Smashing Darling Blog

Independent designers, listen up, are you in or around Kansas City? West 18th Street Fashion Show is accepting applications from designers who would like the chance to show this June at their annual fashion show.  Details for applying are below.

To apply:

• * At least 3 photographs of previous garment/clothing design work (not on CD)
• * Resume
• * Please tell us­– through both sketches and an artist statement­– how your designs will interpret this year’s title/theme, “A Decadent Summer.” Be bold; be brave; be excellent; and collect your inspiration from romantic elegance, drama, classic luxury and Edward Steichen.
• * Registration Fee: $25 (cash or check made payable to “18^th St. Fashion Show”)
• * Application materials may not exceed 12” X 15” in size.

For more info click here.

Wishing I were going to be in La Jolla April 23 & 24th.  La Jolla will present it’s first Fashion Film Festival, highlighting short films with fashion as the subject. The two day event will also feature informal fashion show, discussions and after parties.

“Be part of the evolution of fashion with La Jolla’s two-day fashion event. The La Jolla Fashion Film Festival centers on a digital vision set in a world class coastal resort – utilizing seaside movie screenings,  an exclusive screening held in the center of the “Village”, fashion webcasts, twitter pop-up shows, film debuts, and more.” – LJFFF

Do you or know someone who have a fashion short film? They are still accepting entries for the 2 day event. Click here to read the requirements and find out more info about submitting.

All of the events and locations for the screening are listed here.

What could be better than watching fashion outside on the big screen while the surf hums in the background. Lucky you if you are in the area. Get your tickets here. We would love to hear more about this first hand so if you are attending please leave us a comment and let us know how it was.

The Museum at FIT sent out a reminder on Facebook that there are a lot of great fashion exhibits happening around the globe. Some are closing very shortly so if you are near one you might want to duck in to see. There is much more to fashion than meets the eye and these exhibits help us discover the hidden messages of fashion and it’s impact on our lives and cultures. Below are 2 exhibits ending soon. Get in to see them if you can.

Greg Lauren: Counter Couture at the FIAF Gallery in New York closes March 6th.

And Quicktake: Rodarte is at Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York until March 14.

Post by Trish

I love to see markets like this popping up around the country. I had the great pleasure of being a part of my local Chester (Ct) Sunday Market last growing season. I shared a space with Laura Williams of Whosiepie, and we had a blast every Sunday. I think it really helps to paint a picture in attendees minds that buying locally grown or made is a mindset and extends to all aspects of life. If you ask me, there is nothing better than knowing who is providing you with the necessities in life. Wouldn’t you rather buy a piece of clothing from two girls smiling and laughing than from a steal rack with no attendant in site? The item you buy from the two girls with always have a smile attached to it. Every time you pull the item from you closet or drawer you will remember the laughter outside under the tent at the market, with a group of hula hooping fans in the yoga booth in the next tent over.

It gets very addicting to shop this way too. The experiences are so rich, full of sights and smells that will forever be burned in your memory. It makes the action of switching from quantity in life to quality of life much easier. The experiences become the quantity we crave to keep our quality of life the best that it can possible be.

A paragraph from The Brooklyn Rail about The Makers Market really sums it up:

“Appropriately, the slogan of the Market’s next flyer, with a nod toward the deification of the creative individual, exhorts the shopper to “Meet your Maker.” In fact, meeting the person who has made the clothes, food, pottery, accessories, and fine art that can be purchased here at the Old American Can Factory is a refreshing experience. With an emphasis on locally sourced materials as well as labor, the curators of the market screen the vendors by process as much as product. The Market restores the connection between an individual’s labor and its cultural context by allowing the customer to buy something directly from the hands that made them and in many instances on the site of their manufacture. It’s an antidote to the homogeneity of big box stores and precious boutiques.” – Cora Fisher, The Brooklyn Rail

I hope if you are in Brooklyn you can find your way to The Makers Market sometime. I know I will be taking a road trip to check it out. One of our darling designers Angel Rox is selling her clothing there. It is always fun to take a little trip to meet in person the designers who have come together to help make up Smashing Darling.

The Markets at The (OA) Can Factory

232 Third Street at Third Avenue
Gowanus Brooklyn 11215

We wanted to take a moment to tell you about a little giveaway we are doing over at Facebook. Do you LOVE all the beautiful independent designer items we sell at Smashing Darling? Do you sometimes find yourself sitting at your desk perusing all of our featured items wishing and dreaming you could have even just one special piece? Become a fan of ours on Facebook and you will automatically be entered to win a $50 e-gift card to shop our products on Smashing Darling. I don’t know if you have noticed, but we have over 600 independent designers selling on our site now. This adds up to so much beautifully made product, sometimes it even leaves us speechless. So here is the deal, it is really quite simple, become a fan and on the last day of every month we will be choosing a winner at random. So, have you figured out what I am saying yet? One little action of becoming our fan enters you to have a chance to win, not just once, but every month. How do you like them apples? See you soon on Facebook.

