Culture Shock

I'm an Iowa girl and until I moved away, I didn't realize the pride that I have about my roots.  It was great to get home for an extended break from school but it was also like culture shock returning to the Midwest.

The good kind of culture shock - homemade Christmas cookies.  Hoo boy.  Feel the love.

The bad kind of culture shock.  Fashion at the local Fareway.  Can you read her hat?  It says "Flirt."

Video games with shotguns - haven't seen that in NY yet.  Playing Buck Hunter at the small town Collins bar with Chuck.  Love the price of drinks (free that night!) 

I was startled by clucking noise in the dark as I walked into my Great Aunt Betty's house.  Her rooster was sitting on the porch hanging out.  Betty told us he has walked into the house before to get out of the cold.  Smart bird.  But the dogs weren't happy about it and Betty had to rescue him from the dogs!  I petted the rooster and was surprised at how soft the feathers were.  Perhaps more feathers in my future designs...  Iowa inspiration.

It was good to be home again.  

 

Wheeling to Hyde Park

1/1/2010-1/2/2010
I had a fantastic deep tissue massage that really helped my sore neck.  I've had pain for months and the typical sewing posture certainly didn't help!  I felt relaxed and stretched out after the massage. 

I also tried out a facial and learned I don't like them.  I knew to expect stuff on my face of course, but there was a humidifier that blew steam right at me and that made me feel like I was suffocating.  Then every time the girl smeared creams and gels on my face, when she ran her hand under my nose I felt like I was going to drown in the stuff.  Not that she was getting it up my nose or anything, but it was still uncomfortable for me.  Another step was when she massaged lotion into my hands, covered them with plastic bags and heated mitts, and then left aloe serum on my face for 15 minutes of relaxation time.  So, I'm covered with stuff, feel like I'm suffocating, my eyes are covered, and my hands are bound.  Umm... I'm sure it's supposed to feel great, but obviously not my thing! 

Friday night was great - completely opposite of the Alinea meal.  We walked around downtown to get supper. 

Chicago dogs hit the spot after all the intense flavors the night before.  Then we had hot chocolate drinks at the Ghiradelli store that faces the giant HERSHEY store across the street.  Prime chocolate real estate apparently!

 

Outside the pub next to the hot dog shop.  No one wastes a beer like that - you can tell it's frozen in place!

Saturday we met my sister Carissa and bro in law Brian in Wheeling for lunch.  It was fun to see them and see the northern part of Chicago on our way although we did take the scenic route accidentally.

The lake from Lake Shore Drive.  I was surprised the ice chunks were moving so much - strong winds made for waves and white caps.  The view was so icy cold, it made me shiver just looking at it.

Then we headed to Chinatown to pick up some fresh crab and lobster to take home.  They had to chill in the hotel tub for a while.  I feel for the cleaning staff that probably got quite a shock when they entered the bathroom!

Saturday night we got to enjoy Mediterranean food at Cedars restaurant in Hyde Park with our friend Amir.  His parents own the place so we got to sample all the best.  It was great to catch up with him and he even drove us by Obama's house which was a couple blocks away.  There was a For Sale sign in the lot so I asked why - Amir said the next door neighbor thinks he can get a great price now since it's next to the Obamas! 

Taste of the New Year

12/31/2009-1/1/2010
Happy New Year, Happy New Decade!

My vacation within a vacation - during the winterim break from school, I went to Chicago for a fun getaway over New Year's weekend.  It was frigid outside and the windy city lived up to its reputation.  We had a weekend that was best spent inside.  Luckily the eating, shopping and spa services were indoors and warm.

For New Year's Eve, I got a wonderful treat.  Alinea is a top rated restaurant and we had reservations for their special 10 course dinner.  The whole experience is completely rehearsed - like a choreographed dance.  Someone opens the taxi door, then someone opens the restaurant door, then someone takes our coats and asks our name, says our table is waiting upstairs and someone else leads the way up.  There was no hostess stand, they have memorized the guest list and where the reservations are throughout the two floor restaurant.  Someone even escorts you to the door leading to the restrooms - ha!  Once we were seated, a server brought our first set of silverware on pillow-plates.  Throughout the meal I noticed they rearrange the plates into a different position on the table depending on the course and the different silver provided. 

The menu showed the highlights of each course and the wine pairings were listed on a vellum overlay that lined up perfectly to show when each new wine would come out.  Check out the menu below.

The larger the circle by the course name, the larger the dish.  The small circles were single bite courses.  The further to the left the course name was printed, the heavier the dish.  Shortribs were the heaviest, goose towards the lighter end.  As each course was presented, a server introduced the dish, told us what flavors to expect, how to eat it if special instructions were required and any other interesting info.  The wine specialist was a riot.  Picture a young Einstein with crazy eyes - his hair was long and spiked into every direction.  He was very knowledgeable about wines and their history.  His introduction of the glass he poured was often so exciting, we sometimes couldn't understand what he said! 

