FIRE WORKS!
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Gael’s first 4th of July Fire works! Fire Worked the magic or worked more like the “Space” for him. His favorite? Of course the Smiley Face! For me? It was a big triumphant kaleidoscope moment of Grace Jones, Avatar, A sexy Miami night, Liquid Sky, Alexander McQueen and,,, most of all, a real good satisfaction to my current weakness, Hot Acid Fluorescent vulnerability…! Aaauuuu! Anyway, Happy 4th to all of you!!! And,,, A very Special Thanks to our Beloved Camera! Good Job You, G10!
Grapes and Snake meets Junka Nabay at P.S.1 MOMA!
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A talented Rising Designer, Alexander Campaz meets a talented film maker Carlo= “Grapes and Snake” is participating Janka Navay concert event in Moma P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center 22-25 Jackson Avenue. They are selling their freshly designed Nabay and Snake’s cool tees at Moma Store of P.S.1!
Today, July 2nd, Saturday. 2-9pm. Moma P.S.1 Queens. Junka will be performing along with Delorean, Glasser, John Talabot and Korallreven
Go check out the concert and grab a tee!!
www.alexandercampaz.com
www.grapesandsnakes.com
www.lacasapark.com/la/2010/05/a-hidden-gem-alexander-campaz/
Out of Africa: (RED) and FIFA World Cup!
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It’s that time, the World Cup!! What an exciting event! And I feel extra special about South Africa is hosting this amazing world event this year. A few years ago, I had a privilege to visit Cape town and Madagascar in South Africa. Tony Kretten, Michael Jarvela and myself were 3 main designers who launched the (RED) line within the Gap brand as an effort to educate and help people with Aids in Africa along 4 other major world wide partners: Motorola, Amex, Converse and Apple. The (RED) was founded by a lead singer of U2, Bono, and Bobby Shriver, a current mayor of Santa Monica and long time activist with below in their mind.
Here’s the manifesto of (RED): www.joinred.com
(RED)™ IS A SIMPLE IDEA THAT TRANSFORMS OUR COLLECTIVE POWER AS SHOPPERS INTO A FINANCIAL FORCE THAT HELPS THOSE AFFECTED BY HIV IN AFRICA. TO DATE, $150 MILLION HAS BEEN GENERATED AND 5 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HELPED THROUGH GLOBAL FUND PROGRAMS THAT (RED) SUPPORTS. WHEN YOU CHOOSE TO BUY PRODUCTS FROM (RED) PARTNER COMPANIES UP TO 50% OF THE PROFIT GOES TOWARDS ELIMINATING AIDS IN AFRICA.
Actual few proto styles of (RED) first Launch Collection back in 1995. INSPI(RED) tee, (RED) jean, hoodies… The bottom photo shows Men’s and Women’s surplus jacket from the sketch book. Below continues on following seasons’ inspiration photos, scribbles, brain storms and sketches. We were all fired up to be inspired by the beauty and the culture of land of Africa itself for continuing seasons to develop the line. Ghana, Namibia, Kassena, Cape Town…
Tony, Do you remember, The Black gold of Sun..?
This was one of my favorite season. I was whole lot inspired by the beauty of Kassena Country of Africa’s Architecture and their most amazing murals.
This Safety pin with one African bead was the Pink ribbon that fights against the AIDS for Gap (RED).
The Town Ship of Cape Town. Where the majority of locals live. Brightly painted Patched wooden walls inspired me to create things that were joined, pieced and stacked with great help of Emily Harris, my long time favorite graphic Artist.
Now Gap’s first 5 years dedicated participation of this amazing journey has been just ended but I hope one day we will re-join the (RED) in bigger and better way. When I was actively designing the RED line such as simple Graphic tees to jeans,woven shirts, sweaters and leather jackets, I was sent along Kim Lim, an amazing woman who really worked her heart out for RED under the Gap brand to go visit all the vendors and factories who were actually doing the production in South Africa. From NY to Paris, Paris to Senegal then finally to Johannesburg then to Cape Town. What a long journey to get there …! And, I was on constant short flights within the South Africa region to visit one of the most prominent Design expo, INDABA( which means ‘ Bringing together’ in South African) in Cape town, and also the vendors who produced all our graphic tees and some of the woven pieces and a few other vendors in Durban and Madagascar as well.
