#BestNine2017 of Ms. Fabulous

Happy New Year my darlings! I'm sure you have already checked out your Instagram #BestNine2017 for last year. What did you learn about yourself and your fans?

My past two years, the Best Nine told me I liked the color red, love fashion and my friends and family generally like to see photos of me.

Best Nine 2017 showed me my interests have changed somewhat. Based on the photos most highly liked, either me or all of you like to see comic-con photos more than runway photos. Either that's a shift in the overall love of geekery on my part, or yours? They account for 4 out of the 9 photos here.

Of the photos of myself you liked, one of them is one where I mock my puberty-plagued look. Three of them, I am wearing colors and patterns rather than my usual black.

The last photo is a posh plate of sushi. That's the oddball out here. I do post pics of food and my attempts at baking regularly, but this particular dish stood out. Perhaps it has to do with the combination of hashtags. Maybe Instagram viewers just like raw fish.

Here's to a healthy, prosperous and productive 2018 everyone! I showed you mine, now you show me yours! BestNine2017

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Star Wars Style - My Favorite Collaborations for The Last Jedi

Is the Force with you? Who saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi last night? Fashion fans who openly showed their geekiness used to be rare. In the last decade, high fashion brands have collaborated with the franchise for sophisticated Star Wars style. Past collaborations included edgy designers Rodarte and upscale Preen down to Old Navy and J. Crew.

This season, you can buy high-end heels from Christian Louboutin. They look like posh party heels for the holiday soiree, but if you look closely, you'll see jeweled tie-fighter details on the vamp.

Upscale denim brand Rag & Bone created a collection of casual hipster looks for men and women. What I like about this is that it doesn't immediately look like a movie-branded collection. The clothes are well designed and fashion-forward, with small nods to the costume styling in the movie.

There are plenty of Geek fashion emporiums like Hot Topic, Her Universe and Think Geek (where my sister bought my Millenium Falcon skirt). Many of the looks are a street style alternative to full-on costumes. They are budget-friendly and really fun, but they wouldn't be considered high fashion.

I am currently working with sleepwear company Richard Leeds International. They are known for super cute union suits and fluffy pajamas. If you have seen the very popular Chewbacca onesie or Princess Leia onesie on fangirls, that's from them. For The Last Jedi's release, they created a sleek, minimalist black and white group that puts the focus on rebels and the resistance. The Star Wars sleepwear collection is available at Target.

Star Wars style inspired yet? What are YOU wearing to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi?

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Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology

You have seen all of the hyped up Met Gala outfits. Now take a look at the Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology exhibit that inspired it all. Costume Institute head curator Andrew Bolton and Chief Design Officer of Apple Johnny Ive examined the link between crafting by hand and design innovation using technology.

In fashion, the old-school thought was that Haute Couture fashion, made by hand was the elite. A work of artisans, craft and art while machine-made clothing was cheap and for the masses. Meanwhile, every innovation in technology opens up new ideas and possibilities for taking design and fashion further, which is at odds with old-school thinking. Bolton came across a Chanel bridal ensemble (above) that he felt was a marriage of both which inspired the exhibit. Traditional Haute Couture techniques were employed in the construction, but the elaborate embroidery pattern consisted of digital design. That was hand-embellished on top.

Judging by all of the cyborg looks from the Met Gala, it was obvious a lot of people assumed that this was a futuristic fashion show. I found that while modern manufacturing was highlighted, the exhibit was more about different categories of embellishment. This subject speaks to me of course as an embellishment designer. 

Embroidery was celebrated. From classic thread work and hand knotted flowers to machine patterns. All forms of flowers from fabric manipulation of the Prada dresses to plastic laser-cut daisies of Dior to shaped metal flowers of Alexander McQueen.

Pleating as a technique was explored. Mariano Fortuny's dresses in the 1920's swept the industry in its time, then Mary McFadden in the 1980s. Issey Miyake took it further with flying saucer dress and flat garments that folded out to fully dimensional pieces. Raf Simons merged old and new with ribbon and tulle pleated skirts.

In the section on lace, there were examples of antique lace that was hand-knotted and crocheted. Then there were hand-cut lace-like patterns. In recent decades, designers are creating lace-like looks out of non-traditional materials using a laser-cut technique. Proenza Schouler created a ceramic appliqued on tulle dress that gives an appearance of traditional Guipure lace while Iris Van Harpen 3D-printed a lacy dress that looks like it morphed from a rib cage. ThreeAsFour's 3D printed creations were floating sculptures that looked like they defied gravity but still had a lace effect when worn.

