Balenciaga: Spanish Master

Photgraph from:
http://blogs.artinfo.com/museumviews/files/2010/11/Cristobel-Balenciaga-Queen-Sofia-Spanish-Institute-NYC-Hamish-Bowles-Oscar-de-la-Renta-Homa-Nasab-MuseumViews-90.jpg

         
Today, my NYC Study Tour class took me to, yet again, another amazing New York City site. We had the chance to visit the brand new Balenciaga exhibit on display at the Queen Sophia Spanish Institute on Park Avenue. This one-of-a-kind exhibit was the brainchild of Hamish Bowles, editor at large of Vogue, and fashion designer, Ocscar de la Renta. These fashion enthusiasts realized that Cristobal Balenciaga was such a rare and influential designer that his elaborate and unique pieces should be accessible and appreciated by fashionistas. The exhibit looks at the designers work by picking out the Spanish influences. Whether the influence was traditional bullfighting and Spanish dancing attire or the work of visual artists Goya and Picasso, this compelling exhibition shows how Balenciaga synthesized them all into bold and original pieces.


Oscar de la Renta, Queen Sophia of Spain, and Hamish Bowles
Photograph from:
http://car-electronics.orderlike.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/dd6f9_oscar-de-la-renta-hamish-bowles-590ssl112410.jpg

          
As I looked at all of the gorgeous pieces, there were two that stood out. The first was an evening dress from the Winter 1960 collection. This was a red silk duchess satin dress embroidered with black carnations. The carnation, which is the national flower of Spain and a recognizable symbol of the bullring, is a reoccurring motif for Balenciaga. The embroidery and vibrant color combination of this piece references the ornately decorated costume and ceremonial cape of the matador.



Photograph from:
http://blogs-images.forbes.com/hannahelliott/files/2010/11/Balenciaga-red-matador.jpg

The next Balenciaga piece that caught my eye was a gorgeous evening ensemble from the Winter 1967 collection.  This ensemble consisted of a black silk crepe dress with a black silk gazar "chou" wrap.  Gazar, which was developed specifically for Balenciaga, is a stiff silk gauze used to create sculptural forms with minimal seaming and interior reinforcement.  This unique garment depicts the overtly Spanish costume of the working class maja. 


Photograph from:
http://fashionlvr.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/BalenciagaEveningEnsemble1967Collection.jpg

 I had an amazing experience at the Balenciaga: Spanish Master exhibit.  There are so many amazingly crafted fashion pieces that you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else.  This exhibit is going on until February 19th, so make sure to visit and see the work of world renowned designer, Cristobal Balenciaga.

The How-to of the Fashion How-to

“How to Wear Summer Shoes for Your Leg Shape”, “How to Dress Sporty Chic”, and “How to Create a Sharp Shoulder” are just a few of the thousands of service pieces found in high demand magazines, such as InStyle, and websites, such as stylelist.com.  These service pieces give the everyday person the “how-to” they need to dress like a true fashionista.  Stylist, Meg Goldman plays a crucial role in creating these popular service journalism pieces.  

Rolling Stone Magazine Cover styled by Meg

Photograph from:

meggoldman.com

Meg Goldman has been a stylist for nearly twenty years.  During this time, her talent, hard work ethic, and patience has led Meg to a plethora of successful industry experiences.  This experience includes, a Stylist's Assistant, styling for high fashion editorials for Italian and Spanish Vogue, styling celebrities and rock bands, such as Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Harrison of The Beatles, for Rolling Stone magazine, and styling television commercials and national advertising campaigns. Meg has also had experience styling and casting “real” people, or people the audience can relate to, for fashion shoots.  These fashion shoots with children, teens, and adults were published in the New York Daily News, Time Out New York Kids, and Ladies’ Home Journal.  In fact, she was even the editor for Ladies’ Home Journal.  Recently, Meg has started doing styling segments on The Today Show.   

