#and then i can print everything and put on all the fabric swatches

[giverofempathy]

its 10.30pm im still working ☹️☹️

[littleredlemoncosplay]

Cosplay Build Book Tutorial

What is a cosplay build book and why do I need one?

A cosplay build book is a compilation of photos and information from when you where building said cosplay. You don't need one, however many craftsmanship contests ask you to have one. And will doc points for not having one. This book simply shows how you made things and some of the process; proof that you made what your showing off. Its also a good way to highlight skills and small things you did. These can be well written out pages, or types and printed out. Just as long as there's a folder or something with everything to flip through without pieces falling out. These are single side printed/written pages.

Keep in mind different contests will ask for slightly different things. This is just a general guide.

Keep in mind if you commissioned pieces for the costume you need to show who you commissioned them from. Don't take credit for things you didn't do. And check you contest rules to see what's allowed.

What do I need in my build book?

To break this down, i'll be putting the table of contents. Than explaining each section from there as needed.

Contents

About the Cosplayer

About the Character

Materials

Build Breakdown

Complete Costume

Close-ups

About the Cosplayer;

This section should only be a page long. This is a short brief of who you are. Introduce yourself with your name, just your first name is fine. Your cosplay handle, and how long you've been doing cosplay. If you have people who consistently help you, this is a good place to name drop them and what they do for you. This page needs to have any major contests you've won(ex: Calgary Comic Con Craftsmanship contest or other BIG con contests). Make sure you track when you won and what costume it was. Check with the contest your entering; some may not let you enter with a costume that's placed at other cons. Some may not let you enter with a costume you entered with a previous year, even if you didn't place.

Summary: One page, introduce yourself, and inform of any wins or people who help.

About the Character;

Exactly what the title says it is. A brief overview of the character your portraying. Make sure to put in a small summary of their personality as well as who they are and what their from. Write this as if you are explaining the character to someone who has never heard of it before, but is in a bit of a rush. On my Beast Boy Build Book from 2021, I wrote the following. "Beast Boy, sometimes known as BB, is a former member of the Doom Patrol. Now one of the five founding members of the Teen Titans. He exhibits a very care-free jokester attitude which often causes a great deal of trouble. He does have a strong sense of responsibility, though its rarely shown." I didn't add the source he is from as it's on the front of my book. Though I should have specified again I was taking from the 2003 animated Teen Titans show. On this page you also want your reference photos, and where those are from. One picture should do, though if there's small details that don't show on a main reference you may want to add them. If using fan art as a reference be sure to credit the artist. If using someone's original character be sure to ask for permission and show proof that their ok with it on this page as well. Don't clutter it with too many references however. More can be added to the pages correlating with the item/piece built.

Summary: One page, character name, source and brief view of personality. Some reference images.

Materials;

This will vary per costume. Often best used for sewing based costumes, you can place fabric swatches on here. That way if you've used a detailed fabric or used fabrics for texture the judges have it up close to see. This allows a quick reference to remind them of details of your costume. Don't list every material you used. Instead use this to highlight if you used any unique materials or if there i something special about what you used. Do you thrift all your material? Did you order custom printed material? Did you dye it yourself? This is the place to bring this to light. Keep it brief though. Remember the judges are cosplayers too. This book is to highlight your skills, not act as a tutorial. The amount needed for this will vary on each costume. Though I suggest trying to keep it short at 1-2 pages.

Summary: 1-2 pages, highlight cool materials or unique build process

Build Breakdown;

This is multiple sections that can all be explained under one. This is the area where you separate the pieces of your costume from building. Most books advise having a "Big Three". These are the parts of your costume you most want to highlight from building. Such as pieces you used a new skill for, or parts that your the most proud of. The "Big Three" can be less or more than three. Though I advise staying between 2-4 depending on how many parts your costume is broken down into. Usually your "Big Three" group will have tabs for easy flipping back to them, though that's optional.

Breaking down your costume into parts is simple. You can split is as whatever is separate pieces. So any props you made, the different layers of the costume, the wig, ext. Each piece will have its own page(s). On the page(s) per piece you will want to include what the part it. I personally add in the time it took per piece. A small run down of your process(If you drafted your own pattern or not. If there was any new skills used/learnt. Struggles and successes), and pictures of the process. Take copious amounts of pictures while building your costume. Its easier to have too many and only select a few, than not have enough and risk being disqualified from your contest. The rough idea of pictures you'll want varies on item and work. Below is the rough guide I follow.

Sewing Parts: If you drafted your own pattern have one of the process of drafting it(ex, if you use the duct tape methods snap a pic of yourself in the saran wrap tape mess), the rough draft build, half built, if you had an issue you overcame you can chose to put in a picture of before and after solving that, than any structure details(ie: hidden zippers). You will want close ups of finished details however those don't go into this section of the book.

Craft Based Parts(Props and such): Rough draft or pattern if you do that(or if you make mini's pictures of those), 2-5 progress pictures depending on difficulty of prop and amount of steps taken, finished prop, functional design piece(does it open? Does it light up? ext). Some of the functional pieces pictures will end up in a separate section with detailed close up pictures.

Wig Part: The base wig as you received it, half done, finished.

An optional thing you can add as well is if the piece/prop/ext. is important to the character. Just a mention of how they end up with it, or why its important. If your cosplaying from a source where there's different skins/weapons/etc.. Maybe explain why you picked the item/design you did. Was is a theme expansion? Is it the starting/strongest weapon? Is it important to where you are in the game? Did it belong to someone important to the character? Keep this brief, maybe two or three lines.

Summary: 1-2 pages per item, pictures of process, brief on build process, optional brief of piece importance, optional "Big Three" pieces.

Complete Costume;

This page is exactly what it sounds like. A briefing of your adventure making it, keep it to a few sentences. Pictures of you in the full costume(This is a good way to show what it should look like with full makeup if your attending cons where facemasks are needed the entire time), and I personally like to put how many hours where put into the costume over how many days/months.

Summary: 1 page, 1-3 full costume pics, brief input on build

Close-ups;

This section is where pictures from the completed parts can disappear to. This is where you highlight small things you wouldn't see unless you where right close up. Such as embroidery pieces, small details on props, if parts light up, etc. This section is to bring to light things that can be missed on a quick pass over, and even missed in pictures. Next to the pictures you can put small fun facts from the detail. Such as the timestamp of where it's shown in your source, or how many beads you sewed on. Fun little things. You'll want to highlight anywhere from 4-6 pieces, though you can go over this guideline if you feel you need to.

