Gotta love pockets!- Apparel design 1

Bonjour :)

Nowadays it seems like everything is based on appearance, especially when it comes to buying clothes. "Is this in style?" "Oh that color was so last year." "That silhouette is so Audrey Hepburn!" "Does this make my hips look big?" There are other things that factor into a garment than just appearance, and  I feel that it is unfortunate that people have to sacrifice comfort sometimes in order to wear what is deemed fashionable. I think we should bring back the comfort and functionality aspect of clothing. People want to be comfortable, not inhibited by the garments on their body. You should be able to do the same things you want to do in a pair of slacks that you would want to do in a pair of skinny jeans. Know what I mean? I'm just going to talk about functionality. Clothes should move with you! You know, whenever I look at a garment (now maybe this is just me, because I've been in so many fashion classes) I think of functionality. So when I look at jeans, I need a big back pocket because I like to put my phone back there when I need a free hand for something. So... today's post is going to be about pockets :) because I love them. Whoever thought to put pockets in prom dresses and cocktail dresses was a GENIUS. When you're dancing at a formal event, you don't want someone to steal your phone or your money that you left at your table, so with these pockets you can keep it on you! What a great idea. Another thing that makes me mad is fake pockets. It's like I try to put something in there and try to get my finger between the garment and the pocket, and there's a seam there! Lies! Pockets need to work people! I like putting lots of things in there, just for fun! Like gum. Everyone needs gum on their person right? Hooray for pockets if you don't wan't to carry a purse to an event, you can keep it all in your pockets. So there are many different kinds of pockets: outside, inserted, welt, flapped, besom, patch, bellows, ticket, in seam, front hip, and many more! They're so versatile and functional, i think more garments should have pockets. And not those fake ones either- shenanigans! I want to put things in there. Picture time!

This is crazy cute

Yay back pockets!

Genius! You can put a camera in there and take pictures on the dance floor

Okay so that is my rant on pockets, I just felt like I had to express my love of pockets in dresses. So smart! I just can't get over it. When I make my wedding dress someday, there will be pockets. You bet your sweet bippy there will be! Okay I must go finish some homework for one of my other classes now, in the mean time... as always...

Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

Blazin' blazers -Apparel design 1

Oh hey! Thanks for visiting my blog!

I'm so excited... Blazers are so in for fall and winter! I love blazers! They just instantly make your outfit look put together and very sophisticated. Both for men and women, they add just another dimension to any look. I have a few blazers, all of which I get compliments on regularly (what's funny is they are all kind of a few years old... But you didn't hear that from me). I have a sparkley silver one, which I wear on special occasions, or days that I feel sad and need something shiny to make me feel better. I have a black one with ruching on the three quarter length sleeves and a vent in the back, which goes with everything in my closet. The last one I have is navy blue, emerald green, and white plaid with 2 gold buttons and ruching on the sleeves. You can match that with any color of green or any color of blue, to keep it all in the same color pallet but still adding visual interest.
Blazers are just something really different on a college campus! In a sea of lettings and long t-shirts (refer to one of my older blogs for my feelings on leggings as pants :p) blazers are just a breath of fresh air! Adding structure to a flowy skirt, adding polish to a plain tank and jeans, or adding a pop of color to a drab suit, you can't go wrong with a blazer. They are a very easy way to spice up any lifeless wardrobe. This pertains to my fashion class because we talked about lining a lot this semester, and you can tell if anything is really good quality if it is lined. Lined properly also lol. So when one looks at a blazer, look and see if it is lined. That means the manufacturer or designer took the time to make a quality garment. This lining will also make an infinite amount of difference if you're buying it for a cold weather season- that biting winter air will blow right through that jacket if there is no lining. So I know you might really want it because it is cute, and I'm not telling you not to buy it, but I think sparing yourself some sick days from work or school would be in your better interest in the long run.

Blazers for Men:

Layering the look give you some visual intere

T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes instantly made classy

Blazers for Women:

Hot off the runway!