The one thing I was disappointed about in this exhibit was that many of the most innovative pieces were just rolled over from the recent Beauty Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.  I JUST saw the Iris Van Harpen iron filings dress, Maiko Takeda headpieces and Gareth Pugh drinking straw dress two weeks ago. If this is the premiere fashion exhibit of the year, it shouldn't look like a re-run. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had an entire year to put this together, they couldn't check in with the other museum?

Unlike the dramatic staging of the Alexander McQueen tribute a few years ago, the setting of this exhibit was minimal. Domed sheer scrim tents framed the key garments of the show. Some had projections of the embellishment in closeup swirling in the background. The soundtrack in the background was ethereal. The Met Museum always treats fashion as exquisite art. However, this reverence also makes it inaccessible and at times, elitist. The average citizen who hasn't studied fashion or cannot afford these designers might have trouble relating to what they see beyond an item on a pedestal. The best fashion exhibits inspire the viewer to want to wear it, want to design it, see how they can fit it into their lives.

Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until August 14th, 2016.

Check out Summer Fashion Exhibits Worth Travelling For
by Ms. Fabulous at Mode

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Fashion Innovation at the 3D Print Design Show

3D printing may be the hottest buzzword in design, but it still is not adopted into the fashion industry as a go-to medium. Maybe the technology is a little intimidating. Perhaps brands are still struggling to find a way to make it mass production friendly. Perhaps they still see it as a the machine that just makes plastic toys.

How fashion designers are using 3D Printing now:

The 3D Print Design Show demonstrated a range of products now on the market. Many of them applicable to current fashion needs. The dress above from Melinda Looi had crystal embedded plastic cells printed into a chain-mail like textile that was movable and wearable.

Jewelry was the first area of the fashion business that adopted 3D printed technology. NinjaFlex is a company that makes a flexible filament for a softer product. Remember jelly bracelets and jelly shoes? You can make much more intricate ones in custom designs like the necklace on the left.

Bridging old-school techniques and the new. Traditional wax casting of jewelry involved carving hand wax into the jewelry piece shape you needed before casting the precious metal. You could spend weeks on the wax model and have it destroyed in an instant. Well now, you could just 3D print the design in wax, adjust the style, design or shape and correct it in minutes.

Shoes have been the other category adopting 3D printing in innovative ways. You could print the entire shoe of course, but many designers are using this technology to partial elements of the shoe for the more fashion forward aspects of the design, while using more traditional materials like wood and leather. This is a great way for independent brands to create some very avant-garde concepts without the expense of high minimums at a regular footwear factory.

So are you ready to take on the next frontier of fashion? 3D Printing is coming up with new materials, new capabilities and becoming more affordable for designers every day. These designs represent what is currently on the market, What's coming down the pipeline is more spectacular still...

Check out What Wearable Tech Is Doing for You Now
by Ms. Fabulous at Mode

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Epson America Presents Digital Couture

There has never been a better time for technology in fashion. Epson America presented Epson Digital Couture as a showcase for fashion designers from South America and North America who have been creating with their dye sublimation printers.

Even now, many clothing brands are still printing fabric by traditional methods like having individual screens cut for every color needed for an art print. This is why only large clothing companies with big development budgets can afford their own prints.

With digital printing becoming more affordable and popular, independent designers can now afford to design fashion with the most detailed, photographic prints. Using this method, any designer with graphic skills can create printer-ready work themselves without any concern for the number of colors they will use. They can also perfect the print long before the first sample is made.

Epson spotlighted their SureColor F-Series printers last night. One was a large-scale printer that could print on polyester continually for flat fabric yardage. Another printed directly onto finished cotton t-shirts.

The fashion themselves was a beautiful representation of the fabrics and silhouettes that benefitted from this process. I was impressed with how richly colored and detailed the patterns were with the dye sublimation process. I am excited at the potential of how designers will continue to push their creativity with digital fabric printers. This is another great example of how technology is democratizing the barrier to entry for new fashion talent.

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What's New in 3D Printing For Fashion

3D Printing has been the biggest buzz word in product development in the last few years. While you can find lots of little machines that squirt out plastic toys, can you really see it making what we might actually wear every day?