Summary: 1-2 pages, 4-6 pieces, picture based page

Final Summary

Your build book is a reflection of you and your costume. As long as it shows that you made the costume, and credits where is needed its perfect the way it is. You can chose to make it look matched to the character, or you can just print out pages. Some contests you don't get the book back, so its advised to make it printable. Try using google docs, or for a nicer design option possibly Canva. Always check your contest rules to see if you need to add anything specific. At some point I'll post pictures of my build books, and they'll be linked by character names both here and on the masterlist.

Happy crafting sour candies!

As always feel free to ask for clarification or other tutorials!

~Paxton

[professorpski]

French Fashion, Women, and the First World War

Brought together by editors Maude Bass-Krueger and Sophie Kurdkjian, this edited collection combines a series of short histories. They wrote most of those histories, but several other scholars offered additional ones. All these histories are interspersed with many images from the era of World War I. Their idea is to “investigate the relationship between French politics, nationalism, and fashion.” The histories cover everything from knitting during wartime in order to cloth the soldier to the practice of black mourning wear to signal the death of a loved one to women wearing overalls while working jobs usually reserved for men to the evolution of the wartime fashion industry and a 1917 strike by the women who worked for the fashion houses and chafed at their poverty as they created luxury. An illustrated chronology sets you up before you dig in. 

At over 400 pages, the volume offers plenty of images to accompany these social histories. The beautiful pink silk and gold evening gown was created by the Caillot Soeurs. You see here a House of Worth sketch of an outfit named “Mobilized” and the black and checked fabric swatches that went with it. Then a cartoon making fun of nurses who flirted which “The regulations had not foreseen!” That wonderful signalwoman captured by the photographer worked at the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris and wore pants which made some people nervous that women’s roles had changed too much. Notice her beret too and her horn.

There are many more photographs of both women on the job and luxury outfits, plus many more sketches, posters, postcards, and cartoons making social commentary. It is an intriguing collection which will appeal to the anyone interested in the fashion of that era. There is a little goofiness in their decision of how to set the paragraphs of text on the page, but it will not prevent you from reading. (Let’s put it this way: it is not as silly as those book designers who believe medium grey print on a light grey paper is better than black print on white paper. Those crazy kids. Sigh.).

You can find it at your local bookstore, or here online: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/french-fashion-women-and-the-first-world-war-maude-bass-krueger/1130755042;jsessionid=AE73383A2C010ABDA927E8469FA98093.prodny_store02-atgap14?ean=9780300247985

[babyspiderling]

Tiny Dancer Michael Jackson x reader (Triumph era)

"Blue jean baby, LA Lady, Seamstress for the band"

I pulled the shining fabric through the machine, turning a square of sequin material into a shirt for one of the boys. I adjust the needle of my machine as someone opens the door. I glance up to see Michael peeking his head in. "Oh, Michael, perfect timing. I need you to try this on. And if you could get your brothers in here too, I need to do fittings on the outfits I've already finished." I hand him the shining fabric, as well as a pair of white pants. "Put these on, I'm planning on putting some sequin on the knees, and I need to see where that falls on you." I shoo him out the door as I thumb through my shelves of fabric, deciding on what to work with next. Once again my door is opened, this time four Jackson's trample through the opening. Randy and Marlon automatically move towards my designs pinned to the wall, Tito is drawn to the shining fabrics, and Jackie leans against the door frame a small smile blooming on his face. I swat Tito's hand away from the fabrics, very territorial of my materials. "Alright guys, it's fitting day!" I organized outfits by person, making it easy to select an outfit for each man and give to the correct person. I shoo them out the door as well as Michael comes back in, a perfect fit.

"Alright Mike, what do you think? Too loose anywhere, too tight anywhere? Go ahead and do a couple steps to make sure it doesn't get in the way of anything." He does his little ankle breaking shuffle, spinning a couple times. He shoves his hands into the pockets and shrugs. "Feels good, perfect fit." I smile and nod, feeling proud of getting his perfect size on the first try. I grab my swatches of silver fabric and rest on my heels in front of him. With a mouth full of pins, I feel around his legs to find his knees, pinning the fabrics in place. Leaning back, I inspect the patches, muffling out a "Heels together." as I inspect them closely to make sure the two sides are identical. I hear Michael say "Wow, you're really good at this.", and I chuckle in return. "Glad I can be of service. You like it?" He murmurs an affirmation, and he lifts me off my heels. I search his face, memorizing every single detail. My hand reaches up to his face, his weight leaning into my touch. "I love you Mike." Kissing my palm, he rests his forehead against mine. "I love you too." I enjoy his presence just a little longer before stepping away, clearing my throat. "Alright, I've got another outfit for you to try on. Careful with the pins, and I'll see you in a bit, ok?" He chuckles, kissing my cheek one last time before exiting. "Ok. I'll be careful. See you when I get done."

Rolling my eyes, I sit back down at my seat, hemming a skirt Janet had begged me to alter. Tito then entered, his sequin vest shining, and his outfit going together very well if I say so myself. He inspected himself in the mirror, almost as if trying to see what was missing. His eyes lit up and he turned towards me. "That's it! I need a cowboy hat!" My eyebrows crease and my jaw drops in confusion. "You need a what? Tito, no. You are not a country band, no one else is wearing a cowboy hat. You do not need a cowboy hat." He slides up to me, puppy dog eyes staring me in the face. "Please Y/N, it'll look really cool. Plus it'll tie the whole thing together. I've already got the vest and everything." I huff, throwing my hands up in the air. "Fine! Tito, you can get a cowboy hat, but you have to find one and I will jazz it up, understood? I am a seamstress, not a hatter." His face lights up at getting his way, hollering and spinning me. "Yes! I knew you'd agree! Thanks Y/N!" I roll my eyes playfully shoving him away. "Is there anything else wrong or missing with the outfit? Besides the cowboy hat, anyways." He turns and twists, pretending to play guitar, and does a couple steps. He shakes his head. "Nope, all good. Just need to get the hat. Which I'll go out and get when we're done here." I hand him a second outfit, sending him on his way. Marlon and Randy follow one right after the other. While hemming Randy's pants, I kept having to chide Marlon from touching my stuff. I yelled over my shoulder, "Marlon Jackson if I find a fingerprint on my fabric or designs I swear I will give you the ugliest tour outfits until the end of time." He raised his hands in surrender and took a seat.

