The kids are alright

Eleven Paris Spring/Summer 11 from eleven paris on Vimeo.

This video has inspired me so much while making and writing my upcoming DIY book. I love the mood, colors and of course Ash. Who wouldn´t?

DIY fashion inspiration - Balenciaga curve shirt

Minimalism and clean lines are back. Think in the year 1998-2000. Balenciaga gave the classic men shirt to a new more modern and androgynous shape this season. Sleeves are cut out and the bodice slimmed down to a straight line. Hem is cut and shaped curvy and high up on the sides. Collar gets shiny flat metal decor handsewn or glued to it.

And if you take a patterned shirt, do the same alternations plus spraypaint graphic forms (squares, lines) to it, you'll get this...

Snip snip

Cut, pin and sew. An old unfitting secondhand 70´s hippie dress transformed to a cute tunic with a few seams and about an hours work. The sleeves have been cut to 3/4 length, and elastic band added to the sleeve openings. The hem has bee cut from the waist line and pinned and sewn higher. Idea via The Velvet Bird.

DIY Walk of fame

Cut Out And Keep craft tutorial forum has some pretty cool shoes customizing projects:

McQueen homage snake heel boots tutorial with diamante sole and chained heel:



Rodarte inspired spike heels tutorial by Carly:



McQueen inspired feather heel tutorial by Jenna C.:



Miu Miu Sparrow Shoes tutorial by Stacie G.:



Sweater boots tutorial by Niamh O.:

DIY tutorial - Fashion Attack: over knee boots

Fashion Attack made an another col video tutorial on how to transform your favorite shoes into over knee boots! Via Feed Your Style.

Snefter

As I´ve said before, and I´ll say it again, Etsy is full of talented DIY crafters! You can find almost anything there. Most of it something that is not sold anywhere else. Unique fabulousness. As a huge fan of wearing metal I cannot get enough of Snefter's chain works. I like the way they have mass, yet the form is very easy to wear and light. Will be sure to get you noticed. Snefter goodies are available at Etsy.

Coat story - Balmain vs. Varusteleka

In case you´re wondering why I´m continuing to post about coats, it is still -14 degrees cold in Helsinki. That´s the kind of weather that you need to dress up in a quality wool coat, combat boots, triple socks, cap, scarf and other woolly whatnots. It´s the sea wind that makes it feel like -30. No business going out without layers on layers. Winter is always a fashion-challenge. How do you keep yourself looking cool and still feeling warm?? Sometimes it seems impossible especially when fashionable gear usually isn´t the most fuctional, definately not warm and often made from crappy materials. Or if you´re lucky to find a good winter jacket, the zipper at least breaks in a few uses or some other shit like that.. (sigh)

Anyways, who is up for some Balmain? Yey!! Their Fall 2011 Mens collection lookbook is out and it is looking pretty amazing. Classic military pea coats and 70´s styled lamb leather coats styled with chinos, cardigans and thick wool scarfs. Superb styling. THIS is what winter (and fall) dressing up should look like! When fashion goes classic, you can shop it all second hand. It´s all there for a fraction of the high street price tag. Here are some of my favorite coats from Varusteleka´s webstore, a Finnish army surplus shop I absolutely love. Honestly, with quality surplus found with prices like this, who wants to go to cheap fashion chain shops is beyond me. Army clothes are made to last from decade to decade in any weather. To keep you (and our army boys) warm and looking hot so don´t forget to ask your boy to come along on your shopping trip.

MY VARUSTELEKA FAVORITES VS. BALMAIN FALL 2011:

Bundesmarine used pea coat. "And we thought that nothing stylish ever came from West Germany. Turns out we were wrong! As you can see, this is a real Man-jacket, just like its US counterpart. The German model features shiny brass buttons and a lighter gabardine fabric with nylon lining. Sizes are given in the fancier BW system, which guarantees a well-fitting jacket for everyone."





Used French Greatcoat M47. "It is very nearly a copy of the US Army WW2 model, and is an excellent and affordable alternative to it. This actually looks pretty good - no wonder, as it's copied from the American wartime model: two slash pockets, masculine button rows, a large collar and made of thick brownish wool." Show it a little steam to get the warehouse creases out and you´re all ready to go.





Used SA-INT greatcoat. "Finnish greatcoat. Standard issue before fancy polyester materials made their breakthrough. These are quite thick and of excellent quality. A simple greatcoat, with two button rows, two slash pockets and a large fold-down collar. Made of thick and warm gray wool." If you want the hem to be shorter just take it to a seamstress, it will add price maybe a few bucks, but is well worth it!





Used Swedish army wool greatcoat.

All in one

Take three totally different second hand coats or jackets (preferably wool fabrics) and morph them together to make a monster jacket inspired by Givency.

Idea via Tobacco and Leather.
Vogue Spain February 2011

The Strokes

Big brushes, loong curvy strokes, damp garment and some watered down fabric dye (aqarelle color effect) gets you this. I adore this outfit, styling and the coloring technique. But if you have only black clothes in your wardrobe, you can use bleach instead of dye. Idea via Kingdom Of Style.

