Beginning of my blog

I love Comme des Garcons, among many other things, but I'll go into that in other blogs.
  
Comme des Garcons is not restricted by fashion trends and I like that.  One could even consider CdG collections to have a hint of the anti-fashion about them and I like that as well.  Maybe Kawakubo is so ahead of the pack, she is not racing against the others.  But, in following seasons, other designers will be delivering CdG influences in their new collections.   The influence may be toned down, but it’s there.  Kawakubo will even tone down some of her RTW collection designs.   Cool and very “wearable” t-shirts and skirts are always produced following each collection, which are highly inspirational and fun to work with, on my own terms.  It may be way out silhouettes or putting together colours & patterns of fabrics previously considered no go.  One of the biggest buzzes regard Kawakubo is, don't be restricted by the rules.

 Let’s face it, I can’t always afford CdG creations and in some ways I don’t want to, ‘cos I love to create for myself…..who’s at home sewing (anyone remember that catch phrase from the Seventeen magazine of decades ago?).

Well, I am and I thrive on it!  I have made a style for myself which is inspired by many but, nowadays  Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons is right up there.

So, I want to share my creative and curious approach to life, which tends to be connected to a sewing machine. Maybe, you will share creations and curiosities with me, especially if it is a shared passion for CdG, and how you incorporate her style into your life using a sewing machine.

I love this image, you may have seen it before.  It is the work of an innovative Japanese clothes designer called Yoshikazu Yamagata.  Sometimes he collaborates with a wonderful knitting artist called Mafuyu Murakami.  Together they worked on a very inspirational series of knitted houses, maybe Mafuyu assisted with the knit work involved in this Village Girl piece.  It is a very cool image, and the little story is particularly appealing to me.  I relate with this village girl, attraction to the city, always creating clothes for herself and in an attempt to get clothes she has no access to, she creates them herself.
It is exciting to imagine a story that can connect with what we create and wear, often the story isn't imagination, it's reality, memory, that sort of thing.

This was my homage to CdG's Fall 2012 RTW collection.  This collection was quite astounding.  Working in felt Kawakubo, with the help of her extremely talented pattern makers (more of that skill in another blog),created wonderfully structured coats and dresses.  My creation started with the fabric i spotted in The Fabric Warehouse.  The flower pattern reflects the coat on the right, the brown and pink colours are me and the cut is inspired by the coat on the left.  It was a matter of playing around with huge inside out french seams. .  Terrible photo I know, flashlight in the mirror to record the image.  And the shoes, sale price somewhere, but they had that CdG style for me.
 Here is a great image from the work of Bill Cunningham, showing his fab shots of New York women wearing originals from that collection.  Aren't they wonderful.  By the way, there is a wonderful film documentary about Bill Cunningham's life and work. I found it quite moving, especially when he was responding to questions about his religious faith.

This is my play with CdG's extroverted applied embellishments.  I am on a big drive to use up as much of my collected fabrics as possible.  I've been working on this for a few years now.  I was having no great ideas for this dotted knit fabric, but then thought hey try a t-shirt with these applied roses.  CdG had raw edges on some of their ones, but I needed a bit more strength and stability so I folded the strips of fabric in half and stitched them on.  CdG used a very clever technique of cutting the first strips from the actual garment and winding them around.

The image just above here, is from a cool web site called The Cutting Class.  It is worth a visit and worth subscribing to.  They pass on heaps of great information and tips for those of us interested in such curiosities and creations.  And maybe that's a good note for me to end this beginning blog on!  What a gestation and what fun!