Jackie and Michael came in about the same time, Michael letting his older brother go first. "Alright Jackie, what do you think. Anywhere too loose or too tight?" Jackie wiggles around and lifts his leg. "The pants are a little loose. But overall, it's all good." I nod, filling my mouth with pins, sitting on my heels in front of him. Jackie smirks down at me, "Babe, if you wanted to get on your knees for me, you could've just asked." I roll my eyes, pinning the inside of his pant leg tighter, pointing a pin threateningly at him. He smiles at me flexing his hands in surrender. I see out of the corner of my eye Michael shifting in his seat, a scowl deep in his face. I send a smile his way before finishing Jackie's pants.

Rocking myself back to stand, I stagger at the blood flowing back into my legs. A large pair of hands wrap around my hips to steady me, and I look up to see Michael staring down at me. I give him a reassuring smile and whisper, "I'm ok Mike, thank you." With a smile in return, he releases his grip and takes his place for hemmings. I see Jackie flick his gaze between Michael and I, his face scrunched up in concentration. I shrug it off, trying not to give anything away. "Alright, Michael, you know the drill. How's it fit?" His white pants from earlier are simply duplicated since Michael has a talent for wearing out his costumes faster than anyone else. He has a red Hawaiian print shirt tucked into it, a few buttons undone. "The pants fit, but they're a little loose on the belt line. Nothing you need to fix or anything, just a belt would make it perfect." I nod, checking over his outfit myself for loose threads, puckers in the seams, loose buttons, but find nothing wrong. "Alright, let me add that to the list with Tito's cowboy hat." At the mention of the horrible idea of a cowboy hat, Randy and Marlon are back, Tito not far behind. Marlon screeches and cackles. "Tito, you want a cowboy hat? C'mon man!" Tito huffs, and folds his arms under his chest. I roll my eyes and call out to everyone "Alright everyone. Mike, Jackie, go change. Jackie, please be careful with those pins! You three, decide which order you're going in for fittings, and then we're done for the day." I pin and adjust Tito and Marlon's outfits, Jackie and Michael returning while I finish up on Randy. "Thank you boys. Just take a seat while I finish up here." I place the last pin in Randy's sleeve, shortening it to the correct length. "Randy, are the pins comfortable enough for you to stay here for a couple minutes?" He nods and I open my mouth, "Alright guys, we're all done for the day. Please I am begging you guys, do not rip up these costumes. I'm looking at you Michael, if you rip these shirts like last time, I will send you out in whatever you have packed for tour." A few chuckles are heard and Michael smiles and rolls his eyes. They all take their leave as I sit back at my machine, ready to fix everything from today. Michael calls out to his brothers that he'll catch up, he just needs to double check something.

Slipping into my work room once more, he shuts the door behind him. He pulls me from my seat and presses me tightly against him. "Y/N, you have no idea how much I wanted to punch Jackie after he said those things to you. Why can't we tell everybody about us? At least my family? We're going on tour next month and my brothers are going to try to set me up with fans. Are you ashamed of being with me?" I stare into his eyes with a passion. "Oh god, Michael, no. Of course I'm not ashamed of you. If anything you should be ashamed of me. I'm just the band seamstress. Not to mention the fact that if we did come out about our relationship, people would wonder why in the world would you choose to be with a white girl who makes your clothes. Your father would see me as a distraction. If he found out about us, he would fire me and then kill the both of us. I love you too much to let you risk that." He shakes his head, his eyes growing glossy. "I love you too much to keep it a secret. To keep you a secret." I lean my forehead into his chest. "I'm sorry Michael. I didn't see it like that, if you'd like, we can tell your family. Just, just let me be there when you do. Ok?" He nods his head and captures my lips in a gentle kiss. Breaking away, I sit back down. "If you want, you can put some records on and we can have each other as company until I finish here. You'll just have to tell your brothers to go on without you." He nods and exits to tell his brothers goodbye, saying that I need him to stay behind to make sure everything meets his standards. Returning, he puts some old records on, teasing me for my Dolly Parton albums, and we just enjoy the music and the hum of my machine.

"Jackie! Outfit! Tito! Outfit! Marlon! Outfit! Randy! Outfit! Michael! Outfit! Please be careful tonight! We have reached the halfway point in the tour and I am very proud of the condition you are leaving these in! Have a good show tonight! And please, do not rip your shirts open!" I hand out garment bag after garment bag, the boys hurrying to change in their dressing rooms. Janet leans against the wall, her outfit designed and made by yours truly, looking good for a fifteen year old. "When I go on tour, I am definitely bringing you with me." I rolled my eyes and laughed. I place my ticket around my neck and take my place up against the barrier separating the crowd from the boys. The opening refrains of "Can You Feel It?" rang out and the crowds went absolutely wild. It was so fun just to watch them all in their element. I'd catch the boys singing to me or looking at me and I'd make the silliest faces. I accidentally almost made Randy mess up on his bongo solo on "Working Day and Night". "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)" finished and slowly the fans filtered out of the arena. When no one was looking, security lifted me over the barrier and back to the corridors in the backstage area.

Michael was on a high after the show like he always was. He was jumping around in the hall when I finally made my way to him. "You had a very good show tonight. I had fun, and I'm pretty sure the girl next to me was having fun too. When you winked her way, I'm pretty sure she found euphoria." He giggled and spun me around. "Goodness, I love you." With that he held me tight against him and kissed me deeply and passionately. I let myself melt into him, letting myself slip into the bliss only he provides. We break apart with the sound of Janet shrieking "What the hell?"

Taglist: @accio-boys

[palakvalecha]

Oscars 2021 Red Carpet Review

(Part 2/2)

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett wore a red Alberta Feretti dress. I love the neckline and sleeves. The sleeves look gorgeous and very dramatic. The back is beautiful, with a panel of fabric coming out of the bow forming the train of the dress. Not to mention, the red is perfect. What I don't like is the bottom of the dress. The dress didn't need a slit. The slit ruins it. They should have allowed the sleeves to shine. There are the dramatic sleeves, there's a train, and there's a slit. There's too much going on. The slit was not required at all. Without the slit, this look would have been fire. The lip-shaped clutch makes no difference.

