Fashion: Toys of my Childhood

Pattern I'm working on today... any guesses on what this is?

So I had a rather recent epiphany.While making this particular pattern and laying it out. I had this sudden pang in my gut and flashbacks started rolling. I had images of that sleepless night trying to finish this model with the assistance of my dad rolling like a reel inside my head...

It looked a lot like this. I remember the hull of the boat having a battery and motor compartment. No remote though. The lay outing looked very similar to this...

The pieces were held together with a square plastic frame and you had to individually cut the out of the frame either using a nail cotter or, my preferred method, twisting the pieces until the plastic holding it becomes weak and you can pull it out.

Don't you agree with me that the layout image has an uncanny similarity to the pattern image above or this pattern image below...

A hug and a kiss and a cookie for anyone who can figure out what this becomes. :D

And then I started remembering a time when the world around me didn't exist. The only things that mattered to me was getting a perfect score on my next quiz so I get paid 20php (pre-inflation; 100php was a huge deal then) ; and having a good time.

Playtime was full of make believe. I created my own world, but unlike most kids, I took it a notch further... I wold physically create my own world. 3D modeling was something second nature to me. My favourite toys always had something to to with building or problem solving while building .

Exhibit A. This was where is all started (I think)... I remember making mansions and castles and villages out of these.

And then I moved on to bigger things... Then I made 4+ foot buildings out of these.

And nice palaces and hotels for my Barbie too.

At the same time my love affair with Power Rangers robots started. I only really loved it because of the challenge of putting them together... I preferred to do them without the manual beside me.

This one is still on display in the bedroom upstairs. Went through a phase too.

And then the baking happened. And then the rest so they say is... writing is blog entry. :D

Soooo, this is my personal creation myth.

A step by step guide of how I came to be as a designer. It never was about the pretty colors but always about the way things are made. Ever since I started tinkering with the sewing machine. My question was always how this and that were done.

The progression from merely piecing things together to the act of making the puzzle pieces themselves and then piecing them together is the most natural thing. It's so natural that I never really even noticed the connection until recently! I've always thought my decision to pursue a career in clothing design was something random.

I could have on all counts went on and became a less specific designer of the industrial kind- doing anything and everything under the sun. It's the fact that you can do "magic" with any sewing machine is what made clothing more appealing.

The industry at large is still a very ugly one- both in front and at the back of the camera. I end up questioning why I'm here a lot of times. But in those moments when I'm in the thick of making and seeing pieces come together and take on a life of its own... I forget the ugliness and just get some sort of natural high similar to the feeling I get back when I was a child. Just the excitement and awe and satisfaction of being able to create and transform benign objects into something more than what they were.

On a lighter note. I'm ending by being a bit more interactive. Here's a question, "What toys/ objects did you play with during your kid years and have those toys been in some way reflective or helpful in your current profession now?

PICTURES ONE AND FOUR ARE PROPERTIES OF ME. THE REST ARE COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS PUBLIC SITES.

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

Travel: Fashion: Migrant

In a few hours, I won't be around the city and married to the laptop for a good number of days. :)

I'm leaving you guys with another piece from my 2009 'Migrant' collection.

The premise for the exhibit where 'Migrant' was included was to showcase both Filipino young blood and Filipino indigenous textile to the very international audience of New York City.

Taking a modernist, practical and what was then relatively new approach, I mixed local textiles and weaves like pinya and jute with leather, wool and knit; and making clothes that will undoubtedly be considered as daywear. (The exhibit was staged September, so I was thinking Fall/ Winter ;plus ironically, despite coming from a tropical country, I excel more in designing outerwear and leatherwear.)

I expressly chose the theme 'Migrant' both for its topical relevance in the Philippine and American setting; and on a more practical level, its relevance to travel and wash friendly clothing. Easy to wear clothing you can throw in your luggage and wear in different occasions- which is my usual train of thought when making my clothes as I love repeating my clothes and largely frown upon disposable trendy things.

About the outfit: Cocoon jacket made of leather and jute. Cotton double head tank top. Pinya and wool pencil bubble skirt with steel zipper fastening.

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.