Fashion Candy

A fabulous lesson in fashion branding. A MUST read if you are doing anything in fashion!!
By Mike Toth, Rockport Publishing

Couture Water

I had lunch with several of of my creative & artistic friends yesterday at Oakville Grocery in Scottsdale. It was cute place to meet. It felt like an expanded La Grande Orange. They were selling Christian Lacroix Evian water bottles, and I of course had to have it! I am always a sucker for cool packaging design - ALWAYS! Christian Lacroix is one of the few remaining haute couture designers left. He is a master and a genius!

Moreover, the intricate lace-like pattern etched onto the bottle reminded me of dollie-placemat I found at the New York restaurant Falai. Brian suggested Falai when I was in New York last week. It is in the lower east side and it is marvelous! I highly suggest going if you are in the lower-east side and of course New York. It is a very design-savvy, modern-Italian-fusion restaurant. Small portions but everything is art! The platting, the presentation, etc. I asked if I could take the placemat because I had ideas of using it as a stencil.

Last night I spray-painted the placemat onto the back of a black hoodie. It is a work in progress, but it is on its way to being a pretty cool hoodie!

So from couture water bottles to placemats, some of my best inspiration comes while socializing over food or over everyday items!

Music and Art

In a design class at Parsons we were told to pick out a song.  After really listening to the song we were instructed to draw 9 fashion croquis (the French word for sketch -- it is used to refer to any elongated fashion figure).  Eventually we created an entire collection based off that one song. I choose Cascada's "Every Time We Touch", and I had an absolute ball working on that collection. I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning listening to Cascada as I put the finishing touches on my sketches. 

I often think about that project and the relationship between music and art, and how one sparks something in the other. I love having music on as I work. I am a total I-tunes junkie and I find I am in constant need of new music. 

In fact if I get to the bottom of the stairs and realize I left my phone at home, I take it as a blessing and keep going, but if I forget my IPOD I'll climb back up the four flights of stairs so that I can have my music. 

I really like my latest selection of downloads. They include:

1) Kings of Leon "Only By The Night"

2) Lily Allen "It's Not Me, It's You"

3) Slum Dog Millionaire soundtrack -- LOVE M.I.A. Paper Planes and Dreams on Fire

4)Erin McCarley "Love, Save the Empty"

5)MGMT "Oracular Spectacular" -- playing "Kids" over and over again!

--  I probably shouldn't admit these downloads, but I do like them...

6) Lady Gaga

7)Kelly Clarkson

8) The Fray

9)Taylor Swift

10) Pussy Cat Dolls 

-- and then some older ones, but love them none the less

11) The Killers "Human"

12) Pink's entire "Funhouse" album

13) Katy Perry "Hot and Cold"

14) Lights "Last Thing On Your Mind"