Saturday, November 3, 2018

Space Oddity Collection at NWA Fall Fashion Week



NWAFW Fall Fashion Week! Photo by Joshua Koerner. 

I've been so bad and not blogged in months. But I really wanted to share a bit about my experience this year at Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week. This was my 4th time there and the best experience I've had with them which is saying a lot, because it's always been good for me. Anytime people ask me about getting involved in NWAFW I always encourage them to do so, because it is an incredible, fun, bonding and empowering experience with other creative people! It fills up my soul. This was also my favorite collection I've done so far and people really responded to it, and to the diversity of the models in my show. I was so thrilled to get 4 real-deal drag queens, plus one of my male models Shane did drag also, and I also had a transgender model who was fantastic!!!! I can't emphasize enough, she did so well and everyone loved her. I was so happy that it was all well received by the public; honestly it gave me faith in humanity after what's been a pretty gnarly year, haha. 


OK so..... Here's the rundown on this collection!!

Barbarella inspired bodysuit,
model Alexis W, photo by Samanthat
Photograohy/NWAFW
Barbarella movie poster
INSPIRATION: This collection was called Space Oddity and was inspired by the music & fashion of David Bowie as well as the B52s, retro sci-fi, particularly Barbarella, and all things alien and space-related. 



Model Veronica, photo by
Joshua Koerner/ NWAFW
Hand printed alien linen
MATERIALS: Heavily sequined fabrics, gold and silver laméorganic cotton, linen, and upcycled fabrics. I made 3 unique block print fabrics: aliens, ufos, and celestial stars and moons. I did this mostly because I couldn't find the fabrics I was picturing anywhere so I had to make it myself.


OBSTACLES: About 2 months before the show, I dropped a heavy bookcase on my ankle; it cut my Achilles tendon (not all the way, just a little but still OW) and fractured my heel. I had to stay off my foot which was very hard for me, I'm a very busy person, and in fact about a month into the injury I managed fracture my big toe as well, by going off crutches too soon and losing my balance. That was about a month before the runway show. I had been putting off the major sewing of my 25-look collection "until I felt better" but at that point I realized, aching foot or no, I was just going to have to tough it out. I did most of the sewing for the collection on one foot, usually kneeling on a chair or something, or sitting down with the foot elevated. It really was pretty painful and every day I felt like I might be pushing myself too much. I considered sitting down and crying but I never did, I just kept working. 

Gelynda J, photo by Samanthat
Photography/NWAFW
Alexis J, photo by Joshua Koerner
/NWAFW
FAVORITE MOMENT: So this year, one of the awesome new things fashion week added was a huge screen backstage. Sometimes I'm stuck backstage with no way to watch but not this time, I got to watch every minute of the show along with the audience. My absolute favorite moment was when Stereolab came on (if you're not familiar they're a French pop band that has a really groovy, futuristic-retro sound), and my models Alexis and Gelynda both were on the runway at once in matching sparkling dresses in gold and green. There was this perfect breeze coming through, that was giving the dresses extra life and when Gelynda stopped and looked straight at the monitor and the wind blew through her hair, with that beautiful music playing, I said out loud to myself, to no one in particular or anyone who cared---- "THIS IS A MOMENT." I couldn't stop smiling. 

Here are a few more photos from the show, enjoy!

Amanda, Solskinn Photography/NWAFW

Alexis W, Solskinn Photography/NWAFW

Karen, Solskinn Photography/NWAFW

Ellison, Solskinn Photography/NWAFW

Jen, Solskinn Photography/NWAFW
Athena, Phantom Photography
/NWAFW
Rochelle, Joshua Koerner/NWAFW
Lisa, Joshua Koerner/NWAFW


Merrick, Shelby Seaber/NWAFW

Princess Dieanna, Shelby Seaber/NWAFW

Did I mention this was all in airplane hangars at Drake Field airport?!?!
It was soooo cool!!

