Things That Make Me Happy...Part 2.

Right now, this week to be specific, I am in design mode for The River. A majority of my characters are all sketched out, they are just awaiting their color to be applied and to give them life. Color renderings are always a fun part of the design process.

However, I am still stumped with one character and I am becoming a mad woman to try and figure out what this character would look like. I have ideas, research and starting points, but its like when you have something to say and its on the tip of your tongue and you can't remember it. I will know it when I see it though!

In order to help give the muses a kick-start I've been pouring fashion magazines. No luck...so far.  I've also discovered that You Tube is a vault of fashion shows, so I've been obsessively watching everyone's Spring/Summer 2013 collections for inspiration triggers as well. I forgot how much I love watching fashions show, because at one time, I did want to be come a fashion designer...but life had other plans for me, costume design for theatre.

It just so happens that everything that makes me happy right now revolves around the fashion world, which takes me back to my roots of why I became interested in designing clothing and then costumes in present day. In a search of inspiration to help motivate me I stepped into a fashion vortex this week, which is quite alright with me.

So, here are some things that make me extremely happy right now...go check them out!


*Chanel's Spring-Summer 2013 Haute Couture Show. I'm a fan of Chanel as well as Karl Lagerfeld (current designer for Chanel) after watching the documentary "Lagerfeld Confidential" a few years back. Amazing and intriguing if you like fashion. So I know anything he designs is fabulous.

I don't know why, but I love this fashion show. I love how Lagerfeld likes to show his collections in the Grand Palais in Paris most of the time, a beautiful building. I'm feeling the lace legging boots A LOT, I'm feeling the little feathery things in the models hair, I just love all the clothes and the whole ambience. I know, its a little out there for most people, but I enjoy it.

* Gucci Spring/Summer 2013 Pret-A-Porter (Ready To Wear) Woman.  I am ALL ABOUT COLOR in my wardrobe right now and this show sealed the deal. I think I love almost every piece in this show, especially the clothing in Blue, Turquoise and Green.

* "Bill Cunningham New York" I saw this documentary over the weekend and it is a beautiful movie that captures love for fashion and clothing in a very pure way.  The documentary is about 83-year-old fashion photographer, Bill Cunningham, who takes fashion photos on the streets of New York of every day people and on the fashion runways for the New York Times Style Section.

How Bill is so passionate about his photography and clothing was a reminder of how I use to feel when I first started designing, the film is a welcome and amazing kick-my-pants reminder of why I love designing. 

Watch it. It will make you feel good and shed a few tears...I know I did.

* "A Man's Story", which is another fashion documentary, this time on English Men's designer, Oswald Boateng. I had never even heard of this designer until I saw this film, who knew? But he is making a name for English men's tailoring on Savile Row and I would love to see his shop the next time I make it to London. 

The documentary covers the span of 12 years and shows the highs and lows of personal and professional markers in his life. You can even see how Boateng's style changes and gets cleaner and more precise with time. I just enjoy seeing his energy, passion for menswear, his love for color and detail. This film makes me enjoy menswear even more! Loved this!

The River starts flowing...

Yesterday around 11a.m. I was driving to my job and listening to my Spotify playlist with "Soul Rebel" by Bob Marley & The Wailers ending and "Hurt So Good" by Susan Cadogan beginning (shameless song drop), when BAM an idea hit me. Ideas for costume designs for characters in the new play I'm working on. My ideas often happen like that, either in the shower getting ready for the day or when I'm driving somewhere listening to music. I revel in those idea moments hitting me like running into a brick wall, they put a huge smile on my face and I want to jump, but circumstances prevent me. (I can't jump in the shower or I'll hurt myself and in the car I'm strapped down by a seat belt.)

Anyway, the research and idea process are probably my favorite parts of the design process. For the past month I've read and re-read THE RIVER by Richard Montoya (several times), which is the new play I'm designing for Campo Santo with Intersection For The Arts, directed by Sean San Jose, that opens in April (78 days to be exact).

I've let the characters and their conversations speak to me and imagined this new world. I usually start to get images in my head and for this one it was a lot of color. The picture below is one of the many pictures I am using in my research and a smidgen of taste of what the show might be like. However, you will have to come see it for yourself.

I always seem to get a photo, a painting or some sort of art piece that becomes my starting point, where then I can springboard off and dive into creating the world of the play and the characters. This is when I start researching different types of clothing and people according to what I'm reading and who the characters are, what they do, how they behave, their personality. I think that's what I love best about designing costumes, figuring out a characters personality because each one is different and exciting.

So, this past Monday, we had our first production meeting and it was delightful, helpful and exciting talking about this world that Richard Montoya has made for us in his writing to put forth in real life. It's awesome hearing all the designers ideas of what they imagine for sets, lights and sound combined with my costume designs coming together in this pot to make this delicious dish of a play. This is one of the reasons I love working in theatre...

And of course, this meeting helped me to get ideas for a few characters that I had not fully fleshed out, which was my idea spark at the beginning of this post. A beautiful thing production meetings are.  

So...what next? Now comes another fun part...sketching these costumes out.