New Projects and Personal Inspirations - The New Line in Progress

Whenever I start a new project, in this case (and most cases,) a jacket, I must admit that I usually start working with someone – a specific person in mind. I meet a lot of people on a daily basis, and I'm also lucky enough to have a lot of friends with really unique styles from which to draw inspiration. It usually happens instantly and out of nowhere and it never leaves my head until I leave the sketchpad and move to the sewing room. This is where the seamstress/designer keeps all of her secrets and mysteries, not always enclosing the name of the figure who inspired the garments in her collection. There are times, of course when I make clothes on commission for people, in which case obviously the garment is inspired by them. Trying to describe the process is like a painter describing how they chose which colour to go in which spot on their canvas, or a musician, which notes sounded best where.

       Right at this very moment, I have four jackets in my mind that I want to make over the next month – two men's, two women's. I've been working on sketches of these projects for 3 weeks, and continue to develop my ideas every day as I walk around the city, observing the choices of outer-wear that Torontonians adorn. In some of my previous blogs, I've  discussed actually having to stop on the street, on the subway, or streetcar to really look at someone far away because the image they've achieved with their personal style is so stunning to me that I must make note of it. I'm not a photographer, but I maintain the ability to describe beauty in its many, strange forms.

       

        The first man's jacket I'll be working on was half inspired by a photograph from a Vogue that I cut out and used for a photo-collage in my bedroom, and half by an anonymous person, an artist, who I hardly see ever, but who always interests me on a creative level when I do. And what I've realized since I initially started working on the piece, is that the previous description could be applicable to a lot of the men I know, suiting their styles perfectly each in their own individual way.  That's what I want to achieve with this jacket - a sense of individuality, which can be applied to any style. It'll be a navy blue, slim-fitted blazer, with classic patch pockets and one inside breast pocket and one outside breast pocket. The unique thing that will be about this jacket is that I wanted it to be longer than a normal blazer. Not too long, just a couple of inches, to give it a slightly more dressy look than one that cuts at the waist. I think it has to be the next one I work on, just because it's been floating in my head for some time now and I'm starting to feel like it's a real thing. Fabric-search-time. Give me a week. Less.

       The first woman's jacket I want to work on is going to be a re-make of an old Petey the Troll coat from winter 2009. I've decided I want to use some of the fabrics from the old left over stuff, because quite frankly, I'm a much better seamstress/designer now than I was then (ya know, design school n shit) and I could use the beautiful materials I used before for more beautiful garments. You dig? We have pictures anyways, I'm not sentimental. ;) The new jacket is going to be a mix of mustard yellow corduroy, and brown printed drapery fabric, using grey buttons, and burgundy gathered lace at the cuffs and pockets, just for a touch of history. It'll be the most colourful piece I've worked on in months, actually, and I'm really excited to get going on tearing the old stuff apart. Someone once said an artist cannot grow unless they understand both creation as well as destruction. I tend to agree.

       The second man's jacket I'll be working on is the least finished, in terms of design, of the four I plan to begin working on immediately. Again, this piece was inspired almost directly by a friend of mine who also has a very unique personal style, that which reflects his personality very well, in my opinion. The idea originally came from a jacket he pointed out to me on a woman, featuring both leather as a base fabric, as well as thick knitted wool around the cuffs, the collar, and at the waist. What has kept me interested in this piece has less to do with this interested combination of materials, and more the transformation of it from a woman's jacket to a man's, and thinking about what the key differences are between the two in a case such as this wherein the piece itself is practically ambiguous in style. So I'm still working on it, but expect some sketches and further discussion on this topic in coming posts. :)

       The last coat and the second woman's coat is one which will mirror the first man's jacket I created months ago for an inspired by one of my old co-workers. He challenged me to use lace, a favourite material of both mine and his, on a man's jacket while maintaining the solemnity and masculinity of the jacket itself. What I came up with, as you might recall is a grey, Italian wool jacket with black lace, 1 1/2” thick lining the two front seams under the arms and on the inside of the collar and the cuffs at the sleeves. We agreed it was a success and I was further inspired to use lace on more of my garments as appliques, rather than frou frou. Therefore my next woman's jacket is going to be cream coloured wool, to accentuate the brighter coloured lace, with fold-over pockets, which I've been meaning to include on something for months, fitted, straight cut with a 4” flare at the waist. The front closure will not be double breasted, but will be asymmetrical still, leaving lots of room for the lace applique on the top right corner, in a colour I've yet to decide on. This one is going to be a special one for me, I can feel it already. And do I have someone in mind that I've based the design off of? Of course I do. It's a friend, who I don't know terribly well, but who's smile I love to see as it has the ability to defuse any awkward situation and light up any room. She's got such confidence and pride in herself that it is truly unique and makes me want to dress her up in beautiful things to accentuate those aspects about her that I admire so much.