On a final note, if you haven't seen yet I have switched from Etsy to my own website that I built, which took forever but was totally worth it. Etsy has been on my last nerve for a while, from the 3 day delay of payment processing, to the way they advertise other shops' items on your item pages, NOT COOL ETSY. So anyway, please check out the new website, it has a shopping section where you can purchase my runway looks and other creations, plus lots of other fun things to look at like runway videos and photoshoots! Here's the link: www.rosierosedesigner.com




Monday, July 2, 2018

Romance shoot at Wilson Park


Wilson Park was the perfect setting for a romantic, fairytale shoot with Carmen Carcamo. 

A few weeks ago I was lucky to get a chance to shoot with esteemed local photographer Carmen Carcamo. She has a very cool fantasy-surrealist style that I love. I came across her work on Instagram, as happens with a lot of the models and photographers I work with these days. I asked her if she would be interested in shooting some of my spring Romance collection and she said yes, and we set up a date to shoot a few weeks later, at Wilson Park in Fayetteville. Here's a little rundown of our photoshoot, and the final result.

In the afternoon of shooting day, we all met up at the salon of the hair and makeup artist, Rhonda Kelly-Duncan. Rhonda has done all kinds of hair and makeup competitions and photoshoots so we just told her the vibe of the outfits and turned her loose on it. Since there were 3 models and only one HMUA, Carmen scheduled us to begin at 2, and plan on shooting by 6. Rhonda was an absolute whirlwind, switching back and forth between models efficiently.

Behind the scenes team cuties:

Rhonda, the hair/makeup artist, Carmen, the photographer, and me.
The gorgeous models in their romantic updos and metallic makeup, sooo pretty.
Models Tabatha, Gelynda, and Amanda

With hair and makeup finished around 5:30, we started getting the models dressed. The corsets are a bit of work to get into, they have to be laced up and tightened. We waited to put on the hoop skirts until we got to the location.With hoops and headpieces packed in the trunk, we all piled into Carmen's car and headed to the park.




Rhonda did a quick touch up on makeup when we got there.









My main job was to dress the models, taking headpieces on and off for photos, and double checking to make sure everything was on correctly. I also got to help throw rose petals in the air for one of the shots, LOL! (Petals from the ground, we didn't hurt any roses!) 

Rhonda was on reflector duty to help deflect some of the strong afternoon sun.




There were so many roses in bloom!! It was perfect. Smelled amazing too.


Yes, that is a giant earthworm sculpture! I told you this park is cool.

Using the shadow of the castle. It was sooo hot out. Bless these ladies in the full dresses with petticoats!! Absolute troopers.  



When we started the light was harsh but it mellowed out as the day wore on. Carmen eventually shot all the looks with the castle, with flowers, various poses and combinations. We sustained ourselves with cookies and bottled water while we waited between shots. 




The Death dress has a 15 foot train that needed to be rearranged for each pose. Challenging and fun. The reflection on the water was really neat.




By the end of the day we were all hot & tired but super happy, having laughed through the day, and knowing we got some great shots. It's always fun spending the day doing what you love. Seeing the beautiful finished photos is the icing on the cake!


Heartbreak (Tabatha Taylor)

Death (Amanda Knoner)

LOVE (Gelynda Johnson)






Thanks for reading! -RR

Sunday, April 29, 2018

ICON series

One of my favorite places to find inspiration is from old photos of my favorite models, actors, musicians, and artists. I challenged myself recently to use some of these photos to create a line of 100% upcycled shirts I'm calling the ICON series. I'll share a little about how they are made.
Twiggy!! 

First, I decide what shirt I'm using and look through my saved pictures, and match up a photo that the style will go with the shirt. The next step is to make the head and hair. I iron fusible interfacing to the back of the fabric I'm going to use, this stiffens it and keeps it from fraying. Then I trace out the basic shapes with pencil, and cut out the shapes I need for the head/neck and hair. Then I fuse these pieces to the shirt using a fusible webbing called Stitch Witchery. This keeps the fabric pieces from shifting while I sew them to the shirt. This process is called applique. 

