Tank girl

Tank tops are key pieces in any summer wardrobe. artLAB makes them with raw edged shoulder pads. Effortless militarie chic. Buy this at Etsy or DIY. Via kaKofonie.

Diesel Craft Rebels

Diesel´s Fall 2010 Preview collection is titled Craft Rebels. Loving the name, but what about my favorite piece in this collection? These denim microshorts WITH garters. Way cooler than the ones with out garters. And, they are very easy to make yourself! So take your old worn down jeans, crop the legs off, fold them twice and sew two garter clips onto the pocket bottoms.

Tulip

After you´ve been sewing for a few years, moving up to pattern alternation is one of the next steps in DIY fashion. With that you are able to make ja refashion better fitting clothes, but also use just a few basic clothing patterns to make loads of variations from one style.

Tulip skirts hit the runways last summer, but they have stayed on the racks since then. They are very similar to pencil skirts except for two main differences. They’re wider in the hips and are often a couple inches shorter. Tulip skirts cinch at the waist, balloon out at the hips due to pleats or ruching and then taper back down to the legs. They are usually hemmed a few inches above the knees. Bodywise tulip shaped skirts are exellent for women with a straighter figure and thin/medium build as they add volume to the hips. The balloon in the hips is also very forgiving for those who have wider hips or extra weight in the lower stomach. However, the style should still be loose in that area. If you pleat also the back, this skirt type will give the impression of a fuller bum. Pair tulip skirts with a short waisted top or a thin knit top that you can tuck into the skirt. The pleating and unique style of the skirt should not be covered. Layering a cropped cardigan or blazer over a tight fitting top is fine, but keep it unbuttoned to prevent bulk and allow the style to be seen. To elongate the appearance of your legs, wear heels. For a girly look, wear flat gladiator sandals or ballerinas.

Tulip skirt dress Opening Ceremony:






Tulip skirt pattern alternation from a pencil skirt pattern by Megan Nielsen and at Burda Style:







Tulip skirt with vertical pleats:

Cut. Works.

Yeah, nothing seems boring or old fashioned anymore when the Rodarte girls get their hands on it. Cutwork embroidery, anyone? These pants have been decorated with it! Cutwork embroidery is a beautiful and classic form of needlework where portions of the background fabric are cut away and discarded, after the edges worked over in buttonhole stitches (or with dence machine zig zag stitch). See tutorials here and here. Rodarte might not do a very complex design, as their cutouts are just a few random holes, but the technique is still the same. For the complete Rodarte reptile zipper pant look, make a simple stencil on reptile skin (save and print the stencil below) and fabric paint it to the leg tone-on-tone before cutouts. Add 4 zippers to the hip. Not for function, but the look.





Stencil for printing snake skin.

Gemma smiles

White zippers sewn to the dress collar. No jewelry needed.

Title: Think Pink
Magazine: Vogue Italia April 2005
Model: Gemma Ward
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Via NoirFacade

Monoxious DIY fashion

See the complite Ann Demeulemeester zipper hairband tutorial and Elatic harness bra tutorial at Monoxious.

White stripes

Hanna wearing my blue/white striped shredded secondhand Navy tank top. :)

If you want one for yourself, they are available in my Etsy Shop or you can contact me directly via e-mail for custom orders. If you want to see them live and learn how they are done, I will be selling and making these at the Fashion Fleamarket at Ravintola Rafla in Helsinki next Sathurday May 29th. The sales starts at 12 and ends at 16. Come come, Helsinki fashion cream (Kirsi Nisonen, Minttu Vesala, Henna Koskinen, Piian Nokelainen, Jenny Jansson, Pipsa Hurmerinta, Emma Paaer, Anna Storm, Marianna Schmandt, Hanna Gullichsen...) will be there with tables filled with stylish secondhand and vintage treasures. Fashion Fleamarket is "cash only" event.

Photos by Hanna Gullichsen.