So that's kind of what I'm working on right now, and hope to be finished with by the end of January so I can move on to more projects such as the further development of my work on the wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses I'm working on and some art-clothing in the Spring. :)

Thanks for reading!!

V

Morning Daydreams

Most unfortunately, last weekend I managed to finally drop my Blackberry one too many times. It was one of those nights where you know you should have had your shit better put together, and you lament the fool you were for even going out in the first place. Not that I didn't love seeing my fantastic friends, carrying on one of a kind conversations with the brightest and most unique young minds of our generation. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but these people are great, and I always feel lucky I know them.

Anyways, I've dropped my phone about 1500 times prior to this incident in which the corner of the screen cracked, spoiling the view of the entire screen. I didn't even do anything specifically dumb, it just fell out of my hand and hit the metal base of the table I was seated at.

Sigh.

So the good news is, I got to buy a new phone. :D

The other good news is that sans my palm sized connection to the technological world, I had a lot of time to think about the progression of my work over the past 4 1/2 years since the debut of Petey the Troll in 2007 at the Grandstand FashionShow II at Phog Lounge in Windsor, Ontario. I recall that winter, I was working at Fabricland, your friendly local fabric retailer and where all the really cool old ladies go to work after they've lived their fantastic young lives. I wanted to make a trench coat so badly. I studied the way they were made by buying them at thrift stores and cutting them into pieces. Of course I knew absolutely nothing about pattern making at that point and shutter to think of some of my earliest prototypes, but I worked my ass off trying to figure out the intricacies of the trench coat so that some day I could successfully make one, or two, or three.

That was just the beginning for me, and for Meaghan and I as a team called Petey the Troll. Meaghan got involved initially because I was too shy to attend the meeting about our first fashion show at Phog by myself. For the first year she developed (ghetto, in retrospect, but never the less) makeshift screen printing facilities in the basement of the house I was living in at the time and we produced one of a kind hand printed, dyed and sewn tshirts for the folks of Windsor to collect and display.

Soon afterwards, Meaghan began making items of her own and contributing them to the collections I was putting together. We soon came to the conclusion that we worked particularly well together and that our styles were just similar and different enough to look extraordinarily unique and appealing. When the previous organizers of the Grandstand Fashion shows in Windsor retired their positions, finished their Masters degrees and moved out of the city in pursuit of greater things. As a result I took it upon myself to organize and promote small shows in Windsor alongside other designers such as DillyDaisy, theefamily and Jenn Lopez. It was this kind of experience in addition to our distinctive style of photographing local faces in our clothes, using only local artists for the photography, the printing and the modelling.

In March of 2010 Petey the Troll were preparing to show our first small Couture line Petey Couture at the recognized Toronto Alternative Fashion Week wherein they showed 10 outfits and were featured in several articles back home as a result. This is when it got real for me.

Our decision to move to Toronto from Windsor became finalized not long after this point. We were paying the bills in Windsor by working small theatre jobs and costume commissions, but it wasn't what I wanted and I knew I had to leave Windsor. So Meaghan and I decided to enrol in a design school in Toronto for an exorbitant tuition and packed up our clothes to move here, our current home, in January 2011.

Obviously if you know us, you know that design school didn't exactly work out. I knew on the first day that it wasn't going to be a place that I would last very long due to the fact that we spent three hours in a lab learning to thread a sewing machine :S. Over the next couple of months, I stuck it out in the program to acquire the necessary skills and information to advance my draping and pattern making skills, to further my creative abilities with regards to design. I met some fantastic people, the professors especially. They were inspiring in their precision and their thorough knowledge of their trade, that it made me a much better seamstress and a very effective pattern maker and draper – even after dropping out in the middle of the second semester. :P It was like I got it too well, too fast and it was tremendously boring going through the painstaking process of learning how to sew a straight line, which i've been working on for at least the last 10 years.