The whole meal was intense and amazing.  I'll try not to go overboard, but I want to share some highlights.  The Osetra was a play on traditional caviar served on toast.  On top there was a foam flavored as toast.  The caviar was below on a light cream layer.  Then to the side was a little scoop of lemon flavored cream that gave just the right kick as you scooped through each part of the dish.  The toast-foam was crazy.  It was salty like crispy toast and really flavored the dish even though the texture was unexpected.

This course was the Matsutake.  It was probably the prettiest.  At nine o'clock position, a piece of pan seared otoro tuna with a sprig of something green on top.  The egg looking thing at eleven o'clock was sorbet made of yuzushu.  The server was VERY excited because apparently the chef often cooks with the juice of this Japanese fruit that looks like a clementine, but this is the first time they have had the actual fruit in the restaurant.  She shaved some of the fruit zest onto the top part of the plate.  The sorbet served as a palate cleanser because the flavors were all so different.  Some of the drizzles sauces were mango, not sure what else.  The romaine leaf spine was infused with sake and beneath the leaf was a homemade tortilla chip which was so light, crispy and salty... I could have munched on a pile of those with salsa all day.  On the chip was the pine layer.  It had pine nuts, and something that grew at the base of pine trees and therefore had a pine flavor.  There was a light crunch to that part that I enjoyed.  Coming down from twelve o'clock was a pate of some kind.  It was good, but I'm not a huge pate fan.  When I got the sauces in a bite with it, I enjoyed.  The colorful squares at seven o'clock were like fruit leathers with edible flowers sprinkled on top.  They were quite good.  The wine with this course was like nothing I had ever tasted.  It was described by our "Winestein" as light, but not lacking in flavor.  It was crazy.  I took a sip and the white wine was as he described - there was so much going on but not in a heavy way.  I didn't care for it alone, but it worked quite well with the assortment of food.

I'm sitting in front of one of my favorite dishes of the night.  It tasted like Christmas!!  A bowl full of juniper sprigs was delivered to the table and one of the pieces had a tempura fried ball on the end - kind of like a pine lollipop.  We were instructed to slide off the fried ball into our mouths in one bite.  The scent of the juniper was yummy and the flavors inside the ball were so delicious - goose, stuffing, and prunes.  It was like a delicious holiday meal in one bite. 

For the black truffle course we were told not to try to scoop the dark sauce at the bottom - that was just the table showing through the dish with no bottom!  There was a spoon sitting in the dish with a one-bite ravioli noodle that had a parmesan shaving on top.  The server said to be careful our mouths completely closed when we bit down so we didn't squirt the inner sauce on each other.  Then, the flavor explosion.  Wow.  It was like an entire bowl of french onion soup - the beef and mushroom flavors and the richness of a stick of butter all in one bite. 

With the shortrib course, the wine was very powerful.  It was from Sicily and the company that produces it is changing the industry.  They basically throw grapes in plastic barrels and let them ferment so the end product isn't so processed.  It had no sulfites for preservatives and the taste was strong and raw. 

 Oh eggnog!  Floating in a shot glass with liquors I've never even heard of was a little ball like thin white chocolate that was filled with eggnog batter and sprinkled with nutmeg.  You take the shot and the ball explodes in your mouth.  SOO good! 

Back to the hotel for a little nap after all the rich food and drink and then we walked to the lakefront.  It was so cold we didn't last long so we headed back for a fun little party for the countdown in the hotel bar.  Happy 2010!

Coffee and Skittles

Monday October 5th

Computer class is not a highlight of my day so I don't usually talk about it, but I am getting better now and I'm learning a lot.  I hope I can retain some of the info because the class still moves really quickly and I forget steps along the way because of the speed. We have been working on creating a mood board out of different non-fashion pictures and using special effects to change the look and colors.  Then we will make computer-generated fabric designs and swatches and work towards filling in a fashion sketch to show pre-selected outfits in the fabrics we created.  It's a cool process even though it drives me crazy every step of the way.  Photoshop is amazing now.  I remember the old school version that pretty much colors in shapes and has the spray paint function.  Now I could replace someone in a photograph and have it look realistic.  I could take a photo and turn it into a computer generated work of art.  Well, I shouldn't say that I could do it, but some people can!

I got to play with my fabulous orange check wool to create a creative dolman sleeve draping project.  I had something in mind: a jacket with a hood and short dolman sleeves, closing in front across the body with a little wave at the top.  As I worked on playing with the fabric, I had a bunch of the excess gathered at the neck to get it out of the way.  Prof Renzulli came over and gushed about it and had the class come over so he could talk about how sometimes you get something really great but you have to step back from it to make sure the proportions work and tone it down a bit.  But basically he loved what I accidentally had going, so I kept in that direction!

 

Working on the mess that started it all

Playing with the rest of the material to see what shape looked best. 

I was afraid it was too picnic-tablecloth-like so I didn't want to overwhelm the eye.

It's hard to work with this much heavy fabric.  The pins don't hold up that much weight easily.  The fabric to the side is because eventually I will drape the back and then pin the front to the back in the rough shape of the dolman sleeve that I want.

