52 Pick-me-up: Baroque and LAFC

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This week's theme is Baroque. I am WAY more interested in posting about the two days I spent at the Fall 15 presentations staged by the Los Angeles Fashion Council last Tuesday and Wednesday. Let's see how I can get this to work.
Vocabulary.com defines baroque as:
"Something baroque is overly ornate, like a paisley red velvet jacket with tassels, or music that has a lot going on and might include a harpsichord. Anything with a complicated design can be baroque but it also refers to a style of art, music, and architecture from 17th Century Italy (and is then sometimes capitalized). Although it has roots in the Portuguese word barroco meaning "imperfect pearl" not everything baroque is imperfect. Caravaggio and Rubens are considered baroque painters, and baroque composers include Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. Although rococo and baroque both describe something over-the-top, sticklers will save baroque for something with heft and use rococo for lighter designs, like that velvet jacket. Historically, Rococo comes after the Baroque period."

One of the first people that I ran into when I arrived was Glenda, from So What to Twenty.

My hair (by Nancy) and makeup (by Christopher) c/o Glam Squad
photo by Freddy Harrison

Even though we had only met online, I knew it was her immediately!
Over the two days, we had some lovely chats while waiting for shows to start.
I think an Inland Empire blogger meet-up (including Maricel) is in our future!

That golden prism wall piece made an excellent backdrop for many a portrait those two days.

That's Paris Hatcher of Where Sexy Meets Classy and Traci Mari Smith of Just Mariklo.
Still trying to ID the guys.

Baroque is a good adjective for Michael Ngo's presentation entitled Shinobi Ballroom

Ngo was inspired by Willi Ninja and the LGBT Ballroom scene of the late 80s.

Johnny Rice and Anthony Garza aka The Kiss Boyz

A quote lifted from Michael:

"I envisioned the lovechild of strength & elegance and the battle between reality & fantasy—who you are and who chose to be. Finding strength, beauty and bravery by channeling your inner warrior is my mission. I want to empower the wearers of my collection with contrasting worlds of smooth and textured; evening and street; and elegant and edginess. These ideals will be conveyed through my relentless addiction to structure and eye for detail.
With the beauty & grace of a geisha and the strength & stealth of a ninja, you can triumph over struggle & opposition and defiantly dance into the moonlight.
You own the night.
You are your own SHINOBI."

Check out Michael's video:

Did I go baroque enough?
Add your own baroque-inspired links!

BTW, I'm linking this up with Sacramento and Rosie's Share-In-Style on Monday.

SOLDAT

sketch (front view only) here

skirt here

Contact designer Camilla Wright of SOLDAT about the jacket.
No longer available on her site.

I found this post in draft when I was doing some blog clean-up. I didn't publish it because the LAFC ASOS shop had run it's term out (ASOS shop posts can run for a limited amount of time) and I couldn't link to the garments.  Then I went to art camp and forgot about it.

So here you go, a sexy ikat suit on Annette, sketched back in March, digitized in June, posted today.

Ladies of the Canyon -- Gypsy Junkies

If I were going to a music festival and wanted to look cool, I'd grab something from Gypsy Junkies (oh yeah, and if I weighed what I did in my twenties - haha). I was just a little bit too young to go to Woodstock. I was even a little too young to get into the R-rated original film, released in 1970, but that didn't stop Shawn and me from lying about our birth dates to get in. I wanted to be a hippie so badly!
Anyway, Gypsy Junkies will fulfill any sartorial hippie fantasies you might be harboring. Some of these items that I sketched back in April don't seem to be in the ASOS Marketplace LAFC Le Shoppe. [Actually, NONE are there now! The listings expired!] If you've worked up a serious jones for one of these crazy tops, check Gypsy Junkies' website, maybe you can locate the items there.

sketch here

sketch here

Goddesses of ASOS Le Shoppe by LAFC in Odylyne

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What was my favorite part of the Los Angeles Fashion Council's photo shoot for ASOS Marketplace Le Shoppe? It had to be when Annette, Chanelle, and Zoe all posed together in Odylyne.
Three goddesses caught convening in a parking lot off Santee in downtown LA.

dress here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

LAFC Le Shoppe -- Alana Hale

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Alana Hale is an LA based design house that offers unique dresses and separates with couture details.
Here are outfits that I sketched at the photoshoot for Los Angeles Fashion Council's Le Shoppe on ASOS in March on Kiara and Annette.

top here
shorts here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

LAFC Le Shoppe -- 8000nerves

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8000nerves is an LA based design house that offers retro styled dresses and separates.
Here are dresses that I sketched at the photoshoot for Los Angeles Fashion Council's Le Shoppe on ASOS in March on Chanelle and Zoe. 

dress here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

dress here

sketch here

LAFC Le Shoppe -- Linden Sketches

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I sketched at the photoshoot for Los Angeles Fashion Council's Le Shoppe on ASOS back in March.
These are the designs from Linden on Zoe and Annette.

romper here

sketch here

top here
skirt here

sketch here

top here
pants here

sketch here

Tie Dyed -- Zoe in ISM Mode

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top here
skirt here

art print here

Lovely Lace: Zoe in 8000Nerves ASOS Le Shoppe by LAFC

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dress available here
sketch available here

A Pretty Seafoam Dress ASOS Le Shoppe for LAFC

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Here is Chanelle in an Odylyne hi-low dress

sketch available here

I took a little break this morning from the Digital Catwalk and colored up a sketch that I did a month ago.
The Los Angeles Fashion Council has a shop on ASOS entitled Le Shoppe [no longer available].
I attended part of the photoshoot and live sketched as the models posed. I wrote a quick post about it here.