All of these were such an eye opening experience for me. One, I knew I underestimated Africa. I mean What did I reaaaallly know about Africa? Hunger? the Aids? then what? Who knew so many haute couture houses such as Chanel and Armani were working together with one of the most highly skilled textile houses and trim suppliers. INDABA expo completely blew my mind. So many artists based in South Africa were already well established working with top interior design firms and brands providing one of kind lamp to artistic pottery, furniture and more world wide. And You know what? They were cutting edge Modern. Also I had met most amazing people with cause ( yes to help and build the South Africa) by utilizing their creativity at the expo. The scene of Cape town also surprised me. Despite of 15 or more Townships (undeveloped and poor urban living towns for non whites in Cape Town), many parts of the city was quite well developed reminding parts of here in NYC.
But then Yes, it is true that majority of locals do live in this poor Town ships with impossible to cure disease. South Africa along the rest of Africa does have a huge problem of AIDS. I mean the factories that I visited literally have to calculate the possible deaths of their workers up coming from having an AIDS into their productivity for their production. All the Airports or many other places that require steady work force in Africa have similar problems. Can you believe such a death is so common that you have to constantly fill in the work force? This causes vicious cycle as follow: the death-new worker-re-training-wasted time over the learning curve -lack of experts in their field-poor quality – death… Ahhh, It breaks my heart..
Typical Township in Cape town.
A local market scenes at Madagascar. I absolutely loved the market! Ton of hand crafts to textile, it’s super colorful. But then this is one of my favorite photo of the market. The Blue sky and quite view. It feels peaceful…
*I thought her look was super interesting in her thrown in together outfit. And of course… the Bare feet. in Madagascar, maybe good half of the population does not own a pair of shoes. Of course the factories where I had visited they did, but on the street it is much easier to spot people without shoes than ones with shoes.
UNESCO built water holes. I heard most of locals does not have water at home in Madagascar. You will see water holes here and there through out the town. There are ton of people living on the street and wash up their clothes and sheets in the small river when it rains and lay them on the grass field off the street to dry them. It was such a humbling experience to see what they have and realize what I have.
Cape town scene across the street from a small Bed and Breakfast where me and Kim had stayed.
Cape town Taxi
A view of Table mountain Cape Town.
I really hope the World Cup 2010 in South Africa will give a healthy financial and mental lift to the land. Mostly for the people who suffers and dying. The Young Generation. Also I hope South Africa government can somehow utilize this opportunity to get some serious attention from the world to help out their social issues-lack of education, poverty and AIDS. So many people live with their myth in Africa. People think AIDS will go away if they can sleep with a virgin or have a connection with their God through a ritual ceremony. We need a constructive education that starts from the womb of a mother for people in Africa and the world. We need a powerful wake up call.
Africa, It’s year 2010 and You are the one who is hosting the FIFA today! I want you to succeed. Succeed in building a better economy, succeed in educating, succeed in healing and succeeding in hosting the World Cup!
And you can help right now by joining (RED)!
A conversation with Two Artists: Fashion! at Metropolitan Museum
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Back in May, I had an awesome opportunity to give a lecture/discussion at Metropolitan Museum as a related event to ” American Women” Exhibition. The American Women Exhibition was made possible with collaboration between Brooklyn Museum’s Costume Collection and the Costume Institute of Metropolitan Museum.
on June 3, a blog about my lecture was posted on Brooklyn Museum blog site. Check it out!
Quote from the Posting as follow! :
“In celebration of the new relationship between Brooklyn Museum’s Costume Collection and the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, teen programs at both museums have joined forces to offer fashion related events for teens.
On Friday, May 14, Brooklyn Museum Apprentices visited The Metropolitan Museum for the teen event, A Conversation with Two Artists: Fashion! Also attending the event were other teens from across the city. Jaehee Park, a design director at the Gap, and Andrew Bolton, Curator of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum discussed their influences and work/life experiences in the fashion world.
Jaehee Park showed off her sketch book and talked about the six t-shirts she designed in conjunction with The Metropolitan’s exhibition American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity. All six t-shirts are now on sale in Gap stores. Andrew Bolton talked about exhibition design and made suggestions for those interested in becoming fashion curators. He recommends majoring in art or design history as an undergraduate and then focusing on fashion history in graduate school.
This teen event kicked off the T-shirt Design Competition for Teens being sponsored in conjunction with the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum. Teens entering the design contest must visit the The Metropolitan Museum’s fashion exhibition and Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition, American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection to gather inspiration and design ideas. The deadline for submissions is June 14, 2010.
