Looking around at department store windows this holiday season, there seems to be a creepy slightly dark inspiration going around.
Growing up on Long Island I remember every few years during the holiday season my parents would take my sister and myself into Manhattan to experience the city in all it's holiday splendor (this was most common the years family was visiting from Chile.) The Rockefeller Christmas tree among others were usual stops on our itinerary but my favorite was always the holiday windows. Window displays were always a huge deal to me any time of year but especially during the holidays.
So here are a few pix from this years holiday windows that I would say embodied a slightly creepy vibe. You look and decide for yourselves.
The Macy's holiday windows below reminded me of Edward Scissor Hands shaving ice sculptures creating snow and the factory scene with all the gears and gizmo's.
The next picture is of the Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows. Black and White is an unconventional choice for holiday decoration. This window reminded me of that creepy feeling I get when I walk through the dim taxidermy exhibitions at the Museum of Natural History. I love that feeling and love this window although I'm not too sure little kids could appreciate it.
This last window is one of the most interesting, it's Barney's Lady Gaga window. The entire display is or appears to be made of hair! ranging from golden to platinum blond you can find them all here. Again, I love the concept but not too sure it says "Happy Holidays"
Aside from these windows, of course there were plenty that screamed holiday cheer but it was these that made me wonder about our society and department stores today.
I thought it would be appropriate to post a few pix from my final IDS 2D collection presentation. The collection objective was a narrative, to create a story. I started with the concept of Frankenstein.
My story grew into a tale of a mad designer who digs up and sews together the corpses of Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein and Rose Bertin, couturier to Marie Antoinette. He brings the creature to life and flee's, returning to the world of high fashion leaving his creation in a run down atelier to fend for herself. Instinctively the creature begins to create. Infusing aspects of Mary Shelley's romanticism and horror with the grandeur and elegance of Rose Bertin she creates a paradox of a collection. When the creature who's been cast away from society because of her monstrous appearance discovers her creator, she terminates him and then herself leaving behind only her creations in the run down atelier. When the story breaks of the murdered haute couture designer an investigation ensues and the narrative comes to light shocking not only the fashion world but the world of science and media as well. The fascination leads to exhibition and makes the history.
Long story, I know, it just grew on it's own. Aside from other concepts, my narrative led me to ideas of the body and silhouette. Because Frankenstein was made up of various stitched up corpses and animal parts, it was fitting to address freakish and grotesque body silhouettes. I wanted to do this but with the added elegance and materials Rose Bertin would bring, here was the outcome...
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC is one of the most televised Thanksgiving events in N.Y. Every year we tune in as my mom preps Thanksgiving dinner. This year I had the pleasure of going for the first time with my niece and my sister. It was great fun and is something every New Yorker should definitely do at least once. Being that I'm the worst picture taker alive I don't have much to share but here is one of my niece standing as a smurf float passes by.
Here's another of my mother's delicious Thanksgiving table (sans le gigantic turkey, I'm not sure where it was at that point)
and lastly a pic I took of my family huddled around the table...
...Just our traditional Thanksgiving we enjoy every year, I couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving any other way and hope to share many, many more with the people I hold dearest to my heart... I cherish my family & our traditions a lot, although I'd never let them know it lol.
Of all the historical era's my favorite by far is the 18th Century. Touted as the age of enlightenment it was also an age of extravagance. Lately I've been watching a lot of movies from my period film collection because I all I have in my workroom to keep entertained is my old Mac from high school. While watching Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
I was really drawn in by the recreation images of New York City during the 18th century. So being that we have to stick to ideas about the body or New York for our blogs, I thought it would be an interesting way to merge my love of all thing 18th century with my love of my favorite city in the U.S. Here are some images from the movie recreating NYC.
It's a good film thats definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it.
Taking a more factual look at 18th century New York I found these etchings. The first is of Federal Hall at Wall Street from 1789.
Here are two other views. This Federal Hall must have been an important building in NYC during the 18th century because it is one of the most easily found images of 18th century NY.
The next images were the most interesting to me. The first is of a theatre and the second are actual garments 18th Century New Yorkers wore.
I really enjoyed searching for images of 18th century NY. In the future I would love to design an 18th century inspired collection.
So if you go to either Parsons or F.I.T. you may have heard of a design competition called Fusion. For this post I just wanted to share my application with you. I wish I could say that my application was accepted and I was going to compete BUT it wasn't and I won't be, which may have come as a blessing in disguiese because I have no idea how i would have made time for work, school work and still made time to complete the five looks in just five short months. Either way here are the pictures from my application. I'd love to hear any feedback on my designs or any other related comments.
