Seventh Look

I decided to include the seventh look with the coat. I cut the fabrics and started to sew the coat last week. It looks better than I thought it would so far. Hopefully I'll finish it before our last fitting on April 3rd. I still need to finish up the jacket for my sixth look and have several little things to do such as hemming and getting button holes. I feel like I didn't get as much done as I could have this week. I also need to get my labels and hang tags done hopefully by this week..oh and shoes!! Ah I can't believe it's almost over!

The night after I wrote about my insomnia last week I passed out and didn't wake for 15 hours. It was good but somehow it made me feel more tired.

Spring Break's Over

So I worked my butt off during the break being at school everyday and continuing to work at home. My nose bled last night!! Thank God it didn't happen when I was sewing. In spite of my still ongoing insomnia I had to wake up early because of the spring break hours - 8am-6:45pm Mon through Thur, 8am-5:45pm Fri, 9am-5:45pm Sat and closed on Sunday!!! It was hard but I managed to nearly finish four pieces for my 5th and 6th looks. The only piece I haven't cut fabrics for is a jacket for the 6th look. So proud!! Though, I've been feeling bad about dropping the 7th look ever since I'd decided not to do it and I still think adding the look would compliment the whole collection. I'd only have to make a long coat if I were to add it because I'd moved the other pieces underneath the coat to other looks and I could just move them back to the original. I don't know if I should take the risk though because there's not much time left. There's a ruffle in the coat and I was not happy with how it looked in muslin and I don't know how long it'd take me to make it look good enough to be happy with it. Ahh It would have been really nice if we had one more week..just one more...

Ms. Peters finally finished the knit coat for me before break. We had to change some details while she was working on it, but it looks pretty close to my drawing. So yay!

Freaking Out....

OMG I couldn't sleep last night feeling so anxious and thinking about pieces I need to work on. I have five pieces left and am working on two right now..School's closing earlier this week and that means I need to get up early. AHHHHH I'm going to try to finish four during the break and one the following week. I need to complete the whole collection at least by the end of March, so that I could have everything photographed and work on my line sheet. I need to find a photographer too..I think I emailed the photography major people to RSVP too late. They never responded. eh I'll figure something out..



Wait..I think I misunderstood about the collaboration with photography major people. I thought it was for line sheet but someone just told me it's for portfolio.

Second Look

Leather jacket in progress.


The leather jacket goes with the dress and pants.

First Look at Photoshoot

First Look in Muslin

Making corrections.

Actually this is my last look. I'm working on things I feel like first..not in the order.

London

There are definitely more designers that are avant-garde in London than there are in New York, and it seems to me that the kind of style is more acceptible in London than it is here. I was looking at Central Saint Martins MA fashion show online and could see that the way they design is very conceptual and artistic. I admire and somewhat envy how they do it. I once designed a conceptual collection for my portfolio in Concepts class where I used "Tsunami in Sri Lanka" as an inspiration, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. But I was criticized about weariblity and practicality when presenting the finishes in class. Some classmates were saying that if I wanted to get a job in New York, stuff has to be what they're looking for, which is accordingly well merchandised, straight forward "everyday wear" with mix and matchable items. I mean I consider wearibility important too but sometimes I want to go crazy.

What intrigues me the most about London is its culture and history. When I think of London, I always think of the Guard Mounting ceremony at Buckingham Palace..and London Bridge..Maybe it's because of some images in some sort of history book that I saw when I was little. Unfortunately I've never been to the city but I'm sure I'd love it. I'd love to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. Oh and I hear guys in London dress very nicely too.

