Inspired By A Human: Michelle Obama

I wouldn't be the first to say that I love Michelle Obama. I don't know much about many First Ladies throughout history, but I have reason to believe she's definitely one of the coolest. Some people get down on her for a variety of reasons, most of them inconsequential when we think about the fact that we are ALIVE and all of us are fragile human beans. It's one of those days, as you can see. Tuesdays are my Existentialism Days. (I just made that up.) 

I digress. Back to the First Lady. After retyping her title, I realized how fitting it truly is. She is a lady of many firsts. I think above all, she is a lady of action. She does stuff, instead of merely talking about doing stuff. She changed the food pyramid to a plate, because no one's food is stacked in the shape of polyhedron. Also, sustenance should not be hierarchized. She makes appearances at award shows generally reserved for Hollywood celebrities (see final picture). She dresses herself and her family in clothing the upper-middle class could afford. She advocates for healthy living and promotes balanced diets and exercise, especially for children and teens. She has a J.D. from the Harvard School of Law. She's revolutionizing what it means to be the First Lady; women in her position are no longer just figureheads, they are leaders in their own right. Hillary Clinton was also a true First Lady, but Michelle is a bonafide role model for women everywhere. She represents an attainable ideal of a woman we can all admire: she's intelligent, she works hard, she takes care of her family, she isn't unnaturally thin, and she's a pioneering thinker. I know that may seem like the opposite of what I said, that she's so all around good at everything that it's impossible to emulate Michelle Obama. But think about it this way: she got to where she is today by being all of those things that I listed, not by being a pretty doll on display for public consumption. There's nothing wrong with using natural beauty to one's advantage, but it can only get you so far. If there's anything I learned from reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde it's that beauty fades inevitably, but intellect and sincerity and kindness do not. That's what I feel that Michelle embodies. 

Also, she always looks effing awesome. 

[Photos via Harper's Bazaar and Google.]

Jason Wu, April 2009

Dancing it out on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"

Kai Milla at a White House event honoring Stevie Wonder in 2009

J.Crew, April 2009

Michael Kors, September 2010

Naeem Khan

Oscar de la Renta, 2009

Peter Soronen, February 2009

Peter Soronen, May 2010

Thakoon, April 2009

Naeem Khan, Academy Awards of 2013

Happy Tuesday. Is it just me, or is it HELLA HOT OUTSIDE?

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Gala-vanting

I didn't mention it at the time, but I was fairly disappointed with the outfits at last year's Met Gala. Therefore, my hopes weren't very high when I began scrolling through photos of celebrities' outfits from this year's event on Harper's Bazaar. The exhibit is called "Punk: Chaos to Couture," and celebrates--you guessed it--punk fashion. That made me a little bit nervous. Punk can either be really good, or really god-awful. I was worried people would take it too seriously and show up with mohawks and septum rings. 

As it turns out, there were a ton of fine-lookin' people at the Met the other night, way more than I expected. I'm not really sure why this happened; maybe everyone was more inspired by punk than Prada? Who knows. The only thing that's certain is that the Olsen twins are freakin' awesome. 

[Photos via Harper's Bazaar.]

Ashley Olsen in Dior Couture

You see what I mean? Tangerine fairy. Done.

Florence Welch in Givenchy by Ricardo Tisci

Cowboy dominatrix with the voice of a vibrating angel. 

Giovanna Battaglia in Dolce & Gabbana 

Despite the controversy over Dolce & Gabbana's Spring 2013 collection, Giovanna Battaglia looks like an Italian queen.

Anne Hathaway in Valentino

Anne goes blonde???? I don't know what to do. I don't know how to respond. I guess my first response is "yes.....???"

Kirsten Dunst in Louis Vuitton

I don't really understand her dress, but it's so intriguing that I couldn't not include it.

Lauren Santo Domingo in Dolce & Gabbana

There's something so classically beautiful about this dress that makes me long for days when wearing gowns every day was acceptable. I'm not really sure what time period I'm referring to but I'm sure it existed. 

Mary-Kate Olsen in Chanel Couture, vintage Balmain, and Louis Vuitton

Yes. Yes. Yes. You are a queen, Mary-Kate. 

Miley Cyrus in Marc Jacobs

I can't say I enjoy Miley Cyrus very much (although I do have a CD signed by her in my room...oh, fourth grade, what a crazy time you were), nor do I dig her hair very much, but her dress was ultra-punk in only a way that Marc Jacobs could make it. 