Reese Witherspoon

Red seems to be a lot of people's choice for the Oscars this year. Reese Witherspoon wore a red Dior gown. There's a bright red, and a darker shade of red, and there's also maroon at the right side of the dress. I like the asymmetrical shoulders. What I don't like is the belt. Even without the belt, the look would have been too simple for the Oscars, but the belt completely ruins it. Sorry Reese, you deserve better.

Halle Berry

Speaking of bad looks, Halle Berry wore a Dolce and Gabbana gown. The color seems to be the only bearable thing about this look. The thing about having a huge bow on a gown, whether at the front or at the back is that it can't be flowy. It can be a ball gown, it can be a sleek column gown but it has to be a clean silhouette, not flowy. It's not a rule, its just what usually looks good. For example-

These bow gowns have one thing in common- clean silhouette. Halle Berry's look is flowy despite the bow, which makes it ugly. Also, the bow is not well constructed. Maybe it's because of the choice of fabric that the bow looks so bad. And don't even get me started on her hideous haircut. This is the worst look in my opinion.

Vanessa Kirby

Kirby wore a pink, off shoulder, backless, pristine Gucci column gown with a train and cutwork detail. The pink is lovely. The maroon lips really brighten the otherwise subdued look. Everything about this look including her hair, makeup and jewelry is on point. She looks immaculate.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis wore a white Alexander McQueen gown with an intricately detailed bodice. (Fun fact: It may seem like there's cut work on the bodice, through which you can see Viola's skin, but it’s actually a corset dyed to match her skin tone. This was achieved by trying multiple swatches, with the help of her make-up artist, who gave the atelier the base colours she uses on Viola.) The intricate bodice is put against flowy chiffon skirt. While I admire the craftsmanship that went into making this garment, I feel this bodice would have looked better with well tailored pants instead of the skirt. The bodice is structured and the skirt is flowy. A structured bodice and structured pants would have looked more cohesive. Nevertheless, this is still not a bad look.

Celeste

Celeste wore a Gucci gown. I like the sheer fabric detail at the neckline, I like the fringes forming the red and black print on the bodice. I like the little blue detail at the centre of the neckline that goes with the blue of the clutch. Speaking of the clutch, that's the anatomical heart clutch from the Gucci×Balenciaga Fall 2021 runway. I like this look, it's simple yet quirky.

Cara Delevingne

This isn't a look from the Oscars Red Carpet, but from the Oscars after party. But I included this look in the review anyway because it deserves a mention. Cara Delevingne wore Ronald Van Der Kemp. I love Cara Delevingne. I absolutely love how effortlessly stylish she is. I love her fierce sense of style. She never disappoints. While everyone else wears their most elegant gowns for the Oscars red carpet and after parties, Cara Delevingne shows up in an outfit as fierce as this. The well tailored pants paired with the pleated bodice looks powerful. By now I am convinced that no girl can pull off menswear and menswear inspired outfits better than Cara.

All in all, it was quite an eventful evening for fashion lovers. The red carpet was dominated by red, and quirky clutches. While some celebrities disappointed, there were some cool looks as well on the red carpet this year, that more than made up for the bad looks.

[musutofu]

【 Picture Perfect 】 Drabble

♡ pairing | ᵞᴬᴺᴰᴱᴿᴱ Kirishima x ᶠᴱᴹ Reader ✑ word count | 1.7k ✎ genre | yandere ✗ warnings | contracted relationship, unplanned pregnancy prompt | 35: “I’m madly in love with you.”