What finally broke it for me was when I was working on a wedding dress for my dear friend Courtney Thomas of the photography duo WetFresco out of Windsor, Ontario. I was perfectly pinning each little gather and sewing my tiny baby hem on the soft fabric in the sewing room at school, and I stopped and realized that my fellow students in their at the time (all in much further advanced classes than I,) were working on a-line skirts and other such simple garments. I was out of place. So one day I just took out my Blackberry, emailed the President and walked out of my classroom. Post-Secondary education and I haven't been friends since 2008. Meaghan stuck it out for a while longer but eventually joined me in the working world outside any organized design institutions which claimed the only road to success is paved in money and connections. My perspective has always been that talent, and creativity and initiative could overcome such barriers, and that there was room for success for artists still, especially in a city like Toronto.

So anyways, Petey's up and going again and I'm working on a menswear line, due for completion March 2012! All I can say is that I've never done a line like this before and I'cve already surprised myself at the new designs and ideas that I've been keeping inside for months prior.

Get excited.

Anyways thanks a ton for reading, and look forward to more pictures and udates in the upcoming weeks! Thanks!

Canadian Independent Music and its Influence on Street Fashion in Toronto

 At my day job, I'm fortunate enough to meet a lot of new people all the time. My particular circumstance for the past few months has been that I have seen my place of work go through almost a complete turnover of employees. That means meeting and having to get to know new people very frequently, which of course results in the development of methods of approaching certain individuals with whom you take an interest. Are you from Toronto? Did you go to University? Do you have a boyfriend, etc... One of my favourites, due to the response's ability to speak volumes about the speaker who has unintentionally offered such information is, “So, what music do you listen to?”

The twentieth century made this possible. There are currently two types of people who can be immediately categorized based on their responses to the previously stated question. There are music lovers and there are other people... and if you're a music lover, you know exactly what I mean. If you're a music lover, you've spent many good hours of your life with headphones on, pressing them into your ears to make it even louder than it already is, blaring out of the ipod, cellphone, laptop, walkman, stereo, 8-track, whatever. You're open to hearing the most experimental of genres, and you have a deep appreciation for the classics from ages of the past. There are of course many sub-types under the category of music lover, but if you happen to be one, and you meet another, you know that you understand each other on some level as a result. It's quite the fantastic thing about our generation's interpretation of the music industry.

The Canadian music scene has, in the past ten years been so impressive in quality and quantity that it has managed, in the opinion of many, to out-do their American counterparts. I'm obviously not talking about Nickleback or Celine Dion... everyone knows that's mainstream bullshit created by an American audience who can't get the image of Canadian culture being nothing more than old men “rockstars” with terrible style and bad facial hair. It's barely even worth mentioning in Canada because we're so embarrassed of our unfortunate association with this horrifying image. *Sigh*

Since I moved to Toronto last January, I've been engulfed in the shockingly impressive underground music scene which not only exists here, but in the other major cities like Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Windsor was different. Windsor is the type of city that has its own little scene that is completely contained within the city limits. The music was fantastic, but it didn't have the potential for national exposure like some of the artists I've met and seen in Toronto.

So what kind of influence foes this have on the way people dress? Off the top of my head right now I can think of at least ten of my male friends who all dress exactly the same. Though it's kind of funny, I have to ask myself why this happens. What is it about these people that makes them all dress and act in similar ways?

As I walk down the crowded downtown streets of Toronto I look around at a sea of skinny jeans, cardigans and, now that it's winter, pea coats, and scarves, I wonder what's coming next and what all of these same people will be wearing five years from now.  

Until then!

V

Fashiongasms and Epiphanies: TO in the Wintertime

Anyone who knows me personally, knows that my day job is none other than coffee shop barista. It is the accepted fate of any artist, that they should find some other method of paying the bills and maintaining their fabulous artist lifestyles while they toil away at their often fruitless, but always satisfying creative outlet of choice. I like my job if for nothing other than the ever present opportunity to meet all kinds of people from all different walks of life. Especially working on King Street West on the doorstep of the fashion district, some of our clientele are nothing short of magazine worthy in their perfectly put together outfits.