Rooney Mara in Givenchy by Ricardo Tisci (with the designer)

I always feel like Rooney Mara is silent. Like she never opens her mouth to speak, she just stands there looking awesome and sealing her lips with dark lipstick.

Sarah Jessica Parker in Giles, with Phillip Treacy hat

Funky.

Constance Jablonski in Wes Gordon (with the designer)

I enjoy dog collar dresses as much as the next girl.

Dakota Fanning in Rodarte

Dakota, Dakota, how I adore your wardrobe.

Alexa Chung in Erdem

I don't think I even need to reiterate my feelings towards Alexa Chung.

Allison Williams in Altuzarra

Girls will be girls. (See what I did there?)

Hanneli Mustaparta in Calvin Klein

Hanneli does it again. Peep the arm band. It's like a choker for your...arm.

And that's a wrap. I just dropped my computer on the floor because I am a spazhands (VERY different from jazz hands) and now I must pray bi-daily (is there another word for this?) that my dear Sherica doesn't do something bad.

Two days. You can do it! ~Si se puede~ (I don't speak Spanish)

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Birkenstocking

I made a bag in seventh grade that says "I LOVE SHOES" on it. I don't think I actually loved shoes at the time (that was still in my shlumpy elastic-waistband-jeans-and-the-same-sweatshirt-everyday phase), but now I can wear that bag un-ironically. I really do love me some good shoes. I'm not a footwear-hoarder (ie Leandra Medine), but I definitely have my fair share of foot coverings. I'm the sort of person that gets a good pair of shoes and wears them every day for weeks, months, or years. I like to spread the love around, but honestly, not all shoes are created equal. Some are infinitely better than others. That's how we end up with holes in the heels of our boots, thus resulting in wet socks and that weird squishy feeling that ants have set up camp between your toes and have started blasting TNT except their TNT is just made of mushy water. Because they're ants. 

In other non-insect-related news, Birkenstocks. Yes, that's all I was gonna say. Have a good night. 

No, come back, I was kidding! The truth of the matter is, Birkenstocks are becoming--wait for it--HIGH FASHION. Yes, yes, yes, it's really truly happening. The infamous middle aged man's footwear of choice has officially graced the runways of the world. If your mind has not been blown by now, you should read that sentence again and hope for a better reaction. 

Here's my theory (but what does my theory really matter? Like, I'm just some chick sitting on her couch, taking a break from studying for an AP history exam (which I'm studying for by watching episode after episode of Crash Course, you should try it, John Green is fantastic) by blogging, a task which she has neglected for far too long and is quickly realizing how much she loves and misses the simplicity and enjoyment of casually-formally ranting about absolutely anything and having random people read it. Does my opinion actually mean anything? Does anything actually mean anything? Is anything real? Do I exist? What is happening? My mom thinks I should stop reading Kerouac for a while because doing so causes things like this to happen.). I think that we've spent so much time--us, the collective ~human race~ over the course of history--forcing ourselves to do things we simply don't want to do, and have only done them because everyone else was doing it (vicious cycle ensues), ie wearing really uncomfortable shoes, that we've finally realized that life is too short to walk around in stilettos all the time just so your legs supposedly look longer. The best people in the world don't really care about the length of your legs, but rather the substance of your mind. So you should be able to wear frickin' Birkenstocks if you like. I would like to take this moment to reiterate what is perhaps the thesis of this blog, if there is such a thing: fashion is not about clothing, or trends, or materialism, or capitalism, or anything like that. It's about self-expression and what you think is rad, and how you like to tell people what you think is rad. End scene. 

Some of the examples of Birkenstock-like sandals on the runways were in menswear collections, so  a few names might be unfamiliar. I had to go deep, deep down into the underwater trenches of the abyss-like Internetz to find some of these references, so don't complain about their obscurity. That's what the Internet was made for, to expose the vast obscurity of everything. (Okay, maybe my mom is right.)

Photos via the vast and obscure Interwebz. 

Dries van Noten Menswear S/S 2013

You really can't get any tackier than camouflage pants and mandals with python and camo accents, as well as traction soles. 

Givenchy Menswear S/S 2013

Sometimes your feet just need to be free and fancy at the same time.

Agi & Sam Menswear S/S 2013

He is, in fact, a runway model. He looks like an eccentric Middle Eastern prison-inmate-cum-beachside-smoothie-vendor, but I really really like it. 

