Bobbin Talk

Glossy Box Feature

About a month ago I was asked to become a stylist adviser for a European shopping website called Glossy Box. What followed was a 3 day whirlwind of video and photoshoots and the final result is finally online at GlossyBox.de I am featured alongside the Italian photographer ... and the British ... The feature just went live today. You can see the collage of my favorite things {here} They certainly captured my love for bright colors and patterns. Most people assume that because I live in NYC I wear mostly black. I actually look for the opportunity to wear color and pattern any time I can and the last couple of seasons I have been very happy to see the bright palettes come to the runways in full force.

The written interview is in German, but the video is just subtitled so you can actually hear my voice. Here is the video with the interview on the website {here} and the youtube below:

SPYRIDON TSAGARAKIS

Today's post comes from Derrick Jones who works in Italy but has been travelling to Greece extensively over the last couple of years. He met the Greek artist Spyridon Tsagarakis on one of his trips and was fascinated by his ability to stay true to his philosophy of a dreamer and creator as opposed to becoming a commercially driven fashion machine. - Aneta

Hello BobbinTalk readers,
I spend a lot of time in Greece and it surprises me every time with a little something new. I once believed Italy quenched my desire for passion but every time I make the trip east, I come back realising I was more thirsty for art and design than I thought.

The designer: Spyridon Tsagarakis

Spyridon says that as a designer he draws inspiration from his own culture. This is all too obvious when you look at a  dress he most recently produced. The silk garment contains wool pleats manipulated and folded to jump off the body. One can say that this  masterpiece is a reflection of the turmoil and frustration ripping through the country. The very silhouette of the piece demonstrates a sign of the times. And this is what Mr. Tsagarakis wants his fashion followers to see.

You won’t see this philosophy transferred on a double breasted jacket or collared button down shirt. Spyridon is firm in his belief that “men should dress in a minimal and simple way”.

In life as in fashion there must be a balance. Our brains can only take so much and as Spyridon says: “The most difficult issue for me is the one that concerns the state of the human mind and this is where we should focus.”

Standing tall and strong like the Corinthian columns he uses as a backdrop in his ad campaign, Spyridon Tsagarakis will sell you a dress but it is only a companion to what you are really investing in and that is a piece of philosophy.

With the Acropolis off in the distance drowning in gold light, we chatted about many a topic and I understood that this was a man with a passion.

The interviewer: Derrick Jones

Should you hunger for more perspective from this artist born in Crete, one of the most beautiful islands in the world, stop off in Collete in Paris or in the Montmartre Museum.

Derrick Jones

Kyle Kreitman Fashion Thesis Collection

Kyle Kreitman's collection was one of the most pure fun collections of this Parsons graduating class. She was inspired by the way children draw clothing and attracted to this concept because children have no knowledge of construction or seams and don't recognize any restrictions. They are so inherently curious about the world around them, that she felt that was something to be explored.

photos: Aneta Genova

Kyle Kreitman: "I started by going through old children's book that always inspired me as a child and still inspire me today and noticed that many of the drawings were simplified either through line or pattern for the viewer to understand. I then asked my younger cousins to draw certain articles of clothing for me, and since children don't understand construction, I received some very interesting work! I was looking to see what they were drawing, how they were drawing it, and where they were pulling their own inspiration from. And looking through all of the images I had compiled, I started to pull what I thought was the most interesting or strange from a design perspective. I noticed that children have this wonderful, uninhibited creativity, but are practical in their thinking at the same time. And this practical, yet uninfluenced origin was what I wanted to reflect on in my thesis.

A huge part of my concept was based on the purity of a child's creativity and how their mind was spontaneous, so it was essential that this be the theme that connected all the individual pieces together. The cohesiveness of the collection was dependent on the fact that I created a visual representation of my creative process just like my cousins did in their drawings. I chose screen printing as a way to translate the pages from my sketchbook into actual garments. And by printing elements of the garments on I was able to translate the 2 Dimensional world as seen in the illustrations. The black animated lines were what tied all of the pieces together. Also, to get the garments to actually look like the illustrations, I had to take my knowledge of formal pattern cutting and apply it to the drawings to create the unusual and very asymmetrical shapes. But the physical translation of the garments is what represented my journey through the imaginative process."

