Handcrafted with Love

Gag Reel from Photo Shoot

FInally here!  Here's a taste, check out the new photo album (right) to see the rest!

Love,

Sara

The Cow Dress

A few months ago I had a grand dream that I would make this fabulous evening gown out of this cow-print crepe back satin to attend my friend Anna's farm wedding...

Well, the dress...let's just say it never got made.  I have the best of intentions!  And actually, last week I took the fabric out when I had a few minutes to spare and started draping the design...maybe I'll find a use for it.

Until then, I used a piece to drape a little number on this gorgeous girl.  She said she felt quite glamorous, but couldn't justify the purchase since it didn't quite fit her lifestyle.  (I tried convincing her that we could be matching, and we could make cow noises while we wore them, but she said I was silly.)

What a cutie pie.

That's our friend Aunah's daughter, who is a fabulous artist for Event Cosmetics.  Thanks for letting her be my guinea pig!

Love,

Sara

Tucson Bridal Expo

So, my folks were gracious enough to accompany me to the Tucson Bridal Expo last Sunday, where we hoped there would be lots of fun stuff for us to see and, of course, did a little market research.

The look and feel of the show was very much like the big Portland Bridal Show that happens every January here in Portland at the Convention Center.  It was more of an impersonal/take my info/browse around kind of thing...not at all like the Bravo Wedding Affair that the Loft normally participates in, which is much more personal and geared towards conversation.  But, that's not to say one is better than the other!  Even though we only stopped by for about an hour, it was exhausting!  Admission was free, so literally everyone and their mom was there, and vendors just seemed disinterested and apathetic.  As a "bride" I was disappointed that there wasn't samples being given out by caterers or bakers (literally, no samples save for one in each category), but was actually very impressed with the quality of photographers and venues in the area.  Being a very artistic community, I guess I should have given Tucson a bit of a break, but it was a nice surprise!

I did get to see what their "custom" market consisted of...very different from Portland!  Portland is pretty saturated with custom designers, indie fashion labels willing to do bridal for commission, national labels that can be customized...not to mention tailors and seamstresses that work from home or outside of the bridal industry.  There were a handful of gown shops showing their looks from national designers, and then there were a few "tailors" that offered both national and international brands as well as custom pieces made to order.  

I feel lucky to be doing what I'm doing in a town like Portland, where artists are everywhere from every discipline, and the culture is very oriented towards supporting local businesses and craftsmen.

Tucson is a city that thinks it's a small town...it's got plenty of room to grow!

Love,

Sara

The Color Purple

Speaking of Katherine Sealy of Event Cosmetics, she recently sent over this pic of a dress I made her for The Color Purple last month!

Love love love it!

Here's what she had to say:

Hey Sara,

I know I have already told you how much I loved my first Love,June dress,

but did I tell you how much Wayne loved it too? Thank you so much for your

attention to detail and taking on such a last minute request. I am really

looking forward to your new line and more custom dresses for my wardrobe.

Love,Katherine:)

Anytime, lady!

Love,

Sara

Fabric Fiasco

I'm down in sunny Tucson, AZ visiting my folks for the weekend. We've just been relaxing and having fun in the sun, making up for not being able to make it down for Christmas (stupid snow)! 

Yesterday my mom wanted to head down to the fabric store to look for some material for curtains for her guest bedrooms. She warned me that Fabrics That Go would be overwhelming, but I never imagined what we would be in for! 

Luckily it was all interiors, or else I would have gone crazy trying to see everything! 

Tomorrow we're off to the Tucson Bridal Show, just do see how it gets done around here! Hasta pronto! 

Love,

Sara

I'm back!

Whew! What a busy past 4 weeks I've had, but here I am again writing to you from the magical place that is Shoetini's!  First off I would like to say to Sara, that I want the Salma dress too! Make me one!
Ok, that's been said, now what else can I get into?

Well first of all I would like to announce Shoetini's annual Shoe-per Bowl Sunday Sale!  This will be on Super Bowl Sunday at all 3 of our stores (Corvallis, Eugene, Albany) and will feature delicious treats, cocktails, shoes buy one get one half off, and 20% off all REGULAR PRICED merchandise!  Our current sale racks have 40-50% off clothes and 25-50% off shoes, and those will stay the same for the sale.  Which equates to everything in the store being on sale!
This sale is so huge with all of our faithful customers and we're really excited to bring it to Eugene and Albany! 

In other news, I came across this great website called ModCloth that has some fun and funky shoes/clothing/accessories that are reminiscent of the 60s.  If you're someone like myself, who loves the looks of the 50s/60s, then this place is definitely for you!  In fact, it's from this website that I found the inspiration for the fabulous tailored shift dress that Sara made me!

This is a quick entry but future posts will address quality and price (which are directly related! gasp!), pet peeves of those of us in the fashion industry (this will be a fun one!), why things made in China aren't all evil, and fun new trends for the upcoming seasons!