Miu Miu S/S 2013

Miuccia Prada made flat shoes??? What is happening to everything???

Marni S/S 2013

Very simple, yet so elegant. It's like not wearing shoes, except without looking like you're wearing futuristic toe-socks. 

Céline S/S 2013

The famous fluffy (I keep typing "fluffly," can that just become the official spelling?) Céline sandals. What more can I say that they have not already said themselves?

Robert Piqueras S/S 2013

Those are actually glitterfied Reebok sandals. I kid you not. 

Rochambeau S/S 2013

Desert wanderer enters Los Angeles by accident, stumbles into a mall first thing, and emerges looking like an amalgamation of a cowboy, a high strung intern at a fashion magazine, and MC Hammer.

Araks S/S 2013

Another simple version of the sandal, this time taking a bit of an Addams family tone. 

What is the verdict, dear readers? Are you ready to embrace your inner tackiness and show the world the true meaning of comfort, or are you unable to wrap your head around the concept that your dad was doing it right all along? Or something in between? Tellme. One word.

That's all, my eyes are half asleep (yes, just the eyes, the rest of me is quite awake), I am leaving, good night.

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Inspired by a Human: Egon Schiele

To make up for how much I suck at this whole blogging thing, I decided to make a post about one of my favorite artists, Egon Schiele. That much you were most likely able to deduce from the title. You can tell I'm a little rusty. 

I stumbled upon Schiele last spring--that damn Internet is always stuffing my brain with new things--but I forgot about him for a while. Then this winter, I was talking to Ramona and she mentioned him, and I ended up borrowing a book about him from her. I read it cover to cover (that's usually what one does with a book), soaking up all of the deliciousness of his oeuvre. 

What I love about his work is how much he just doesn't care about certain things. He treated the body as an object when creating art (and sadly just in general...there were several accounts of him sexually molesting his young female models. Why people gotta be dumb, ya know?), which added a dimension of rawness to his pieces. The bulk of his work was self-portraits and nude portraits of himself and others, but he started doing more landscapes and houses in his later years. He was only 28 when he died in 1918, so his life was pretty short, but for such a young artist he accomplished a great deal artistically and even politically. His style was sort of revolutionary for his time, with all his blunt nudism and contorted bodies and stuff, but people love(d) him. My sense of it is that he was sort of that really crazy guy that people were like, "Okay are you even human what is your brain doing plz explain????" but at the same time totally respected that they would never fully understand what he was all about. He just did his own thing, and I think that really rocks. So here are some of my favorite of his pieces. I didn't include any full-on naked people in case that would make anyone uncomfortable. The captions are not the actual names of the pieces, because I couldn't find all of those. 

[Photos via Tumblr.com.]

A self portrait 

A topless woman

Portrait of Johannes Harms

Double self portrait (this was my computer background for a while)

A house

Self portrait (I think)

Mother and baby

Kool kat, n'est-ce pas? 

Okay, I'll be back soon. In the mean time read stuff I wrote if you feel like it, or don't. 

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The Baby Turns Two

I simply cannot believe that it's been two years since I began this blog. I remember that fateful Sunday night as though it were yesterday (although, to be honest, I don't remember yesterday too well. Tuesdays are just sort of like that): I was lying on the floor in my bedroom, looking at street style photos online and probably reading Man Repeller when I realized, "Hey, I could do that, also I'm bored and I'm thirteen and I like fashion and middle school is kinda weird so why not?" And at the time, I just knew it was something I would stick with. I could feel it.

I was self-conscious about having a blog at first, so I didn't tell anyone for a few days. The first person I told was Lola because I knew she wouldn't judge me. Why I thought anyone would judge me I'm not sure, but that was what I was concerned about. She immediately told me that it fit, that it was something she could see me doing. Lola's got some sort of funky intuition, it would seem, because here I am, two years from that April evening as a completely different person. I never imagined myself to be a writer. I won't even get into all the things that have changed since the end of eighth grade, because obviously there are about a million.

I know last year I had a giveaway, and I was going to do that again this year, but right now I'm so trammeled by school that I haven't been as devoted to my lil' baby as I wish I were. When good ol' summer rolls around, I'll be back to writing and sewing and crafting and all that deliciousness on a much more regular basis. For now, let us celebrate the funtime happiness of today, 'cause today is a birthday, and birthdays call for several things:

1. Birthday cake 

2. Party hats

3. Party shoes

So the moral of the story is: Feliz Cumpleaños, Abuelita. 