After reading through Kyle's inspiration words and looking at her look book photos I fell in love with her child-like drawings as part of her presentation!

Photos: David Wang

The Clothing:
All of the pieces have a special touch to them, or a nod to the process itself. The long pleated skirt is hand painted and then drawn on with fabric crayon because children don't just paint on paper, they prefer to draw on walls and furniture really anything but paper, so why not draw on my clothing. And it's signed because every drawing that I received had the child's name on it because we are told to sign everything we do, and I felt that was something that needed to be included as well. Most of the other garments have screened elements like cuffs, buttons, stripes, ribs, pleats, bows, etc.

A Note on Accessories:
For the jewelry, I looked through books and magazines pulling out images of stones and jewels and mixing them together. Later turning those original images into a screen and printing them on art board, and going back in and adding real stones and more images to create this game of 2D vs 3D, whats real and what's not. I customized the shoes by painting on them and making bows out of paper and wire ribbon and sewing those back onto the front. The handbags were laser cut out of mirrored plexi glass from one of my illustrated bags and then I screen printed the hardware back onto it.

Ali Bennaim Thesis Collection 2011

For her thesis collection Parsons graduate Ali Bennaim drew inspiration from the eclectic environment of the city of Marrakech, which is characterized by its calm, desert-like feel juxtaposed with an extreme sense of energy and activity. This collection communicates the essence of the city by celebrating its subtle color palette and over-all desert feel, while incorporating multiple details in each garment that represent the city's vitality. Every detail, treatment, drape, shape, and fabric choice of each garment references aspects of Marrakech's culture and heritage.

Ali's strength is in developing textiles and fabric treatments and in this collection she developed the burnt out pattern on the velvet and dyed all the fabrics. 

Photos by Therese + Joel

Gousche Kim Thesis Collection 2011

For the next few days I'll bring you the collections of the Designer of the Year nominees. Sixteen out of almost 200 graduating students from the fashion design department at Parsons the New School for Design were nominated for their outstanding achievement with their fashion design thesis collection. Gousche Kim is one of those graduates. He created a collection which beauty is hard to grasp while the clothes are on a hanger, but once on the body the crisp fabrics create an enchanting play with minimal shapes and shadows.

Gousche started his research by looking at a computer algorithmic structure called quadtrees, which breaks up a 2D plane into smaller and smaller squares. He generated these quadtrees both manually and through a computer program onto paper and followed a small rule set he created by cutting, folding, and aligning against these lines on the 2D and 3D figure. These paper drapes created elements that he then pieced together to form garments. In order to translate the crispness of folded paper to fabric, he used a silicone elastomer in certain places to set permanent creases. Eventually, he noticed that the forms that were taking shape were dependent on shadow and fluctuation between being close to the body and away from the body; and with that idea he built a collection trying to highlight these ideas.

And here are some of his lookbook photos.

 

 

John Paul Rangel Thesis Collection 2011

JP Rangel, a fashion design senior at Parsons is one of the sixteen nominated students for designer of the year. Receiving this nomination is a great honor and a testament to the student's overall sense of aesthetics and design maturity. JP's collection is inspired by the motion of drowning and  floating in water and how the vast body of water can feel utterly constricting. Soft and drapy light fabrics juxtapose with tailored jackets and stiff croc leather. The following photos were used for his lookbook.

Photos: Helen Eriksson

Stylist Alex Sweterlitsch

Hair Yukiko Tajima

Make-up Stephanie Flor

Model Vanusa @ New York Models

all clothing by John Paul Rangel

And here's John Paul himself presenting his collection in front of the panel of judges this past week. I am especially proud of JP because he was in my senior concepts class this year and I experienced some of the "birthing pains" of working on this collection with him.

Photos by Aneta Genova

 

Joanna Akkaoui Thesis Collection 2011

Parson's fashion design graduate Joanna Akkaoui's collection is called "Sail". Joanna put a part of herself and her emotional journey in this collection. This is what Joanna shared with me: "I started in Paris where my internships were more Haute Couture oriented when I came to New York I realized how important ready-to-wear was to me as well.  So my collection revolves around key haute couture pieces that are completed by and edgy girl everyday wear. I usually design by focusing on one element and exploring it as much as I can and in this case it was was rope.