Both at work and in everyday life here in Toronto, I see all kinds of fantastic and unique details on garments and in all the many ways people dress themselves up. For example, I recall a streetcar ride eastbound on St. Clair Ave, approaching Avenue Rd where that big, beautiful old apartment building is with the park and the vines and stuff. It's raining outside and I look over and there's a man wearing a long black duster coat down to his knees, and his head is mostly covered by the giant, oversized gold and black umbrella he's holding to shield himself from the falling elements. The image with all the colours and the rain and the brevity of the encounter was so striking that it burned itself into my mind and has existed ever since as an image I someday hope to recreate with a camera, or a canvas.

Twice today I got ideas for the womens line of Spring jackets which will follow the mens, (construction will be underway beginning in February 2012) from women I saw on subway. I decided to go thrift store shopping for boots (I ended up getting two of the most fantastic pairs of boots ever, one is brown suede, thigh high with two zippers and buckles and the other is shorties with a little heal and a basket weave pattern in leather around the ankle. LOVE.) so I got on the Bloor line eastbound. The first woman I watched for a little while, trying to figure out a way to photograph her coat without her thinking I was a creep. I failed. It was black wool, but around the shoulders, elbows and in some areas of the front panels, there were darker black, textured appliques in random fluid forms. It was really stunning the way it was done and I immediately noted to myself in my phone to remind me to write about the experience in this post. The second girl I only saw for a second because she got on at the stop just before I got off and was a few feet away from me standing by the door. Her jacket was a simple double breasted fit and flare wool coat, but the sleeves were what were particularly intriguing. Mid forearm, I'd say about 5 inches from the wrist, began a 60 degree angled flare with six little buttons on the bottom side. Not 17^th century obnoxiously or anything, but there was a little tiny bit of lace ruffling just at the cuff as well, giving it this fantastic Little Women, turn of the century feeling to a relatively modern looking coat. I just had to make note of it.

I've been working a ton lately, getting full time hours and all, which is fantastic for my bank account, but not so much for the personal life or the artistic life I love so dearly. Last week for example I spent six straight days doing basically nothing but sleep and work. However, in my down time I was preparing for today when I would make the finalized pattern for the next item in my personal Petey the Troll collection of jackets and coats for Men.

Trench coat!!!! This has been the only thing on my mind all week. I managed to complete the patterns for my wedding dress commissions on my last day off, so I have nothing but my sexy trench to think about today. It's a lightweight medium grey wool with two defining linings; one plain black polyester and the other a black, white, yellow plaid I've used in previous Petey collections. There are front and back storm flaps, two side pockets and two inside pockets, 10 front buttons and countless other buttons scatter throughout.

I'm off now to put the rest of it together and I'll be posting photographs to my Twitter account as well as my Facebook all day!  

Thanks for reading!

V

Pea Coat versus Blazer and the Progression of Petey the Troll

Heyy thar, interested parties and people who like clothes.

I've got a couple days off at the beginning of this week as a result of a client meeting this evening about a couple of wedding dresses. The bride is coming to have her measurements taken and to approve the sketches and fabric swatches I've chosen for both her actual wedding ceremony gown and her reception party dress. I'm also making the bridesmaids dresses for this occasion, but those will be discussed in further detail at a later date. If she agrees and likes my design, I'll come back and tell you all about it, but until then, it must remain a mystery to all those but the seamstress and her client (and Josh, who was probably sitting next to me while I was sketching...ahem.)

I like timelines. I like schedules and having a plan for every hour and every day and I like knowing way in advanced to be organized. I never was a fan of surprise occasions, unless they are a planned surprise. You betcha I've planned this hour of the day to sit down and write a blog after hitting the pipe a few unglamourous times on this lovely Monday afternoon. I've got two hours until I meet with my client so let's get into it.

This week has been a strange one. Drama at work, drama with friends, and feeling my winter urge to redirect my thoughts inward, has caused for some sad nights, feeling defeated and hopeless, as we all do, from time to time. One of the more positive results of these feelings is that I tend to dive into my mind, and find energy that I didn't know existed in an effort to create with originality and efficiency. For example, I spent two weeks preparing a pattern, looking for fabric and drawing sketches for a pea coat I was making for Josh. I went the whole nine yards with this one. I started with a basic pattern for a men's blazer, from which all other jacket patterns can be made (with a little skill and a lot of knowledge about the construction of clothing and the shape of the human body). I then altered the pieces of the pattern in order to achieve a different end result in terms of the style of jacket.

How does one turn a blazer into a pea coat?

Back up. What IS a pea coat? What is a blazer? Which pieces have to be altered in order to make the necessary changes?