The men seated around the conference table do very little to hide the lechery of their gazes. Each pair of eyes glittering with debauched curiosity of a predator, trying to take in the beauty that they can behold but never possess. Because they don’t bear the same unobtainable, picturesque allure that the heroes they manage do. No, the sun has set on their years of glory long ago. They look haggard as you appraise them from across the barrier of the table. It’s steel, brushed matte and dull because glass would be too reflective for their narcissistic taste. When they look down at their papers to scratch away some imperfection in the fine print glass would show them what’s become of their own visage and there’s no pen that can scribble away the ravage of time. The dulled eyes that shrink behind the medicine of their bifocals; the jawline that has gone flaccid over time; the hair that has thinned and turned to an ashen grey; deep wrinkles carved around the shape of their displeased brows. No, the table would be matte so they could continue their fantasies of living vicariously from behind the gorgeous faces of the heroes they’ve bound to their company with false promises and incomprehensible contracts. One such meticulously worded contract saw you bound to another hero for the last year. A false relationship built on the coincidence that both of you boasted varying hardening Quirks. The publicists had insisted that such a match contracted between you and the Study hero Red Riot would be a perfect marketing ploy for the both of you as budding heroes. So twelve months ago you’d found yourself at this same table with these same predatory men, signing away your romantic rights for the sake of boosting your hero company’s stocks because of the artificial merger. For what it was worth, Kirishima had been nothing short of a perfect gentleman to you throughout the whole ordeal. Never pushing you beyond what you were comfortable with even in the glare of cameras. But even still you’re glad to be here to negotiate the severing of ties between the two of you. It had been a sweet albeit false romance and you’ll always think fondly of him but the fact that it was a love bore of contractual obligation will always be a lingering shadow cast over the last year of your life. Still, you’re glad to still have Kirishima by your side, in all his handsome glory. When you’d first negotiated the contracts these men had gone on and on about how lucky Kirishima was to have matched with such a gorgeous partner and how lucky you were that he was so handsome. Even the perceived imperfection of the scar over his right eye was hallowed as a mark of rugged allure. You’ll only get to be this close to him for a few days longer and you’re glad it’s him by your side instead of the men across the table as their eyes rake over your body in search of any exposed swatch of skin, their beady gazes settling heavily in the V of skin exposed by the low cut of your dress’s neckline. It had been a gift from Kirishima that suddenly feels stifling against your skin as the harlot red doesn’t act as a traffic light where such a color would mean stop, but the siren call of a seductress: yes. Kirishima notices your plight, eyes catching on your discomforted shifting in his periphery. A hand settles reassuringly on your own as they wring together in your lap, steadying yet confusing as the two of you wait for the terms of your contract release to be finalized. Must be a force of habit after months together have trained the two of you to act in such a way with each other. But you’re quick to pull your hands free when the contracts are slid to your side or the table, eagerly signing your name on the dotted line before dipping a hasty bow and nearly sprinting out of the room. The height of your heels slow your escape as does the sudden roiling in your stomach and you pause your exit to duck into the bathroom. It’s as swanky as the rest of the building, everything all crystals and chrome and you almost feel guilty for soiling the ambiance with the resurgence of your breakfast. The frigidness of the marble tiles seep through the fabric of your skirt as you sit on the floor of your stall, unbothered by the sound of someone entering. They leave just the same and you scramble off the floor as the door shuts after them. A splash of water against your face is steadying as is the mint sitting in a dish by the door. The spearmint taste clears away the acidic burn of your anxious retching, the phantom feeling of eating working to soothe your upset stomach. By the time you reach the parking garage the mint has dissolved along with your anxiety. Kirishima is waiting for you, looking anxious himself as he leans against the hood of his car. He looks up at the sound of your heels echoing off the concrete and sighs when he sees you, a rueful smile playing on his lips. “Hey, where’d you run off to?” He asks as he helps you into the car. “Bathroom. I wasn’t feeling well.” “Really?” His tone is suddenly brighter as he starts home. The two of you had moved in together at the behest of your agencies. It was a modest apartment with two bedrooms but served its purpose of validating proof that the two of you were serious about your relationship. The cover story had been that you’d been dating in secret for months before going public, so it was expected that your relationship would have to move at a quicker pace to properly serve that lie your companies fed the public. You’ll be moving out as soon as the official news of your break up is published but for now you can’t wait to get home and brush the lingering taste out of your mouth. You’re less worried about Kirishima’s odd response to your sickness and more concerned with what you’ll eat to replace the food you expelled. “I’ll make you something to eat,” Kirishima calls when you arrive home, already making a beeline for the bathroom. When you emerge the scent of something cooking is thick in the air and your empty stomach gurgles unhappily at the smell. It’s one you recognize; your favorite food, in fact, but something about it smells off and you whirl back to the toilet to throw up whatever was left in your empty stomach. This time you don’t leave the bathroom, instead you hold a towel over your face like a ventilator and call Kirishima to join you. You hastily pull him inside and slam the door shut before sitting on the edge of the tub. Concerned by your odd behavior Kirishima kneels between your legs, pressing the back of his hand to your forehead to check your temperature. “Eijirou,” his eyes look up at you imploringly at the sound of his name. “Don’t make that.” He’s taken aback. “It’s your favorite.” “I know but the smell is making me sick.” You mumble through the towel. Another dazzling smile splits across his face and you wonder if he’s amused by the thought of you feeling ill. He moves from in front of you to dig around in a cabinet, coming back with a box of pregnancy tests. “What are these for?” You’re sick, not pregnant but Eijirou seems to think otherwise as he presses a test into your hand. He refuses to leave long enough for you to pee, instead sitting across from you on the edge of the tub as you focus on anything but him. He’s quick to snatch the test from you as soon as you put the cap on it. “How long does it take? It’s gonna be negative anyway but how long do we have to wait to prove I’m right?” Your words are resolute but some small part of you is worried about what will happen if you’re wrong. You’d slept with Eijirou a handful of times throughout your arrangement but the thought of pregnancy had never occurred to you. “It says two minutes.” He reads off the back of the box, catching you around the waist to pull you into his lap after you wash your hands. His chin settles on your shoulder as you both wait for the symbol to develop on the window. First a straight line going horizontally and you sign in relief, only to choke on the exhaust when another line starts to form vertically. A plus sign. Pregnant. Eijirou’s arms tighten excitedly around you as he showers your neck and shoulders in wet kisses, tears of joy sparkling on his cheeks. “We’re pregnant!” He coos in your ear. “I love you so, so much. I’m madly in love with you, woman. Thank you!” A new type of sickness swirls in your stomach. Dark and heavy as you process the fact that you’re carrying his child inside of you. “How did this even happen?” You’re on birth control. Have been since before the two of you had slept together, so how could this have happened unless you were carrying the unlucky .1% pregnancy. “It must’ve been after you fought Destroyer.” You remember the villain only vaguely. The fight had leveled a good portion of the city and landed you in critical condition. It was a miracle you’d survived, but what did that have to do with you being pregnant. “Your doctor warned us that the pain meds you were taking would interfere with your birth control, but...” He at least has the sense to sound bashful as he recounts how ravenous he’d been when you’d finally returned home after being held in the hospital for a month. He’d come onto you like a ravenous wolf and you’d let him, riding on the high of living through such life treating injuries with no complications. You’d gladly fallen into bed with your fake boyfriend. And that was three months ago. Now you’re facing the consequences. “But we’re going to break up.” You say feebly. This gets Eijirou to quiet down. “What?” His voice sounds dark as his arms tighten impossibly around you, not letting you move an inch. “We’re not breaking up.” “But the contract–” “Were you not paying attention? Those weren’t non disclosure agreements, they were marriage contracts. They were to change our status on our family registration sheets. We’re married now, baby. So you’re not going anywhere.” His hand smooths over the shape of your stomach that had been making your dress that much tighter. “Especially not with my kid.”

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 11 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: We continue to be honored and thrilled by the responses to this story. Thank you so much to anyone who’s giving us feedback! Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Last Chapter: Courtney’s first day ended less eventfully than it began (thank god), and Violet got a very enticing invite from Pearl.  

This Chapter: Violet prepares for her big date, and we meet a ravishing supermodel.

***

Violet turned on the shower, her delicate hand testing the water, waiting for it to grow hot. She had occupied one of the bathrooms in the apartment, spending the evening on a self-pampering session that had been desperately needed. Who knew that having someone helping her do her job would create twice as much work? It was only the second day of having Courtney in the office, and Violet felt like a babysitter. No wonder her predecessor hadn’t stuck around to train her.

The bathroom was filled with the sweet scent of lavender as Violet had lit several candles.