I have to say that in all of my years of doing fashion illustrations in marker, I've managed to develop somewhat of a method. I thought I could share my skin tone method with you all in hopes that I can either help others with my techniques or get tips on marker techniques I may not be aware of that could improve my Illustrations.
First I always start with a pencil drawing of my illustration. The beauty of marker paper is that it doesn't bleed through ( if you get the good quality paper) and it's translucent so you can layout your illustration in pencil and place it under the marker paper as a guide without having the graphite lines on your finished product.
My favorite marker paper is the Canson Marker Pro Layout paper and I work on 14x17" size because it allows me to get in finer details on my illustrations versus when I work on 11x14" size paper.
So the very first thing I do is "wet" my paper with the colorless blender in the areas I'll be markering first. For me this is always the skin tone. Laying down the colorless blender first will allow for greater color blending once you go in with color. I start with my lightest skin tone leaving blank any highlights on the skin. Then blend the skin tone color into the blank highlight area. After this i let it dry then go in again with the same skin tone color which deepens the color a little further, Then blend.
Now I find a darker skin tone color to begin to shadow. Just as before I use the colorless blender first then apply my first layer of the darker skin tone for shadow, then blend again. At this point you give it a minute to dry as before and go in again with the same darker skin tone maker to further establish shadow. After this if you guessed Blend, you're correct! we blend once again to diminish any hard lines in color differences.
Now Most people would finish there but I've learned by studying other illustrators work, that if you add some more shadows with a light grey marker it really establishes a more realistic effect. For instance if you ever looked closely at photographs or if you've ever drawn from life, the shadows are cast in grey tones. This is the most difficult part because if you put the grey shadow in the wrong place it can ruin a great drawing but if done properly It will really give that photo realistic effect to your illustration. This is why I always start with a 10% grey marker and increase as neccesary. If ever you have a doubt of where shadow should go you can find a photo of a model in a similar pose to that of your illustration and lay down the shadows accordingly. Once this is complete Voila! you have a gorgeous skin tone on your figure that will enhance the clothing and overall composition of your illustration.
If I had one very important tip to give is never underestimate the power of the colorless blender! It really makes the difference between having a flat cartoony image to something that has more dimension and weather this is your illustration style or not it's always great to practice different techniques because the more tricks you have in your arsenal will allow for greater ways of expression.
This year I had the pleasure of making my Halloween an eventful one. My two cousins from Chile were visiting just in time for me to show them what Halloween was all about in New York. In Chile Halloween is celebrated but not nearly on the scale it is here. As you may or may not know Halloween has been adopted by many modern cultures and societies around the world but it's more of a chance for kids to dress up and trick or treat, and while that is still the heart of the holiday her in the U.S. it's also become an excuse for teens and young adults to unleash their inner child and wreak havoc on our city :)
My Halloween started out on Long Island at Bayville Scream Park "Long Islands #1 Halloween Theme Park"
The park boasts about 5 different haunted houses with different themes but the main attraction is the Bloodworth Haunted Manor. They also have a Halloween themed bar inside for the 21 and over crowd.
On Monday October 31st we trooped it to the city to see the Halloween Parade in the village. It was packed as usual but got to see most of it hanging from a light post lol.
Once the parade was over we headed to Splash Bar where we finished off our night before returning back to Long Island for some R&R. I'd post pictures of Splash but it probbably wouldn't be appropriate HA!
So last week I talked about what the balls were and what goes on at the balls. For this post I wanted to share a few of my favorite personalities and also share what the scene was for me.
To start I want to talk about my love of the old ballroom scene. I never got to experience the old ball scene you see in Paris is burning because I was a baby when it was filmed and when I did come around to the scene most of the personalities you see in the movie were rarely seen at the balls and by now most have passed away. These Personalities were my introduction to ball walkers and some of my favorite ball personalities of all time namely Willi Ninja, Pepper la Beija, Carmen Xtrava and Octavia St. Laurent. This was the case with a lot of kids coming up in the nineties whose first glimpse of the scene was that doc. When I first got into the scene I thought it would be like the paris is burning ball but I was in for something completely evolved. The nineties gave way to a whole new breed of boys and girls who weren't around for Jennie Livingston's filming in the late 80's AND the scene had completely changed. It was huge there were so many new houses like Latex Revlon Mizrahi Karan and Evisu. The categories were intense and very competative. It was spectacular to see. The first ball I ever went to was Latex Ball in 2003 at the Roseland Ballroom with my friend who was in the house of Revlon and set to walk butch queen up in drags but "missed" her category when it was called I knew she was really just scared and i didn't blame her because like junior la beija said "It do take nerve"
Here's a video of the Latex Ball 2003 the first 30 sec is of my favorite voguers Leyomi Mizrahi when she was the new girl on the block
This vids of Leyomi's greatest moments which have gave her, her Legendary status in the ball scene.
