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Backstage at the Glam Slam 2011 Opening show in Macau, Vivian...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:48:44 +0800

Backstage at the Glam Slam 2011 Opening show in Macau, Vivian Luk and one of her beautiful gown. The show offering The best 7 couture designers from all over asia (Singapore,Taiwan,Malaysia and Hong Kong) and their latest collection.

My Summer in London

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 19:09:22 +0800

I’ve been wanting to blog about this since I got back from my London adventure :D

I was lucky enough to go and study during the summer at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design

I chose to study bridal wear as I wanted to improve my skill on haute couture dresses.

There I met the most incredible bunch of talented designers and teachers. I found it very interesting to watch how other designers work and how each designer has a different way of exploring their ideas before they arrive at their final dress design.

As some of you probably already know, CSM is moving their campus to the new Kings Cross campus and so we were very lucky to be the last bunch of students who got to study in the original Charring Cross Road campus. It is such an amazing building with so much history. You can feel it as soon as you walk in: so many great designers have walked this hall before you.

It reminded me of my old faculty building at Chulalongkorn University. It is so old, charming and unique. A place where you wouldn’t dare walk around at night as it looks like it might be haunted :D

What did I learn during my time there ? Well, without going into too much detail, during the course we learnt about vintage dresses from different periods, some hand embroidery and learnt new sewing techniques. Our project was to design and make a bridal gown.

After a week of sleepless nights, I finished my first ever wedding gown.

I have often been asked to make a wedding dress which I’ve always declined as it’s just too much stress. However I have never felt more at home as when I am working on big pretty dresses. I love silk, chiffon, tules, lace and all the pretty sequins and embroidery. I was hooked! I wanted to learn more about high fashion tailoring and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve signed up to work for a couture house in Hong Kong which I’ll tell you more about it in later posts :D

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In London for a month to study summer school at Central Saint...

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:04:38 +0800

In London for a month to study summer school at Central Saint Martins and London college of fashion :)

remediosthebeauty: ‘Zip tie massimal’ is created entirely of,...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:59:03 +0800

remediosthebeauty:

‘Zip tie massimal’ is created entirely of, yes, zip ties; 20,000 actually. Designed by Design Office Takebayashi Scroggin (D.O.T.S.), this one is a prototype that will eventually be joined by some friends to mimic a docile petting zoo.

D.O.T.S.

via Design Boom

Of a Kind: Kalen and Astrid Let the Dye Move Them

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:53:19 +0800

Of a Kind: Kalen and Astrid Let the Dye Move Them:

ofakind:

The twosome has learned that they can’t always control the outcome—and that’s a good thing.

If the dyeing process was a novel, the rinsing out stage would be the climax. “There’s all this dark, murky water, and you’re like, ‘What’s it going to turn out like?!” explains Astrid Chastka, one…

Love this!

Deciphering the alien symbols we see on clothing care labels

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:18:20 +0800

A couple weeks ago my mum sent me a link for a care label seminar organized by TCDC in Bangkok, and since i’ve been making clothes for myself and my clients I often get asked ‘how do you wash this (item)?’. The subject of how to care for your clothes has been an interesting topic for me since I dont remember actually studying it in depth during my uni years at design school. I remember studying marketing, pattern making, history, fashion design and graphic design but I dont remember learning about caring for your fabric. So I decided to go ahead and book myself a spot in the seminar (well i havent been to bangkok in like 3 months!). It was also a good opportunity for me to visit my family, hugs my grandma, eat my favorite food and also spa treatment!

The seminar was organized by TCDC . What I have always loved most about TCDC is their huge library specializing in art & design. They also hold great exhibitions and talks. The presenter for this seminar was from the textiles testing center in Bangkok. She was extremely knowledgeable but also talked very fast! I wasn’t able to keep up with her and sadly missed lots of very useful information from her talks :(

Below are basic symbols that often seen on care label. Can you read them?

Without going into much detail, those symbols and the tag that said what your clothes are made of (fiber content) are actually quite important. It tells you and your dry cleaner how to keep your favorite dress looking new! Now I regretted cutting them off first thing when I bought new clothes home as often those tags are super itchy!

Here are a quick care instruction of your clothing,

100% Wool - It is most likely that it will shrink so its best to send to your dry cleaner. This was a mistake i learnt from by machine washing my husband’s cardigan (which is still 2 size smaller than when it went in) and if you decided to hand wash it, make sure it is cold water as wool does not do well in hot water.

Cotton - Is a very durable fabric and will work well in your washing machine, line dry or tumble dry using the lowest setting.

Silk - Silk is natural fabric and with most silk you should be able to hand wash. Do not soak for more than a few minutes, use a mild detergents or soap and dry in the shade.