Just sharing … we were excited to see we were included in 944’s, Top 9 Fashion Sites On Our Radar Now. Lots of other great fashion sites to take a peek at too. Many thank you’s to 944 for including Smashing Darling in this list.

Post by Trish

This one is for all of the independent fashion designers – established, just budding, or wanna-be in San Francisco. There is a new Workshop in town there to help you learn, hone or expand upon your craft. They have all kinds of workshops to fit all types of schedules and levels of expertise.

“Workshop is equipped with a complete silk screening facility, sewing machines, button machines,and lots of tools for cutting, printing, building, and making. Workshop also offers a library stocked with how-to books, design books, and old magazines to turn the light bulb over your head to ON. ” – from About Workshop

Don’t make the mistake I have made for far too long. Last week I took a local sewing class. I haven’t taken a sewing class in 21 years since I graduated from FIT. The class was only myself and 3 other women. I learned just as much from the others taking the class as I did from the teacher. Most of the my friends and family laugh when I tell them I took a class, and I have to agree, I usually don’t even look at sewing classes. Why would I? I have been sewing since I was 12.  I studied evening wear and lingerie in college, took tailoring, have been sewing my collection for years, and that was after 11 years of sewing custom wedding dresses. I thought I knew all I needed to know. HA! My bad. I hope to continue to take classes to learn new techniques to incorporate into my clothing line. For me it is a new no-brainer to help me keep my designs fresh.

So please check Workshop out if you are in area the San Francisco area. If not in that area, look for businesses like this in your own area. Please share them with us so we can help spread the word to our independent fashion design community and those who never want to stop learning. Leave us a comment about other workshops or co-ops in different cities and towns offering fashion, sewing, and creative lessons or places to get together to share, collaborate and learn from each other. We will link to all of them!

I have to thank Laura Williams of Whosiepie for sending me the link to this wonderful workshop!

We know you are all busy designing and promoting your work, some of you working a full-time job on top of that. Trying to fit in a class on top of your schedule might make you crazy (or crazier)…unless it is on your own terms. That’s what we love about this online class (class website here) Aneta Genova of Bobbin Talk is offering. Watch the video to learn all about it, or read our mini-interview below. You’ll get first-hand experience of her new textbook before it is even published, now that is pretty great!

Darlings: You have such a lovely accent, where are you from?
Aneta: I was born in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria but I’ve lived in the US since 1992 so I feel more of a New Yorker than anything else.

Darlings: What is your background in accessory design?
Aneta: I started as a designer for other companies like Marc Jacobs, Polo Jeans and Ralph Lauren. In 2003 I started my own small-leather-goods company with the concept: Fashion for Technology. You can see some press for those at http://www.anetagenova.com/press.  I sold luxury iPod cases and bags under my own name AnetaGenova and also ended up with a lower priced line of products in Target stores all over the country. Currently I just finished the manuscript for the Accessory Design Textbook to be published with Fairchild Books in the beginning of next year! I also teach Accessory Design at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC and will be teaching an Accessory Merchandising class at FIT starting the third week of March.

Darlings: Can you give us a quick recap of what the class will cover?
Aneta: This e-class covers the fundamentals of designing an accessory collection. How to do research, find a concept, build a mood board, design for the right customer, age group, functionality. How to draw designs and  sketch flats for tech packs. What sampling and prototyping means and what a manufacturer needs from the designer as in technical sketches. I also talk about brand identity and give examples of creating a signature line.

Darlings: How will the class be run online (video?), and how much is the class?
Aneta: The class is offered in a password protected blog format where students log in and every week to get access to the weekly reading, photographs, visuals, video interviews or other media. Students get an assignment a week which needs to be completed within that week and corresponds to the reading. It gets posted in an album accessible only to the students and me and I give feedback on it. Students also get an hour a week face to face Skype session with me on where they can ask me any questions. The cost is $250 for the five weeks course.

Darlings: How often will you offer this class?
Aneta: The first one starts March 1st and I’m planning on running them every month or every other month as long as there is interest. I’m also building a handbag specific and a shoe specific classes too as a sequence to this fundamental course. In those I’ll go much more in depth into each category.

Photo: Douglas Friedman for The New York Times

We want to send a huge shout out to Kaytee Papusza for being included in the New York Times: Going Gaga today!

Top photo features Papusza Couture tutu.

Photo: Douglas Friedman for The New York Times

The photo above features Papusza Couture hand died tights available at Treehouse in Brooklyn, NYC.

We also want to thank Kaytee for giving a shout out to Smashing Darling as one of the places to shop for her beautiful creations. ROCK ON girl, and don’t EVER stop creating!!!!!!!!