The Second Dirtiest Industry in the World

In our fashion class, we do a lot of talk on sustainability in fashion and how big of a polluter the fashion industry really is. We read today an article, called It's the Second Dirtiest Thing in the World—And You’re Wearing It on alternet.org that summed up the disastrous impact the fast fashion industry has on our environment. The cotton used in clothing takes an enormous amount of water to grow, and synthetic materials release dangerous chemicals into our atmosphere. The boats used to transport these raw materials to factories, and then from factories to retailers pollute our water. Then at the factories, women slave for long hours in unhealthy conditions for minimal pay. Then, consumers buy these products for dirt cheap, only to throw the garments away after a couple washes. These garments then end up in the landfill, in an endless, broken cycle.

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Our Collection's Story

Our collection, called "Roses N Thorns" is our take on the "good girl gone bad" cliche. For our mood board, we tried to choose models and celebrities who appeared wealthy and nonchalant. We wanted models dripping in diamonds with a "don't care attitude." Our colors and materials are strictly limited to black, white, denim, blush, and nude. We have lots of leather and lace that we're going to be basing our collection off of. Our designs are feminine, with an edgy twist. We are also considering a menswear look, which will have the same "rich kid" vibe. We want our line to be very wearable and appeal to fashion forward women and men in their early 20's. On our mood board we have select lines from "Bad and Boujee" by Migos that we thought conveyed a wealthy and careless attitude. Because we are making our designs from thrifted materials, we don't have lots and lots of fabric to create layered looks with lots of pieces as is common on the runways lately. Even oversized coats will be a little unobtainable. Therefore, our collection may not have the same level of careless vibe as we intended, nor the sense of wealth. What was most important for us to remain intact was the femininity at a juxtaposition.

Savers field trip

Yesterday my class took a field trip to Savers to shop for our upcoming fashion show. We split up into groups of four to create lines of 3 to 4 garments made entirely out of thrifted materials. My group's theme is "Roses and thorns," and our palette is made up of black, denim, and blush. We wanted to give kind of a wealthy, bad-girl/boy attitude, and so we have leather, gold chains, fur, and bling. We also have lace to emphasize the femininity of the blush. Shopping at a thrift store is awesome because we were able to find high quality vintage pieces for very cheap. I'm so glad the popularity of thrifting is on the rise because the fast fashion industry is terrible for the enviroment and also unethical. Thrift stores remind us that clothing is not disposable. When you want to change up your look, there is no reason to not reuse and instead bring new clothing into this world that is already over saturated with garments. Even at Savers, which is a huge store, they get so many pieces of clothing a day they only sell about 10% of it.

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Fenty X Puma by Rihanna FW17

I LOVED THIS SHOW!
If I could only wear one line for the rest of my life, it would be this one. Each look was in-your-face, but comprised of bold but totally wearable pieces. The university theme was done perfectly down to every last detail; the models even walked on runways that looked like desks, complete with lamps and textbooks. I though exaggerating the school theme was the perfect way to bring out the punk schoolkid side of Rihanna's line, which is what made it stand out from her other more sporty seasons. The looks, while not for the faint of heart, were on trend, with bold orange and yellow, puffers, draper jackets, crop tops, oversized hoodies, and joggers. The punk plaids though made it not even feel like athleisure. These looks are definitely ons you'll be seeing on tastemakers everywhere. The attention to detail even came down to the soundtrack, which featured actually good music, like MIA, Radiohead, and Die Antwoord.

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Nina Ricci Paris FW17

I absolutely loved Nina Ricci's show! I had never heard of this line before, but now that I have, I'll be sure to keep an eye out. I ended up watching this one because the bright baby pink suit in the thumbnail caught my eye. It was difficult to catch a central theme; Guillaume Henry seemed to blend 1700's pirates, cowgirls, and 70s and 80s vibes into one posh and wearable line. He was able to keep a huge variety of silhouettes cohesive by keeping each look relatively monochromatic. At first, it seemed the color palate would be the same muted tones we've become accustomed to seeing on the runway, but he finished the line off with the most beautiful bright pinks, a refreshing sight for sore nude-filled eyes. The makeup was on trend too with monochromatic burgundy. Prints were limited but intentional: An exaggerated allover star print layered over cowboys was basically a "heads up" in case any viewers didn't catch the cowgirl theme. Large sallow looking faces on dresses with Renaissance neck ruffles braced the watcher for the bright pink to come. Overall, I thought this show was a perfect balance between art and lifestyle wear. I can't wait to see these garments on every fashion blogger!

https://www.ninaricci.com/en-INT/Ready-to-wear/winter-2017

Anniesa Hasibuan

Anniesa Hasibuan is not a new designer, but there's been a lot of buzz about her after her NYFW show back in February. Her show was light and feminine, with conservative styles that work with her religion's dress code. However, her line seems easily wearable to everyone, even women who don't follow conservative dressing. 
What's got everyone buzzing is her decision to cast only models who are immigrants or second-generation Americans. Although exclusive, I think this is awesome to show how much of America is made of immigrants, and how much we need and appreciate them. Each model also wore a hijab, which although might raise some controversy, I think is awesome to show the beauty of the hijab, and how it can be an expression of religion and not a sign of oppression. 