Johnny Depp as Crybaby- be still my heart. Cheekbones from heaven. BTW if you haven't seen it, go, go now! Find it, watch it, fall in love with its weirdness. I used two vintage floral fabrics for Johnny that give his greaser look a new, softer twist, perfect for this pretty coral and gray striped tank top. 

After the head and hair are appliqued to the top, I give it a good press and then onto the next step, painting. This is all done freehand, there is no tracing or erasing, it's all final. I pull up the photo on my phone to look at while I work, and start with a little black fabric paint, sketching out the facial features. Then I go back over them with darker lines where needed. I dry brush the shading. Then I add a few more little details to each one, block printing or buttons or fabric flowers, to make each one really special. 

Here's my first batch of inspiration photos:
ICONS


And my first series of ICON tops (and one jacket):

L to R, top- Johnny Depp in Crybaby, Frida Kahlo, Kate Moss,
middle- Frida Kahlo, Twiggy, Grace Jones
bottom- Frida Kahlo, Iman, Isabella Rosselini
Details- buttons, flowers, sparkly eyes
Detail of Iman shirt

I have had a really hard time lately getting people to go to my Etsy shop lately. I'm not sure why, to me it doesn't seem different than Amazon or any other online shopping. There are items, you click the description to read about it, you add it to your cart, click "checkout", and pay with a credit card. Pretty standard I think? But for some reason my sales are down. I've been working my social media hard, trying to send people to my shop, but I feel like I should be getting more sales from the Etsy network, and just in general. Because what I'm finding is that when people actually SEE my work, they like it and buy it. I have been quietly internalizing my perceived "failures" (not selling enough) for a while now. And feeling really bad about it. But I'm finding from talking to people that they just haven't been seeing my things. They aren't visiting the Etsy shop and all the social media sites are constricting my posts so much, people only see them if I pay for advertising (which I do sometimes). I've read the best way to sell things online right now is through Instagram. I have a business account on IG and I have been working lately on setting up direct sales links to my items. It is taking a long time because I have like 200 individual items. 


Ok, so that was a really long paragraph to lead up to me saying, I am not sure the best way to sell these new tops! Should I put them on Etsy (will anyone buy them if I do?) I did a facebook auction recently which went pretty well so I might do that instead. Thoughts? Ideas? 

Also if you are dying to buy one of these, just write me a message! Or if you have a special request I'd be happy to do it.

What people/characters should I do next? 

Thanks for reading!! :)

Frida jacket + Iman tee + jeans= yessss queens



Monday, April 23, 2018

Romance on the Runway



Just a little collection made for under $500... I'm no McQueen or Marchesa,
 but I am proud of what I make on such a tiny budget.
THE ROMANCE COLLECTION

I love exploring creative themes for my clothing collections. This time I thought it would be fun to play on the idea of spring love. The collection tells a love story which starts happily enough, but I decided to give a tragic ending because it's more fun and interesting subject matter.

 It was awesome to watch my models each take on their roles and have a lot of fun with it on the runway. If you want to skip ahead to my runway recap on youtube, click here: Runway recap

Or keep reading to learn about the making of the collection. 
Romance Collection sketches as submitted to NWAFW
To set the mood, I had an amazing music track mixed by my friend Glitch Gatsby including great tracks like the Deftones Head over Heels, Beyonce Crazy in Love, and Keep Your Hands to Yourself by Grinny Grandad. The songs alternated between male and female singers which went perfectly with the collection which explores the dynamics of the human heart.

The first look of the collection is Flirtation. Flirtation is a neon pink tulle confection of a dress, covered in silk flowers, with puff sleeves that tie with bows, and layers of bouncy ruffles. It is bright and bold and kind of silly, just like flirtation. It screams "look at me!" I originally wanted to do a whole gaggle of Flirtations, I pictured 3 pink ruffly dresses going down the runway at once, but trying to be realistic with time and budget, I only did one. I also gave her a flowered headband with a birdcage veil for a feminine, retro touch.

Model Josie Graves having her hair done at fashion week, modeling the dress, and on the runway. Middle photo by Amber Herrera, right photo by Arkansas CW.