Stay tuned!

~Laurel

New dress?

Katherine Sealy, CEO of Event Cosmetics, recently brought this dress up on my computer saying her husband nearly died when he saw it.  He says I have to make it for her...damn!  Here's Salma Hayek at the Golden Globes last week...

Luckily, the style is very close to the styles we've been coming up with for the new line over the last year, so it will be easy to adapt with our concept and patternmaking methods!  Love this gown, and of course, love Salma!

As for the actual line, we're working on the edits from the photo shoot, it's just a matter of time before you can see them!  Sit tight!

Love,

Sara

Photo Shoot...done!

Phew!

Today was the big day of the photo shoot with Cory Tepper.  I'm rounding out the 12th hour of running around orchestrating, but cooling down finally.  The Loft is all cleaned up and everyone's gone home...

A big, enormous thank you to everyone that helped me out today!  Cory, of course, the photographer.  Kathy and Aunah, the girls from Event Cosmetics for makeup and hair.  My models:  Zoe, Sam, Jessica, and Julia.  My custom clients who came down with their beautiful dresses and waited so patiently for their turn in front of the camera:  Debra and Katie.  My big helpers, who helped accessorize and make sure everything went smoothly:  Alex, Andrea, and Emma.  Everything went so well, and I'm so happy we were all able to pull it together with relatively short notice!

Can't wait for the review session with Cory to see all the shots and pick out the ones to be featured in our marketing material!

I'll keep you posted...but for now, a SHOWER and some SLEEP!!

Love,

Sara

Internship Ideas

Usually the Bridal Loft hosts and intern during the summer months from one of the local universities.  This past summer we didn't have one, but had some lovely former interns working for us in the production area.  This summer, we're looking forward to having one, but we're changing it up a little bit...

I've been thinking about the summer that I did my internship here at the Loft.  Yep, that's how I weasled my way in, started out as an intern and worked my ass off for free.  Anyway, my internship was really great in so many ways, but now that I'm in the position to have an intern, I've been thinking about how I might be able to expand upon the things I learned as an intern to make it a more well-rounded and realistic experience to demonstrate all of the different tasks in our daily routine.

As an intern, I spent a lot of time observing fittings, cutting dresses with attention to accuracy, and putting together sample gowns using new, professional techniques I hadn't previously been practicing.  Those techniques have totally changed the quality of my work, and made me notice so many details on high end dresses that I may not have noticed otherwise.  That attention to detail has really broadened my focus when I'm constructing a dress, and I think not only aesthetically but functionally when I'm trying to figure out how to put a new gown together.  

I'm thinking the internship for this summer will have a similar focus, on quality and construction techniques, but also on fit and patternwork.  Since the new line is in full bloom, we can have design challenges using the ideas that the line is based upon.  And, since we're focusing more on efficient use of fabric and sourcing beautiful and responsible materials, we could have design challenges using the scraps we've accumulated over the last year from custom projects!

There are so many fun projects that we're coming up with to try and give an intern a really accurate idea of what we go through as designers in this industry and, especially, in this economy.  I'm looking forward to sharing with a bright young mind (!!) and seeing what we can accomplish together.

Love,

Sara

Breakthrough!!

I had a breakthrough today with the designs for the new line!

(Jeez, I work so well under pressure...a little toooooo well...)

I had been looking through piles and piles of tear sheets (from magazines) to get some sample shots for Cory (for the upcoming photo shoot) last week, and found a handful of shots of cute dresses that could be adapted and used as inspiration for the new line...you know, using the concept of not cutting the fabric--or at least as little as possible--to create fabulous looks without creating textile waste.

On that note, briefly, I am still in shock that Portland--PORTLAND--doesn't have ANY options for textile recycling.  Good thing I'm resourceful...

Anyhoo, I was looking through the tear sheets and found some nice looking dresses that could be used as inspiration.  Of course, since it is a tear sheet, I have absolutely no idea who made the dress in the photo, because that information was on a different page.  If I had to venture a guess, I'd say Lanvin.  Love.  So it's a lovely satin, raw edges, strapless, kind of asymmetrically pleated.  Perfect!  It totally was where I was already going with the line...so I started draping, using it as inspiration.

I used a linen/silk satin.  Fabulous.  Edges raw.  It starts turning into this almost-one-shoulder-but-not-quite-there...kind of...top...

Then!

I added a strap, more gathers, cut a little away...used it to form an abstract corsage...then!  Pencil skirt, asymmetrical darts, gathered piece on the backside...knee length?  That's cute.  There could be a full length option, too, with a train and the same fabulous gathering down the train!  

Then!  With all of the raw edges I frayed them a little to give them a really soft feel...next came a dress in another fabric with the same technique, only a little cleaner...next...

I'm so excited I can't even finish a sentence!  Hold tight until next week when I post a photo for you, it's fabulous!!

Love,

Sara