Fashion for everyone

Real vs. DIY Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte heels

You might have already seen this, but it's so great that I thought it was worth sharing. As you know, I've done my share of Rodarte DIYs (working on one as I write, as a matter of fact), and I always appreciate seeing when other people give it a shot, and how their results turn out. Christina and I have had vague ambitions to DIY the Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte heels, but frankly it got lost in the long to-do list. Not to mention the fact that I feel slightly uncomfortable doing any shoe DIY's without a hefty amount of help from my favorite shoe-repair man, Boris. That's why I was incredibly impressed when Carly from Chic Steals told me to check out the pair of heels she DIY'd entirely on her own, even though it required plenty of time, careful work, and most importantly, creative thinking and problem solving. After all, the greatest challenge is figuring out how to replicate the design yourself, and I think Carly did a pretty incredibly job. You can follow her step by step instructions here, if you feel so inspired. In the meantime, I'm going to go back to my knitting...I'll keep you posted...

Some of the tools you'll need

Carly wearing the finished results

DIY Sweater, Elizabeth and James tee, VPL bra, Carin Wester pants, Dieppa Restrepo brogues, Devaki hat, Slow and Steady Wins the Race Sunglasses and purse, Triskaidekaphobia necklace and ring.

So, I know I haven't put up a DIY in ages, but I kinda got hung up on one monster project that took me a lot longer than I could ever have anticipated. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I have a thing for Rodarte, and have tried my hand DIYing their tights, dresses, and leggings. All of those projects went relatively quickly, taking no more than a few weeks max, so I thought I would take a chance and give the Rodarte hairy-looking looped cardigan a try. I went for a Where The Wild Things Are-inspired muddy color story, which felt appropriate for such a shaggy mess of a sweater. I knew it would be an ambitious undertaking, but I didn't expect to take me almost a year to finish.

Most of that year was a eight month long pause between last winter and this one, getting sick of the ridiculous project, and wondering why I was devoting so much time to something so fashion-jokey (I will be the first to admit that this sweater looks like a prop-piece from Zoolander). It took me less than a week to knit the body of the sweater, but the main bulk of the time was spent latch hooking the whole thing. Judging from the runway images, I made the mistake of thinking that the Rodarte sweaters were entirely latch hooked, and didn't realize until I saw them in person that their hairy texture is composed of a mix of loop-knitting and latch hooking. If I had figured this out before knitting the sweater body, I would probably have saved myself a lot of time. Latchooking seems easy, but when you're working with such bulky, chunky yarns, it actually is a huge pain in the ass.

Anyway, I'm not actually going to bother going through the DIY instructions for several reasons. First, I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that anyone else would want to make this, wear this, or look like this. I know that I'm probably the only person in Manhattan willing to be mistaken for an Asian-Amish vagabond (yes, I actually walked out dressed like this, and yes it did elicit a lot of funny looks). Second, even though I got every single scrap of material I used for free from my former job, it probably amounted to about $500 worth of yarn, which is a rather huge amount of money to drop on such a fashionably questionable project. Third, I never work with a pattern. If however, for some reason you would like to give it a try, or are working on something similar on your own, feel free to leave any questions in the comment section and I'll be happy to explain or clarify any of the steps I took.

Now that this nonsense is finished, I think I will get back to some lighter projects--maybe some more practical sweaters and scarves for winter that don't involve making yarn-dreadlocks. On the plus side, the monster sweater was a great way to get rid of scrap yarn, and I have to say--it's as crazy-warm as it is crazy-looking.

Christina wearing our DIY sequined Harlequin dress and ruff collar, Comme des Garcons x H&M blouse

Thank you to everyone who made it out to our Halloween Party at Anchor Bar on Sunday! We had such an amazing time that we needed all of yesterday to fully recover. I never feel safe bringing my big fancy camera out to parties, but I did get a few decent iPhone photos of the night. I finally downloaded the Hipstamatic iPhone app, which is, no exaggeration, LIFE CHANGING. After some futzing around, I fixed my virtual camera to a setting that makes my crappy camera phone pics look like old-fashioned Polaroid transfers, which I used to make back in high school. I think the fuzzed-out look goes perfectly with our Carnival theme...