When Meg Goldman styles a service piece, there are an abundance of tasks and duties that she is responsible for.  When she sees a new trend or styling issue that needs to be solved, for instance, how to salvage a bridesmaid dress, Meg knows that it’s the start to a great service story.  However, before she starts the story, Meg has to make sure the piece is “news you can use.”  In other words, she must choose a topic or trend that is not only relevant, but also serves a purpose to the reader.  In order for Meg to choose the correct topic for her reader, she has to put herself in the shoes of the woman she is styling, which is the most important part of a service piece.  After the type of story is established, Meg is responsible for casting “real” people that fit the particular service piece.  Next, Meg’s biggest challenge is the difficult and demanding task of finding the appropriate garments.  She has to go from store to store and showroom to showroom collecting multiple sizes and styles of garments to fit the body shape of a multitude of “real” people.  For example, Meg styled a “Mommy and Me Winter Coats” service piece on the Today Show.  For this segment, she had the challenge of finding quality winter coats for adults and children for under $100.  She went to stores such as, H&M and Zara, and pulled three times as many coats as she needed to increase her options.  Although Meg pulls an excess amount of garments off the racks, she doesn’t give the audience an excess amount of ways to wear a piece.  Meg feels that keeping the advice concise and to the point is the best way to assist with style. However, it’s not all about the clothes for Meg.  The word choice and tone is crucial when giving an audience how-to instructions, especially when body types are involved.  Finally, once one of Meg’s service pieces are published in a magazine or aired on television, it is very important that she credits the companies who donated their garments.  After all, receiving credit is their main reason for donating expensive and sometimes one-of-a-kind pieces.  

 Although having a career as a stylist may seem glamorous, it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and patience to succeed.  From many years of experience, Meg has helped thousands of people learn how to achieve a desired style, while making them feel better about themselves.  It was extremely interesting to hear about Meg's exciting career and I believe that Meg Goldman is an extremely sought after stylist and a service journalism expert.  

Meg Goldman

Photograph from:

http://glassposse.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/dsc_0560.jpg

 

New Designers Hatching at the {CFDA Fashion Incubator}

Designers of the CFDA {Fashion Incubator} with CFDA President, Diane Von Furstenberg
 Photograph from:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Wg6agMNy9jT0yM:http://ipod-iphone.chinawholesalelots.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e519e_diane-von-furstenberg-participating-designers-cfda-590sd05242010.jpg&t=1

           Today, my New York Study Tour class traveled to a location that is extremely desired by young fashion designers. This sought after spot is the CFDA Fashion Incubator. The CFDA, or Council of Fashion Designers of America, is a non-profit trade association that leads industry-wide initiatives and whose members consists of more than 350 of America's most fashion forward womenswear, menswear, jewelry and accessory designers. The CFDA's board of directors include Michael Kors, Vera Wang, and Diane Von Furstenberg. The high-profile members of this board play a crucial role in organizing award ceremonies, such as the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, to acknowledge and honor the future generation of designers.
          The Fashion Incubator is the home to twelve young, talented designers. After submitting a detailed business plan, gaining substantial editorial coverage and orders from top retailers, maintaining their business for one and one half years, and having paid and/or volunteer professional staff, they were chosen to move into the incubator. The CFDA provides these designers with a discounted two-year lease on an 800-1,000 square foot space in the Garment Center that they can use as a studio or a showroom. In addition, the designers are given the opportunity to attend classes to receive assistance on their business plan and advertising their brand. Although the CFDA is still unsure of the exit strategy for the designers, they are sure that they want them to stay in the Garment Center to support the suffering Fashion District.
          During my study tour class' time at the Fashion Incubator, we were able to meet and talk to seven of these amazing designers. We were inspired by Alice Ritter, Dao- Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne of Public School, Yuvi Alpert of Ruby Kobo, Rachel Dooley of Gemma Redux, Sang A, Prabal Gurung, and Bibhu Mohapatra. Although all of these designers were amazing, my favorite was Sang A. Sang A is a designer of exotic skin and leather luxury handbags. Her handbags are worn by many celebrities, including Rhianna and Anne Hathaway. Sang A was a former Korean celebrity, but decided to come to the place that inspired her most, New York City, to pursue her lifelong design dream. With the CFDA Fashion Incubator, Sang A is making that dream a reality.

Sang A in her Studio

 Photograph from:

http://c1603302.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/92249_1274300206_486x.jpg

We Interrupt to Bring You Breaking News...in Fashion!