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Garment Construction Project

For second semester project, we had to create a garment of our choice using a pattern. The only rules were that it had to be made with woven fabric, have buttons or a zipper, and have pleats or darts. Other than these requirements, we were free to alter and create any pattern of our choosing. I chose this Butterick pattern with shorts and a matching bustier.

I loved the retro style with the tropical floral print, so for my project, I chose a similar print in a baby pink.
Here are the finished shorts, and I have yet to make the bustier:

The shorts ended up taking way longer than I expected! Cutting out the fabric and the general assembly, including the zipper, took no more than three days, and I thought I was right up at the finish line. But then hand sewing the waistband, fitting, attaching the hook and eye, and hemming, ended up taking over a week! It shows how tedious sewing clothes really is, especially if you're aiming for quality. The fast fashion industry has disrupted the value of clothes, because the prices do not reflect the amount of work that really goes in to making a finished garment.

Valentino RTW 2017 Review

This post has been written after seeing this review on Women's Wear Daily http://wwd.com/runway/fall-ready-to-wear-2017/paris/valentino/review/

Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli created a beautiful, wearable collection by combining two unlikely genres. The long, silk dresses were reminiscent of Victorian romanticism, yet patterns, shapes, and colors were distinctly 80s. Yet he manages to make the looks feel of the moment. They're on trend, something you could easily picture any fashionable girl wearing down the street today. The punk boots and flowy dresses seemed at no mismatch thanks to toned down colors and bold prints, proving that "wearability" does not have to mean "basic". The looks were modest, understandably for Fall. Every single look had a high neckline. Here are a few of my favorites:

Images are from Women's Wear Daily

Do You Worry Colleges or Employers Might Read Your Social Media Posts Someday?

To answer simply, I don't. The bigger worry for me, and why I censor my social media posts, is that my family will see. I also know that my youth pastor follows me on Twitter and that there are underclassmen who look up to me, and I don't want to set a bad example. However, I wouldn't be surprised if in the future employers and colleges do look at a person's social media to get a better understanding of the person. It would be a good idea on the company's part, since people use social media to create a sort of online persona. Employers looking at an applicants social accounts could likely bring an end to cyber bullying, since people would realize that what they say online has consequences, just like in real life. A large part of why people cyberbully is because they feel as though their online persona has no connection to them, and so they can let out their inner rage or whatever without consequence. Again, however, knowing that employers can look at your social may take away from the unfiltered culture that has made the internet so great. For many, social media is a place where people feel they can finally be themselves without judgement or consequence. If employers started looking at social accounts, sites known for spontaneity like Twitter and Snapchat may become more like Instagram, where people already often post meticulously to create the exact persona that they want.

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How to Make a Rope Ladder So You Can Sneak Out of Your Second Story Window

Ok, so this post isn't super fashion related, but when you use your rope ladder, you want to wear shoes, which are fashion, and you can go to parties wearing your fashion. Alright. Fashion. Let's go.

You Will Need
- 100 ft of rope (make sure the working weight is well above your weight)
- yardstick or ruler
- something heavy in your room, such as a bed
- duct tape (optional)
- climbing clip (optional)
- bobby pins or tape (optional)

if you're desperate, you could use just rope, but any of these other objects will make the process way easier.

1. Take your window screen out
2. Drop one end of the rope out of your window, and lower it until it reaches the ground. Mark the rope on your end with your hand, tape, or a bobby pin. To use a bobby pin to mark, stick it in through the rope casing. Then pull the rope back up.
3. Use your yardstick to measure the rope to your mark. Multiply this number by 2.5. If you don't have a yardstick, fold your rope at the mark and then add half of that length. Put a mark at this new point. 
4. Tie a double figure-8 knot where this second mark is. If you have a climbing hook, put it inside the loop before you tie the knot. Go to this link for an animation. Then you can remove the marks. Roll the rest of the rope up after to make the next step easier.
   
5. Then, every 10 inches, you will tie a knot like seen in the image. This link will show you how. This is the tricky part: you want to make sure the knots are about 10 inches apart when tightened, so tie the knot loosely at first so that you can tighten it into place. Use the end of the rope that you measured to do the loop de doop side, and make at least 6 loops instead of 4.

   

   from http://www.instructables.com/id/Rope-ladder/

   Continue until the end of the rope.
6. Cut the rope when you've reached the end and wrap some tape around the ends so it doesn't fray.
7. Look closely at your room to find the best location to tie your ladder to. It must be much heavier than you. Probably this will be your bed, but if your bed is not near the window try a heavy desk. If you have multiple heavy objects to tie the ladder to , even better.
8. Tie a Halyard knot with the end of a new piece of rope to one side of the heavy thing. 

   

   from http://www.sailfeed.com/

9. Measure from here how long your rope need to be to reach the window, and then the other side of your heavy thing. At the point where the rope will reach your window, slide your ladder onto the rope and tie a butterfly knot. Click here for an animation on how to tie it. If you have a climbing clip, you can tie the knot and then clip the ladder on. 
   
10. Tie another Halyard knot onto the other side of your rope.
11. Test the ladder out before you use it! if the edge of your window is metal, you may want to wrap part of the rope in duct tape to keep it from chafing. Other than that, you're done!

Disclaimer: I have no professional experience on this topic and am not telling you to sneak out. If you follow my instructions I take no responsibility for any potential injuries. This is pretty sketch. Like I just researched a bunch of knots but this is by no means the only way or even the best way to make a ladder. Be smart, and know what works best for your situation.