Before & After

Walk It Out poster

Anthropologie Sign

Haute Houndstooth

I have always been a fan of This is what I worked on in Creative Suite Applications class. I wanted to go with patterns and textures not so much on colours. I was able to colour-correct three of the images, crop them out and clean the masks using Photoshop.

I'm excited to take Advanced Creative Suite Applications class next semester and learn more about them !

Leesa Butler at Humber College

Today, our Social Media professor, Anna Zamparo, and Humber Fashion Arts students welcomed a guest speaker, Leesa Butler. She shared her stories from how she began learning to use the Internet to the fashion and cosmetic industry stories.

Leesa stated that in order to be successful in the future, going niche is a great idea. Since a lot of people are in the fashion industry and more people are becoming detail-oriented, going niche would fulfill the demand.

There were two resources she recommend us to check out: a book and an article. The title of the book is Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman and the article is called "The 30 Most Creative People in Social Media Marketing". (Click the titles of the book and article)

Moreover, she recommended to follow the influential figures to be influential and not to be discouraged to tweet them on any ideas. She described social media as democracy since anyone can tweet to the "important/busy people" not limited to a few groups of people. Then Leesa shared her stories about tweeting back and forth with a supermodel, Coco Rocha, on the idea of Coco promoting for PCMag.

Leesa answered some of our questions about volunteering opportunities as well as careers then we had a photo time. 

She is very positive, outgoing and genuine. I loved her personality, professionalism and of course, the camo pants. I would like to thank Anna Zamparo, our professor, for inviting her as a guest speaker. 

Viktor&Rolf Victorian Dolls at ROM

I went to Royal Ontario of Museum yesterday to see the Viktor&Rolf exhibit. It was free of charge and I was recommended to check it out by my Program Coordinator. The exhibit was smaller than I expected it to be. There were 31 dolls on the runway and some of them looked familiar because I have seen some of the designs in the previous Viktor&Rolf collections on actual models.

The colour of the wall was definitely Victorian themed and I saw lots of toned down colours as well as bright reds, oranges and pinks. Every doll was exquisite with makeup that matched their designs. 

This doll's hair reminded me of an Asian doll. I would like to name this doll, "Eastern Flowerbomb".

Loréal Paris was one of the sponsors of this exhibit and they used the main colour of the dress, red, as the makeup look.  

This doll looks like a combination work of a witch and a bee. The dark Gothic makeup look with dark hands resemble a witch and pointy back resemble a bee's stinger.

This coat is something that I would like to recreate. I love this polished look and contrast of black and white.

A mixture of very formal and casual look. Light denim with a dress shirt and a coat makes the whole outfit interesting.

This lady is in a suit makes me think that Viktor&Rolf might have desired to express women empowerment. There is an emphasis on the shoulders and the hair covered in the white shirt which makes it look like she is trying to hide her long hair to show the initiative for women empowerment.

I was inspired by the details that Viktor&Rolf put in in every doll. Different poses, makeup looks, and accessories all tie in together and created this exhibit. 

Yves Saint Laurent

Photo from the worldinacloset.blogspot.com

Photo from telegraph.co.uk

If I have to choose one designer who is dead, it has to be Yves Saint Laurent. 

Yves Saint Laurent was born in Oran, Algeria on August 1, 1936. At the age of seventeen, he received the first prize of the International Wool Secretariat for a sketch of a cocktail dress and after a year, he was offered a position by Christian Dior. Yves worked as an assistant to Dior until the death of Dior in 1957. After the death, Yves was promoted to chief designer at the house of Dior and he remained in the position creating collections of artistic designs. Unfortunately, he was drafted for military service in Algeria and Marc Bohan, a former assistant of Dior, became the artistic director. Yves once went through a hard time with anxieties with medications, alcohol and drugs. 

In 1962, he established the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent Couture together with Pierre Bergé, and presented his first collection which was a major success. Later on in 1966, he opened a ready-to-wear- fashion boutique and that was a revolution in the world of fashion.

When I watched a movie/documentary,Yves Saint Laurent: the life story of the man who re-imagined women's fashion, I found sincerity and originality in his eyes. I like the way he spoke, dealt with people, and engrossed in design.

A woman in a suit with a cigarette will always evoke the Yves Saint Laurent look and his work will remain as a legacy.


"Fashion is like a party.
Gettinig dressed is preparing to play a role. 
I'm not a couturier,
I'm a craftsman, a maker of happiness"
(Teboul 2002).

Werle, Simone. "Yves Saint Laurent." 50 fashion designers you should know. Munich: Prestel, 2010. 64,65,66,67. Print.

"Home : Berg Fashion Library." Home : Berg Fashion Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 June 2013. <http://bergfashionlibrary.com/>.

Alexander McQueen Resort 2014

Photos from: Style.com

These are my picks from Alexander McQueen Resort 2014 collection. I love everything in this collection but one of my favourites has to be the full-on denim look. Different wash denim patches are what drew my attention and it's the denim on denim look. Details are the pocket accents and short sleeves on both the trousers and the jacket and finishing the look with a belt. 

Details that stand out are pop-up pockets, belts, and feminine shoulder sleeves. Main colours are brown, cream, white, camel and blue. Layering look can be seen throughout the collection: a white dress underneath a wide blue dress shirt and a white dress underneath a cream coloured coat showing only the end of the dress. Big clutch bags are another key items being shown throughout the Resort collection. 

TWISIX

This is a trend board that I did for Colour Theory class in April 2013. The theme of the trend board is the 1960's fashion and zeitgeist. TWISIX is a combination word of Twiggy and the Sixties. The main theme of the 1960's was boyish silhouette, PVC fabric, mini skirts and A-line dresses. TWISIX has two 'I's that confines a letter S for S body figure. Therefore, TWISIX represents freedom, and youth. 

I played with the shape of the Pantone colour chips and came up with triangles instead of squares or rectangles. Together with the pictures, the entire board has a balance and the shapes draw attention. 

As much as I love putting pictures together on a board manually, I have been into using Pinterest lately. It allows me to post pictures, and videos and sort them into different categories. It takes much less time than printing out pictures, cutting and pasting them. The only thing that needs to be fixed or updated is a function to switch pins(pictures) on a board so it looks more organized and polished. 

Not Brand New but Still Good Old Items

About a month ago, I visited Value Village to find a vintage denim piece for my Trend Analysis and Product Development class. Before coming to Canada, I had no idea that I had to pay money for "old clothes". For me, if I had to wear "old clothes", they were either from my brother that were unisex enough that I could wear or clothes from my relatives. They were free ! It was no question for me that I go shopping, purchase new clothes, wear them and hand them down or donate them to someone in need until I went to Value Village and picked out two clothing pieces: a long-sleeve denim dress shirt and a knitted dress.

I went through each aisle and checked every single clothes in my size and picked out almost 15 clothing pieces that I thought I could wear. I narrowed them down to 4 and had a hard time choosing only 2 out of them. The reason why I chose 2 was because they were pretty expensive considering that they were not new. I did not want to spend close to $50 on 4 pieces of clothes. However, now I think about it, I want to go back and just buy them. It's for a good cause anyway.

The surprising thing that I learned from this visit was I can find good quality clothing from Value Village and still make them look good on me. It is okay to wear something that somebody else wore. One more thing that I value is that when I wear clothes from Value Village, I'm wearing people's stories and histories.

The most important thing that matters is not how much money you paid for your clothes but how can you pull them off and make them look great.

Model Comp Card

Model Mosaic

Liu Wen