[And I will be back before you know it.]

Also, support your local writers and read the article I wrote about the robot apocalypse for the Brooklyn-based online magazine, Hypocrite Reader!

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The Right To Be a Woman

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."

--Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

I never really understood why feminism existed. In my earlier years, that was because I was considerably ignorant on the subject. I grasped the fact that women have never been socially, economically, politically, or anything-ly equal to men, but I just didn't understand why that was true. We're all just people; I couldn't wrap my head around why anatomical differences have engendered so many contentions and inequities. I still can't, although now I am more educated on the subject. 

I went to a very progressive middle and elementary school, an environment in which we had weekly lectures and activities about racial equality and LGBTQ rights (this was before the umbrella term trans* was created), but I don't recall ever discussing women's issues. When I began reading Rookie Mag--where nearly everyone on the staff is either a self-proclaimed feminist, a women's rights supporter, or something in between--was around when I started to understand what feminism actually means. I had always dismissed it as some sort of extreme movement that involved misandry, bra burning, and public protests, like the time Eric and Donna go to a feminist demonstration in an episode of That '70s Show. That was about the extent of my knowledge. I had never bothered to further enlighten myself because we are taught that feminism is something negative, and the subject was so foreign to me that I didn't even want to get involved. As I entered deeper into the trenches of my adolescence, I went around thinking that if someone looked at me lecherously or made an unwelcome sexual comment that it was my fault. I had led them on, in some way. So I stopped wearing V-neck t-shirts and never thought about it. Even at my equal-rights-for-everybody-even-though-we-only-talk-about-certain-groups-of-people-because-they're-minorities-and-women-aren't school we were taught, "Don't get raped," never "Don't rape." That never seemed out of place to me. It's extremely stifling and maddening to live in a world that objectifies women to such a degree that we don't even notice it anymore; that's how large a part of our society it has become. Or, I guess, always has been, for millennia. I only recently realized that as a teenage girl I was being affected by misogyny, disrespect, and degradation just by simply existing.

The fashion industry is one of the main propellants of the rigid concepts of femininity and womanhood that are held so highly in our culture. For decades, even centuries, women have been expected to either be a perfect combination of elegance, sexual appeal, and vulnerability, or urged to act more like men. Even with revolutionary members of the media popping up everywhere--Lena Dunham, Tavi Gevinson, Miranda July--women are only being more forcibly squished into these molds. We all already know that the supermodel-skinny standards are a major part of what's dragging us, meaning females, down. That topic deserves an entire article in and of itself, but it's not all that the fashion world is contributing to this huge dilemma. It's the clothing itself. It's a topic that I've written about before, without really knowing what I was saying. Taking a tip from the boys, menswear for women, things of that ilk. That concept has taken a turn for the worst.

While reading the Man Repeller a few months ago, Leandra Medine mentioned that in order to embody "swag," one must look like a male sixth grader: messy cropped hair, boyish clothing, baseball caps, the whole deal. I admire and respect Leandra immensely, but I felt that she had almost betrayed her fellow ladies in this post through words like: "achieving 'cool' is wholly about how well a girl can emulate a prepubescent boy." My immediate response to her story was a big, bolded, upper-cased WHY? I understand that this could potentially be misconstrued as me being ridiculously sensitive, but hear me out. Here's what I'm seeing. Looking cool now entails dressing like guys. That would be fine, if the same had ever been true for the opposite sex. When has it ever been considered trendy for a man to wear a dress, or heels, or another garment of clothing generally associated with women? Approximately never, except for in the seventeenth century, when almost everybody in the aristocracy wore heels. And Marc Jacobs's pink polo dress that he wore to the opening of his museum exhibition in Paris last year doesn't count. Marc Jacobs is not a valid representation of the general male population. 

I don't personally feel the need to wear anything characteristically feminine in order to feel good about myself or how I am presenting myself to the world. That probably stems from the fact that I grew up completely unaware of how these injustices applied to me. Do my androgynous tendencies--short hair, near exclusion of pink in my wardrobe, very little makeup, unshaved legs--imply that I am actively aspiring to look like a teenage boy? Not in the least bit. I like my loose jeans as much as I like my shift dresses. I cut my hair short because I hate feeling weighted down by masses of dead cells on my head. I don't wear pink because it makes me feel like a sickly amalgamation of an infant and cotton candy. I don't wear a lot of makeup, if any at all, partly because I hate having to worry about taking it off at night, partly because I prefer to present myself in my most natural form. I stopped shaving my legs because I have much better things to be doing with my time. I dress the way I want to because I like the way my clothing looks. 