Why rope? Two summers ago I took a road-trip in the north of France in Normandy. We went from one harbor to the other and I found myself taking pictures of the rope and the roughness of the surroundings, the rust but also the softness of all those elements combined together.
In my collection I tried to achieve the roughness through the use of raw untreated rope that I let unravel, the use of rough distressed  and natural leathers. I wanted to mix all those elements with soft fabrics such as silk, charmeuse, really fine jerseys and knit. I really experimented with the rope by placing first on the body as wrap around rope armor, and then then used only the rope to create this rope vest, moreover I glued firmly under a leather so that you can feel the texture of the rope without directly touching it. This was a very interesting and never ending process I could have worked forever playing with the rope and draping it around the body.
As for the shoes they have rope on them as well as metal rusted parts to accentuate all the rough elements I saw along the trip."

Photos by Aneta Genova 

And here are some photos from Joanna's lookbook.

Rachel McCleary on the left is wearing a natural cow leather dress with more than 250 Rivets (i lost count at the end) positioned on the side. You can see the rope going through from Front to Back and you can play with it as you want. The second dress worn by Mararhyta is a wool knot with rusted rope sleeves that wrap around the shoulder and then continue around the body.

Zoom on biker leather pants with leather knit inserts that go around the body. the biker pants are worn with a very light silk top with an opening on the side with rivets and rope going through.

Heel with rusted nickel plaques on the sole platform and on the heel.

Photos by Grave Van Holle (Joanna would like to express tremendous gratitude to Grave who is also a senior at Parsons and has been collaborating with Joanna since they met in Paris four years ago)

Paul Negron Thesis Collection 2011

Just because it's a drab rainy day I'll bring to you another fun and colorful collection. This one comes from fashion design graduate Paul Negron. Here is the inspiration in Paul's own words: "Over the summer, instead of designing my thesis collection, I was dreaming about the great outdoors: owning a Jeep and being able to live the lifestyle that sort of car inspires. I wanted to climb mountains, kayak down rivers, and breathe clean, real air. I wanted to feel free and experience life in a way I hadn't yet. Since I couldn't do that, I had to live out this fantasy of mine through pixels and screens. When all of this began to overwhelm me, I decided to channel all of this desire into the thing I love and know most in the world: my design work. As such, it became a complex re-imagining of all of these things I had been looking at; an amalgamation of images and references coming together, forming what I like to call my "Virtual Reality Simulator" of the outdoors, rendered in Technicolor and with the energy of Saturday morning cartoons."










 

Paul was also one of the winners who had their shoes made in the Italian Shoe Polytechnic school. I also like his personal touch. He painted a neon stripe on the back of the heel to add that extra umph!



And last but not least where would we be without the love and support of our parents? Here is Paul's mom beaming with pride right after Paul's presentation!



All photos by Aneta Genova for BobbinTalk

Tziporah Salamon - Spring Plaid

I've raved before about the style of Tziporah Salamon. I met for a lunch with her a few days ago and as usual she didn't disappoint. I loved her red plaid outfit.

She wore Yohji pants and Ralph Lauren men's jacket tailored to fit her.

Love that she had two different bags, a classic red  Goyard bag and a vintage beaded black one.

I love how she completes an outfit with the long metal bead necklaces and ofcourse a glamour hat with a bit of sparkle. Tziporah you are an inspiration.

Lili Radu

I met Lili Radu a couple of years ago and we had a lot in common as she was pursuing a degree in design and then started an MBA in Milan, Italy specializing in fashion business. This weekend we met again and I was thrilled to see her new line of luxurious accessories. She has found a golden middle of high quality functional product produced in Europe and offered at affordable prices. Here are a few shots from her ad campaign.

Lili is currently in New York for a few days meeting with various stores and hoping to get the collection in US stores. Right now you can buy her product in stores in Austria and Germany or from her website LiliRadu.com