This is Javier Ninja my favorite at hands performance
Giselle Xtravaganza is my favorite Femme Queen Face and Runway
For this post I wanted to talk about the little known underground culture of the gay ball scene in NYC.
I first came to know about the ball scene in 2003 through a transgendered friend of mine I had met at school. She told me all about the Ball's that were being thrown. The "houses" or families in the scene and all the different categories one could walk.
If you don't know anything about ball culture, it is an underground LGBT subculture where people "walk" or compete for trophies and prizes at a Ball. The Balls are usually thrown by a "house" the Village Voice explains houses as...
...houses are loose-knit, typically same sex, confederacies of "children" who adopt a family name, usually swiped from a fashion designer, and adhere to rules set up by a presiding "mother" and "father."
...a big raucous band of "children" (the house members): drag queens, butch queens, transsexuals - mostly MTF but some FTM, a few non-trans girls and one or two straight guys. The smattering of girls and straight guys notwithstanding, the houses are, essentially, cabals of young black and Hispanic men obsessed with being fashionable and fabulous.
The members of different houses compete in different categories to win themselves and their house a trophy and usually prize money which usually goes to the house mother and/or father. Everyone wants to be in a winning house, the fabbest house and there are even awards given to the "house of the year" at the annual awards ball.
Some of the categories you can compete in at a ball are...
Butch Queen Vogue Femme/Female Figure Performance — Give a stunning performance using the five elements of vogue: hands, catwalk, duckwalk, floor performance, and spins and dips
BQ Realness — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with heterosexuals by giving Thug, Pretty Boy, School Boy, or Executive
FQ Realness — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with female heterosexuals
Realness With a Twist (Twister) — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with heterosexuals, then come back and vogue fem
BQ/FQ/FF Runway — Judged on participants' ability to catwalk, usually with a requested outfit or color
Bizarre — Judged on participants' creativity to design a costume based on what the category asks for
Labels — Judged on how many of the year labels a participant is wearing and their authenticity
BQ/FQ/FF Face — Showing off your clean, perfect, smooth face
BQ/FQ/FF Sex Siren — Giving sex appeal mostly in sexy underwear such as thongs, briefs, or bikinis
European Runway — Often a Butch Queen Category, European runway is brought in over the top effects that are more likely to be seen in a high-cost European fashion show; the person walking walks like a female or feminine model, not like the male models of America.
American Runway — Much like European Runway, American Runway is usually a Butch Queen Category but is often walked by TransMen and Butches/Studs, but the models walk as a masculine models from America, not feminine models like in European Runway.
Butch Queen up in Pumps — Basically the same as Labels or Runway but you must wear heels usually six inches or more
FQ/BQ in Drag Female Figure Performance — Give a performance (usually lip-synched) of a famous female figure
Hands Performance — Give a voguing performance using hands only
Virgin Vogue Femme — The same as vogue femme but for participants who have been voguing for less than one year, as per Legendary Icon Selvin Khan
Virgin Runway — The same as Runway but for participants who have been walking Runway for less than one year, as per Legendary Icon Selvin Khan
Best Dressed — self explanatory
Annnnnyway, we did a screening at my house of the documentary Paris Is Burning.
Paris is Burning was made in 1990 by documentary film maker Jennie Livingston and it chronicles the ball scene in the late 80's in New York If you havn't seen this movie you should watch it to really understand how the scene evolved and how it works.
Here is the trailer for Paris is Burning
The scene evolved and changed a lot from what it used to be in the 80's through the nineties and in 2006 Wolfgang Busch (another documentary maker) released a seqal to Paris is Burning compromised of 10 years of footage and interviews with ball scene personalities.
Here is the trailer for How Do I Look
So I started learning about all the different categories one could walk at a ball. I started listening to the beatz of the ballroom and I started to get to know all the major ballroom personalities. I had basically fallen in love with Ball culture. I started going to the balls and seeing the vogueing and runway in person. I then started to learn how to vogue, walk runway and even started making my own beatz sampling other famous ball beatz. All vogueing beatz sample Masters At Work's Ha Dance and the crash in the song has become synonomous with vogue dips.
That'll be all for this post. In my next post I'll share more about the scene and my experiences with it.