     “In Three…Two…One…Action!” This is a phrase that Television Journalist, Lauren Glassberg hears daily. Whether she’s in the studio preparing to go “live” or filming on the scene of a new fashion story, she is constantly required to have a great deal of dedication, self- motivation, and stamina.
Lauren Glassberg is a distinguished News Reporter who has many years of experience in the field of journalism. She began her career in this difficult field extremely early in life. As a teenager, Lauren wrote for the "Main Street Wire", which was the local newspaper of her hometown on Roosevelt Island, New York. After she graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, she received her first job as a news Anchor for TV 23 in Akron, Ohio, which is right near my hometown. Lauren then moved on to her next job anchoring the Saturday morning news on KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas. After many reports at this job Lauren moved on to Minneapolis, Minnesota where she was the news anchor for the daily morning news show, KARE 11 Today.
     Now, Lauren is back her hometown as the Features and Lifestyle Reporter, as well as fill-in news anchor, for WABC TV. As the Features and Lifestyle Reporter, Lauren covers fashion, art exhibits, theater, restaurants, and much more. Lauren creates her news pieces entirely on her own. It takes her several hours to produce, shoot, and edit her one minute and thirty second segment. In fact, Lauren shared a few of her news segments with our fashion class. One of her stronger pieces was about a fashion event. Lauren made the point that, “Fashion is a rarity in local news, so I am extremely grateful whenever I receive the opportunity to cover it.” This particular segment was about Oscar de la Renta’s Fashion’s Night Out event. For this huge event, Oscar designed Fashion’s Night Out t-shirts and sold them at Saks Fifth Avenue. All proceeds from the t-shirt sales were donated to the September 11th memorial fund. This piece took Lauren nearly seven hours to shoot. This one minute and thirty second segment required a tremendous amount of time because this hardworking reporter was required to visit three set locations; Saks Fifth Avenue, The September 11th memorial offices, and Oscar de la Renta’s boutique. However, visiting these locations was a minute part of this tedious process. Lauren also had to develop and conduct the entire interview while keeping her target audience in mind and edit her own segment. That is a lot of pressure that, I know, would be very hard for me to handle.
     Although Lauren Glassberg works long, stressful hours, she is a very talented reporter that loves every minute of her job. In essence, Lauren works hard to bring all of the latest fashion, food, and entertainment news right to our living room.

Lauren Glassberg

 Photograph from:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8Nny35X1pUA/SfCjN0o8N-I/AAAAAAAACSg/vz5UXyz2i30/s400/LaurenGlassberg42209.jpg

Peter Rundqvist -- The Master Retoucher

Peter Rundqvist visited Kent State's NYC studio and gave fashion students an extremely interesting and informative presentation about his passion, which just so happens to also be his career.  Peter Rundqvist is a renowned Master Retoucher who began his career editing for Harper’s Bazaar.  Later, he decided to launch his own retouching business called VIEW Imaging.  At his successful business, Peter uses his expertise to conduct a multitude of tasks that create flawless images for advertisements and editorials in magazines and billboards.   The tasks that create these flawless images vary from minor to major changes.  The minor changes include, fading the background to make the logo stand out, adding text, and tuning and enhancing the color.  On the other hand, the major changes that Peter typically uses includes, extending and stretching the subject of the image to make the body look long and lean, replace body parts and garment pieces to make the image more attractive, slim and shape the subject, composite two or more images together, and make the subject’s skin flawless.  In fact, I was surprised to hear that it took Peter and his team nearly eight hours to edit and perfect a photograph of Reese Witherspoon.  Although Peter does a substantial amount of retouching, it seemed that he prefers a more natural approach. In addition, Peter Rundqvist also regularly attends photo shoots to give advice on how to produce a photograph with correct lighting to enhance the image.

The art of retouching seems like a tedious and strenuous task.  However, I feel that having the ability to drastically transform and perfect photographs for in demand magazines would be such a fun and rewarding task. 