Tony and James

Our creepy clown makeup

Waseem was dressed as the Ring Master

Striped thigh highs from Legs Avenue and pink Melissa shoes completed the look

The ghost of Diane Birch

Antler chandeliers at Anchor Bar

DIY felt shark, American Apparel gold swimsuit, CK tights, Forever 21 shoes

Christina and I have been planning on making these Shark Attack! costumes since last Halloween, but we ran out of time and ended up dressed as Republicans, with business suits and secretary blouses borrowed from Screaming Mimi's. This year though, we were determined to make it happen, and luckily we got it together in time to wear to our party at Butter last night. We weren't the only ones dressed as beasts: Greg K showed up wearing his Where the Wild Things Are x Opening Ceremony Max sweatshirt, and scary pigs and sexy bunnies were also present for a full on Animal Planet vibe. Although it was little hard to dance/do anything social whatsoever, it's one of my favorite Halloween costumes I've ever had, and didn't take much time to put together. There are plenty of DIY instructions online for this costumes, but here's a short summary of how we did it, using gray, red, white and black felt, and a tiny bit of copper wire.

Christina cut the bodies out of gray felt, and lined the inside of the body with red felt.

We cut a hole in the front of the costume for the mouth, and lined the edges with white felt teeth. We made a shark's fin out of the left over gray felt, and added it to the back, along with two black felt eyes.

As a finishing touch, we tacked a strip of cooper wire along the inside edge to keep the shape of the shark nose area in tact. We wore the outfits two ways: as a hood, and off to the side, for the full eaten-alive-effect.

Hand embroidered 'Lunette' tote-bag

To me, there are two categories of craft. The kind that I can DIY, and which I refuse to spend money on, and then the kind which are made with true craftsmanship and skill, which I'm more reluctant to attempt to make at home, and more willing to part with my dollars for. Hand embroidery of any kind definitely falls into the second category for me, as I will never acquire a taste for hand-sewing. I hold the highest amount of respect for people who have more patience than I do, and therefore am slightly smitten by Rose Patate, a line of handmade jewelry, accessory and household goods designed by Rachel Peloquin. Many of her designs feature hand embroidery, quilting, and silk screening, and I'm particularly fond of her quirky little broaches that look like they've been made with the utmost love and care.


Hand embroidered broaches

Plume cotton tote bag featuring tromp-l'oeil feathers

Studded tote bag

DIY Rodarte-inspired cardigan, Six Six Sick ribbon top and ruff collar, hand-me-down vintage skirt from my mom, Triskaidekaphobia Necklace, H&M socks

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, but I figure that maybe if I write one down here, there will be a greater chance that I actually make good on it. I only have one resolution, that encompasses all the areas of my life. In 2011, I hope to be more proactive about getting things done, whether it's meeting deadlines, returning emails, invoicing clients, or just cleaning my house. I also want to make sure I finish all the projects I get started on, whether it's jewelry, blog, or DIY related. I am a master procrastinator, and even though I have the best intentions, I only end up completing half of what I set out to do.

I've started by getting my first DIY of the year done as quickly as possible. Since I always need more sweaters, I knit myself this Rodarte-inspired cardigan during the Christmas/New Year holidays. It only took me about a week, and involved watching plenty of good movies (Exit Through The Gift Shop, I'm Still Here, Toy Story 3) and bad TV (not telling). Although it's loose-knit, it's surprisingly warm. I plan to do a lot more knitting in the next few months (more scarves and cowls are definitely needed), so hopefully I will keep up the momentum to get them all done before the end of winter!

DIY marbled Keds and tote bag, Gestuz dress, Eugenia Kim biker cap, Cara Croninger resin bracelets, Triskaidekaphobia necklace and ring.

A few weeks ago, my friends over at Keds sent me a couple pairs of sneakers. I already had white ones, so when I got a second pair, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to do a DIY. At first I was only planning on dying them at home with some Rit, but once I got to the art supply store I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. After a good amount of deliberation, I ended up picking up the Jacquard Marbling Kit for Fabric and Paper, choosing it because it seemed to have the simplest and most straight-forward directions. Plus, Dick Blick, the art supply store I bought it from, has an extremely helpful instructional video that walks you through the entire process. I didn't want the shoes to be too bright, since I want to be able to wear them everyday and with anything, so I just dyed them very lightly for a watercolor effect. While I was marbling , I also decided to dye a giant white canvas bag that served as a goody bag from the DIY or DIE event we did at Urban Outfitters last year. I decided to go for more intense colors, and you can properly see the marbling effects.

Rather than posting a full set of instructions, I posted the Dick Blick video below. It's a bit time consuming with all the preparations, not to mention a pretty messy affair, but the actual marbling is very easy. It's a really fun way to customize all of the free totes and tees you have lying around, and I definitely suggest you give it a try since the whole kit and all of the extra supplies costs less than $20 total. Next up I'm going to do some notecards, and maybe even try that Marbled Nails DIY that's also floating around youtube...

The Jacquard Marbling Kit

My lightly marbled Keds


Close up shots of the marbling on the canvas bag


The Dick Blick instructional video for how to use the Jacquard Marbling Kit