For this post I wanted to share a few of my fashion illustrations and talk about some of my inspirations.
The following Illustrations were done as fabric rendering exercises.
all are done in marker and pencil on marker paper.
(Please excuse the bad photo quality, One of these days I'll scan them)
TRANSPARENCY
DENIM
PLAID / STRIPE
SATIN
KNIT
FUR
These are two pages from my portfolio of a capsule collection I did for a client.
My favorite fashion illustrator who inspires my own illustrations is Arturo Elena. Arturo is amazing at capturing photo realism in his illustrations and he is truly a master at rendering.
Arturo is also a fashion illustration instructor but only teaches in madrid :(
till I go to Spain I'll just have to settle for studying his illustrations and practicing on mine.
For this post I wanted to share photos of my drawings of my spring 2011 semester of foundation. The course was Drawing II Ideation & Imagination. Here are the drawings in the order the assignments were given...
Create an image using only I's and O's.
This first assignment was about choosing a theme that we had inhabitions about. I chose androgony because of inner reflections about embracing both feminine and masculine sides of my personality.
ANDROGONY
For the second project we had to choose an organic and a non organic object to combine in a surreal way. I chose an issue of Vogue and the cosmos.
Organic and Non-Organic
In this next project we had to either choose between a sewing machine and a grandfather clock. Carol our teacher always told us to find the nature of an object and to understand the nature of the objects. She would often say "What does it want?" I had to choose the sewing machine because of the relationship I've had with the sewing machine.
Sewing Machine
Our Next assignment was a self portrait...
Self Portrait
The second to last assignment was the "Displaced Monument" which is pretty self explanatory. For my monument I went to something I've had a fascination with for a long time, Versailles. For a location I chose a mythical place in China because I've always marveled at the epic landscape paintings of China. The ones you might see at the Chinese take out restaurant.
Versailles in China
Of all the artwork I' did during my foundation year (last year) here at Parsons School of Design this video entitled FLIGHT has been my favorite to produce and somewhat embarressing to watch. I really have to thank Carol for allowing us to chose any medium of our liking for some projects. She is one of the best teachers I've ever crossed paths with. Carol was so much more than just an art teacher she was an inspiration. In our final project for the year we had to address flight and the elements within which it exists. Thrust Lift Weight and Drag. Inspired by one of my favorite artists Matthew Barney I decided I wanted to try my hand at Video Art and this was my outcome...
Carol has a way of bringing out your inner artist and taking her course was the greatest thing I've done here at Parsons thus far.
So Mercedes Benz Fashion Week just wrapped up in New York and among all the trends that popped up, two particularly caught my eye. The 1920's flapper silhouette and a 1930's evening wear silhouette. These two silhouettes have seem to come into fashion every few years. I believe its because of the comfortable and effortless elegance that these styles exude. Here are two story boards comparing the Sring/Summer 2012 silhouettes to that of their inspirations period.
1920's
As you may or may or may not know the 1920's ushered in a whole new woman history had never seen before. Corsets were done away with and a boyish silhouette was all the rage.
1930's
In the 1930's the woman's silhouette began to return to a wait line fitted closer to the body and wider hems. Ostrich feathers like the ones seen on Ginger Rogers had been popular since the previous decade but continued strong into the 1930's infusing a weightless elegance to evening wear dresses.
Other notable trends seen at New York Fashion Week were a lot of floral patterns in bright colors. Bright colors in itself were a huge trend weather they were prints stripes or color blocked color was used in a huge way. Sportswear (as usual) was seen everywhere but done in unconventional fabrics almost bringing it to an upscale daywear level. Another trend that always seems to be around, and still going strong is the African safari theme. Using all kinds of prints from animal and floral to geometric and in colors ranging from browns & beiges to Chartreuse and Fuschia.
The long anticipated wait is finally over and Laduree has finally opened up shop in the United States. Laduree which is world famous has shops all around the globe from Japan to Switzerland and now New York City! They opened doors August 29th and they've been packed with macaron munching new yorkers and tourists alike. Being that I love macarons (not to be confused with macaroons) I had to try the legendary Laduree macaron for myself so my friend and I headed to their Madison avenue shop. As I walked up Madison avenue I only had to see a line heading down the block to know we had found Laduree. Equipped with a door girl and all we patiently waited till we were allowed inside, only to wait on another line to make our purchase.
While inside you can really appreciate the Laduree atmosphere the pale colors, the antique art, the smell of sweet macarons and of course the delicious taste.
I was very Inpired by all the colors and textures at Laduree so I created this mood board for inspiration