Other teen events include a teen night at the Brooklyn Museum and a teen festival at The Metropolitan Museum. The Brooklyn Museum’s Teen Night: Focus on Fashion will feature a dance party, performances, and hands-on art making. The event will be held on Friday, June 4 starting at 5:00 pm in the lobby. Teens are encouraged to come dressed in fashions inspired by their favorite period in American history. The Metropolitan’s Teen Festival: From Suffragist to Sirens celebrates the winners of the T-shirt design competition on Saturday, July 17 from 11:00 am-2:00 pm. Hands-on art making activities will be features at the festival.”
www.brooklynmuseum.org/community/blogosphere/bloggers/2010/06/03/teens-unite-at-two-institutions/
Sneak Preview of “American Women”: the Met costume Institute Exhibition
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May 4, the day after the Gala. So I went to Met today to see the Exhibition. The weather was gorgeous by the way, so I really enjoyed the walk from the #6 train station to the museum. And…no that lady is NOT me in the picture! haha anyway, bit excited walking in…!
Here’s the Invitation for the Membership Preview: Which means less crowded!
The entrance. It’s so nice to see that one line on the wall” The Exhibition is made possible by “GAP”!!
During the research for the Tee project, I had read so much about each era/the theme, woman of the Show, but here I am walking through the exhibition, everything feels new again. And the Costumes are absolutely gorgeous!!
The Heiress opens up the Exhibition: Sorry… I don’t have the pic of Heiress costumes. But! It is all about the “hour glass shape” accenting the smallest waist ever possible by having “corset-ed bodice with boning structure”. I am pretty sure the mannequin is specially made for such an era because the waist measurement easily looks like only 18″!!!
The Gibson girls: Luuuuuuuvvvvv the entire room. By the way, each room is in oval shape with tall ceiling and life size back ground either that is photo printed wall paper or the real fresco painting! Look at the first 2 outfits completed with leather strapped ice skates! And the rabbit caplets and the jacket. These 2 ladies look absolutely put together. The details with hints of contrast colored striping and lines make them look even more interesting. Love them!!
Here’s the other side of Gibson girls: The room is set up around her interests in Sports: Ice skating, Tennis, Bicycling, Golf, Riding… Here multi paneled long linen skirt and band collar shirts, also where Gap’s Gibson Girl Tee’s inspiration has come from. And I can’t get over how small their waists were!!
The Gap’s Gibson Girl Tee. And the below, Gibson Girls, Rowing!
Jason and Nancy, I SO thought of you two! Look at this sweater!!!. The sleeve , The stitch! And I want the sweater….!
Now, moving onto Bohemians: Look at these shoes and the velvet covered shoe box and wooden shoe forms keeping the shoes in a perfect condition. We are talking about 100 years of history here. So decadent and so rich!
This dress is out of the world. You have to see it yourself. The bottom hem is twisted and balloon like draped with placed mini tassels hanging. Absolutely stunning!
Her rich and flamboyant taste comes through these costumes. The details, drapes and volume… And below, the Gap Bohemian Tee. We doubled up the tee in simple cotton jersey to give that twisted hem by rotating the inner layer about 30%. And added hand done looking details by applying raw cut jersey pieces and running stitches.
Next… Flappers, one of my favorite: There are so many more costumes at the show. So You need to go see them yourself!
The slender line, the fan, the length of the skirt, the sexy T-strap shoes: Ahhh, I love it! And Can we talk about PRADA!!?! By the way, The first costume on the very left was “The Inspiration” for Gap’s Flapper Tee.
The Diamond Paneling on the front. Pleats and ruffles replaces the intricate skirt detail of Flapper’s ones. The view of the Flapper’s room below.
The lastly, The Screen Siren: All the dresses are Drop-Dead-Gorgeous!! Absolutely Stunning. Screen Siren looked the most modern to me because somehow I believe the big screen star attitude and that elegance continues through the world of the Cinema today. Even though then was just 100times more beautiful but, hey, it’s year 2010 now, Right?
I remember my first year at F.I.T making the final project for the Draping class, the mushroom pleated silk dresses. You put your fabric through the pleating machine with sheet of paper. The machine pretty much” Bakes” the fabric with that sheet of paper all together. Aren’t these dresses amazing? I really love the metal chain details on the dress in the middle. This hard edged detail beautifully compliments the superbly draped mushroom pleats. The Goddess.
