In Honor of Black History Month

February can't go by without me giving homage to Black fashion designers.  Each ethnic group, culture, and race has distinctive styles in food, music, beliefs and clothing styles.  African Americans have contributed a lot towards fashion, whether it be in expressing themselves as individuals or collectively, and also as fashion designers.   We've always had a unique sense of style which others have emulated.

An example of the unique sense of style is the zoot suit.  Popularized in the Harlem jazz culture (in the mid 1930's), this suit was extravagant.  The jacket length ended below the hips, the collar was wide, the shoulders were over padded.  The pants were very wide and baggy with a very narrow hem.  There's a story that the very first zoot suit was purchased by a Black bus worker who, wanting to dress like Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind", had it made in a tailor shop in Gainsville, Georgia.  This isn't confirmed to be true, but it's a bit comical.

One of the first successful African American fashion designers was Arthur McGee.  He was born in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan.  His mother was a great sewer, and this influenced him to make clothes as well.  In 1951, at the age of 18, he entered a design contest at the Traphagen School of Design and won a scholarship to attend the same school.  Arthur later studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, worked in the industry and was the first of African American descent to oversee Bobby Brooks (an established Seventh Avenue clothing company).

 Patrick Kelly, a designer from my teen years, was born in 1954 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  At the age of 6 he showed an interest in fashion.  Patrick taught himself to sew and made dresses for the girls in the neighborhood.  While in high school, he decorated department store windows.  Dropping out of university after two years of studying art history, he moved to Atlanta and worked for the Yves Saint Laurent boutique.  Patrick later ended up in New York, studied at Parson's School of Design, moved to Paris, sold his designs on the street, and his clothing became popular.  A Paris boutique hired him, and one year later, Patrick started his own clothing company.  Sadly, he died in 1990 from AIDS.

The list of African American fashion designers is a long one.  Shaka King, Tracey Reese, B. Michael, Stephen Burrows, Roger Gary, Douglas Says, Sixxfoota, Jeffrey Banks, are just a few of the names.  When you have time, google them to see their particular design esthetic.

Till next blog!

  
green zoot suit - www.dallasvintageshop.com
Arthur McGee - www.lookonline.com
Patrick Kelly with models - www.showstudio.com
lady in dress - www.nyu.edu

Dresses Throughout The Ages...

Women's dresses have changed so much from the past centuries to now, the 21st century.  Drastic changes were made from the going out of the 19th century and into the 20th century.  I guess the changes were made once women were considered "persons" in the 1920's (which I learned, to my horror, while helping my daughter study for a history test), and they took the opportunity to show their liberation through clothing.  So we weren't human prior to that?

I love period movies.  I love to see what elaborate clothing the middle class and the rich wore in the past centuries.  I love the dresses that made a lady look like a lady.  I'm also very curious as to how long it took to make one of the elaborate dresses with yards of fabric, trim, ruffles, buttons and whatever other details were necessary to complete the elaborate task.  One had to really love designing and sewing then...

There was not too much difference between 18th century and 19th century dresses.  Women were well covered.  I try to imagine wearing such clothing in the summer heat, and I start to hyperventilate.  While I appreciate the work and intricacy of past era dresses,  I appreciate modern dress for women even more; more freedom of movement, more air can circulate, no corsets.

18th century 

19th century

                                                                                                                                

                                      20th century:  1980's

                                           21st century:  2008

I had to add  pictures of one of my favorite decades, the 1980's.   Nothing is as influential as what was heard, what was seen, and what was worn from one's childhood and teen years, at least I think so.  I remember my red denim jacket, an aqua tiered and ruffled mini skirt with white lace at the hem and at each horizontal seam, my grey leather moon boots which reached mid-calf, just to name a few of my valued pieces then.  If there was a time machine that really could transport people back to certain times, I would go back to the 1980's for a week, or two...

Fashion has always been a journey, hasn't it fellow fashionistas?  Till next blog!

18th century dress: www.sodahead.com
green dress: www.totalvintage.com
black dress: www.sharplily.com

SK Clothes Fall/Winter Collection 2009 - 10

Today is a bitterly cold day in Ontario, at least in my city.  That's given me more incentive to stay inside and do some sewing this past week.  Sometimes it's hard for me to stay indoors and do what I have to do. 

I'm almost finished my fall/winter 2009-10 small collection of clothing.  I sure took my time; December was a month that distracted me and I'm not talking about Christmas.  A few not too pleasant things happened  that took away my concentration, but I'm back in action now!

 Anyway, I'm getting there, only two more pieces to complete.  My collection in total is five pieces of clothing; a skirt, a shirt, one blouse, one sweater and one pant that can be mixed and matched.  Here are my three pieces completed (one you've seen already):

 

  

The brown blouse is made of a fake suede fabric with sleeves and collar in ivory polyester.  The pinstriped shirt, which I posted a couple of weeks ago in my blog, has a braided collar, braided detail on the sleeves with pleated cuffs, all of a contrasting pinstriped fabric ( this shirt was made from two mens' shirts).  The skirt is a taupe texturized cotton mix fabric with  welt pockets and a pleated and flared hemline.  Also there's a photo of the SK Clothes sak I made in late summer.  This one is made of two contrasting fabrics, denim and a brown and blue checked polyester mix. 

I thank my model, my daughter, for modelling for me.  She'll pose for stills, but she dislikes modelling for videos; I tend to redo the videos over for quite a while until I think it's perfect.