Solstiss/Bucol Meeting

The sponsorship I happened to receive from french lace (Solstiss) and silk (Bucol) companies has given me this incredible opportunity to use the most beautiful laces and silk fabrics I could have never seen in my life! I feel so grateful for that. So what happened was that they picked two students to sponsor with laces and fabrics in the beginning of fall semester. Each of us got to pick and order fabrics we want for our projects and had them delivered all the way from France. I got my laces and fabrics about a week before school started in January. And finally Ms. Sandrine Bernard from Solstiss/Bucol, who has helped me and the other girl with the whole sponsorship from the beginning, is coming to see our progress this Tuesday. Francesca, who organized the sponsorship, is going to be there, our Director Mr. Faerm will be there, and her studio methods instructor Mr. Cruz and my stduio methods instructor Kevin also will be there. I think the meeting will give Ms. Bernard some idea of whom to choose as a "winner" and send to the actual factories in France as a prize. I'm still working on a pant with lace, which is a part of my 5th look, to show at the meeting. I got so mad surging the edges of panels for the pants in Children's wear classroom yeseterday. Somebody messed up with tensions in the machine and the surging looked really bad. It drove me nuts because I couldn't fix it!! Anyhoo I've got to go attach the waistband now. Ciao.

New York

New York’s fashion industry understands the balance that people seek 
between uniformity and individuality. It provides what is wearable but 
at the same time creative. It is not easy to be creative while "restricted", but there are many designers in this 
industry that are surprisingly good at it. The scale of market with 
enormous resources also keeps the price affordable with great quality,
 so it sells.


About HJ Lee


My name is HJ Lee a.k.a. Hyun Joo Lee or Hyun-Joo Lee. I'm from Seoul,
 Korea and came to the U.S. when I was 15 as an exchange student. After
 the year of my exchange student program in California I decided to stay
in the U.S. to continue with my education and moved to Minnesota for 
boarding school.

 As a child I had serious training in music and always thought I'd become
 a pianist when I grow up, but it came to an end as I realized that I
 didn't have as much passion about me playing piano as other people 
around me did. After my quitting piano my mom thought that sending me 
abroad would help me broaden my point of view and open my mind to more 
great opportunities. The change at such a young age was harsh from time 
to time, and I had to find something I could enjoy doing that would help 
me forget about all the hardships that I was going through with the 
language barrier, cultural differences, and homesickness. Luckily there 
was art studio where I could draw, paint, or create whatever whenever I
 wanted. I've always loved being creative and been interested in clothes.
 So here I am. Though studying to be a fashion designer is one of the 
greatest choices that I've made, I feel this indescribable sadness deep 
inside towards my “failed dream” of becoming a successful pianist.

Choosing an inspiration for my thesis project, I wanted to work with
something that's personal, and I thought I should dedicate it to the 
dream I once had. It is very meaningful to me that I designed my 
collection inspired by Ludwig Van Beethoven not only because he's been 
my favorite composer in history, but also because I played one of his
 piano sonatas on the stage for my last recital.

I believe that creating fashion inspired by Beethoven accomplish the 
unachieved goal and prove that the quitting happened for a reason. The 
collection is to bring out the boldness as well as romantic notes that
 Beethoven has in his music, and it studies men's wear and architecture 
of his time period. It's not merely about making beautiful clothes but 
about turning my sorrow into joy.

Fourth Look

It's supposed to go up to 55 degrees out today if I heard it right..I think that's about 12 degrees in celsius. Wait..do the British use celsius or fahrenheit?? Anyhoot..it's all sunny again and I can't wait to go out!

So I've been working on my coat for fourth look this week and looks good so far. The only thing that bothers me is the top collar and lapel. The coat has 4 different layers of collars and lapels and the very top layer looks awkward to me. I don't know what happened because I must have thought that it looked fine in muslin. I think I'm going to get rid of it and hopefully it's going to be ok. I still have so much work to do and it's March already. I'm getting a little freaked out and extremely tired..I've been working all week and notice how fast time flies. I don't know if I'll be able to do everything I wanted.

I haven't had time to work on my new croquis for concepts class and I'm going to go to the NY public library to look up some prints. If I don't find anything there, I'll have to develop one myself. Oh by the way it's good to see Hussein Chalayan back. I was wondering what happened to him past seasons.