The Exhibition features video footages from the movies, amazing accessories and bit of history per era. A great show! I am only covering a portion of the exhibition here and I encourage everyone to go see the show. The Show opens to Public Today. A beautiful one. And don’t forget to stop by at Picasso Exhibit as well. Have fun!
One of the Gap window for the Limited Edition Met Gala tees.
So it has been always a big pride for me that Gap, the “it” American brand I have been working for now 9 years going in, leading a cool modern culture for America. And now the newest best thing that Gap is doing is Co-chairing the biggest American event of the year, Metropolitan Museum Gala with Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey. The Monday, the May 3rd. Today!
Not only the Gap will be rocking the night of the Gala at the Met but also Gap had created a Limited Edition Tee Capsule to celebrate the event, Costume Institute’s Spring 2010 exhibition, American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, the first drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Met.
And I was the super lucky one to work on the Tee shirt capsule of total 8 pieces with Patrick Robinson, the EVP of Design and my big boss at Gap!
First the quick down load about the whole event then flipping a heavy binder of fabulous images put together by Andrew Bolton, the Curator of Costume Institute of Met. Wow, there are ton of information in this! From prominent oil paintings, posters from the turn of the century, countless images of amazing costumes, historical drawings and black and white photos of real women in the history and the list goes on. The assignment? Design a limited edition tee inspired by each era or the women in American history ( 1890-1940) who changed the women in America and made the America today to be sold at specific Gap stores.
A tee? One tee? It has to be more than one tee. We are going to do a tee per each inspiration from the Met event : Patriot (1910s), Suffragists (1910s), Flapper (1920s), Heiress (1890s), Screen Siren(1930s), Gibson Girls (1920s) and Bohemian (early 1900s). Plus we create one more, one exclusive tee for Met museum only,” the Celebration tee” inspired by Norman Rockwell’s all American Woman image.
Our( Gap’s) biggest focus on this project was to create the tees that are modern and relevant to the women in the Society today. And our process goes as below…
We pick the best couple inspiration images per the era to focus on the specific details: Below, ” The Bohemian” loving the 3 dimensional skirt detail from the image of the costume from the early 1920s and recreated for the tee. ( a page from our sketch book)
Below, “The Heiress”, We focus on the corset detail. Then give a little modern twist by switching the boning detail to simple zipper. We made it even longer so you can wear it with your newest Gap leggings!
Here take a look at the photos of Very First mock ups done in back in September, 2009! The work in progress….!
The Bohemian: Raw cut jersey pieces with stitch detail and twisted double layered tee.
The Flappers: Focus on classic diamond panel detail and flirty woven pleat and ruffle details.
The Gibson Girl: All about the small fit and woven shirt layered underneath look. But It’s only a trick! It’s still a tee!
The back of the Heiress Tee: It’s all about the modern “Corset” idea and the zipper detail adds extra cool edge.
The Suffragist: She fought for her right to Vote. The Tough one!
The Screen Siren: She got all the glam she needs but in a very down town way. Completely double layered and draped in bias cut. Quite chick Ha?
The Back view: The origami detail as bit of drama on the back.
And…!
Trying out our top pick, Norman Rockwell’s image of all American fierce and strong woman for Met exclusive tee. I really relate to this image because this is me everyday. And this is you everyday as a woman. I may not wear American flag outfit, but I do what this woman does. I mean look at her! She looks rather ” Do It All! ” than struggles. She’s strong, responsible, enduring, loving, creative and intelligent. I see my mother and grandmother. I see myself and all the women out there. What an amazing women we are!!
Coming all together.. The sample on the front and the inspiration page on the back. Get my system going…
And the final product ready to be shipped! As you can peek at from the photos, each tee has specific stamp label inside to capture where each tee’s inspiration has come from.
The Bohemian and Patriot. All tees are retailed around at $44.50.
The Flapper and Heiress.
The Gibson girl and Suffragist.
The Screen Siren.
The Last but not the least, The “Celebration Tee” for Met Museum shop Exclusive.
Now, Where to Buy these?