A pea coat is a double breasted style jacket, designed for sailors in the British Navy during the Victorian era. Originally, it would have only been found in navy blue, and would have been longer than the typical styles we see in fashion today. The end result of Josh's coat was going to include wrist belts, inseam pockets, epaulettes, a partial waistband and an oversized collar. The colour we chose was black, and the inner lining is the most wicked colour cream when it's up against the black. The buttons are gold, it's just awesome. I digress.

The pattern I had to start with was a blazer pattern, so what's a blazer? The word blazer is used commonly to cover a lot of variations of the same sort of jacket. It's single breasted, usually has patch pockets, and vents and is usually seen as part of a suit, or as a uniform item. The style became popular as a result of it's use in school uniforms at establishments such as Oxford in England, or Harvard in the United States.

In order to change this pattern into a completely different coat I had to change almost everything. I shortened it, I straightened the seams, took out the back vents and added the waistband, completely changed the front panels from single breasted and symmetrical to double breasted and entirely asymmetrical. Then I invented my own collar and added the wrist belts, inseam pockets and epaulettes to get exactly what I wanted.

When I got the fabric I cut it out, and then went into the sewing room for eight straight hours to come out with a completely finished coat. It's my most recent masterpiece, mostly because I was surprised at how well the construction and creation of it actually went. It reassured my confidence in myself as a seamstress. :)

Next up in my menswear line is a trench coat. I've got a couple of dudes in mind for whom I'd like to make this trench coat, but if you'd like it to be you because you always really wanted a trench coat or something, than hit me up!! (Now, I'm talking like, Burberry Brit style trench here, not like, scary oversized goth shit or anything... fyi.)

One of Petey the Troll's trademark behaviours back in the day, was to choose individuals we know, male and female, who have a look or a style that we dig and that we think would fit our clothes. Then we use that person as the inspiration for the garment we happen to be working on and make it to their measurements as a prototype for the finished collection. All I ask of these chosen individuals is that they let me photograph them in the garment and use the pictures for our website, this blog, promotion, portfolios, etc etc. If they want to keep the garment afterwards, they could get it at the cost of materials only instead of paying full price like everyone else! Get it?

So if you're interested, or know someone who might be, email me! I can't guarentee 100% that you'll be chosen, but at least I'll know you're down.

You can get me at vanessapetey@gmail.com or on my Facebook if you happen to be a friend.

See you soon, thanks!!

Winter Coats and Menswear – It's Working Time

<-----Horrid

It's MoMo-vember and it's beginning to get chilly underneath all of those horrid trucker moustaches here in Toronto. Costume season is over and the holidays are on their way and winter's mean-ice-pellets-to-face winds are causing the widespread need for people to layer up their clothing and find this year's winter coat to keep them warm and safe in the skyscraper-lined wind tunnels we call downtown.

Winter can sometimes be quite the interesting time for fashion, though, providing new challenges and opportunities to be both stylish and trendy, but also functional and warm at the same time. I can hear my father saying “What does it matter whatcha look like so long as you're prepared for the weather!” Oh, daddy.

I currently have two major projects underway both heading in a fantastic direction, but both being a lot of work ahead of me. The first is the wedding I may have mentioned in this blog before, the very last wedding I will be taking on for some time. She's been a client of mine for about 6 months now and she's consistently been an avid admirer of my work with Petey the Troll and Petey Couture, in such a flattering way that I hardly want to charge her at all. At this time we're still in the design stage of the four dresses (including the wedding gown, yes yes!) and I've been making sketches and technical sketches and searching for fabric swatches etc. The fact that this bride is so open to my ideas and allowing me to use my own creativity to produce her dresses will definitely produce a better result than previous work I've done under Petey Couture where the bridesmaids were weirdly specific about the styles, colours and fabrics I used in the construction. After all *ahem* I am an artist.

The second project is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and is something I've been working on getting going for months now: Petey the Troll Menswear Spring 2012. I'm expecting to be finished this February 2012 with the design, construction, photography and accessibility of this line. Part of my plan for the presentation of the line is an old school photo shoot like Meaghan and I used to do in the old days with WetFresco and yes, I'll be looking for models. (I've actually kind of been thinking about it for a while and have like half the guys picked for who I want involved in this project... it's not creepy, it's pro-active.