Violet stepped into the spray, sighing in relief as the hot water beat down on her sore shoulders and back. So much had happened today, everything running around in her head as she released her hair, covered it in a hair mask. No matter how much she tried to keep her thoughts away, they kept turning to Pearl. Violet bit her lip. Pearl had asked her out. Actually asked her out. She turned around, letting the spray wash over her face, a flush creeping into her cheeks as she was aching with arousal. Pearl always tore her apart with a single look, and it was driving Violet insane.

They had been so close in the office, Pearl’s hand so warm on her arm.

Violet bit her lip again, shame washing over her as she reached up and grabbed the shower head, leaning back against the wall. Was she really doing this? Her breath was already coming in short gasps as she spread the folds of her sex, careful not to damage herself with her perfectly manicured nails.

Pearl had smelled so good, ready to eat, sweet as a flower with her own scent lingering just underneath. Violet wanted nothing more than to bury her face in Pearl’s neck, disappear into the other’s hair. Violet knew with certainty that Pearl’s breasts would be perfect, they would fit so well in her hands, taste perfect if she kissed them.

Violet moaned as the spray hit her, her entire body already humming. She wanted Pearl so badly, wanted to get fucked by the blonde like she had never wanted anyone else before.

“F-fuck… Fuck.”

Violet bit her lip hard, the steady and hard spray beating against her making her legs tremble, her tits so full, her nipples so hard they ached as she imagined what Pearl would look like between her legs. Violet clawed at the wall as orgasm hit her, her vision blinding out for a second which made her throw the shower head away, not even the high of her orgasm helping against the ice cold dread collecting in her stomach.

She just had one of the best orgasms of her life thinking about Pearl and Violet had never been more fucked in her life.

***

Katya was humming to herself as she listened to “Dreaming” by Blondie on her headphones, making her way from the elevator to the design department at Galactica. It was Wednesday around lunch and Katya was finished with her half day at the community center.

Katya sneaked into the design department, a big smile on her face when she realized that Trixie was bent over Jovan’s desk, completely gone from the world as he was busy doing the math for the pattern of a dress so it could be sent off to their tailors.

Katya giggled to herself, shushing everyone in the department she made eye contact with before placing her hands over Trixie’s eyes.

“Peek-a-boo, guess who!”

“Argh!” Trixie jumped, his knee slamming into the table he was sitting at. “Fuck!”

“Oh my god, babe, are you okay?”

They could hear laughter from all around them as everyone in the design department had seen the mishap, which made Trixie and Katya laugh as well. Katya giggled as she sat down next to Trixie, giving him a quick kiss.

“Hey…”

“Hey.” Trixie smiled, happy to see Katya who gently patted down his short brown hair, covering Trixie’s emerging bald spot. “What are you doing here?”

“I never see you anymore, so I brought lunch.”

Trixie nodded, stretching a little, his bones popping as he got into a proper upright position.

“I just need to finish this, okay? Then I’ll be there.”

Katya smiled, giving Trixie another kiss. “I’ll be in your office, but don’t take too long, or the food will get cold.” Katya discreetly showed Trixie the inside of her gigantic Hello Kitty bag and Trixie saw not one, not two, but three brown paper bags from McDonald’s.

“You know what, this can wait.”

Trixie's lunch break was spent in his office, Katya’s laptop on the table in front of them, playing Pocahontas as they made their way through the greasy and, frankly, perfect food.

***

“Hieeeee…”

A tall, statuesque blonde with huge hair, amazing pink Louboutins, and a turquoise pencil skirt stood in the doorway.

Courtney looked up, grateful to have a distraction from the lecture she was getting on Violet about meeting protocols. She’d been drilling her about everyone’s refreshment preferences, getting extremely irritated when Courtney couldn’t remember whether Alyssa liked regular or sugar-free Red Bull, and even more annoyed when Courtney suggested that sometimes people’s tastes change, so she’d just bring in a bigger selection.

“Hi, Alaska,” Violet said. “Are those the new samples?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Courtney grinned, eyes lighting up happily. Ah, this was the SVP of Cosmetics that she’d been excited to meet. Which meant that the bag in her hand was full of samples of their new makeup line. Courtney was practically dancing in her seat as she held out her hand.

“Hi! I’m Courtney, Miss Fame’s new assistant!” she chirped, and Alaska turned to her with a bright smile.

“Hello there, Courtney, I’m Alaska. I absolutely adore that top! What a great print!”

Courtney glanced down at her shirt, a fitted button-down in purple paisley for which Violet had already expressed mild distaste.

“Thank you so much,” Courtney said. “And I love your...everything.”

Alaska laughed, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“We’re gonna get along great.”

“Courtney, why don’t you organize the samples and then I’ll show you how to do the swatch cards for Miss Fame,” Violet instructed.

“Okay!” Courtney jumped up enthusiastically.

***

“But that’s crazy! How many do you throw away every day?”

Violet let out an aggravated groan. She was filling Courtney in on how she could best make sure she always had fresh, hot coffee on hand for Miss Fame. Only Courtney didn’t seem to appreciate the advice at all. Actually, she just seemed horrified.

“It’s not about how many we throw away,” Violet snapped. “It’s about always being prepared.”

“She can’t wait 10 minutes for coffee when she wants it?” Courtney folded her arms, a skeptical expression on her face.

“No!” God, why must Courtney be such a child?

“Well...I mean, I’m not trying to judge you, but I can’t do that in good conscience. The waste would keep me up at night. You must be throwing away at least 10 cups every day. Right?”

Violet glared at her, trying to resist the strong desire to trip Courtney up on purpose, when the phone rang.  

“Miss Fame’s office.” Violet pressed the phone in between her shoulder and ear.  “Oh, hello Roxy.” Violet tapped away at her computer. “Yes, yes she’s here. No, Fame is in a meeting with Raja-”

Courtney had wanted to duck beneath her desk when Raja had walked into their office earlier that day, a large folder under her arm, her steps filled with a level of authority that quite frankly scared Courtney. She would be terrified of Raja, if it wasn’t for the fact that Ivy was always right behind her, the redhead's gentle smile like a balm on Courtney’s frazzled nerves.

“We’ll make space for her right away.”

“Space?” Courtney hadn’t meant to reveal that she was listening in on Violet’s conversation.

