Progress

Spring Showers

I ran across this early 90's photo of "the Shower Curtain Dress." I am guessing the original fabric curtain was from the 50's but could just look 50's what with the print of the flower carts, falling drops and blossoms aka domestic cute. I beaded the details and made the dress. The bride's custom dress (Zootsuit) is also one of mine, however in custom the bride acts as co-designer. It's their party, their style, their dress and just that one is made!; yeah I have come by this passion legit!

Oh yes, I have cut apart the "Curtain Dress" so it can be Something Else Again

Cowgirls Sew Too

This is my sister in the late 70's wearing a jacket reworked out of a coat. I remember we were always cutting up our clothes to sew them back together with attitude...ready to wear just wasn't, except for 501 s!


Until the classes start in April the FashionRip blog will be the livelier place. Go there to see previews, samplings, portfolio takeouts, and other snippets of local talenteds. Along with blatant marketing of a new economics that embraces sustainable thoughts -well if not there, where? and a lot of room for your valued input ...it's all about directing the energy. (OK not all -but a lot!)

Thank you

Every cowgirl takes off her boots.

FashionRip Project

I have added a link -see it on the right side of the page. This is where the updates will be as the FashionRip Installation Project builds. I am really happy to be able to showcase some of the incredible local talent that is or will be involved as momentum grows. Please drop by and leave a comment, ask a question or get involved. Thank you, deborah

Victorians and Death

The New Year is looking ....interesting. I am working on a collection that merges the grand Victorian Accouterments of Mourning -and they really worked it! - with species on the brink of extinction

I suspect the sensibilities foisted onto the True Woman and the showy over consumption of the Gilded Age just had to do "Death, the Production" in a manner that blasted the importance of the deceased throughout society and beyond...to the very gates of St. Peter. I am sure all were duly impressed, especially the children running into the grand funeral parades after working 14 hours in the sweatshops of the garment districts. " I say Joey, I sewed that very hem" as they stand shivering while the spectacle passes, hungry and tired...yeah I bet they understood plenty!

In a similar manner we drive our SUVs and ignore the consequences as best we can preferring to accept the reality we were given rather than the truth we want to ignore. However as species die out under the toll of overpopulation, even the most "successful" species (that's us) withers. Are today's children waiting for the lights to change, to stop these relentless funeral parades on freeways through forest glens and rural lanes?.......I suspect they are.

That is why it is important to let them know that there are many here among us who are modifying behaviors to balance the energy that is the whole of life. Everybody matters and everyone is responsible.

who's Style?

When recycling your old fashion magazines think of cut and paste, it's fun, reduces stress and is good for gifts....well maybe.

the amazing DISconnect

I have been busy getting another degree determined to figure out what created the state of the state aka how can so many good, intelligent and well meaning people function and maintain a set of arbitrary rules and relationships based on traditions that have been so full of dogma and dung that they should have collapsed ages ago?

We all know the king has no clothes and appears to be protected only by the national myths. This is the same rhetoric underlying the business as usual, turn a lemon into lemonade sit com of promo voice and the Home Shopping Network suggesting lightweight ponchos for the global warming trend. Really! this from an an article in the Seattle Times (12/2/07) by M.Barbaro as "weird weather has big effect on business." Does this not suggest a change in the why and what of business, a wake up to consumer madness? .....Pshaw darlin' it's now to win as the maddest hatter of all! Ta ra ta ra.....for:

true to the business mantra, several fashion industry leaders are hiring climatologists in order to make fast fashion suitable for the new era. How long before we point to the king and say "hey dude you're up for a bad case of melanoma!" and understand the cancer in us is the cancer we have become in the push for market dominations reliant on resource abuses. Well I see the duh in the TA DA! and won't be keeping quiet.

Extra Extra

In the original Lincolnian vision of helping hands capitalism I am hosting ads It sounds good as the hook is I will be harboring ads that are relevant to fashion ethos. I wonder what will show up?

Holidays are approaching and that means trash and more trash; it is a time of year that we really create a lot of stuff made to throw away. Haute Trash was part of a Seattle Art Museum "event" last week to put trash, the issue, in the face of ......well and I know now that they recycle the costumes as I did wonder how long a life they had after the runway? I mean yogurt lid minis are not always the proper attire.

Arts and Crafts Revival

This piece is in homage to the original movement of the later 19th century that sought to raise aesthetic standards as well as improve conditions for workers, believing that beauty was a result best achieved by contented labor.and that beautiful design would improve the whole of society. That they were thinking in wholistic, sophisticated terms well advanced of the capitalist economic sector, deserves respect and remembrance. We should also be reminded that they were eventually undermined by the marketing of the machine made as being the better more modern product.

So here's to the great handmade revival, the crafters uprisings and all that creative independence and here's to you Stickley, Morris, Engels, Ashbee, Wright, the most famous Anonymous and all who followed their art. I thank you for the beauty you gave this world.

Oh and the chair was painted and stenciled. The seat fabric was replaced and machine stitched to mirror the pattern of the chairs back with a little trapunto to punch out the design.

re-do Home Ec fashion

This 80's chrome chair was a 3rd level rescue. After washing the rust brown velveteen I appliquéd the floral motif using a fusible adhesive with topstitching then stippled the centers. Curves work well if you dislike fraying; edge stitch the straights to keep them tame. This chair still isn't comfortable with the bar back but it looks great and works in the studio for a short perch.

Changes

Okay, I am a harpy when it comes to fashion I abhor the fast fashists. I realize that Godot isn’t coming, Uncle Sam is lunching with Big Brother and sorry, yes, Oz was faked. So let’s embrace the truth for denial is absurd and boring.

I read “The Waste Makers”: by Vance Packard (1960) over summer. This book showed up when I made a wrong turn. I flipped it open and read “In the fifties, designers in a great many fields earnestly studied the obsolescence-creating techniques pioneered in the field of clothing and accessories, particularly those for women,” Then, later “Every industry tries to emulate the women’s fashion industry. This is the key to modern marketing.” (page 71 ) The universe spoke and I was paying attention.

So now I am angry. I feel used, manipulated, disrespected even and yet I can’t just un-love “fashion”. Style, good design and change are part of the best of being human; we are drawn to beauty, novelty, fresh ideas. The question is how to navigate the balance between desire and need? What is style lust and what is the longer, loving relationship that is considerate to the unity of life and planet. and is it possible to have both?

Perhaps the answer is in the natural progression that evolves from street expressions as culture and art combine. New Wave, Punk, Goth and Grunge with Hip Hop opening the door for Rap; all names that evoke the power and influence of Street Up Style. It’s the music, clothing and expression of change, the voices for alternatives. The Beats of the 50’s influenced Givenchy. The spare simple lines of the black Capri pants and turtleneck sweater he designed for Audrey Hepburn was plucked from the coffee houses. The look became fashion news when it appeared on the big screen The cycle constantly repeats as ideas are snagged and then sold by those with the means to exploit them

Sustainable style is the antidote to the fashion pushers. It embraces the heart and mind, is ethical and wholistic, it is the alternative to madness. It is recycouture and organic cottons. It is repurposing and hemp. It is about taking responsibility and taking care of a great place called earth in a great venture called life. Sustainable style is about empowerment and saying no to being used and it is up to each one of us.

Privatizers and pillagers are cracking the Wall of Denial in many sectors; yet consumer habits are hard to break. Stay tuned……

Display for Sustainable Ballard Festival