This seafoam blue dress designed by Odylyne has been haunting me. First, at the shoot, in the dingy back parking lot behind 630 South Los Angeles Street, Chanelle wafted onto "set" looking ethereal and badass at the same time. And the color! So delicious!

A week later, at the stylehaus pre-Lucky FABB event, there it was again!

All though May, I'll be posting more sketches from the shoot, with a link to the item at Le Shoppe.
Le Shoppe links are provided for your convenience and I receive no compensation from them.
Sketch links will jump to my Society6 storefront and sales from that site benefit me directly.

Note: Did you notice the new heading at the top left of the page?
They are disclosure headings that are explained on my new Disclosure Page.
[Thanks again to Natasha of One Woman's Style, who gave me permission to use her disclosure copy]

Live Sketching at a Photo Shoot

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Kelly, Gina, Kelsi

I brought a ginormous apple pie, grapes, and my sketchbook.
I came home with about 30 fashion sketches.

The photoshoot for the ASOS Marketplace LA Fashion Council Le Shoppe was a lot of fun.
I will post more about it sometime soon...  [and will link up Le Shoppe when it goes live next week] LINK [link not working until new merch gets added]


Gotta go to the day job and work on some mens boxer prints right now. Sometimes I'm frustrated by the constraints of my economic situation.

Figuring It Out As I Go

This year, I set an intention to sketch at fashion events. The two events hosted by the Los Angeles Fashion Council that I attended last week gave me a perfect opportunity to put intent into action. I've written about both already here and here, now I'll show you what I wore and what I drew with.

Wednesday night was an "on the way home from work" situation.
I chose the paisley shell because it has patch pockets.
That's why I took Elvis too. Well, that and Elvis has a built-in "wow" factor.

photos and "Food Fight" installation by Manny Castro

As soon as I got home, I wrote a list of supplies that I wanted to take the next day,
while my needs were still fresh in my mind:

I didn't have time to stop at an art supply store, so I "made do" with what I had on hand:

I created a figure template underlay to use as a framework to get the proportions right --
I just can't do it freehand

I put the same template into my iPad Brushes app and made a bunch of duplicates.
I ended up not using the iPad. Was happy sketching analog!

Day 2, ready to hit the I-10 to downtown -- Red Lips, people!!!

How the raw sketches look

Scanned sketch, added color in Illustrator

I'm happy with the direction these sketches are going. I like the loose "Mats Gustafson" look. [Look him up].
I've got many more to finish, and another event coming up next Thursday. WooHoo!

Checking in with Patti's Visible Monday. Click on over to see more Visibleness.

Los Angeles Fashion Council Fall 2013 Collections Day One

I met up with Heather of The Style Confessions and Amy of A Sunny Day In LA outside of 838 So Los Angeles for the Los Angeles Fashion Collections shows, hosted by the Los Angeles Fashion Council. The venue, in downtown LA, was a beautiful space to view the collections of ISM Mode and Sarine Marie.

free lunch!

First sketch. That's Sarah of 365hangers on the right [but not in the sketch].
I don't know the name of the gal I sketched.

The ISM Mode presentation:

The "backstage" dressing room was upstairs.
The models sidled elegently down the staircase.

My favorite piece from ISM Mode: 1/2 dyed striped skirt

One of my ISM Mode sketches

Designer/owner Inka Sherman after taking her bow.

Between shows, we took a coffee break (no pix) next door in the Cooper Building.
Then, returning to 838...

Heather gave me some classic Style Confessions poses --
it took me a while to catch on to what exactly she was doing!

People watching...

Ms Sassy!

Cindy worked the room for 1st Class Fashion

The Sarine Marie presentation:
I stood and sketched almost every look.
[I'll do a recap of all my runway sketches in a separate post -- very happy with the results].

the ruffle sleeve sheath

Sarine Marie Berberian, designer/owner.

The shows over, I got this one last shot of some manly color blocking:

Thank you LAFC for a wonderful time!
I wish I could return today to see SOLDAT, 8000 Nerves, and Odylyne.
Alas, I already had a prior meet up scheduled at LACMA... but ya never know, plans could change!

"About Los Angeles Fashion Council:
Los Angeles Fashion Council was founded in 2011 by Kelsi Smith, to promote, educate and support Los Angeles fashion designers through shows, show rooms and other retail and promotional projects in Los Angeles, nationally and internationally.
Designers are selected by our team, and must be L.A based, in business for one year and have produced a minimum of two collections. There are no fees for designers and participation in any of our programming is either free or at cost price." [from LAFC press release]