Hibernation in Taipei

I've been back from India for about two weeks now, but haven't done much because I needed to catch up on schoolwork (oh no three weeks of missing school!!  Right during midterm tests!) as well as the sudden temperature change between Mumbai and Taipei has made me into a hibernating bear.

This is Rambo.  I met him while we were painting the Mt. Mary Steps project

This is the Graffiti Jam

This is my first time taking Mumbai trains.  NO SAFETY so it is up to you to be wise!

This is the most tragic photo of my trip.  These kittens were fending for themselves.

There was some trouble with my schooling because I am on the brink of failing out already, but it may have been fixed.  I am still in the danger zone and may not graduate, but this has given me much time to think about my future.  I do not plan to continue schooling regardless of graduation results.  This is my final year, and that is all.

  

 

I also no longer wish to do a traditional shop, or even online webshop because I am unsatisfied with the current marketing format of trying to fight for customers who do not understand the work and money invested into products, and instead we are all (myself included) more interested in getting the most amount of stuff for the least amount of money, a la TaoBao.  My interest in fashion began because I wanted to make clothing for myself, and one-offs for friends.  Now that I have spent so many years doing this, I think I want to go back to these one-offs, making whatever I want without considering its market value, as well as taking custom orders from people who are willing to understand the value of work.  I am aware this means I will probably need to take another job in order to support myself financially, but in the long run I feel it will make me happier!  Trying to work out the market has aggravated all the anxiety and depression issues I was previously dealing with.

This also means I will probably not be focusing on as niche a topic on this blog, though I still adore traditional Lolita fashion so no worries, I will still be updating with it ;)

Additionally, I am exploring other styles I've always admired but never tried!  So hopefully more news will begin to update here.  Thanks for following along and for leaving comments.  It is always a light in my day to read them!

Work in progress

Been so busy making a mockup of the first outfit I will make for my final line.  I'm going to India for three weeks so I will probably have to hurry my progress and will do a more complete update!

This year my line is called Sweetie Love and is basically just ice cream and cakes mashed with Teddy bears and bunnies because why not? (My teacher did not like my theme...)

Life had gotten so busy!  I have two Lolita meetups this month before I leave on the 17th, need to do this cute fashion line, and have a fitting and completion of a men's vest for a singer in a local band.  Haven't got time to even go to work haha.

Fashion University: Blooming Blossom

SUMMER BREAK!!!!!! Woohoo I just had my first day of summer break yesterday :)
My final project was to design an outfit for a brand so naturally I did BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT
Here are some photos from my photoshoot:

I'm using the "Photobucket Stories" function so I hope this works properly!


I made a matching outfit for my teddy bear, haha! I've started a fanpage for her on facebook here which shows more of my quick, personal life since I don't take many photos of myself. I feel like it's easier to just take photos of my teddy bear haha!

My headdress I made for this look is something I'm proud of. It was made using a traditional method of accessory-making we learned about in Chinese Clothing History by the Hakka people of Taiwan. Since they didn't have as much money or access to precious metals and gems, they made their hair accessories using wire, embroidery thread, paste, and plain cardboard. It was quite difficult and time-consuming to make, and I actually used loads of double-sided tape to help the thread stay in place because I couldn't do it without!

The building in the background is the Taipei Story House, which is incredibly cute! It was closed at the time we were taking photos so we couldn't get photos in the surrounding gardens, but getting the second-story background was quite lovely too :)

Fashion Week Photos!

This entire project was very rushed, so I was unable to get decent-quality photos and had to edit and compile my entire portfolio in one day! Still, I think the result is at least acceptable.

I hope you enjoy them too ^_^
I added captions and words afterward to cover up parts that were cut off since I had to take the photos myself, and that meant a lot of running back and forth between the camera and to the pose!

Intensive Care Unit

Fashion Week has just ended and I spent this week with a friend from WAAAY back in middle school!
So I've been very busy and need to do a portfolio by next week!
I have a quick snap of my whole line, titled Intensive Care Unit. I will get editorial-type shots next week (I hope!)

Out of Character

This is just a fun little topic or experiment that I thought would be fun to try. It was inspired by the current Fashion Design project we are doing in school where our teacher assigned each of us a character/personality, and we had to design two outfits fitting the character's lifestyle.

My character is a lazy bum who lies around on soft pillows all day and doesn't take care of herself at all, but when she leaves the house she is very put-together and basically looks completely different from her in-house self. It was really quite interesting to try and put together a look for her, and I really hope it turns out well! We will eventually have to actually model these outfits, so even though they are out of character, we will need to pretend to be these characters! (Sort of like cosplay??) The point is that we cannot always design something we personally like/want to wear. To be a designer, you need to know your client and have a flexible view.