It was really enjoyable getting to play with the material and practice using my design eye.  And as for the evolution of my design... I'll show you the final product soon!

After class I went straight to work because the Basics Project was due tomorrow.  I had a lot to finish.  I treated myself to some Chinese delivery so I wouldn't have to take a break to cook or walk anywhere.  It ended up being a good choice because I worked straight through and ended up pulling my first all-nighter of the year.  I am a night person, but I hate to do that because I am also prone to migraines when I'm stressed and lacking sleep.  I stayed awake on 4 cups of coffee and 2 bags of Skittles.  It was like crack!!  I don't usually drink anything with caffeine so that combo was golden.

Spread out on the floor with all my magazine clippings, rendered figures and mood board.

Side note: I had a friend ask what rendering is.  I should probably explain my terms better!  Rendering is drawing and coloring fashion illustrations in, but more than just coloring, it's trying to represent a particular fabric by showing texture, pattern, drape, etc. as well as realistically showing how the fabric wraps around the body.  I'm learning how to render wool patterns like houndstooth, pinstripe, herringbone and checks in class now.  Fur is coming soon - yay!

Okay, so back to the all-nighter.  It was crazy.  I worked solid through the night.  When it got late enough that I needed to let poor Katey (roommate) sleep in peace, I moved to the kitchen table.  And when it came time to use the toxic spray adhesive around 3 in the morning, I wasn't about to go outside so I went out into the hall of my dorm floor hoping that I wouldn't somehow cause the smoke alarms to be triggered. 

Besides the decisions on mood board elements and layout, I had to line each figure with a clean sheet of paper, cut it out carefully around the edges (same for all the flats).  Then I had to apply everything to the board and use a special double sided adhesive page to attach the swatches so they won't fray.  Every step took a lot of time to turn out a clean, nice final product. 

I finished at 7 AM and went to bed for an hour before waking up for class.  Whew. 

Being behind on my blog has benefits... I won't make you wait to see my final product this time.  I have it back, graded and pictures taken.  Here is my "Basics" Project.  Now that name makes me laugh! 

 

Mood board - shows target customer, theme, colors, and overall mood

Swatches and flats.  The flats show design details like topstitching that sometimes don't show up on the posed girls.  They are used to communicate with the manufacturer how the garment should be made.

This was a fun flat.  It's a striped knit with "dangling chads" of fabric that will sway when you move. 

And finally... the rendered figures!  I'm really proud of them because they make the portfolio I submitted to get into the school look like a kid's coloring book.  Progress!  I especially like the girl on the left in the denim jumpsuit.  She turned out hot.  And I still have little to no control over that - it's funny how the faces sort of land on the paper and the personality just comes out.

The dreaded pattern skirt.  I had to draw it twice on girls and once for the flats.  I can see why people might prefer Photoshop for ease in duplicating the hard stuff.  It can also save time because you can scan in the figures and print on a background instead of having to line them and cut out so carefully.

 Ah.  Hard work pays off.  My first A in the class and on a big project!

Holy Rendering Batman!

I'm still pretty slow at drawing figures and rendering fabric in marker and colored pencil is new to me.  I really wanted my Basics Project to look good so I spent most of the day Sunday working on the figures and the mood board.  Every single step took longer than I expected!  I had already done a lot in class, but there was so much to do for finishing work.

The assignment was to create a mini collection that would be compatible with stores like H&M, Gap, and Uniqlo for the 18-25 year old market.  We had to use a denim and a pattern and mix up cotton and knits.  I picked a green denim that was really cool and a striped green and off white knit, a blue knit and a floral cotton in green, blue, black and off white.  My colors were very coordinated which seemed a bit boring at first, but the stripe and floral combination was pretty fun.  And for that market, I don't think creative use of color is necessarily an important selling point.

I already had my ideas sketched and selected in class but there was so much work to draw four dressed figures showing how the looks would coordinate along with flats of all the garments (also had to be colored in) and swatches and a mood board completed the presentation.  At the end, I had to render the floral pattern on skirt with some fullness three times.  It took SO LONG!  Ugh.  And the crazy thing is, you don't have to show the entire pattern since they only see a small swatch of fabric.  I could have just repeated that smaller pattern more, but I just couldn't picture that as well as the way all the fabric would look.

Practicing the crazy skirt pattern

My desk covered in blue and green pencils, markers, fabric and drawings!

The mood board also took a long time.  We sort of did our project backwards this time - working from our designs before getting a mood board together proved to be quite difficult.  To search for pictures that show your customer and a similar color scheme after you've already created the whole look is difficult.  It would be easy to make color changes to a picture I like in Photoshop now that I understand it better, but I didn't have time to mess with that so I spent a lot of time finding blue and green looking pictures of background scenes online.

Finding a young looking smiling girl was pretty tough in my fashion magazines too.  The models don't smile!  Come on, you're getting paid to wear the most fabulous clothing, wouldn't it look better to have a coy sexy smile instead of a full on frown?!  I might just make my models smile on the runway because they ought to look happy to wear my clothes.