Belt it! That adds color and extreme polish

Piping... Love it

Blazers over dresses add instant class

I told you blazers are amazing! I encourage you to get out of your comfort zone if you are looking to freshen up your wardrobe for fall. Bright colors are rare in cold weather, which is all the more reason to buy a bright blazer! Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean your clothes need to be bland and boring! Belt that blazer if it is too big and you need more shape. Or if you are looking for another eyecatching aspect to a plain blazer. A black blazer with a hot colored belt would be amazing, or a sparkly studded belt would be cool too. If color and belts are a little too outlandish, start small. Some small piping around the lapel and front sides of the jacket is a really cute way to add another dimension and some color without being overbearing. And look at the pockets! I love them. Plain black blazer with hot pink flap pockets and a pink lapel- I love it. As you can see, I'm kind of obsessed with adding random accents of color. I think it is fun and totally me :) whatever is "you", I'm sure you can express it through a blazer. A lace blazer would be a really cool blend of vintage and modern. 

So think about blazers next time you see a shirt in your closet that could use a little oomph! Sophistication, class, and polish NEVER go out of style.

As always, 

Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

Pleats galore! -Apparel design 1

Hello everyone!

I wanted to take today to talk about pleats, and what cool little things they are. In my class I am putting knife pleats on a skirt, and they inspired me to look at all the other uses for pleats.

Kick pleat converted to pleats 

 So there are so many different kinds of pleats, it's crazy. It can make you garment vintage, fashion forward, fun, sophisticated, playful and classy, all depending on what kind you use! So have lots of pictures today, so take a look at all these different kinds of pleats. I'm sure I forgot some, so if I did, just let me know :) You can pleat curtains, bedding, seating, and especially apparel. There are so many techniques you can use, you can make them big or small, far apart or close together, whatever style you are looking for. I hope you enjoy pleats as much as I do!

Pleated shirt

Pleated mini skirt

Long knife pleat skirt

Pleated bubble fitted skirt

Contrasting color box pleats

Broken pleats- I've never seen them before!

Pleated ottoman- this is so cool!
Click here for a link to see more ottomans and furniture

The inverted pleat

Really cool pleated scarf

So yeah, that's a pretty good amount of all the different things you can do with pleats! They're in interiors, men's wear, women's wear, outerwear, pants, basically anything you could possibly want! They add texture and visual interest to anything. Sorry about the arrangement of these pictures, I couldn't really fit them all on here nicely, so it's kind of avant garde lol. So, whenever you are looking to add something to an outfit, and color doesn't seem to do the trick, try something with pleats. A skirt, or a top. Or maybe just a cardigan or a vest. I couldn't be bothered to format more pictures of cardigans and vests, I already had enough trouble with these lol. But there are so many ways to work with pleats. For the men out there that read my blog, dress pants with pleats always make a traditional suit look a little more modern. And I bought a box pleated dress a few months ago, which I love. Another thing about pleats is the movement they give, which also adds lots of visual interest. If you make your own, there are varying levels of difficulty, knife pleats are probably the hardest. Those broken pleats look pretty hard too, but I don't know how to do those. I'm sure there's something out there for every skill level. Until next time, consider putting some pleats into your daily outfit! Spice it up!

Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

What in the world is a dart??- Apparel design 1

Hello everyone!

*See disclaimer!

