embracing its (decay) imminence, i take proactive steps to face it "better" by trying age well and gracefully- yes, i think of these things even if i have barely reached my prime. this thought extends to my other endeavors as well... especially, design.

i've always thought of how my clothes, like some plants can "die beautifully"; and try to recreate the "state of breaking apart" and highlighting that fragility, which i find extremely beautiful.

this photo set is an exercise in bringing out that fragility exactly by breaking the material apart.

like everything is hanging on a thread....

spider web tshirt, mara chua

shorts, mara chua