Violet shot her an ice cold look, doing a zip it gesture with her fingers, and Courtney immediately shut up. As soon as she hung up, however, Courtney couldn’t keep her mouth closed any longer.

“Is Fame getting a visitor? Who is it? Is it someone famous?!”

“Fluff the pillows,” Violet pointed at the cream couch as she straightened up the magazines on the coffee table. “Quickly, please, Raven hates if they’re not perfectly-”

“Raven?!” Courtney squealed. “Raven Petruschin?!”

“Is there anyone else by that name on the approved list?” Violet shot her a glance, and it was in that exact moment that they were interrupted.

“My my my.”

Courtney turned around to see a stunning woman leaning against the doorframe. She had some of the most perfect lips Courtney had ever seen, her nude lipstick effortlessly accentuating how pillowy soft they looked. She had steel grey eyes, long black straight hair cascading down her back.

“What have we here?” She was wearing a beige bodycon dress, the fabric hugging her in all the right places. She pushed away from the frame, putting her black Chanel sunglasses in her hair, a Birkin bag dangling from her wrist. She smiled, the diamonds in her ears catching the light.

“Hello Raven. What a pleasant surprise.” Violet smiled as she straightened her back. “Can I get you a refreshment?”

“Oh. Yes please.” Raven walked right past Courtney, not even acknowledging her existence as she sat down on the couch, leaning against the pillow Courtney had just fluffed. “I’m on a rehydration diet so water would be great. Non-tap, of course. Evian if you have it, with a couple of lime slices.”

“Coming right up.” Violet nodded and disappeared into the tiny kitchenette that was connected to their office.

“Oh my gosh, you’re… you’re Raven….” Courtney’s mouth hung open, complete awe on her face as she watched the tall, dark-haired woman sit on the sofa.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Courtney!” Courtney smiled brightly as she stood up, extending her hand towards Raven for a handshake which Raven reluctantly took. “I’m Miss Fame’s new assistant; Violet is training me!”

“Ah.” Raven took Courtney’s hand in hers. Her skin was incredibly soft, her manicure done to perfection and Courtney had to resist the desire to stroke it. “I’m Raven. but I guess you already knew that…” Raven smiled, her perfect face even more beautiful as she released Courtney’s hand.

“Are you kidding me? Seriously, oh my gosh. I admire your work so so much!”

“Is that so?” Raven asked.

“Yes! In year 7, I had one of your Vogue covers in my locker! You’re such an icon, I always wanted to be just like you when I grew up!”

Raven’s eyes narrowed slightly, breaking out into an icy smile; there was nothing more irritating to her than being reminded of her rapidly waning 20s. She instantly decided that she absolutely hated this cheap blonde.

“And look at you now,” she said smoothly. “Right in the thick of it.”

“Yes, well…” Courtney laughed nervously. “It’s not quite like being Karl Lagerfeld's favorite muse, but we all gotta start somewhere, right?”

Raven surveyed her critically, determined to find a flaw and to her delight, finding several. Too talkative, too short, too blonde, too...fucking eager.

“Indeed. And if Fame sees something in you...well, then I’m sure you have a very bright future.” Violet returned with the water, which Raven took with a small smile and an air kiss to Violet’s cheek.

Courtney looked like a child on Christmas day, joy etched into her expression.

“Is the meeting done soon? I’ve tried texting Raja, but she hasn’t replied yet…” Raven almost pouted, a hint of annoyance playing in her voice.

“Let me check for you.” Violet smiled up at Raven, all pleasant manners and perfect politeness. “Ah. The meeting is almost over, so I’m sure Raja will be with you shortly-”

Just then, the door to Fame’s office opened to reveal Ivy, who shot an apologetic smile at them.

“Violet!” Fame’s voice traveled into the office. “Violet come in here!”

Violet grabbed her notebook, already standing up but she had apparently been too slow, since Fame was already at the door.

“Why are you not ready, Violet? Do you have anything more important to do-” Fame trailed off. “Raven! Hello dear. What are you doing here? Have we kept you waiting? Violet, you know Raven is on the approved list, why is she waiting?”

“Raven wante-”

“It’s my fault!” Raven quickly stepped in, a sweet smile on her face.

“Princess, is that you?”  Raja appeared in the door, her entire face lighting up when she saw Raven, and quickly went over to kiss her.

Raven put her arms around Raja’s neck, the two women locking lips for way longer than what was appropriate in a workplace environment. Courtney’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.

“Hey.” Raven smiled, her fingers curled in the cobalt blue of Raja’s silk shirt. “I’m here to take you out for lunch.”

“Are you now?” Raja smirked, amusement clear in her face.

Courtney was completely enthralled, watching the two gorgeous women stand so close together their chests were touching, Raja’s hands resting on Raven’s hips.

“I guess we do have something to celebrate.”  

“You two are too much.” Fame sighed, but she was clearly happy, Courtney barely recognizing the relaxed expression on her boss’s face.

Courtney heard a ding from her computer, and it was in that moment that she had realized Violet was furiously DM’ing her on the company network, telling her in increasingly frustrated messages to look away and not intrude on the conversation of their direct superiors.

“Can’t I be interested in spending lunch with my fiancée?”

Fame stopped, and then, Courtney saw the weirdest thing yet at Galactica.

“Oh my god!” Fame jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “Raja, oh!” Fame ran over, throwing her arms around Raja and Raven, hugging them both close. “Oh congratulations, my darling!”

Raja laughed, and if Courtney hadn’t been so caught up in following the scene like it was a bizarre improv piece, she would have noticed Violet blushing before she quickly ducked her head, very pointedly looking anywhere but at the scene in front of them.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Fame kissed Raja’s cheek, a laugh leaving her. “Let me see the rings! Quickly!”

Raven held out her hand, and Fame grabbed it. Courtney hadn’t noticed it when Raven walked in, but it was true that she was wearing a stunning diamond with a platinum band, her manicure actually matching it perfectly now that she was paying attention.

“It’s custom made.” Raven sighed, happiness radiating from her while Raja chuckled.

“You know what they say, happy wife, happy life.”

“Urg. Marry me before you resort to cliches.”

“I fully intend to.” Raja put her arm around her waist, Fame still holding Raven’s hand in her own.