Wrap up

This looks like a fun idea to refashion an old jersey skirt or dress, by using shiffon. But what if instead of shiffon (bought new from a fabric shop) you´d use something used, like old pairs of broken pantyhose..? That would be trashion.



And you could make shoes to match. These are by Fendi, Summer 2010 collection.



Idea via This Old Dress.

Wait... whaaat??

!!!!!!!!! Holy crap.... At some point I must have done something right. Thanks Cision!! You made my week... no.. month. :D

Paper clip

Stroke of menswear styling genious. Via Rackk and Ruin.

Generale

This jacket with the metal chain-embellished frogging front, marching band styled buttons and.. oh yes. So very DIYable and so much cooler than usig satin cord or ribbons. Use any kind of chain you can find (in similar color tone) not just one.

Photo:
Photographed by Tom Munro
Numero #117
October 2010

Hairy business

As you´ve propably noticed I´m all about refashioning with fake hair right now. I just love it. Very DIY Rick Owens I tell'ya. And if you don´t take my word for it, take Zoo´s then. The top image is from the Winter Issue of Zoo Magazine. If They are styling with hair, it is definately in. Def. Fake hair fashions are the ultimate bounce back to the non-hair beauty ideal where everyone is trying their best to get rid of every fringe and lock that is not attached to their heads. Using hair is also an alternative "fur" for refashioning clothes and accessories. It sounds cool too! "Is that horse hair? I prefer rabbit or chincilla." "No it´s human.." !! Don´t take the easy way and just go out shopping for new fake hair extencions, but go ask your local hairdressers if they want to give you some of their old ones. That´s trashion.

Photo via Dirty Flaws.

Vote for trashion!

I entered the Refinery29 blogger competition. If you love DIY fashion, vote for me here (Outi, Helsinki). Scroll down untill you see the competitors, find me on the list and click heart. Thanks!!

DIY refashion idea - zippered shirt

Photographer: Carlotta Manaigo.
Styling & Creative Direction: Maher Jridi.
Lurve Magazine No.4.
Model: Lea T.
Via Riot Mode.

Reverse Burberry Prorsum zip jacket DIY

Few days ago I featured a video tutorial for refashioning your long winter coat with a zipper, inspired by Burberry Prorsum. This picture is from Proenza Schouler pre-fall 2011 collection. It just occured me that this same tutorial can also be used to attached the hem from an another coat to one of your shorter winter jackets to make it a longer one. Reverse DIY!

DIY idea - feather rings

Big ring + feathers + super glue = fassssshion. Photo via Chocolate Mademoiselle.

Designers looking for waste - Trashion heroine Reet Aus

In the early 1990s big chains and worldwide distributors launched what is called “fast fashion”. Ever since then basic decisions on the market are based on economic statements. Instead of production development and new design, the lowest possible price of the product is most important. Fashion follows poverty: Producers need to find the cheapest fabric, the technologically easiest production-process and the subcontractor with the lowest cost. “Fast fashion” speeds up the pace of consumption. Today, a staggering amount of industrial last season stock end up in landfills after they were not sold at shops. Labels are forced to rather waste their unsold stock to protect their brand image than to recycle it. Sometimes brands even make their employees cut the unsold products into pieces (so nobody could wear them anymore) and throw them into the trash. Open secret in the fashion business is: To give away unsold stock is forbidden. That would harm reputation of the label. As a consequence clothes have lost their value 100% after the season is over. The result is perishing resources and imperceptible amounts of waste. There are no penalties or mandatory recycle processes for sorting, reusing and recycling this industrial textile waste. Most of what we throw out could be valuable material for the creation of a new product. It´s such a shame especially if the discarded clothes are from quality labels! This is an unfortunate truth in fashion.

So how can we reduce the amount of waste they produce? I have a few ideas of my own.. EU should support (tax discounts) anyone that decides to use recyled material over new. I´m sure this alone would ecourage labels to re-think their waste policy. Also waste penalties should be raised so recycling would become a more reasonable option for brands. But this is just me. I´m sure the bigger picture s a bit more complicated than this.

Estonian recycle fashion designer Reet Aus (my new trashion heroine!!) is tired of this. She is passionate about waste, things that nobody wants. She has worked with many companies to start up a campaign to help create an environmentally friendly fashion industry. Now she is introducing the green fashion community to the upcycling campaign Trash to Trend which aims at seeking new solutions for use of textile waste. They have planned to build a forum for the fashion industry where manufacturers and shops can submit information on their industrial leftovers and unsold stockist (calling it waste mapping). The goal of mapping textile waste is to get an overview of the industrial waste produced in Estonia/Europe/the world and to create an independent web site that helps find versatile but realistic solutions to creating an environmentally friendly textile industry. The mapping includes manufacturers on one side and designers on the other. Manufacturers can indicate the amount and type of discarded textile waste they have and designers can find this with a few clicks and use it as raw material for their collections. The platform will also serve as data source for fashion industry related background information. This is a wonderful project and I wish Reet success with her mission.