I usually don't start off my posts with pictures, but I decided I would today. Because I am going to talk about darts! No, not the throwing game- which I am very good at by the way, but I digress- but the fitting element in a garment. So you see those triangles in the picture above that look cut away from the bodice and skirt? Those are darts. They are strategically placed on the body where it curves or moves, in order to let the garment move with the body and still maintain fit, because nobody wants to feel like they have no shape, or they are a rectangle, because nobody is a rectangle. Every person on God's green earth has a shape, and it deserves to be dressed with the best fit possible. So you fold those triangles over each other and stitch the triangle closed. The bottom picture shows this. *Disclaimer! In my fashion class, backstitching is a very big NO-NO. When ending a seam line in our class, we drop the feed dogs and stitch in place for just a few stitches, which makes a little knot. This makes a little less bulk than backstitching does.       Okay now that I said that, I can go on. Both men and women's clothing have darts, because all garments need to fit somehow. Or else we would all be wearing paper sacks. So darts can be moved around, so they won't always be in the same spots in every garment. That would be boring. Dart manipulation is when you either make many darts out of the one, or combine more than one to make a huge one. It really depends on what you're making, if you want a lot of darts or just one, but a key thing to remember is they just can't go away. No matter how much you want them to disappear, they can't. You have to do something with it. So there are other options than just darts, you can do pleats or tucks, or gathers or things like that. You'd do gathers for example, if you were doing something really flowy and airy. You wouldn't want a random line just sticking out from nowhere. Darts are cool that way, you can pretty much do whatever with them and they will still give you that fitted element into your garment. Okay so now you know what a dart is, I will find some pictures to show you what I am talking about.

So they converted that one triangle that we
saw in the first image to 3, for their desired
effect.

Looks like they converted the waist and bust
darts to gathers, to make it more flirty and girly

With men's slim fit shirts, the darts
can go in the front- because they need that
extra fitting

Aren't darts cool? :) yay for fitted things! So I think that is good for the basics on darts, perhaps I'll do another post later that goes more in depth about things :)

Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

New posts for a new class: Apparel Design I

Hey there everyone :)

I just want to start off by saying, I wish days were longer than 24 hours! I feel then that way I would be able to get all of my things done! Like blogging. I wish I could have done a few summer posts about summer clothes, (hopefully everybody rocked some colored skinny jeans :)) but alas, I had many other things to do. But luckily, for another one of my fashion classes we are encouraged to start blogging again. So yay!

So the content I am going to talk about today is about the design process, or more specifically, getting inspired. This chapter in one of our textbooks for class was so interesting. Everyone sees the end results of the creative process with the final runway shows, or art exhibits, or a song. But no one sees the steps the creators took to get to that final stage. So i'm just going to talk about it a little bit. Oh, and maybe you yourself can even translate this into your own wardrobe. You'll see what i mean by the end :)

Inspiration can come from anywhere, really. I get inspired by music mainly, experiencing new music is really fun and different. I think of like a story to go along with the song in my head, and sometimes the things my pea-brain comes up with is cool lol. But also when I go to art museums and look at paintings and things, I get really inspired by the shapes and colors. I almost want to create a garment based on the piece that i'm looking at. Colors and textures inspire me, i like mixing things together to see what i get. Wearing clothes is almost like putting together a puzzle, there are so many combinations to choose from, but only certain ones fit or look good together. So trying out different combinations is always important :) mix it up! Color combinations are always a good way to start if you are trying to spice up your day-to-day style. For example, If you like one certain color, try wearing an outfit of all monochromatic colors. But use different shades of said color to mix it up.

The Glee character, Emma Pillsbury (yay Glee!) did this outfit wonderfully. She took one color, perhaps she was inspired by the sun or eggs or something, and used different shades of yellow to break it up and make it not so overwhelming.

Another way to get inspired is to change your surroundings- go outside, sit in a room in your house that you normally don't, take a back route to class, just to change your perspective a bit. So let's say you did that and sat under a tree, thus getting inspired by a tree. So you can incorporate this inspiration into your look by color most easily, but also by texture. If you like the texture of the bark, perhaps go for a tweed skirt or a nice structured pair of wool pants. And if you like the breeziness of the leaves, go for a light material in a top. Mixing textures is a really fun way to get a different look out of an old outfit.

At first glance, this looks like a boring white dress. But look closer, the top is lace and the bottom has some lovely pleats. This look mixes textures very well, and could be a great way to take your inspiration and put it into your personal style :)

That's all for me right now, but I will be posting again soon, i promise!
Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

Leggings as pants... Wear with caution!