An Example of Before and After Retouching

Stephen Walker -- Photo Director of Nylon Magazine

Recently, Stephen Walker, the Photo Director of Nylon Magazine, visited Kent State's NYC Studio. Stephen Walker is a distinguished photographer who began his career as a Design Manager at Harper’s Bazaar. After working at Harper’s Bazaar for a two year period, he decided to venture into a slightly different avenue of his profession and began working as the Photo Director for Nylon Magazine. Whether Stephen’s work day keeps him at the Nylon offices or takes him to London on the location of a photo shoot, there’s always something new, fresh and exciting happening in his career each day. Stephen’s typical day at the office requires him to undertake a plethora of assignments. He must seek out and commission new and upcoming photographers that fit Nylon’s fun and natural style, conceive new ideas for photo shoot locations, and examine storyboards sent from the art department and various photographers. In addition to this research aspect, Stephen must also edit all of the artwork, confirm that everything is prepared for upcoming photo shoots, send call sheets to all parties involved in an approaching photo shoot, and prepare budgets and deadlines to produce a successful shoot. After all of this hard work, it’s finally time to use it on the set of the photo shoot.

Stephen doesn’t attend many of Nylon’s photo shoots because he wants the photographer involved to feel as if they have complete freedom of creativity; however, he always attends the cover shoot. The cover shoot is crucial because it represents the face of the magazine. The cover must convey the young and rebellious message that Nylon strives for. While getting the chance to get out of the office and travel to a photo shoot may seem fun and carefree, it requires a lot of responsibility. Stephen is in charge of going over the photographer’s direction for the particular photo shoot. If the subject of the shoot is an actor or actress, Stephen speaks to their publicist to ensure their happiness with their apparel and their posing positions. In essence, Stephen has the duty of staying on top of all tasks, making sure everyone has what they need, and that everyone is pleased with the outcome of the shoot. After the photo shoot is complete, the images must be perfected by a professional retoucher.

I feel that having a career as a photo director would be very stressful, yet rewarding. I could only imagine how Stephen must feel when he sees something he has worked on so hard be published in Nylon for millions of people to see!

Stephen Walker

 

 Photograph taken from:

http://www.onelifephotos.com/images/judge_stephen.jpg

Fierce Fashion!

My Style Set Made With Polyvore! by fashionismyliberty featuring fendi shades

Behind the Fashion

On October 26^th, students at Kent State University’s New York City Studio received the opportunity to speak with Sophia Chang.  Sophia Chang started her career working in the hip hop music industry.  After many successful years in the business, she decided to explore a new avenue of creativity as a producer for the Vivienne Tam Fashion Show.  It’s amazing how much time and effort goes into a twelve to fourteen minute fashion show.  As the producer, Sophia becomes part of the team eight to ten weeks before the show is scheduled. During this short period of time, she is in charge of a plethora of tasks.  For instance, Sophia obtains corporate sponsorships and puts together detailed presentations to show potential sponsors.  This presentation explains what the sponsors would receive in return for donating money, hair and nail products, and makeup for the show.  This could include tickets to the fashion show, backstage access, press releases, or the company logo on the “step and repeat.”  Next, Sophia must make arrangements with vendors to find a venue, choose a date and time, and find the correct music and set design for the show.  After the venue and sponsorships are finalized, Sophia is in charge of hiring all of the people that make the show run smoothly.  These employees include Back and Front of House Producers, a Public Relations Company, Venue Managers, Stylists, a Casting Director, Dressers, Fit Assistants, a Videographer, and a Runway Photographer.  Finally, after much anticipation, the day of the fashion show arrives.  Sophia starts preparing around 7:00 AM and frantically runs around the venue until the show starts at 3:00 PM.  During this hectic time, she is making sure every detail is finalized and perfected.  After the show ends at approximately 3:15 PM, she must check fashion blogs, pick up runway photographs, and prepare for the after party.  After putting fifteen long hours of work into producing a successful fashion show, Sophia’s day finally comes to an end around 10:00 PM.  I was never aware of the amount of people, hours, and hard work it takes to produce a fashion show.  Sophia took the time to share some life lessons that she has learned over her years spent in the fashion industry.  She informed us that we need to manage our expectations, have a contingency plan, under promise and over deliver, admit and own up to our own mistakes, be extremely organized, create an atmosphere of team work, and have good follow through.  The insight and advice that Sophia Chang shared can help fashion students succeed in any aspect of the fashion industry.   

Sophia Chang

Image from:

http://www.cencom.org/uploadedImages/Cencom_Home/People/Bios/Sophia-Chang.jpg