Design_download

Well, today's find certainly helps keep my mind off of the depression caused by last night. Whilst perusing SHOWstudio.com, in particular their Fashion Revolution exhibition, I discovered the most spectacular section of their Participation exhibit called Design_download: "Design_download is an ongoing project that offers the chance to access downloadable paper patterns by leading fashion designers. The premise is a riposte to the elitist nature of high fashion, offering everyone the opportunity to own a ‘designer’ garment, and giving designers the chance, quite literally, to ‘dress the world’." In other words, you get to download a pattern for free to make your own John Galliano/Alexander McQueen/Yohji Yamamoto/Maison Martin Margiela/Junya Watanabe/Gareth Pugh/Antony Price piece. Seriously. If you/I had discovered this in time (and had created something lovely), we could've entered a competition to have our finished pieces displayed online and in the exhibition at Somerset House in London. Alas, the pieces have been submitted and chosen, and this Fashion Revolution ends tomorrow (edit: the exhibition has been extended until the 23rd). So you'll now have to create for the sheer joy of making and owning your own high end piece.

I'm not sure where to start first. I'm particularly ecstatic about the John Galliano pattern (top). Eons ago I saw this gorgeous forest green corset-type top on Etsy (above), and had contacted the seller to get one custom made for myself when I had enough money. However, we lost contact, it disappeared from my Etsy Favorites, and I couldn't seem to find that seller when I had enough dollars to put an order in. And now by bizarre coincidence, I've seen the original corset again, as it was that person's result of trying out this Galliano pattern (that 'person' being Lucy Copping from Wales)! And now I have the chance to make one for myself. Eek!

I'm also, as you know, recently obsessed with the designers featured in Skin+Bones. So I'd love to try out the Yohji Yamamoto pattern. When it was originally posted on SHOWstudio, apparently you were only given the pattern for the above intricate jacket, but you didn't know exactly what you were constructing until you actually constructed it. Fascinating! There are photos up now of finished jackets, and I love the look, so I must try the pattern out, even if it's not so mysterious anymore.

I'd also like to try the Maison Martin Margiela pattern, which is actually "an unfinished design true to their principles of deconstruction, prompting the maker to make crucial decisions about the finished nature of the garment." I love the photos of the finished dresses, so this could be great fun.

Perhaps I should've asked Santa for some fabric this Christmas!

(Photos via SHOWstudio.com)

Expensive tastes

Just as a warning, as a result of my recent read through of Skin+Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture, I have some new obsessions that are not of the typical indie designer variety found here. Namely, I have now latched onto the wagons of Hussein Chalayan, Comme des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela, and Yohji Yamamoto, at least for dreaming/DiY purposes. I've also recently become obsessed with Gareth Pugh who was not in the book, but is also a genius. So, while the focus of my blog is of course still on indie designers and handmade clothing, I may be slightly increasing the scope to contain the limited collections of these more well-known, high-end fashion names as well. In other words, please don't hate me if I periodically post a couple more unattainable pieces than in the past. Some creations are just too beautiful to ignore. Also, I have a feeling that some of the indie designers I feature will eventually join the ranks of the above mentioned names, and so there's not too big of a gap between these two worlds.

Above are some expensive (but on sale!) Maison Martin Margiela 1 gloves, which would go lovely with my new Toms wrap boots, and are also available in black.

Grey perfection

Methinks I should spend my day off tomorrow creating my own grey jersey t-shirt and leg binding masterpiece. This one is from Maison Martin Margiela's Spring 2010 Ready-to-Wear collection. Sigh.

(Photo via Style.com)