Roman Legionare

Every now and then I find stuff from my inspiration folders that I´ve missed to post in the time they were discovered. Prada Fall 2009 Roman centurion leather dresses and legion skirts were one of these. These armour like pieces were boldly embellished with studs and have a bold modern warrior feel to them. Even though this collection is now a year and a half old, I still find these pieces beautiful and inspirational.

The trashion version would be to find secondhand leather clothes, remove the lining and cut the hem to 2 inch (5cm) wide slits/fringes. Spaypaint some studs black and sand them for a more worn look. Cut VHS tape to pieces and hand sew some on as black shiny sequins.




This vest (top image) could be made by refashioning a long leather jacket (that does not have any patch pockets):
- Remove lining
- Cut the sleeves out
- Fold and glue the sleeve openings with leather/textile glue
- Cut out mid front (buttons area), leave raw edge
- Spaypaint some studs, sand them
- Cut slits to front hem
- Attach studs and hand sew VHS tape on






Leather fringe mohegan decorated shoes.




Photos via Fashionologie and Style.com

L'Enfant Trashionable

I´ve decided to launch a new term in trashion, L'Enfant Trashionable.

It´s a re-used form from L'Enfant Terrible. L'Enfant Trashionable is an unusually successful person in fashion design who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, and/or avant-garde in refashioning clothes and DIY recycle design. A person who annoys his elders and friends with DIY fashions; transf. a person who compromises his associates or his party by dumpster diving in public or other uncommon sustainable fashion related behavior and then wears them fabulously; loosely, one who acts unconventionally in fashion through recycling, DIY and secondhand.

I´d prefer to think of trashion as much more than just news paper, bubble wrap and garbage bag gowns. The challenge is to make trashion wearable, to have permanent design value and yet bold forming with a high recycle percent in material usage. To me Martin Margiela is L'Enfant Trashionable with his Artisanal brand. Who is your L'Enfant Trashionable? What is your favorite design from them?



Photo by MichPI.

DIY Fendi wrap heels

I told you those Fendi wrap-up heels looked like a pair of pantyhose was put to a better use! DIY by P.S. I Made This. Inspiration Fendi Summer 2010 runway heels. Oh.. and do me a favor and don´t go out buying a new pair of pantyhose for this project. We all have old ones in our closets that have a few holes in them. They are perfect for stuff like this. And nude ain´t the only color you can try. Black is always a good and easy-to-style alternative.

DIY undies - bloomers pattern

Hehey! I found a free downloadable pattern for these cute undie bloomers at Colette Patterns. Make them out of secondhand mens shirts (you propably ned 2), silk scarfs or old 90´s flower dresses with a wide hem. Just make sure the fabric is natural fibres and lightweight. Via Whip Up.

DIY Miu Miu manicure - Sharpie swallows

And that ain´t all folks! Check out this incredible DIY Miu Miu inpired manicure at Stop It Right Now blog. Do a basic manicure and sharpie the rest. Nail-o-licious!

DIY Miu Miu heels - Sharpies and swallows

DIY Summer 2010 Miu Miu swallow shoes by Kristin at Bleach Black. I´m loving how she has transformed the whole look of these ugly 90´s shoes. I see so many of them at the fleamarkets unsold.. When painting shoes, I recommend doing it with leather shoes and the base color with car spray paints. Leather lasts better than plastic and craft spraypaints just suck. Car spraypaints are more durable to wear and water. Check out my tutorial on spraypainting accessories at my Flickr tutorial gallery.

Linguista also made her own DIY Miu Miu swallow dress by making a stencil and fabric painting the birds onto one of her old dresses. Very beautiful!




DIY Summer 2010 Miu Miu swallow shoes tutorial by Kristin at Bleach Black.

Pearly heels

I saw these Moschino pearl decorated heels at Yoox. To me it looks like different sized pearls are hand sewn onto a piece of leather by using old black pantyhose (!) on top. Ok, Moschino might see it otherwise, but I´m looking as fashion through trashion glasses.