Craft Punk Fashion Show: previous volumes

I was asked to be involved in the third installment of a local fashion show by a friend of my husband’s. I know that I’m in no way really able to consider myself punk, but crafty I am, so I agreed to be involved. I had my reservations about it all, but decided in the end to send in my required submissions: sketches and photos of finished pieces. This was on the 12th of June and the fashion show is scheduled in August… So I’ve been told. I have heard nothing after the initial call for designers and a preliminary email….
I have since halted on all “designing” since I don’t want to be making things specifically for a show that I have no idea whether or not I’m going to be in…
In order to satiate my need for a blogging subject and also to mull this whole fashion show dilemma over I decided to show you wonderful readers Craft Punk Volumes One and Two. Please enjoy…








































Note: I did not take any of these pictures. I do know who did. I don't know who the models or the designers are. These were the pictures available via facebook. I claim no credit for any of this.

When can I call you my own?

I have been recently wondering about how much one has to alter a pattern in order for it to be considered and original design. This brings in to light a great many questions such as: “What exactly are the copy right laws?” “How original am I really?” “Who can really claim rights to the blazer?” and the more nihilistic “Can one really come up with anything NEW?”

I also struggle with the fact that in the fashion industry very few people do it all. Sure on Project Runway you see the designers running around frantically buying fabric, drawing sketches and sewing their little fingers to the bone at all hours of the day and night to make whatever crazy garment the judges can dream up as a challenge, but rarely is this the way it works in the fashion industry. So why is it that I am sitting in my living room trying to do just that? EVERYTHING? From design concept, to pattern creation and mass production. No wonder I’m losing my mind trying to think of something new…

But really what it boils down to is how many variations are there of a basic concept: skirt, pants, or shirts? I mean really, isn’t a blazer still a blazer no matter how big the lapels are or how straight or narrow or how many or what shape of pockets? Garments are essentially all the same. They endeavor to cover the human form in a pleasing and/or utilitarian way. So once the basic shapes are learned garment construction is much like the act of writing. Once one learns to write the alphabet words can be made into any variants on the original 26 letters of the alphabet from Hemingway to Whitman, from Dr. Sues to Shakespeare. In that way once the basic shapes of garments are learned you can make a t-shirt or a ball gown, a suit jacket or a sweater. The combinations may seem endless but I still refuse to buy into the old wives tale that chimps with typewriters could eventually produce Shakespeare. No chimp in my sewing room would ever produce Dior.

New Specs

Spectacles, that is… I got my federal tax return the other day (more like a month ago) and since new glasses are on my wish list and the desperately need list… I decided I would do some shopping around. I went to a number of different shops about town and found the same old same old. Nothing I was really thrilled with and hadn't already tried on a million times. All frames these days look the same to me… all just versions of this.

I also noticed that women's styles felt to light and breakable. I put my glasses through a lot people. I need something that is going to weather the storm, not some frilly little girl glasses. I need something hefty. So I started looking in the men's sections. And it was there my friends that I found some, well… ok, glasses. Again, just nothing thrilling. So like any shop-a-holic that doesn't like to leave the comfort of her own home, I turned to the internet. New glasses were a really hard decision for me because I keep glasses for ridiculously long periods of time. (I mean, I haven’t had a new pair since high school. Ridiculous.)

So here are some options on what I've been dreaming of in my little world that is somewhat cut off from the real world and totally out of touch with popular fashion I'm sure. (which is why I couldn't find anything I like in the store) I wanted something kind of too big for my face in a nicely proportionate way. Or something really vintage and very lady like. A la, these...










Either way I wanted something that is rather old fashioned looking even if it is a modern pair. But then I got all hung up and worried that I'm not going to like them in a month and I'll have to go buy new ones, that I can't afford… I was really over obsessing about this. I think I am an over obsesser in general anyway, but after months of looking I found what I wanted and ordered it! (For forty dollars no less!) So here they are folks! My new specs!




I tried a number of different ways to get a picture without glare, but the one I took accidentally after being frustrated with it all ended up being the best. Go figure!I think since they were so cheap I'll order myself another pair! Let the obsessing begin again!