A Designer's diary of what's hot in fashion, art, and the California beach lifestyle.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Spring Trend Alert - Ruffles
It's official -- ruffles are in. Ruffles have been fluttering across the runways and have now hit a store near you for Spring. From Seventh Avenue's Phillip Lim trickled down to catalog giant J.Crew, ruffles are everywhere. They're layered and soft and showing up vertically and horizontally on dresses, t-shirts, and even coats. And we've got 'em at Stacia. My favorite look this Spring is my flutter wrap dress in Ti Leaf - the ruffle trend translated into a sexy, wrap dress in a vibrant green color -- the perfect Spring outfit to dress up or down. Love love love it!
Check out The LA Times Image section online and post your favorite Spring 2009 outfit and comment on your favorite trends this season too. I just did!
Gorilla marketing -- that's what us small designers have to do in tough economic times. You've got to get your name and product out there and do whatever it takes. Thankfully, my good friend Thao had tickets to the Office panel discussion at the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences last week, so with goodie bags and look books in hand, we were ready to hit the stars. Although I'm a Leo, I'm pretty humble as a designer and not one to put my face out there or push product on strangers. But these are hard times and pushy is what I must be! Hey, we even left Stacia look books in the fancy bathrooms too (you never know where you'll find a new customer!)
Usually these poor stars are bombarded with fans requesting something from them - an autograph or a picture. So after the event when everyone stormed the stage to "get some", I demurely handed the ladies of the cast little Stacia goodie bags. They were completely surprised by the gesture. For once, they got something instead of having to give. Jenna Fischer (aka Pam), Kate Flannery (aka Meredith), and Angela Kinsey (aka Angela) were so thrilled to receive their Stacia colorful tops and I was equally thrilled they accepted them! Oh, and I didn't forget about the boys. I also gifted lead actor Steve Carell in the hopes he may pawn his gift onto his glamorous wife. All in all, it was a blast to see the cast of The Office (one of my fave shows) and to share a little Stacia love with others.
The process of designing a new collection can be mentally grueling with hours of sketching, spec-ing (the tech term for the specifications, or measurements of a garment), and pain-staking decisions on colors and silhouettes for a collection designed a year in advance. I don't mean to complain -- I love being a designer -- but the process of designing is tough. Thank God for the one thing I need to get it done: music.
With every collection I have designed, there is always a soundtrack in my head as I feverishly sketch my ideas and concepts for the future. The current Spring collection in stores now was designed a year ago with the Coldplay album "Viva la Vida" echoing in the car, on my ipod, and in my design studio. Whenever I hear "42" or "Life in Technicolor", I see my Spring '09 collection in vivid color. And for Fall '09, the soundtrack was The Killers' "Day and Age" album. As I sketched my baja-striped, bohemian winter-beach collection of soybean knits, I was humming happily to "Human" and "Spaceman."
The soundtrack to a collection is a designer's ultimate inspiration that helps bring to life all the ideas in her head, fully conceptualizing an entire collection's mood and atmosphere. And thankfully just in time for Spring 2010, U2's new album "No Line on the Horizon" has come to my rescue. The first time I heard the song "Magnificent," I knew I had my new soundtrack for the next collection. There's nothing like a good ethereal, atmospheric U2 song to get the goosebumps going and the creative juices flowing.
I'm a long-standing, die-hard U2 fan since '82, when I got my first glimpse of their anthemic power in their "New Year's Day" video. I was hooked. Each album of theirs has provided the soundtrack for a chapter of my life - "Sunday Bloody Sunday" got me through a long Summer tour of Europe in '84; "October" echoed in my headphones the Summer of '87 in NYC, when I was modeling for Seventeen Magazine; "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was the soundtrack for my wedding year (that's the year I missed out on 5th row seats to a U2 concert in Madison Square Garden while I was in Hawaii planning my wedding. Simply not fair!)