So now that the updates are out of the way, let's talk men's jackets. Of the previously mentioned collection, I've completed, thus far, only one jacket for a friend of mine. This particular friend is a lot of fun to dress, and we'd discussed elements of design on several occasions. He inspired my design for a grey, fitted wool blazer with a iridescent blue, brown and orange, paisley printed, polyester lining. The key elements of the jacket include front flap pockets, two bottons, with small detailing in black lace on the two front side seams of the garment. This was an idea brought to me by the friend in question, who challenged me to find a way to include lace on a man's jacket which would still be tasteful and not too feminine. He loved what I came up with and I decided that this would be the first piece in this new collection. The theme is new ideas and new beginnings.

I've just finished the details on the pattern for the next jacket in the collection: a pea coat for Josh, my favourite man in the whole world to dress. Black solid wool, cream, poly lining, with 8 front buttons, an oversized tailored collar, two princess seam insert pockets, epaulettes, and sleeve and mid back belts. It's really well fitted and he's skinny as hell, so it looks pretty much amazing. The buttons are small and brass and are not overstated. The secret comes when he undoes his jacket to reveal the glowing cream coloured interior with the inside breast pocket. It's fancy, and I'm pretty excited.

My challenge for myself with this collection is to create 6-10 jackets of different staple jacket and coat styles with my own variations and versions interjected throughout. Stay tuned to read more about the construction of this pea coat I am working on as the second piece for the final collection, as well as further information on the history of the pea coat and the remaining styles I will choose for the completion of the collection by this February, 2011. 

Trends and Thoughts on Spring Ready to Wear 2012

I've always had an appreciation for the sequential composition of the international fashion weeks which, appear periodically to show the world what hundreds of thousands of dedicated designers, artists, seamstresses have come up with in six months.  I like that New York's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week comes first in the presentations of the really big fashion centers of the world.  It starts it with a bang and reminds everyone in the world that it is indeed fashion week.  Following them are London and Milan, both absolutely unique and fantastic in their own ways.  They feature some of the biggest names in the industry from Burberry Prorsum to Georio Armani and all the while, the spectators know that the best is only yet to come.  Paris, the undisputed fashion capital of the world is the last of the giants.  Anyone who's anyone in the industry is in Paris at this point.  It's like, maybe you can only get away from your fancy job in LA for one week so you have to choose which of the heavyweights to attend.  Paris is always the one.  Nothing beats Parisian fashion and everyone knows it.
     This season thus far has had significantly less drama than those of the recent past.  No major deaths this season or firings of highly respected and then disgraced fashion icons.  Just beautiful clothes reflecting a few major trends that seem to be dominating the runways on an international scale.


Back to Basics
Women these days in North America find themselves in a peculiar setting in which economic times are hard, budgeting is key and frivolity is limited.  These major designers have identified this key aspect in the way women are dressing themselves and have both figuratively and literally weaved it into their collections.  One identifiable aspect of this trend is the use of knitting and crocheting, an ancient handy craft which, until recently, has been seen as something only your grandmother spent her time doing.  Thanks to the creative, resourceful new generation of young twenty-somethings, it's actually become all the rage.
Examples of this trend can be seen throughout the collections of Burberry Prorsum, Prada and in Vivienne Westwood's Red Label.

Defining Ostentation 
On the opposing end of the above theory, is the overly decorative and highly luxurious clothes being produced mainly in Italy.  These two trends usually coincide as a result of two types of reactions to the same situation.  Some women want to get back to hand crafted, earth friendly clothing, while others want to prove that the state of the economy and the world itself could not touch their high social standing and indeed, their pocket books.  Why not wear a dress completely covered in jewels or strips of gold like in the Dolce and Gabbana or Roberto Cavalli shows?  That'll show 'em how fancy we are.


Classic Femininity vs. Androgyny
Every season has its own version of this dichotomy of clothing styles which, occur throughout every collection in some form or another.  After Alexander McQueen brought back the big pointy shoulders for women, the power suit look has come back and women are now in some cases wearing clothes that were specifically designed and cut for men.  On the antithesis is the typical Christian Dior Woman, hourglass shape which is still quite prominent across the fashion board.  Flared skirt, fitted dresses with over-sized prints and feminine shoulder and necklines, the likes of which could be found in Betty Draper's closet, are still quite present and relevant.