One of the greatest misconceptions about people interested in fashion and clothing is that they care too much about their appearance. It takes a significant amount of indifference towards other people and their judgements to walk outside into a world where everyone feels entitled to share their opinions on every subject, whether they be valuable or completely uncalled for. That translates directly into the issue about women's rights. People make comments, assumptions, and evaluations on women's semblance all the time, thinking we crave their approval, that we strive for their acceptance. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Some women definitely seek that sort of confirmation, but that often is a result of insecurity or lack of self-confidence. That isn't to say that ladies that choose to ignore others' criticisms on their looks are not insecure, nor is it to say that women who attire themselves in a more sexualized manner are doing so for the benefit of those around them. This may somewhat of a mantra for feminists, and hopefully eventually for every person: we are not trying to look a certain way for you, whoever you may be. I don't know who gave the general populace the power to decide who is a "slut," or at least looks like one, and who is not, but they should feel pretty crappy right about now because they are painfully fallacious. I don't think that word should even exist; I don't believe that promiscuity is so terrible as long as no one is hurt, either emotionally or physically, in the process. A woman has a right to use her body how she wants just as much as a man does. I've always wondered why nearly every rape story I've heard or read about involves a male rapist. What it is about penises that makes men think they can just stick them everywhere? I have a supposition that it has less to do with biology and more to do with social hierarchy. It boils down to the fact that women are simply not considered equal to men. 

When we ask ourselves where this inequality stems from, it's easy to say that way back in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras the men were the ones that hunted and the women tended to the children. The latter's fatal infirmity was their inherent femaleness: the menstruation and subsequent complications, the decreased ability to maintain dense muscle mass, et cetera. Men saw themselves as superior because they could go out and spear a buffalo for the whole clan and not have to worry about doubling over in pain from cramps or what have you. Sure, women have their weaknesses, but men don't? They absolutely do. The number one argument that I feel neutralizes everything is that women can have babies, and men can't. In theory, that should give us immense power, but it doesn't. Instead, guys just went ahead and took the liberty of impregnating women without their consent. I know it's completely inarticulate, but my instinctual response to that is: what the hell. I've never been pregnant before but I have taken freshman biology and I know plenty of people that have bore children, and it sounds like having a small person growing inside of you doesn't feel so fantastic. Forcing that on someone who has not asked for it is one of the most heinous crimes I can think of. Perhaps that's one reason why we don't see a lot of female rapists: we're at a higher risk of suffering the consequences of having non-assented sex both physically and socially. 

As a high school student and teenager, my future is like a massive, daunting, multi-colored cloud that looms ahead of me at all times. I have high hopes for that cloud. I want to be able to pursue a career in something I enjoy and not have to be concerned about whether my male occupationally equivalent colleague is getting more perks or has a higher salary purely because of my physical constitution. People's intellectual capabilities are purely a result of how much work they put into cultivating their garden, to cite Voltaire. In other words, my brain and all it can do and create is a product of my own labor, not genetic chance. 

I often think back to the time in my life when I had no idea what sort of unjustified prejudice I was in danger of facing because of my chromosomal makeup. I was ignorant and had been brainwashed by the patriarchal society we live in that, as a female, it was my duty to protect myself from harm but to simultaneously exude femininity. That only works if you're the only person you're ever around. There's no way to control what other people perceive as suggestive or girly (not that the two are synonymous in any way), thus it is impossible to satisfy everybody's personal requirements. If that's the case, then I don't see why I should bother trying to live up to the world's expectations for me as a woman. I would much rather strive to please others on the basis of what is expected of me as a human being. That's what we all are. Male, female, non-cisgender, somewhere in between, we are all just people. What baffles me is why we can't treat each other as equally as the universe intended us to be. If we were supposed to have hierarchal distinctions within our race, some of us would be born with five extra retractable limbs and x-ray vision. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I highly doubt that anyone possesses those abilities. 