Other than a few hiccups on their part - the "Rattle and Hum" fiasco and the sellout albums "Pop" and "Zooropa" - they've been true to their roots and have churned out beloved moody anthems to keep us die-hard fans happy. Love the new album pretty much up until the choppy, very un-U2-like "Get on Your Boots" single. Why they used this erratic, boppy song for their single is beyond me, although my husband claims it was a political decision (okay America, you're in a recession, you've got a new President, get on your boots and move on!) But it doesn't represent the true U2 sound, one that is ethereal and echoing Bono's melodic voice and The Edge's classic riffs. "Magnificent" does just that. Listening to it makes me feel magnificent and super-powered to churn out my best designs ever for Spring 2010!
People always ask me, "when did you know you wanted to be a designer?" And I'm sure the answer is the same for most designers of my generation. Thanks to Barbie, I had an early inclination of my destiny to be a clothing designer. As early as five, I've been obsessed with Barbie. It was pretty much the only toy I played with from five to ten years old. Yeah, I enjoyed the soap opera story lines of pretend play with my Barbies, but mainly I was obsessed with clothing Barbie. Outfit changes were the main activity of choice.
And after awhile, a true fashionista, even at seven years old, needs to jazz up the Barbie wardrobe and experiment with do-it-yourself creations. No, I wasn't sewing Barbie clothes quite yet, but I was draping cloth on my mini mannequin when other kids were still wetting their pants. My fabric of choice - the Paper Towel (preferably a softer, heavier ply.) I would let my imagination go wild as I draped my perfectly perforated-edged paper towels around my doll's svelte body.
As a child living in Hawaii, there were always remnants of Hawaiian printed fabrics laying around the house from my Mom's many craft projects. To this day, I specifically remember one such remnant in a rich tropical green print with gold metallic accents. I draped the most gorgeous strapless gown for Barbie with a very Donna Karan-esque wrapping technique (probably around the time in the 70's when Donna Karan was honing her trademark wrapping skills at Anne Klein!)
This month Barbie is celebrating her 50th Birthday. Barbie through the ages has always gotten a bum wrap for being too skinny, or perpetuating the idealistic body type for young children. It's all a bunch of crap as far as I'm concerned. I never aspired to look like Barbie, but I certainly wanted her wardrobe. Even as an adult, Barbie continues to inspire me as a designer, whether it be my own vintage Barbie collection or my idealized memories of pretend play with Barbie as a child. Barbie is an icon and a true designer's muse. Who knows, without her, I may have just been a marine biologist or a lawyer. But thankfully, Barbie introduced me to the world of fashion, and the rest is history.
I was driving down a residential street in my neighborhood and came upon this hipper-than-thou vintage pickup. What a gorgeous color of putty! I can totally picture this pickup truck in my next photoshoot for Spring 2010, with models hanging out in the back bed of the truck, lounging in their bamboo hoodies and beach tunics, as if they were heading to the Santa Monica beach with surfboards in tow. I'm seriously thinking of leaving a little note on the windshield begging if I can use their truck in my next shoot. Just starting to pull together the palette for my next collection for Spring 2010 (2010, doesn't that sound crazy!) I'm anxious to get back to the drawing board and I have a gut feeling this putty-colored pickup will be a huge inspiration for me and be the essence of my laid-back luxe collection of Stacia knits for Spring 2010.
Just wrapped up another trade show season at Coterie in NYC. The mother-of-all trade shows held at the piers in NYC is where my Stacia Fall 2009 collection was previewed by the press, small and large retailers across the country, and international buyers abound. It's certainly a difficult time to be selling fashion, especially to buyers who must forecast 9 months out what will be the best-sellers, whether the economy will rebound, and when customers will return to their stores. Buyers were definitely eager to see what's new and to get their fashion juices flowing after such a crummy Fall and Holiday season at retail. Spring is just hitting their floors now, but unfortunately the customers have still not returned. So although buyers wanted a taste of next Fall's trends from the designers, they were mainly holding off on writing actual orders until the future is more clear. Many stores will opt to write closer to the season and rather chose to order immediates to freshen up their store's current merchandise. All in all, it was a better show than expected. Buyers were lovin' the new Stacia Ecoknits and excited about the new tonal palette and rich organic fibers - the perfect comfort clothes for next Fall to get customers back in the buying mood.