Overall, it's obvious that duality of style, tone and overall concepts in fashion are the real theme this season.
By this point, Paris Fashion Week is underway and the collections are coming out every day this week.  Once they're all done (and I've settled in my new fab apartment!!) I'll be posting a summary of the most influential Paris shows and my thoughts on the overall season.

Thanks for reading!!

     

Moving Along...

I just sat down here with this laptop to scribble out an update blog about Petey the Troll Apparel and my solo work as a costume maker/ wedding stylist / tortured, over-worked-under-paid seamstress.  When I logged into the blog site I use, it looked completely different than the last time I posted something.  New features, new design and the stats of all of my previous blog posts right there on the front page.  Genius.  So after I get over the initial "shit, it must have been a while since I posed anything if the entire interface is completely different" shock... and then take a look and the stats for my last post with this particular blog.  I was ashamed and sad to realize that my last post was almost two months ago. :( 
     I have several excuses, most of which have to do with work and searching endlessly for the perfect apartment to fit myself, my boyfriend, Meaghan, and our three unruly, yet lovable cats.  Not to mention an industrial sewing machine, a closet full of fabric and an unfortunate amount of shoes between the three of us sad fashion victims.  The search has not been easy and has admittedly taken up the majority of my time over the past few weeks.   
     Additionally, I've spent almost the entire summer working on dress commissions from a variety of clients (some absolutely delightful, others...not so much...) which I've found less than likable and have decided to stop doing altogether.  I have one remaining client to whom I promised bridesmaid dresses a while ago... so I'm doing this one last project, but will no longer be taking dress commissions hence forth, unless it is a personal favor for a friend or another exception as such. 
    What I've decided to do instead is look deeply into the study of the creation, construction and design of jackets and coats.  Over the next couple of months (among a plethora of fashion show review posts ;) I will start writing more often about the goings on with Petey the Troll Apparel as we crawl out of our woes and start working again.  Specifically, I'm going to start blogging about the history of some styles of jackets and coats as we know them today, and discuss my thoughts about jacket design in both mens and womensware in fashion.  I'm pretty excited. :)


So there it is, my apology and my update all in one go, hoping desperately that you'll still read what I have to say, 
Yours always, 


Vanessa Petey Hughes

The Difference Between Art and Imitation in Fashion as Presented by the House of Christian Dior

Alright so straight up I might say some bold things right now so agree with me or don't agree with me, whatever. I recently had the pleasure of viewing the latest Christian Dior Haute Couture collection by Bill

Gaytten. For those of you who are unaware of the current situation at the House of Dior.... a few months ago there was a disastrous occurance involving the House's Creative Director and most valuable creative asset to the company - the now infamous John Galliano. Everyone remembers his horrible racist rant which effectively ended his career and caused irreparable humiliation for the Galliano and the House of Dior alike. His rather public dismissal from his position with the company was devastating mainly because of the undeniable and highly enviable talent of John Galliano as a fashion designer. He has since been involved in countless trials and hassels as a result of his blatantly despicable behavior, and his position at the House of Dior has of course,

been filled.

Bill Gaytten, the newly appointed Creative Director worked under the master himself for

more than a decade prior to the incidents which occurred this past February. He was one of his

most intimate confidants and facilitators and he understood the way that Galliano worked better than anyone else. He was

the clear choice for the position. Think back to when Leigh McQueen died in 2010 and he was replaced by his assistant, Sarah Burton, whose collection ended up being so staggeringly good that she was envied for her ability to continue the McQueen tradition with her own personal spin on it. Gaytten was I think meant to try and replicate this situation, but has unfortunately come

off much less than adequate in comparison to either Galliano or Sarah Burton herself.

Part of the reason I went into fashion design and became so enamored with the fashion industry was John Galliano. I can still identify key features in many of his most eye popping collections with Christian Dior as well as with his own self-titled label. I was such an enormously huge fan of his. Very few other designers have had the ability to actually make me cry while witnessing the absolute beauty he was able to accomplish with clothing. His dismissal from Diorand the whole scandall in general hit me pretty hard. Every collection Petey the Troll has ever done has been influenced by his techniques and contributions to the ongoing dialogue about fashion and glamour. The collection is presented in three parts. First we have the cocktail dresses and skirt-top combos, all presented with a clear attempt at high drama in the manner of John Galliano. The silhouettes were almost exactly the same as in some of the most recent Dior collections, featuring that famous "Dior Woman" look from the late 40s that John used so frequently. The patterned fabrics were just way too bold and over the top and the colour choices were frankly somewhat lack luster. The second section was horrifying. The models wearing theflowy full length chiffon dresses with the wild hair were just outrageous. Who said that was okay for them to look like that out on stage?? As they walk by they swoosh their arms about in a manner not uncommon to that of Morticia Addams or Lily Munster. Weird. The last bit with the ball gowns is where the real Couture comes out. I personally would have been much happier if the show consisted of nothing but these types of dresses and drop all the other garbage.