Feminism is not about hatred or anger or misandry. It is not negative. Feminists are not intrinsically evil, nor are they lesbian by default, nor do they wish to purge the Earth of all non-women. "Male feminists" shouldn't have to be a term that distinguishes men that promote equity from those that don't. All of this is about equality and freedom and love. It isn't up to us to decide our anatomical structure, but we can most definitely choose to act in particular ways despite our natural differences. The power rests entirely in our hands to change, if not reverse, the undeniable misogyny of the world we live in. Once people can stop defining each other by their gender, appearance, ethnicity, or any other uncontrollable quality of ours, and begin to appraise one another based on the substance of our thoughts and merit of our deeds, we'll be on the right track. 

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Interviewing Famous People: Erin Barr

I went to Erin Barr's Spring 2013 presentation in September of this past year, and that was my first encounter with the designer's work. I had never heard of her, but I loved what I saw. I could tell that she was going places. Surely enough, Fall 2013 saw her transitioning to the runway, and she debuted her most recent collection at Chelsea Piers. That's like, a really big deal. The designer was kind enough to respond to a few questions of mine through email, so that's what you'll find below. 

Erin Barr is from Wisconsin, and originally studied to work in hair and makeup, graduating from the Aveda Institute. After working for a few years in the beauty business (quite successfully), she realized that fashion was her calling and moved to London for a year to attend Central Saint Martin's (the alma mater of Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Zac Posen, Phoebe Philo, and a bajillion more extremely well-known fashion designers), and then came back to New York City to finish up her schooling at Parson's New School for Design. She then went on to intern at Alexander Wang and Cushnie et Ochs, and finally in the fall of 2011, she opened her own eponymous line and produced her first collection for Spring 2012. 

[Photos courtesy of MAO PR, from the designer's Fall 2012 collection.]

How did growing up in Wisconsin as opposed to a major city (like New York City) mold your ideas and conceptions of beauty and fashion? 

I think it's really all relative to where you are when it comes to fashion. I know when I go home, I probably dress a bit more practical. For example, there are times in the winter there when warmth trumps style! But you can still make it look cool and chic. In New York, I think fashion is for one much more accessible, and you can get a little more creative, a little crazier maybe!

What inspired you to initially pursue a career in hair and make-up? 

Fashion design as a career wasn't in my vocabulary growing up. For me doing hair and makeup was a step toward finding what I really wanted to do in life. I'm so happy that I have that background now, because it really helps to imagine and communicate an entire look or feel.

Did you always have a passion for clothing, or was it sparked by your high-profile work in New York City in salons and on photo shoots? 

I definitely always had a passion for clothing and design. I used to go to the Border's bookstore when I was in High School and just stock up on magazines. I would tear out everything I was inspired by, and I would keep the tear sheets in a binder. That was my thing.
 

Would you say that the decision to go to Central Saint Martins was life-changing? Did the experience reshape your future, or do you think you would have ended up designing even if you hadn't moved to London? 

For me, moving to London and attending CSM was the best experience and choice I've made. It's such a great school, and it really opened my mind up to the creative possibilities. The fact that there should be no limits, yet you should be able to have restraint as well. If I hadn't gone to London I like to think that I would still have ended up designing. I know I would definitely be making art, though. I have to, it's in my blood.

What was it like to intern at some of the most cutting edge and of-the-moment design houses? 

Really inspiring! I learned so much from working with Alexander Wang and at Cushnie et Ochs.

How did you start your own brand? Was it a huge leap from working for other people? 

I had been thinking about starting my own brand for some time, and then the timing just felt right. It was a challenge in the beginning, but it was the challenge that was exciting.

How would you describe your vision for your line? 

Tomboy-Sexy with a Minimalist twist.

Are there any other careers you would like to explore in the future? 

Motherhood. Artistic Collaborations. 

What would you say are the pros and cons of being a fashion designer? 

It's great being able to work in a creative environment. But you do a lot of running around from factory to office, to fabric/trim stores, to meetings, and then back again. It's never a sit still at your desk kind of day. 

Do you have any advice for someone looking to work in the fashion or beauty industries? 

I think it's very important to get experience in any way. Don't limit yourself to only the big brands, either. There is so much to learn working with a smaller company.
 

Is there anything else you would like to add? 

Well...1. Follow your dreams. and 2. Thank you for the great interview!

***

I strongly suggest checking out the rest of her collections (two of which I've got right here on my blog) and perusing her website. This lady is a rising star, so we must keep our eyes wide open lest we miss the moment when she becomes one of the revered designers on that list of alumni. 

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