Shapeways is one of the leading 3D printing services that independent fashion designers are using to produce jewelry, shoes and other accessories using metal in addition to the typical plastic-like filaments. They can also produce a ceramic finish or laser cut leathers and wood. You might have seen Shapeway’s collaboration with Victoria’s Secret to create the dramatic angel wings at their fashion show.

Knitting machines from companies like Stoll were already producing full finished garments with their programming, before 3D printing was a catchphrase. If you really watch the process though, it is very similar in how it uses a yarn and shoots it out to in layers to knit a finished sweater. There are also companies developing a silicone coated yarns as a material for true 3 printers.

How about a silk wedding dress? Though it hasn’t happened yet, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has managed to produce huge dome of silk by working with CAD software and a network of silkworms. Reprogramming them to weave actual clothing seems very close to being a reality (though they might have done it by now).

It’s not just fashion that has seen new developments from 3D printing. A woman at Harvard is crowd-funding a project that lets you 3D print your own cosmetics at home. I can’t even tell you how fast I want this project funded! 

Savvy designers are mixing 3D technologies to create fashion. Sid Neigum used a mix of laser cutting and origami for his Toronto Fashion Week show. Iris Van Herpen used a combination of magnetic field, injection molding and laser cutting for her spring 2015 collection to amazing effect.

If you can dream it, fashion innovators can build it (or design it, print it, etc.) Style makers have always been at the forefront of technology and 3D printed fashion is just another tool fashion designers are using to make you look good.

Images from: Steven Keating.Shapeways blog, Grace Mink, Mariana Leung, Iris Van Herpen images from Dezeen.com

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#NYFW: Vivienne Tam Spring 2015 & the Forbidden City

Vivienne Tam is a master in merging traditional Chinese themes with contemporary techniques.  For spring 2015, the designer took her inspiration from China’s Forbidden City. 

Landscapes and nature patterns like waves and clouds were printed onto blouses or handbags.  Birds, flowers and trees were embroidered onto athletic fabrics like power mesh.  Printed neoprene was cut and appliqued onto other fabrics in a sports meets high fashion mix.  These motifs are found in historical artwork and handicrafts in China and treasures from inside the Forbidden City.  Her color palette was similar to her collections of the past. She used her signature red, black and ivory.  There was a pretty ceramic blue and bits of citrus yellow and purple in prints.

The big trend in many collections this season is wearable tech.  Vivienne Tam offered handbags that charged your phone when you put it inside.  Unlike many of the clunky pieces that many tech companies produced, the accessories on this runway were so stylish, I would be happy to buy them on design alone with the functionality being a big bonus.

The most popular jewelry was a variation on the knotted beaded friendship bracelet.  Unfortunately, my least favorite part of the catwalk was the footwear.  Normally, I would be enthusiastic about seeing a designer promote practical, comfortable footwear, but the socks and flat sandals the models wore looked like a bad tourist cliché.  Paired with the sleek, beautifully rendered pieces on the body above, it just did not make sense.  Was this a nod to the casual attire of Silicon Valley?  Sure, wearing comfy shoes should be a goal in real life, but on the New York Fashion Week runway, I realized I would prefer to see some nice heels on the models that are only spending 90 seconds in them.  Even the most professional of models, wearing socks and flat, duck-like sandals affects how they walk and the overall impression on the runway. 

With Vivienne Tam’s tongue-in-cheek design process, I think the models were lucky their feet were not bound instead.

photos by Mariana Leung

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CE Week's FashionWare Wearable Tech Runway

Fashion from the future made its way to the Metropolitan Pavilion this week.  All forms of wearable tech were showcased in a collaborative show at CE Week.  They ranged from functional gadgets to interactive fashion accessories.  There were illuminated embellishments that spanned LED lighting, pulse sensors, optic cables and digital screens.

Can tech fashion express love?  There was a couples outfit by the designers of Sait Radlab that displayed the electricity generated by the attraction between two people using an RFID readers, addressable LEDs and WiFi dongle to respond to another person's proximity.  To complement, the other person wore a wristband that monitored everything from stress levels, sleep and pulse waves.

The wedding gown featured everything from fibre optic cables, laser cut panels, addressable LEDs and pulse sensors.

There were shoes and accessories made from 3D printing techniques.  Earphones had a programmable skin that could be printed to match a person's outfit.  There was a vintage inspired pink silhouette by the designers of Make Fashion.  Using audio circuit technology that pulses to music, the embedded lighting succeeds in the wearer creating a spotlight for herself.  The fan contained gyroscope and programmable LED lights that corresponded to the model's movements.