Not to say that most of these dresses aren't unnecessarily over the top. They come off more

as amateur art pieces than Christian Dior Couture gowns. The last one however, did have my

eye glued to the screen for the duration of her walk from thew beginning to the end of the runway. The choice of fabric and colour makes her look like an architectural masterpiece - perhaps the only win in the collection. Butttttt then the end comes and this suggestion is promptly ruined by the director's choice to have her standing at the back of the stage like a weird statue of liberty or something while the designers come out and wave their little hands. It

looked forced, it looked like they were trying to do something epic with something that just wasn't going to be epic.

He had the key elements. He had the drama and the high contrast and the variety of fabrics and the typical Galliano style show going on with the beginning, middle and end, but in my humble opinion Gaytten was lacking one main thing in his collection. Where is the beauty?? Where is the elegance and grace of the Dior woman?? The Dior woman is supposed to have class and be the most beautiful woman in the room wearing the most beautifully constructed and

created clothing. Gaytten missed the boat on that one I think.

Thanks that was my rant about Christian Dior. See you soon!!

Solved Mysteries of Dressmaking by Vanessa Petey

Holla!

It's been amazing not being in school anymore. I've had time to spend on small details of my commissions and have started thinking about a lot of new endeavours regarding Petey and where we should pick up after that horrifying 6 month hiatus. I watched Coco Avant Chanel today to try and get some inspiration, and I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

I recently posted a bunch of photographs of the progression of a prom dress I'm working on on

Facebook for interested parties to see. I got a lot of positive responses because I have fantastic friends, but truly, this dress has gone from being something I had to rush through because I

was i

n school and short on time - to one of the best pieces I've ever made and something I'm really proud of (and hallelujah if it fits...)

One of my friends, a fantastic woman I met when I worked at Fabricland years ago, and also a wonderful seamstress and artist herself, comments regularly on my work. Although every comment I

ever get on anything are so greatly appreciated, it's different when the comment is coming from

someone who knows the trade and could see the flaws that the untrained eye would likely miss. I

thanked her on Facebook, with a little wall post, and added that I continued to use her zipper trick on all zippers I'm installing, with the exception of the invisible zipper. Her response was lovely and on the end she

attached that even she was perplexed by the installation of an invisible zipper.

First I just was going to message her with a step by step guide to installing one from my own experience, but then I thought - WAIT. I have a blog for this kind of thing.

So here we are.

How to Install an Invisible

Zipper - By Vanessa Petey

1) from the hem of the fabric up to the zipper notch, stitch. backstitch.

2) open the zipper and match the top closure of the zipper to the top edge of the fabric. the outside edge of the zipper should be level with the edge of the fabric to the notch with the teeth of the zipper facing inward.

3) baste stitch near the edge of the zipper with regular sewing machine foot. sew the entire length of the zipper down to just past the zipper notch where the two fabrics meet.

-when the foot reaches the slider of the zipper, leave the needle down in the machine and raise the foot. slide the zipper closed and continue

4) do the same to the other side, making sure to match the tops of the zipper sides.

5) switch

to a zipper foot on the machine (an invisible zipper foot is good too... and some seamstresses will swear they never use anything else for an invisible

zipper, but I much prefer my method, so take your pick.)

6) press apart the teeth from the tape of the zipper and lower the zipper foot as close as possible to the teeth. sew down from the top repeating the method of moving the slider with the machine stopped and the needle down.

7) when the machine reaches the bottom of the zipper, simply veer the stitch off of the edge of the fabric leaving a tail.

8) repeat for the other side of the zipper

Done!

I actually find it more simple than any other sort of zipper in dresses, to be honest.

So anyways that's what i thought I'd explain today, so if you're a sewer, you might have found it interesting... if not... well... see ya next time with something less painfully boring.

LOVE!

- V