Polyester - is a strong fabric so machine wash in warm water, tumble dry at lowest setting and iron at moderate setting.

Nylon - is generally good with machine wash in warm water, can be line dry or tumble dry at lowest setting and iron at low temperature setting.

Spandex - hand wash or machine wash in warm water, line dry or tumble dry at lowest setting

Although most of the fabric can take warm wash, I do highly recommend using a cold wash. It saves energy and color transfer in new garments.

Now get your husband to sit down and read this blog so he can properly wash your clothes for you :D

Subsidee

Hello from city of Bangkok,

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:08:22 +0800

Hello from city of Bangkok,

Finally got a chance to work on new accessories (Taken with...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:38:42 +0800

Finally got a chance to work on new accessories (Taken with instagram)

Environmentally friendly potato printing

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:22:31 +0800

While I was doing research for my collection for the Ecochic Design Award I was looking for a cheap and organic way of doing prints on fabric. As part of this process I decided to see what I already had available in the kitchen to see if I could make prints from anything. I was in luck. In the kitchen I found a few potatoes that we had bought for dinner and I thought to myself ‘lets make potatoes prints’!

I’m sure some of you would have done this before in primary school. It’s a cheap and very simple way to make prints on a wide variety of surfaces.

With potatoes in hand I went back to my room and began carving with my wood carving tool set.

Using water coloring and document prints in my sketch book

Here is what the prints look like.

Experimenting with more designs

End result

It certainly works! The only thing is that you can’t keep your potato stencils. It only lasts a day or two. I only experimented with water color this time and managed to make a few cute cards out of these lovely potatoes. My next project is to use fabric paint and try to print on fabrics. Hopefully it will work.

Happy carving ❤

Photo

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:27:34 +0800

Hello from new Zealand :)

Fri, 27 May 2011 07:45:08 +0800

Hello from new Zealand :)

Introduction to EcoChic Design Award

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:53:04 +0800

A while a go while I was doing the usual stalking my friends on Facebook, I noticed a feed advertising for a competition that was based on eco-fashion right here in Hong Kong.

Since my interest has always leant towards Eco-fashion and sustainability, I was curious.

After I read EcoChic Design Award principles and what their competition was all about I attended their casual meeting where they explained further about their point of view towards sustainable fashion and what they wished us to do. After a few cupcakes I decided to go ahead and join the competition. My main reasons for joining the competition were firstly that I wanted to voice my opinion and tell the world that there is a bunch of us eco-designers in Hong Kong who do care about the environment. Secondly, I hoped that the competition would be a showcase platform and lead to more sustainable fabric sources to support this movement. And finally I wanted to meet fellow likeminded eco-designers.

I worked very hard for the next couple of weeks to find out the meaning of sustainable fashion and what should be classified as eco-friendly. Natural fibres? Natural dye? But what about the design - Did you know that 15% of the fabric is wasted during the cutting process? So if you’re using Bamboo Jersey, but there’re still 15% of fabric waste during the cutting process would that make your dress eco-friendly? What if we can challenge our minds further and explore possibility of zero-waste design?

I’ve heard of this zero-waste theory before but I had never tried it myself. Normally in my studio I would just collect scraps to make accessories. That is my way of minimising waste while created wearable accessories. I certainly wanted to know more. Typing in “Zero-waste design” on Google gave me a few examples and few designers who are already experts in this field. (If you would like to know more I suggest you look up work by Holly McQuillan, Mark Liu and Timo Rissanen). I was inspired to do the same. Cutting waste at the first stage of production means that you have already done your bit for the environment rather than sitting around and hoping for the customer to do the right thing by reusing and recycling the clothes.

I do love a good challenge and this is something I would encourage all designers and design students to do. If we can all push our limits a little more, go outside of our comfort zone, create designs that are simply zero-waste and on top of all of that we can choose to use sustainable fabric with low impact dye, imagine how great that would that be for the environment and not to mention our fabric buying budget?

My collection for EcoChic Award was based on the above vision, exploring zero-waste, making clothes from left over scraps and using recycled vintage clothing to create new designs for everyday wear. I was lucky enough to get into the semi-final round. There were so many amazing designs there and I was glad to be a part of the competition.

To write all about the entire experience all in one day, would be too long so I have decided to do a series of posts on it to share my experiences with all the eco-designers out there and hopefully it will be useful for future designers :) .

Stay tuned for the next post!

Zero-waste design dress for Eco-Chic Award

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:42:53 +0800

Zero-waste design dress for Eco-Chic Award

Featured on Butterboom.com

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:39:30 +0800

Featured on Butterboom.com:

My work was feature in Butterboom.com for EcoChic people’s Award :)
Vote for me please!