So my little project/game I'd like to try here is to have everybody make a list of things you don't do/would never wear/totally not your style, and then try to come up with an outfit (and maybe actually wear it if you're daring!)

My list of "things I would never consider adding to my own wardrobe" is:
*anything too revealing (cleavage, stomach, thighs, backless)
*mainstream "logo" American brands (A&F, American Eagle, Holister/Halister/Hollestir/you know what I mean)
*tight one-piece dresses/anything form-fitting
*bustiers with visible under-wire (it just looks like lingerie to me!)
*engineer boots (sorry to anybody who likes them!)
*sporty wear
*jeans (I'm a fashion train wreck, I know)
*halter tops without a cover-up (I have linebacker shoulders!)
*short shorts
*tailored suit/set
*skinny heels - I cannot walk in them!
*clutches - straps, please!

Wow I didn't realize my list would be so long :( I feel like I'm overly picky now!

Here are two outfits I put together of clothes/shoes I'd never wear:

What I'd Never Wear by talarayne featuring black hair accessories

The stuff in the middle is supposed to be able to coordinate with both outfits ;)
I'd rock all the jewelry, but cannot see myself actually wearing the clothes without something over/under everything!!

What I'd Never Wear by talarayne featuring skinny jeans

The (tight! white! printed!) jeans here are definitely something I would NOT be comfortable wearing! I tried to make this more punk even with the girly floral bits here and there. Again, I'd rock the jewelry. Anything else? Uh....

What are some things you could never see yourself wearing? Would you ever want to try it out just to see if you're pleasantly surprised? Or are you more comfortable just staying where you are right now? Please let me know! I like to know how other people see their own "no-no" styles

What I've Been Up To

I've been quite busy with school. I am in the process of making another dress in hopes of getting into a fashion show.
We only just turned in our portfolios last week, and I need to modify my dress before I get to know whether I am in or out.
The project this time was called Macro to Micro where we took photos of our surroundings and picked a color palette from it, and then used shapes from the photos to create our patterns

We cut shapes and themes from the photos and looked for related images to make two moodboards and one keyword:

My teacher liked this one because it was more cohesive


I like this one because it's brighter

My keyword ended up being "Wanderlust" with the background story of searching for one's secret garden (peace, happiness, etc.)
I wanted to do something brighter since most of my art and fashion projects for school have been dark or depressing and it actually sort of makes me unhappy when I work on them even if I love them. Dwelling continuously on negative things affects my real emotions... maybe I just get too into it!

We then had to make a linup of six colored designs:

My teacher had me make a muslin mockup of the second and four outfits, which are actually the same dress just with or without the top. I ended up changing the design of the top because I couldn't pattern it the way I wanted.

The outfit was not finished when I did the photoshoot!! But it was finished enough that a little post-editing and strategic angling could hide that fact:


Model: HanWen
Everything Else: Me

Still not good at photo-editing :( But at least I am beginning to actually use layers so I can adjust different portions separately!!

Our Future Lies in Your Dreams

I am very Photoshop-inept, so these photos will be very special ^^; I've also created a new label for school-related posts called Fashion University if you'd like to see all the school-related posts at once :) I think some people will be interested to know what sorts of things go on in a fashion school!

My teacher said that I need to work on my overall styling, which is very true! I also need to work on my post-editing skills....

Background Story/Line Inspiration
This is the PPT we made for our line (click to make it larger):

Basically, in a futuristic world, technology has advanced to the point where humans don't need to worry about things such as illnesses or working because it's all automated. The purpose of this is so that humans can pursue "greater" things such as arts, peace, etc. as well as clean up the planet from the pollution caused by previous generations.
However, the world instead uses the technology to create more and more advanced simulations, virtual reality, games, etc. and instead mentally decay. Being that they spend their lives basically plugged into virtual stimulation programs, they need to use medication to induce sleep and cease to dream.
Virtually all species are extinct, save for mutant insects and single-cell organisms, who tend to be hardier and able to evolve more quickly.
Dream-eating tapirs are also dying out due to the fact that the humans are no longer dreaming, so they have no sustenance. In an effort to save the planet as well as themselves, they use the humans' technology to put them into an induced coma and create a "dream world" where the humans continue to "live" their regular lives through dreams. This creates enough dream material for the dream-eating tapirs to survive, but due to the lack of creativity (e.g., the weird, unrealistic dreams we have), it become essentially like eating a piece of white toast and a cup of black coffee for every meal every day for the rest of your life. Boring.
The dream-eating tapirs are divided into different groups depending on their duty. There are computer-programmers who are in charge of making sure the humans' dream-world remains flawless, protectors who need to defend the cities from the mutant creatures, and dream-collectors who harvest the dreams and convert it into energy to power the cities and as food for themselves.
Though their world seems pretty bleak right now, the dream-eating tapirs still hope that one day the humans will come to realize what they have done to the planet and be able to be released from the induced coma and save the planet as well as bring back their own creativity and actually dream.