Btw. Reet Aus a shining example in promoting trancparency in fashion. Her collection materials are not just labelled as "recycled" but defined where the recycled material actually comes from; consumers, last seasons stock or industry cutting waste. If you have a recycle fashion label maybe you should consider is doing the same...



But that´s no all folks! Reet will also launch an ethical fashion industry film documentary campaign called “Out of Fashion”. In the film she observes (media) actions, has consultations with influential environmental organizations and activists, collecting signatures, lobbying in fashion councils and in the European Parliament. The documentary is directed by Jaak Kilmi and will air in cinemas autumn 2012. Can´t wait!

Out Of Fashion -documentary trailer from Reet Aus on Vimeo.

Inspired or copied?

(EDIT: From time to time I will re-post some of my favorite posts from the past. Just so you can read up on stuff that is important to me and to raise a discussion among my new readers. This was originally posted in January 2009.)

Things can always be said in two ways, the positive and negative (in my mind truth is relative). If you make a dress similar to your favorite high fashion designer´s is it "inspired" or "copied"? Counterfeit Chic has spent a good time pondering on this issue which lead me to also write about my own feelings and thoghts on this subject. I remember back in fashion college I did do a lot of conscious copying and got loads of shit from the teachers for it (at least I was always honest about it!). At the time I just felt that since this school was about pattern making and sewing and not about design, the source of my design was not important. I once also designed and sewd a B&W little coctail dress that got very good praisals of the teachers. A few months later I saw a very similar design in a magazine by YSL.. It was a total surprise to me. Apparently I do also take in influences subonsciously. I felt so stupid... Thank God nobody noticed!

Today, ten years later I feel that if a professional designer (with proper education in design) working for a fashion label or house does this I don´t think it is exeptable. They should be able to do better with all the tools they have! Like in this Project Runway copy-incident (see links below) It´s just embarrassing because one will always get cought when the judges are fashion professionals. Besides the whole point of Project Runway is to discover new and original talent... DUH!



Apparently copying designs is very common in fashion. When I was doing my college trainee period for a small Finnish fashion label I was very surprised to see how systematic the copying from major labels was. The house designer simply cut up images from collection books, drew the scetch and wrote measurements on a piece of paper, stapple on some color or fabric samples and sent it to the manufacturer for production! And it was considered "business as usual" in 97´. When I asked about this from the designer, she said that she´d love to do her own stuff but the customers/buyers want more designer-copies because it is what the consumers want.. And the customer is always right? At the end this is a matter of personal morals and good taste. It is a very gray area. What to do? Avoid buying factorymade designer copies.



When it comes to crafting and DIY fashions, I´m all for copying designs from major fashion houses! In fact I encurage it! If the item is something you make only for yourself or just a few handmade pieces for sale, I call it being "inspired". A crafter has complitely different techniques and workmethods to the fashion industry and I´m sure the fashion house copied will not mind. When I first saw the zipper neckpieces made by Comme des Garçons in their SS2005 collection, it took me years to figure out how the zipper necklaces are done. And eventually when I was able to establish a technique, I´m sure it is very different from the original because I´ve only had pictures as references. In the name on good mannors I don´t take full credit for the design but as I have made more and more necklaces, I also noticed that I have developed my own designstyle on them. And it will propably still change as I do more. An artists works always evolve as the time goes on. Maybe in a few years they will be so different that you could not see the connection anymore.

But what about copying from other crafters? In general I would not recommed it unless the artist has given you permission to do so or made a tutorial about the project as I have. Artists are usually very protective about their works and copying it just feels sad because the design is something personal to them. If you consider copying from anothers, it might be a good idea to contact the original artist first to ask permission (many are very nice people that just feel flattered about it :D) or at least credit and link the original work. This way others see where you got the idea and the orignal artists work is recognised. My work is meant to inspire, so copy away. I do appreciate the links! :D

More on this subject see these articles on Counterfeit Chic: Project Runway: Copy Cut and Project Runway: Birds of a Feather. And of course I´d love to hear what you think about on this issue!!

Good hair day

I´m fascinated by using fake hair extencions in creating accessories and jewelry. I really cannot imagine using fake locks for the reason they are originally made for as I prefer real, but for trashion purposes.. YES! Bitching and Junkfood girls do it so well with their Two Weeks SS11 accessories collection. Slightly macabre, just the way I like it.. And with the chains and feathers, who can resist these?! Their feather suspenders are to die for. Via Kingdom of Style.

DIY tutorial - Fashion Attack: Make your own Burberry Prorsum inspired zipper jacket

Another cool reader project! Sent to me by Micol from Feed Your Style. A video tutorial on how to re-fashion a Burberry Prorsum inspired fall pea coat with a waist zipper that enables the jacket to be cropped in half. Fantastic work!!






Photo from here and here.