Hopefully, I'll have completed the pant and the sweater by the end of next week and can post them.  Then it will be time to start the SK Clothes spring/summer collection for 2010.  Cross your fingers that I complete the spring/summer collection within two months!  It will be a small one made up of five to seven pieces.  Till next blog!

 

Love the Tops for Spring 2010

Are you ready for spring?  I definately am.   I'm a spring and fall girl.  Too bad spring didn't last for four months instead of three...  I love to think ahead of time what I'll be wearing once the snow melts.

 Blouses are one of my favorite pieces of clothing.  Actually, I think it's my favorite piece.  While researching the women's tops for spring 2010, I found that the styles haven't changed too much from blouse styles for spring 2009.  Why change a good thing?  Many top designers are bringing 2009 blouse styling  into 2010.

www.thefind.com

                                                          

What's the forecast for women's tops for spring 2010?  Well, any blouse that makes a lady look like a lady.   When shopping, look for ruffles in a shirt or blouse.  Office shirts are less tailored,  giving the shirts femininity.  Tunics and tunic style blouses, one of my favorite styles, are definately a must.  Colors in 2010 tops are not limited.  Look for lots of colors, whites,  neutrals, as well as floral and other prints.

Lole Sympatic, www.zappos.com

 Newport News, www.bizrate.com   

                                                                        
I can't wait to shop and make a few of these blouses for myself.   Till next blog!  

A New Shirt from Old

One of my bohemian blouses I made about three years ago was made from a peasant skirt someone gave me for a Christmas gift.  I appreciate the gift, but the very volumous skirt made me look larger than I am already, so I didn't wear if often.  Instead of giving it away, it came to me to recreate it into something I would wear since the skirt had so much fabric.  This was the start of my recycling fabric.

It's fun to change a piece of clothing into something else.  It's also an inexpensive way to get a new wardrobe, if you're handy at sewing.  It's also a way of participating in the green movement.

This past week I completed two of a few projects I'm working on, one, an original women's shirt, and two, the second attempt at making my daughter's "sweety" bag design with improvements.

 The shirt was made from two men's large shirts.  One, the brown stripe, made the torso and sleeves of the shirt.  The peach striped shirt made the braided collar, the yolk at the shoulders, and the pleated cuffs with braid detail.

 The "Sweety" bag was made from my old brown jacket I had sewn years ago and a paisley print silk shirt.  It's lined with the paisley silk as well.  It's quite attractive!

I'll be talking more about used clothing being re-invented by local fashion designers in future blogs.  If something is cost effective, I'm definately in approval.

Till next blog!

Unusual Inspiration for Dress Design

Last December, I had lacked inspiration.  I was wondering what would inspire me to make new designs.  Guess what?  I was watching bits of football games on television near the end of December, and very impressed with the color combinations used for the football teams uniforms: sky blue and navy blue, black and gold, blue and yellow, cherry red, white and black.    I didn't seem to notice last year. 

I know I wouldn't wear certain color combinations myself.  I started to wonder how to combine certain colors in a flattering way in dresses and blouses for women that even I would wear myself.   Based on the  color combinations mentioned as well as others, I sketched some dress designs for 2010.   For instance, this football team's uniform colors (Washington football team)

                                              www.google.com

 turned into this:  

                                                SK Clothes  
Hopefully I haven't offended any men, if any read my blog.   The colors are what inspired me.  I respect the sport of football.  

I encourage you to let inspiration make your 2010 fantastic.

Till next blog!

 line sketch: SK Clothes

2010, A New Beginning!

Happy New Year!  2010 is here!  The beginning of the year holds promise because it's a beginning.  We all want to start afresh, fix mistakes we've made, lose weight, get a new job, renew that broken relationship in our lives, go back to school, etc.  I'd like to lose weight(again), show more of my designs on my blog, move my business forward by selling my clothes to boutiques and stores, meet more people with years of business experience, and of course, help others . There's more on my list, but it would take some time to name them all.

I took my teens and their friend and my mother to a New Year's Eve concert at a church.  We had a fantastic time!  What did I wear?  Not a dress, as I would have liked, but black pants, dress boots, a burgundy jacket and a lilac t-shirt.  Yes, lilac and burgundy!  It didn't look too bad....  I didn't even watch what the women were wearing, well, I did see a fantastic 3/4 length coat with an alternating black and silver diamond print.  Couldn't get more detail; I just saw the back of the lady and the coat.


 In reference to my previous blog Choose Your Dress, I would choose the brown dress to go to a concert, and I would choose the print dress with the black cloth waist tie to dinner at a friend's home.  Out of all four dresses, I think my favorite is the brown dress.  I love the length, the 3/4 sleeve with ruffles at the cuff, and the neckline.  Of course, I may choose a new favorite dress next week.  Depends on one's mood.  Here is another dress I would love to wear:

As I was surfing the web, I came across a gorgeous wedding gown.  It is strapless and the skirt of the gown is beautifully draped diagonally.  The bodice from the neckline to the hips is rouched.  I have to say that it's time for wedding gowns with straps and sleeves to be promoted.  We've been over run by the strapless gown a bit too much.  I 

like to see variety. 

My friend Paulina has a clothing business called La Couturier.  She designs and sews custom made clothing for customers such as dresses, jackets, suits, pants, and gowns for weddings and special occasions.  You name it, she makes it.  Check her promotion video (it's a casual video) on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adu55FUlS7A&feature=related 

Till next blog!

Christmas cactus flower:  by cygnus921 www.flickr.com
Brown and black print dress:  by New French Connection www.eBay.com
Wedding dress: by Angelina Faccenda www.bestforbride.com