Remember these are limited edition. We had produced only limited numbers of tees and only the specific Gap stores are carrying these tees. So here’s the list of those locations. On May 4th the Tuesday, the window will be up and tees will be in the stores below. So, Go buy them! Also shop on line www.Gap.com
Also check out the site, “Press Room” of Met museum for more details around the actual exhibition:http://www.metmuseum.org/press_room/full_release.asp?prid=%7B32D789A2-4C41-4146-BA91-1F1A6AE0AF98%7D
And here’s the list of other related programs to this big event: Patrick is judging the high school student’s Tee shirt design competition along Anna Wintour and I’ll be also participating in a discussion program, “Conversation with Two Artists” with Andrew, the curator at Costume Institute of Met:
*Related Programs
An audio tour, narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker, provides additional insight into the exhibition and the birth of the modern American woman. It is available for rental ($7, $6 for members, and $5 for children under 12). The Audio Guide is sponsored by Bloomberg.
A two-day symposium celebrating the historic collection-sharing program between the Met and the Brooklyn Museum takes place May 21 in Brooklyn, and May 22 at the Metropolitan. The events are free with Museum admission.
Two documentary films accompany the exhibition – Charles Dana Gibson: Portrait of an Illustrator (1997) and The Flapper Story (1985) – and will be shown at 2 p.m. on certain Tuesdays and Thursdays (schedule available on www.metmuseum.org).
Programs for teens include a T-shirt design competition for high school students (deadline June 14). The winners will be celebrated at a Teen Festival of Fashion: From Suffragists to Sirens featuring related fashion activities on July 17. A Conversation with Two Artists: Fashion! featuring a discussion between Andrew Bolton and Jaehee Park, a design director at Gap, takes place on May 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.
A book, High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection by Jan Glier Reeder, accompanies both the Met and Brooklyn exhibitions. It is published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art – $50 for hardcover and $25 for paperback – and is available at the Met (including www.metmuseum.org) and the Brooklyn Museum (including www.brooklynmuseum.org). The hardcover is distributed to additional outlets by Yale University Press.
The Metropolitan Museum’s website (metmuseum.org) features the exhibition and additional information on these programs.
A T-shirt designed by Gap on the occasion of the exhibition is available in the Museum’s on-site shops and www.metmuseum.org for $30.
And here’s a few of the press so far:
http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2010/04/designer-pairing-gap/
store.metmuseum.org/T-Shirts/Rosie-to-the-Rescue-Tee/invt/rockwelltee&bklist=
www.refinery29.com/first-look-at-gaps-limited-edition-met-ball-t-shirt-collection.php
fashionindie.com/preview-of-gaps-limited-edition-met-ball-tee-collection/
www.popchaser.com/fashion/gaps-patrick-robinson-honors-the-american-woman-with-limited-edition-tees/
www.apparelnews.net/blog/856_3_apparel_news_daily_reader.html
The May Vogue Issue.
Henri Cartier-Bresson: MoMa, April 11-June 28, 2010
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*
I will kill to just travel and take photos.
Go see Henri Cartier-Bresson at Moma.
moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/henricartierbresson/#/
“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
A celebration of Music and Vedio Art: Auroboros Afterparty, NYC
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DEAR NYC!
In right this moment,
an immersive 3d environment is being set up collaborating with
artist Ail Hossaini at the ise cultural foundation @ 555 broadway
between Prince and Spring.
A celebration of music and video art with proceeds to benefit our ongoing support
for the arts.
The Benefit includes multiple channels of video art
in the street and in White Box’s gallery, Buttoh dance by the Vangeline Theatre,
installations, urban projection and DJs spinning late night dance grooves.
After that, an after party at white box!!
@ 329 Broome Street between bowery and allen, as a fund raiser. Artists, Djs, dancers will be partying all night after the opening.
Participating artists include Seth Carnes, Ali Hossaini, Hye Rim Lee, Shantell Martin, Devan Simunovich, SWEATSHOPPE, Seanna Sharpe, Vangeline Theater. Featured DJs are Smirk of Wolf + Lamb Music, Josh Doubles of Backseat Buzz, and Kimyon. Curated by Koan Jeffrey Baysa. It would be great if you could make either, if not the gallery is open from tues-sat 11am-6pm
www.sweatshoppe.org
Armory Arts Week, March 4-7, NYC
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LA VENUE (The Terminal Stores Ground Floor)
608 West 28th Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues
http://koreanartshow.com
March 3: 11 am – 7 pm
March 4: 11 am – 10 pm
March 5 – March 7: 11 am – 7 pm
Run NY, RUN!!!!!!!!!
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