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't had a spare second to post anything new in the past few months! School and life just kind of crept up on me and I just got super busy. So while I have a spare second before I start studying for finals like a crazy person, let's talk about fashion :) So these days, it seems like lots of girls are rocking the oversized t-shirts with leggings look. Is this in or out? Yoga chic or a lazy mess? I personally find it weird if a person wears leggings as pants… They are quite tight. I would feel self conscious with just wearing those. And I also personally like to look like I am actually wearing pants, so this trend isn’t quite my deal. So from my point of view, this look needs to go! Bury the 80′s oversized and super-tight clothing, let’s get something new and fresh going! Picture time ;)

Lol, this is true. So leggings are really tight, it is almost like you are wearing no pants at all. You basically have a tiny little layer of neoprene or whatever fiber they are made out of between you and the rest of the world... So therefore, when wearing said tight article of clothing, it is possible that a passerby would be able to see certain undergarments or certain nooks, crannies, or flaws of the skin. So if you must wear leggings as pants, PLEASE buy the proper size. And make them opaque please? We wouldn't want any sausages stuffed in casings walking around campus, now would we? Another picture ;)

Yay! This chart is awesome! It makes me giggle. Please read it ;) alright, real life example time.

Olivia Wilde... What were you thinking? Camel toe... Unattractive! This means they are too tight! and heads up, maybe you wouldn't be so cold if you actually had pants on.

Jennifer Love Hewett... lol wow. So you can clearly see like every nook and crevice of her bum... something i didn't really want to see. Too tight and they are clearly see through. She is clearly not wearing any underwear- that's just awkward. 

How to wear leggings properly:

1. BUY THE RIGHT SIZE THAT FITS YOUR BODY. You want to look good, yes? Then don't pay attention to the size on the package. Just be concerned with if they fit or not.
2. BUY OPAQUE LEGGINGS IF YOU PLAN TO WEAR THEM AS PANTS. Please, do the world a favor. We don't want to see all your business hanging out.
3. WEAR THEM UNDER THINGS, NOT AS PANTS. Leggings were created to go under dresses and long tops. Yes, some people like them for yoga, lazy sundays and rolling-out-of-bed-straight-into-class days, and to those people I say see numbers 1 and 2: they're important ;)

Proper legging-wearing picture time

This picture rocks. I love all of these looks. now you don't have to just wear boots with leggings, you can pair them with anything really. And why does my font keep changing?? *sigh technology.

 

Oh yes! I am loving these looks. Great ways to wear them around spring time, by pairing them with long tank tops. The key here is whatever you pair the leggings with, be sure they cover your derriere. You can wear however sheer and lacy and holey tights you want, just please cover your bum with the top!

That is all i can think of to say about leggings as pants. Just be cautious, friends! Being fashion forward is good, but if you are showing body parts that shouldn't be seen, then well, that isn't being fashion forward anymore- that's public indecency lol. So I will try to post regularly again, I promise! Maybe the next topic will be menswear ;) Vivre la mode, tout le monde!

It's Fall! Does everyone know how to wear their boots correctly?

Hi everyone! I'm excited that people commented on my blog :) I really have no idea what I'm doing on here. I literally spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to comment on y'alls comments. Technology isn't really my thing. But fashion is :) Unfortunately, my class that this was for is over, but I still want to keep up with this. It's fun :) so I'm going to talk about the things people wear these days, what styles are walking the college campus, and whatnot. Christmas break is coming up so I'm excited to see what people will be wearing out to go shopping. I guarantee you there will be that lady that wears stilletos and a mini skirt to Ross, and a lady in gross sweatpants to Neiman Marcus. People make me laugh.

So something I've seen walking the "college runway" that I absolutely DON'T understand is short shorts and boots. Any kind of boots. Oh also short dresses and cowboy boots (this could be just a Texas thing). Alright... Anything with boots that aren't pants I dont understand at all. I really don't. You know that's making you look significantly shorter right? It's chopping your leg off in thirds, making you look at least half a foot shorter. And Uggs in the summer... random thought but... don't your feet get hot? I dunno, none of these are my thing. If they are yours, that's great, everyone is different. I personally just dont get it. My thing is pants with boots, jeans with boots, and maybe a dress with boots and tights. It depends. I'll find some pictures of good looks and bad ones- because i love putting pictures in this thing! So fun :) so here it goes: a how to wear boots 101.

