Eco Design Fair

London was fabulous. I am posting photos of the wonderful group brought together by Nicola of Beautiful Soul (website will be up soon) and Jaime to make this stay one of the highlights of my life! I will write more later, but have to get an article to the Ballard News Tribune.

If you are new to this blog please go to the links on the left and see the Ardisallyn photos of the video shoot as well as the Flickrr slideshow on the Posers link. If you click on the photo a caption appears and this will help you get an idea of the first chapter of fashionRIP "the Species on the Verge"

I am going to have to get a blog for this "new to the site thing" as my cards are now global wanderers and this blog is a scrolling journal affair. When the Verge premieres a proper website will be necessary but til then the money goes elsewhere. Gallery, showing space suggestions are wanted as the original venue didn't get their grant..... thank you. (please respond as all ideas are welcome...go to the Teachstreet link to contact me)

If Wishes were

Horses, i would be riding the black stallion i pretended to be when i was 8.

I am not sure what that means but my head is in the clouds one minute and freaking the next. Why?

I am speaking in the pro mode for the first time, in London, to start off the Eco Design Fair East opening night fashion show and party.

Now i was into lining up speaking presentation gigs for sustainable fashion but i had planned for a soft entry.

My plan was to start at Seattle Central Community College; a school i was familiar with and where i thought i would do an interactive lecture in order to get feedback, ideas and some polish.

The universe however has a better idea and this rather amazing and quite beautiful opportunity arrived instead. I must be ready for it, even though it feels a little like being pushed out of the nest.

I am leaving Thursday early a.m. and will post more from London if all works out with my new little Aspire netbook.
PS i am naming names because information comes from everywhere.....validity is another topic!)

Where's the fashion!

fish with glamorous sequin scales

too cool rayon

Vintage fabrics have the greatest prints. The old rayon was fabulous, cool to the touch, great body and not ironing needy like the rayon revival fabrics of the 90's . What happened?

The 50s fish print on barkcloth is a closeup of a sundress that makes me think of the Pike St Market fish tossers and a trip to Arizona.

Vintage clothing should be cared for then passed along as is a most sustainable form of fashion....and retains value. That is important now as i am raising funds for the next part of the fashionRIP Project.

Anyone have a warehouse to give me? One that can be an experimental makeover for a sustainable work/live space. Hey talk to me! An experiment in an experiment, how fun is that!

wrap it up

i am made of plaster and so carefree

The video has been sent to Springfield, MA. for its audio track.

In the meantime i had to redo the entire project because when i made a rough cut dvd to go with a Final Cut Pro project -"Making of the Species on the Verge" - my Final Cut HD Express project was re-sized into a mini black boxed image and then that version was accidentally copied back to my portable hard drive.

In the "it happens" column of apparent crap, this is a good addition. However i made a new project with virgin clips and am almost back to where i was. The plus is that i am really learning the software, explored several possible solutions and am now cleaning up the timeline even more as i am less in love with it. i have gotten a bit jaded and need to back off!

Funny how emotions can play such a part in life; its too bad we are not as well versed in them as we are in technology. A by-product of our cultural focus i suspect.

doors slam

photo from the # 7 bus

i had a few days of doubt and pain, wondering why i care so much about the issues being addressed directly and subtly by the fashionRIP Project. Why continue when i am not getting paid, when few understand and when the fog of ignorant bliss can be so thick?

fashionRIP started with the dresses and as a comment on the unsustainable (and full of bad habits) fashion and textile industry. Since then theRIP has grown into its present form of expression. It is an elaborate communication, striving to tell the story of present truths and dispell the delusions that cultures struggle under because their concepts are familiar and "owned" rather than seen for their temporay quality. Why is that?

How do really good, well minded, intelligent people fail to see this prison? The cultural brainwash is a big carrier of these diseased concepts and though it constantly shifts to absorb new ideas (after the wall of denial crumbles so much that it must!) it appears to me as a huge collection of distortions based on a violent childhood (early history is full of bloody gore).

If we can accept that we are bruised, forgive the past for its ignorance and shift our energy and action into the direction we really want to go.....we have already started the journey!

credit revolution

9/11 memorial art wall under Barneys ad

Before fashionRIP was a project it was a blog for a class at NSCC.

I decided to address issues around fast fashion and how textile production took its toll on the environment, etc. My other big issue at the time was with artists and creative sustainability, as i had noticed how industries gobbled up creatives, used them and then went on. Okay, there was compensation for some of them but the big money was shuffled into the corporate structure and that was considered "how business works".