The last few pages are reference movies and music and fashion inspiration.

Now, on to the photos! Click on them to make them larger!

Computer Programmer
Clothing: Iku Wang (my partner)
Hair/Makeup/Styling: Me
Photographer: Kenny Paul (Images by Kenny)
Model: Flora
Post-Editing: Me


Protector
Clothing: Me
Hair/Makeup/Styling: Me
Photographer: Kenny Paul (Images by Kenny)
Model: Naomi
Post-Editing: Me



Dream-Catchers
Clothing: Me
Hair/Makeup/Styling: Me
Photographer: Kenny Paul (Images by Kenny)
Model: Julia
Post-Editing: Me


Clothing: Iku Wang (my partner)
Hair/Makeup/Styling: Me
Photographer: Kenny Paul (Images by Kenny)
Model: Emily
Post-Editing: Me


Group:

Fashion Week at ShihChien University

Last week was Fashion Week at my school. Even though my partner and I didn't make it into the finals and our score wasn't very good, I still quite like the two outfits I made.

Yesterday we had a real photoshoot and I will post the photos from that when I am done editing them!

Here is a preview of the line:

I made the two outfits on the left and my partner made the two outfits on the right.
Our theme was Dream-Eating Tapirs in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have to be put into an induced coma and live their lives through dreaming (similar to The Matrix) due to their destructive nature and the dream-eating tapirs are now in charge of maintaining the dream world, protecting their cities from the mutant insects in the real world, and collecting the dreams from the humans to survive.

My teacher didn't like the blue skirt I made, so in the photoshoot I redid it with black netting, which shows the layered pants on the inside more clearly anyway.

The hair and makeup were all done by me. I'm not exactly an expert, so in the later close-up photos you will probably be able to see the flaws!

For Second Year at ShihChien, we were "experimental" and many of the other groups had very extravagant and artistic lines! I'm personally better at ready-to-wear and not good at extreme wearable art, so I'm not surprised that our line was said to look "flat" in comparison. Next year, we need to do more wearable, yet creative lines, so I hope to do better!

Winter Break (?)

Hello readers, and sorry for the big gap in blogging! It was Finals Week for me and this week is the first week of Winter Break!
While that may seem like a big break, it really just means that it's time to work on Fashion Week things

I am glad that school is over though! Look at some awesome things I designed!

No, it was not my own choice to design men's underwear. The company that my school partnered with does men's underwear and t-shirts. No, my designs did not get chosen. I don't think my style is really quite what middle-aged men in Taiwan are looking for...
Well, you don't always get to design what you want! So if any of you are thinking of studying Fashion Design in college, be forewarned!!! Well, it was sort of fun to do this project anyway~

In other news, my friends from Minnesota will be coming to visit next week, so hopefully I'll have more interesting things to post about! In the meantime, I would like to share some other things that are going on recently~

I finally made it to Perfume Dance (SOGO branch) to try the honey toast there!! After seeing so many other Lolitas post photos, but never being able to make a meetup, I got to go over the weekend with my mom!

In addition to trying their version of honey toast in a pyramid shape, I also had eggs Benedict for the first time in my life. I know, it probabyl seems silly that I never had it in America, but I'm not sure why I never did try it... I'm happy to say that it was yummy, though!


Eggs Benedict with avocado cheese

I had this glorious dessert with my mommy:

It was really nice and not too sweet! The bread paired nicely with the whip (all melted), the small scoop of ice cream, and the custard that glued everything together. The red berries were quite sour, but really nice!

With the Strength of Taipei...

We will blast off into the future!
Today I had Fabric Printing Design class. Our teacher had us all join a T-shirt design contest where the topic was "Taipei's Strength/Power." Not going to lie - I am awful at computer graphics and really didn't want to do this contest, so I made a really, really silly design!



The images are all Googled (Taipei 101, Rocket Blast, and Cute Cartoon Dinosaur) and then I used Photoshop and Illustrator to put it together.

OK this is a really silly post, but it is one of the things we did in fashion design school. You don't always get to design the things you like. Last week we designed wallpaper. One of my designs was chosen, so hopefully there will be a small, monetary prize!

Next week we are going to start designing our actual fabric prints. I want to do one with dinosaurs, fossils, and/or cake and sweets. Dinosaur Sweets!