Zazzi was a jewelry collection made of sterling silver that was tuned into your phone.  They had the capability to notify you of your texts, calls and social media notifications.

Two of the models wore a square accessory called the Narrative Clip.  this dainty accessory could hold 4000 photos, letting you project your life live...

I loved that wearable tech and true fashion designers collaborated to put together full looks.  Often the "tech" people trying to sell the idea are painfully clueless of the fashion element of wearables.  The fact that the gadgets and technology were seamlessly incorporated into the looks was proof of its progress.

I can't wait to try out some of the functional wearable tech in my own wardrobe.  Hell, I'm a fan of anything that makes my handbag lighter.

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High Tech Dresses That Move When You Look

Wow, I thought I had seen it all in techie innovations for fashion.  Last month, Dezeen Magazine showcased designer Ying Gao's edgy dresses.  Their styles are avant-garde enough, until you discover that they they slither and writhe as you look at them!

The dresses themselves are constructed with glow in the dark and photo luminescent thread over ruched fabric which means they light up or glow in the dark.  What makes them move though, are lots of tiny embedded motors that are coordinated with eye tracking technology.  The designer previous exhibited  garments that move as if they breathe or curl and unroll in reaction to outside light.

You need to see this video of the dresses in action: 

The past few years have been extremely progressive in high tech functional fashion.  Project  Runway's Diana Eng started a trend of finding ways to incorporate tech.  She produced a collection and a book that used light tubes, conductive wire and inflatable dresses that later inspired a challenge on a later season of the show.

I have also seen 3-D printed garments (famously on Dita Von Teese), lingerie that monitors the stock market and some amazing augmented reality apps.

The fashion industry has long been criticized for being slow to adopt technology.  I just can't imagine who those critics are!
Photos from Dezeen.com

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Fashion and Technology Exhibit

The FIT future of fashion graduate show is tonight.  However, what can you expect of fashion in the actual future?  The Museum at FIT presents theories to that question in their Fashion and Technology exhibit which runs until next week.

The show examines innovations in technology over the years in textile manufacturing, the sewing machine through to the possibilities of digital and 3D printing.  It also explores how the internet and social media has changed the way fashion labels market and brand themselves.

The fashion on display represent examples of how designers, independent and established have adapted and used high-tech treatments for fabric into their designs.  (The pink dress above is made of three dimensional molded shapes by Pierre Cardin in 1968, the optic patterned jumpsuit on the right is Jean Paul Gaultier's cyber graphic print from 1996).

The exhibit also shows how current culture of the times could influence day to day fashion.  The art deco movement in architecture reflected in the new use of geometric designs clothing.  The 1960's space race of politics and science manifested itself in astronaut-inspired bodysuits as if civilians were ready to head out to the moon themselves.

If you can't make it to the exhibit (it ends on May 8, 2013) then you should definitely check out the show website.  It has a thorough glossary to bone up on all the new garment technology terms.  It has a fantastic illustrated timeline of fashion technology and a great reading list to explore.  Need more? There is also a page of weblinks that leads you to more sites that cover all the futuristic fashion bytes.

photos by the Museum at FIT

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Makerfaire - Wearable Tech Fashion

Taking a break from runway reports today to indulge my nerd side.  I visited Makefaire at the New York Hall of Science over the weekend to check out fashion as interpreted by scientists and artists.

Amber Lundy, MFA student at UC San Diego (above) created a fashionable jacket she hand tailored and engineered with interactive lights.  She intended it to be a dance costume for the stage.  Individual LEDs and wires would allow the bulbs to light up when the dancer was touched.

Other projects (below) included a sexy bustier by Erin Lewis that could show stock market quotes as the wearer undressed.  It used conductive fabric, electronic circuitry and Xbee radio.  Is that every Wall Streeter's fantasy or what?

Erin Lewis also created a skirt of wood, metal and fabric (housing debris) that would actually vibrate in response to seismological data it gathered around the planet.  Erin is a Canadian artist whose medium includes wearable technology and new media.

There was an entire section on 3D printing at MakerFaire.  I am amazed at the possibilities that this new technology brings.  I saw makers use it to create jewelry, parts for gloves, shoes, bikinis and much more.  Materials originally started with a type of plastic, but now include things like metal and ceramic.

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