I noticed in middle school how the fashion industry would take the ideas from the street and plop their labels on...okay, with a few adjustments designed for the broader appeal. Yves St Laurent was the first one that caught my attention as he remade the hippie look into bohemian style.

Getting and building on ideas is a good thing but somehow i think giving the credit back to the street origins when deserving is necessary and important for the development of healthy systems. It only makes sense to embrace the whole.

5th Ave

or was it Madison Avenue, NYC? Doesn't matter if it was Cartier, Winston or Tiffany or another all together...what's inside doesn't appeal to me in any way! Though i do like the peacock graphic and the exterior makes a nice photograph.

Adili eco fashion handed out peacock feather printed bags at the Sustainable Style Summit. One bird representing very diverse concepts and agendas.

ps. I just looked it up and my photo is of the exterior of the House of Harry Winston.

Finish Line in Sight

I am very close to having this video ready for its soundtrack. Now comes the process of asking fresh eyes to view it and gather advice from Bridgett, Cynthia and a few others. It can be hard to hear criticism but i know i need it....and i know i don't have to agree; however in the art of communicating for broad appeal one must disable the defensive ego attack back button and listen from a higher plane. OK its a model to go for....i am trying!

I do believe that this ego defense thing is a big part of why we have gotten trapped in our current model. Learning when to hold firm and when to alter the self is tricky. Experiment and it may shake up the ready made responses we all carry around! and that is a good thing.

Life in DeLays

It looked so easy in my head! When this project was launched i was thinking a few months of work....tops, after the dresses were made. But head sets and tangly lives, the dances of becoming aware and all the strings that need following when communication is the art- its path was/is full of surprise. Finding the magic mix before baby goes public, well it isn't linear, nor simple until it hits that space....then it is beautifully simple.

Time is finding its own rhythm in this journey....the best i have ever had.

I call fashionRIP my baby, but its livelihood depends on an extended family of volunteers, teachers, doting godparents etc. I am ready to find other stakeholders, for the RIP provokes discussions of change in a compelling manner; and deserves a wide audience.

I think as the human population overdose is recognized for the killer it is, there will be more creative parents, parents who partner for the creative thrill, the nurturing, and the graduation of their "spirit children".

Now ain't that evolution style!

New to View

Anais Nin quote in upper left from banner hanging at NSCC on Earth Day, the Niagara Bar and daffodils are in NYC

The photo slideshow of the Species on the Verge is a good visual overview for anyone new to this site.

I am working on the final edit of the loosely scripted video and then Jaime Robert Johnson will set the score to it. I have learned how important the soundtrack is after being in the backseat of the "Making of the Species on the Verge" video that Bridgett Barker edited for her SCAN producers eligibility. Bridgett was putting another feather on her hat; which is but one of the many hats she wears with talent and joie de vivre.

Music is that which charms the savage beast....i heard that
somewhere, anyway it can also turn that lil beastie on- in the bad way.

Thanks Mr J. for taking on that audio animal.

Success is in the air, like Spring!

The Set at NSCC

LIVEtextiles for interiors

when being bad is good

plants used for fabrics

GRRRRRRilla Marketing or is it GIRLilla ?

Ethical Fashion stood its ground against corporate vending machines on Earth Day.

Think about it.
Plastic bottled beverages (plastic issues are multiple) single serving packaging (packaging is resource greedy and makes for garbage mountains) not to mention that these machines are often refrigerated units and/or always on (gobbling energy) -what are we doing here folks? These machines are full of products that are designated for human consumption but what is the nutritive value? A pointless oral and tummy fix and then....i just had to use that wall of readymade props.

I was asked by a school employee if i wanted an easel for my illustrations and i told him no, that the point was better made using the vending machines. He spluttered back about having to make money and i countered with "its Earth Day, really what is the harm in one day from 10-4 and besides isn't it time to shake awake and see the real ...this ( i point to machines) is a part of the problem after all. He backed off with a statement about getting orders from higher up. Yeah, how high...?

Anyway, a sign disappeared. As it was the one getting the most delightful comments, well i just made a new one to replace it. This happened 3 times until i caught the culprit; "aha, so its you ripping down my signs,"i said in a non offending, jovial manner. It was a silly little game after all!

That third time he took down all of the signs (after 3pm) while i was talking with someone about sewing classes or mercury in immunizations or Peruvian villages (i meet the greatest people)

The point of this is why he couldn't just ask me to please stop ...i guess he was afraid he might lose a possible argument as olde school grounds are sinking fast!

If i see him again, i will tell him he could have just asked me to remove the signs because he tore a few of them and that wasn't nice. The point of this is that sometimes disrupting status quo is necessary to move things forward. Think first and then act...but do act.

It was fun!