Headband with fabric flowers and birdcage veil

Collection preview photos by Olive Jackson, model Alexis Walker


The next 4 looks are Courtship, in the form of two couples. First, a long bias cut gown in sheer dark purple voile. Bias cut gowns were popular in the 30s and 40s. The fabric is cut on the diagonal rather than the straight of grain, so that the garment drapes to hug the curves of the body in a graceful way. After sewing the purple gown I embellished it by adding lots of hand dyed fuchsia silk flowers. I wanted this look to be a little more subdued than the Flirtation dress, elegant yet mysterious. The sheer clothing for the courtship looks is a metaphor for vulnerability, as well as the way we present ourselves as we are first getting to know someone, trying to be our "best self". Maybe even exaggerating a little and pretending we are a little more perfect than we actually are. 

Model Jennifer Davenport in the purple Courtship gown. Left, at the fitting, center and right on the runway, photos by Arkansas CW.
Flirtation and Courtship 1, photo by Arkansas CW
Jen D, photo by Brandon Johnson photography 

The next look is the matching men's Courtship look in dark purple. It consists of a purple voile smoking jacket, drawstring pants in purple crushed satin with blue brocade jogging stripes, and a super long scarf pieced from the fabrics in the outfit. I decided this look didn't need a shirt. Sometimes it's fun to be in charge. 

Trent gets some guyliner from makeup artist Amanda Owens. 


Model Trent Wilson in the Courtship look, photo Arkansas CW

Trent Wilson, photo by Brandon Johnson photography

Next is the second Courtship gown, a sheer gown in lilac. Flowers and leaves growing symbolize a growing love. The dress was very labor intensive, for a design that ended up looking breezy and effortless. It's a hand sewn caftan-style gown in a very light, sheer mesh fabric. The flowers scattered over the gown were individually sewn on one at a time. They are made of tiny pieces of hand dyed silk. As usual I ascribed to my waste-not want-not mentality and used silk trimmings I've saved from other projects. This was actually the first piece of the collection that I made last year, which inspired the rest of it to come about. 

Collection preview photo by Amber Herrera Photography, model Emily Mae Ray

Emily on the runway, photos by Arkansas CW, makeup by Veronica Reyes, hair by Lindsey Iverson

Photo by Brandon Johnson Photography.

Next look is the matching men's Courtship outfit in lilac. It has a draped lilac jacket with silk leaves applied to the front of the jacket. The shirt underneath, n white chiffon, also has draped pieces across the front.The pants are a gorgeous dark red damask fabric. The jacket is trimmed in matching dark red damask.

Model Nathan Woody in the Courtship look, photo by Arkansas CW
Nathan and Emily in the end of show waterfall. Photo by Brandon Johnson Photography.
After Courtship comes the LOVE gown. I wanted this gown to epitomize passion and romance. To me, love and passion are wild, brilliant red. I picked a beautiful satin fabric that was very shiny and very, very red. The dress is actually two pieces, a corset and a very full skirt that goes over a hoop skirt to give it fullness. She also got a red birdcage veil. I decided since I only did 10 looks this time that I would have 2 showstopper finale gowns, and this did the trick for sure, I have had lots of people tell me this was their favorite look of the show.

Model Gelynda Johnson in the LOVE gown, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography, makeup by Enrique Salamanca, hair by Summer Foster


Model Gelynda Johnson in the LOVE gown, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography
The LOVE couple, Gelynda & Shane, phot by Mad Girls Mag/Gray People

The next look is the male LOVE outfit. It's the same bright passion-red as the gown, and I basically emulated elements from the gown into the outfit. The shirt is red chiffon and has a draped front. The pants are similar to lots of skirts I have done before with the "scales" of fabric. Some might say it's one of my signature techniques. There are a couple hundred red taffeta and silk scales sewn to the pants, which are red satin. When the wearer is moving, for instance down the runway, the scales all move and ruffle in the wind, and it's really beautiful.  