Shorts and boots

  Bad. Okay, I see how colleges got this look. So its kinda an awkward temperature out right, and you don't really want to wear sandals, or wear a jacket, but you still want to look cute right? Wear boots! Maybe I understand a little. Tip #1 though, if you don't like your thighs, don't do this look. Obviously this is emphasizing Audrina Patridge's in a bad way, and if i was her I wouldn't like it one bit. She looks cute though, from the knees up. And the boots are cute don't get me wrong, just by themselves. It looks like she is confused on her seasons or got dressed in the dark that morning. Also, notice how she looks shorter! Bad for me, 5 foot 4 inches; I need to look as tall as possible. But you tall girls out there, if this works for you, work it. If it doesn't work for you, maybe it's best for you to wear it around the house only.

  Bad. Example number 2. Britney Spears. Emphasizing thighs in a bad way and MAKES HER LOOK SHORT.


 Super bad. Vanessa Hudgens, what are you wearing? Ah! Nobody copy this look... ever. She has her shirt tucked into her shorts, which you can barely see due to the light color, and omg this look is so bad. The boots are so random for one thing, and brown which matches nothing in that look anywhere, and are too big, and the shorts look too tight for another thing. Again, doing this WILL make you look shorter and inevitably make your thighs look huge in comparison.

 Good. If you put tights under those shorts (not skin tight ones either, we don't want any sausages for legs) it makes the look very trendy. Also, cute for both fall and a cold night during the summer. You could also most likely get away with something like this in the office.

Next topic! Short dresses and boots

Bad. Although, let me just say I LOVE Taylor Swift. She's awesome, and her music is so relateable. That aside, Taylor, this looks silly. I'm sorry, it just does. Point one, it makes her legs look like stumps. They are chopping them into thirds, and that little bit of leg right in the middle between the dress and boots just looks super random. And slightly goofy. I love her dress in the pic on the left, super cute, just with different shoes please. Yes, I get that it is her trademark. I just hope she knows her trademark makes her look short and slightly silly. The heavy boots also don't contrast well with the flowy material and spring colors of the dresses.

 Bad. This just looks stupid. The dress is cute! But not with those shoes! This. Makes. You. Look. Like. You. Have. Stumps. For. Legs. I have to let y'all know this so you don't end up embarrassing yourself later.

 Very very bad. Oh my gosh. For one, that dress is waaaay too tight. Also, never wear boots with a dress like this. I think i've stated the reasons plenty of times. Well... on the positive... a perk of actually wearing a look like this is if you haven't shaved below your knees in weeks and it's embarrasing, it's a good way to cover it up. Just trying to think of a reason of actually wearing this out of the house. If you read this warning and still go out like this picture and STILL get made fun of...  I might have to laugh. Not pertaining to the boots, do you notice she has a gray cotton tank top under that strapless dress?? So many things wrong with this picture....

I'll show you a good way to rock this look now!

 Good. Tights! They're helpful! They're trendy! They lengthen your legs! Only when the color of the tights and boots match though. <- keep that in mind. Look how long her legs are! See? I'm not entirely crazy.

 Good! I know this isn't a dress, but I thought I'd include a picture of how to properly wear cowboy boots. With pants. Hint hint, pants. Carrie Underwood, love her, she knows how to rock her boots. Also, look how long her legs look. Just saying.


 Good! I love this look, it makes her look taller, it accentuates her waist with the belt, that also gives her a pop of color, and I love the sunglasses.


I hope this helps everyone wear their boots correctly :)

And trust me, I know this is super corny, but I like it and it makes me feel cool :) Vivre la mode, tout le monde! :D