The LOVE couple, Gelynda & Shane, photo by Mad Girls Mag/Gray People

Model Shane White as LOVE, photo from Arkansas CW

The next look is Temptation. Temptation is something that is present in everyone's lives in various forms, so she can kind of represent whatever you want. She is the beautiful devil that makes us do things we desire but know we shouldn't. I envisioned a showgirl-dancer inspired outfit. I began by sewing a red bodysuit and then covered it with a bounty of flowers, like a summer garden in full bloom. This was one of those projects that started with me being super careful, pinning everything before I sewed it, hand sewing everything---- and about halfway through, many hours in, I decided I had better start doing it on the machine if I was ever going to finish it. The look is completed with a red veil and matching red sequined fishnet stockings. 

Model Alexandra Tsaharidis in the Temptation ensemble, photo by Arkansas CW.

Alexandra, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography 

After Temptation, comes Heartbreak. I wanted to leave the "story" of the collection ambiguous so that the audience could make up their own story to go with it. If you want to take it very literally, you can see it as the story of a marriage broken up by a cheating husband, leading to the heartbroken wife spending the rest of her days alone. Or you can look at it more objectively, as the struggles that we all go through in life, sadness and heartbreak being inevitable feelings all humans experience at some point. I tried to make this look poignant and dramatic, almost like a shattered wedding gown, and mourning veil, the mourning of love.... a white lace mermaid gown with a red beaded and sequined broken heart, with bead and sequined "Blood drops" falling down the gown. The headpiece was inspired by the hennin headpieces worn in the middle ages. I love the way that the headpiece mimics the shape of the dress, creating a really interesting and unique profile.  
Model Tabatha Taylor, Heartbreak, photo by Arkansas CW

photo by Brandon Johnson Photography


Tabatha as Heartbreak, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography, makeup Veronica Reyes

Tabatha, photo by Mad Girls Mag/Gray People

The evolution of a look: Heartbreak gown from initial assembly, to fitting, to finished gown on the runway.
Model Tabatha Taylor.

The final look is Death. Inspirations for this look came from sources you might not expect. This headpiece by Alexander McQueen (below) is something that I have loved forever. It's so dramatic and spooky and high fashion all at once. I made something similar for my Death headpiece except with a hennin as the base instead of antlers, giving it more of a Maleficent vibe. Another inspiration came from the movie Amadeus. In the movie Mozart's father wears this "death" mask to a costume party they attend together. Then the father dies, but someone shows up at Mozart's door wearing the same mask, scaring him half to death. It's a truly scary scene, without any blood, monsters, or shock factor... simply seeing someone truly frightened, and the ominous sense that something terrible is about to happen, all from this simple mask and cloak with just the right mood and good storytelling. 
Left: Alexander McQueen headpiece. Right: Death mask from Amadeus. 

Knee deep in faux leather and brocade, sewing the Death ensemble. 

Trying on the Death headpiece in the studio. 

This was definitely the most fun look to create, though technically challenging. The top of the dress is a black, faux leather corset with a basket woven texture. The skirt is black taffeta with a velvet damask print. The very full skirt is worn over a petticoat and has a 15 foot train. It took a very long time to gather, and hem. All worth it for the gorgeous finished piece, and the gasps from the audience as the model whipped the skirt behind her as she turned the corner. A black feather collar, black lace gloves, and dramatic makeup complete the look.

Death, modeled by Amanda Knoner, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography.

Death, modeled by Amanda Knoner, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography, makeup by Emma Gilbert


Death, modeled by Amanda Knoner, photo by Brandon Johnson Photography

Preshow photos backstage, Amanda, photos by Samantha T Photography/ Miles Witt Boyer 

Photo by Mad Girls Mag/ Gray People


Giving Amanda a little help with the train as we did our final walk so we didn't end up tangled up with the other models.
Photo: Brandon Johnson Photography

Amanda is my right-hand girl. She's been in every one of my runway shows, usually opening or closing the show. She's a great friend and my muse for many projects! I think you can see how happy and relieved we are that the show went well. Till next time! ;)

Photo from Arkansas CW.