Raven rolled her eyes before she turned her attention to Fame, though the smile didn’t budge from her face.

“Wait until you see Raja’s, Fame.” Raven leaned her head on her fiancée’s shoulder. “At first, she told me she didn’t want a ring-”

Raja shrugged, the argument clearly one that had already been rehashed between them.

“But I told her, I told her that if I’m getting a ring, so is she. I can’t  have anyone thinking she isn’t taken.”

“Anyone who has been online knows she’s not.” Fame smiled. “So, any big plans for the wedding yet?”

“Oh I’ve barely even thought about it,” Raven said with a wink, everything about her very clearly telling that she was lying through her teeth.

Fame laughed loudly. “Get out of here you two-” She waved her hand, clearly dismissing them. “Actually-” Fame paused. “Raja, take the day off.”

“But what about the work-”

“That can wait.” Fame touched Raja’s elbow. “This is the first time you’ve gotten engaged.”

“You mean only time she’s getting engaged.” Raven threw her hair over her shoulder,  leaving the office while Raja hung back to gather her things.

“Call that journalist who wanted that interview and tell them I need an extra 10 minutes.”

“Yes Miss!”

Fame turns to leave.”Oh, and Courtney?”

“Yes Miss?”

“It’s impolite to stare. That’s all.” Fame went into her office, closing the door.

Courtney’s eyes bulged. Had she been staring? She was just so surprised.

She had no idea that Raja was even gay, and now she found out that she was engaged? To a supermodel? It was thrilling! But the thought that anyone noticed her reaction was so embarrassing. She turned to Violet, hoping for some reassurance, but found no such thing, the brunette glaring at her venomously.

“I am going to kill you,” Violet proclaimed.

***

“Violet?” Max knocked on her door. “Violet are you in there?”

Max had only meant to be a good neighbor when he had grabbed Violet’s package from the reception, the brown box too big for her to carry on her own, but it seemed like she wasn’t home, and now he had the dilemma of what he should do with the box, since he couldn’t just leave.

Max was just about to give up, when the door opened, the sight of Violet in nothing but a cream silk robe, heels and lace underwear greeting him.

“Oh thank God!”

Before Max knew it, Violet had grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.

“I need your help.”

“My help?” Max put the box down. He hadn’t been inside of Violet’s apartment since the housewarming, and nothing had changed except for a set of curtains that Max knew had haphazardly been put up by Katya.

“Which dress should I wear?”

It was then that Max noticed three dresses that had been hung up over the bathroom door.

“Oh.” Max looked at them. He knew Violet had exquisite taste in clothes, the assistant one of his favorite Galactica employees to watch, but seeing her date night options side by side was a pleasure in itself.

“So you’re going to the Vogue Fashion Fund?”

“I am.” Violet slipped out of her robe and hung it up on the door handle. From anyone else, the move could have seemed sexual, but Violet had been on shoots with Max, and had seen with her own eyes how he normally behaved around naked woman, so it wasn’t too weird. Max was pretty sure Violet assumed he was gay, and even though that wasn’t the truth, he wasn’t going to tell her that it was more that he wasn’t interested in anyone period.

“And you’re going with Pearl?”

“She’s picking me up in an hour.” Violet smiled.

Max bit his lip. He knew that Violet liked Pearl, really liked Pearl.

It was written all over her entire face every time she looked at the blonde, how she would blush and stammer; how shy she could get. Pearl was the only one Max knew who could make Violet lose the air of pleasant politeness, and he was pretty sure that Pearl had no idea about her power.

Max loved Pearl with all his heart, he would go through fire for her, but Pearl wasn’t a good person when it came to how she treated women.

Max had seen Pearl parade girl after girl around, had seen model after model getting their heart broken, how Pearl could treat a girl like a queen one day and completely ignore her the next.

But if Pearl had invited Violet out, that had to mean something, even if Max wasn’t sure what.

“So, which one do you like?” Violet held two of the dresses up, one of them a silver knee length number with a fitted skirt, while the other was a delightful light pink with long sleeves and flowy details.

Max wanted to tell Violet how Pearl could also be, but as he looked at her face, as he saw the genuine enthusiasm, he just couldn’t do it.

“What about the silver?”

“You think?” Violet took it down from the door and slipped into it, the dress fitting her like a glove.

“You look stunning.” Max walked behind her, grabbing the zipper and zipping her up.

Violet was old enough to make her own mistakes, and maybe, just maybe Violet was what Pearl needed.

***

“Violet, come on! We’re going to be late, the car is waiting!” Pearl checked her bag one last time. Phones, press badges, wallet and camera.

Pearl had already made a deal with one of her photographer friends and brought some of his red carpet pictures, so she didn’t have to worry about that, but a good journalist never went anywhere without the proper equipment, and there wasn’t much Pearl actually excelled at.

“Violet!” Pearl knocked again, harder this time. “Violet! Now!”

Pearl was beyond excited to take Violet on a night out. Fashion Fund tickets weren’t exactly easy to come by, so when one had dumped into her lap, she knew exactly who she had wanted as her plus one.

Pearl loved watching Violet enjoy fashion, the way her eyes lit up, the way she smiled, the way it was the only thing she could go on and on about.

Pearl wanted to share that with Violet, and if this meant that Violet would finally see her as someone who was taking her seriously, that would only be a bonus.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

Pearl was just about to make a sex joke, when Violet opened the door, and Pearl felt the breath get knocked from her lungs.

Viole was absolutely beautiful, a vision in pale purple and sparkling silver. Her long black hair was artfully curled, a single hair clip holding the locks away from her face. Her usual light pink lipstick was replaced with a daring red, and Pearl wanted to kiss her

“I can’t really run in these.” Violet gestured to her shoes, her usual black Louboutins exchanged with a silver Jimmy Choo. “Do I look okay?”

Violet stopped in front of Pearl, turning around to show off her outfit.

Pearl nodded, still slightly lost for words.

“Oh thank God.” Violet smiled, clearly relieved. “I was worried I’d be too casual or too formal, but judging from the gown you have on.” Violet grabbed her jacket from the hook on the door and pulled it on, taking a step out of the door which made Pearl take one back.

“You, umh, you look really beautiful…” Violet blushed and Pearl laughed, Violet’s insecurity and her quick, almost tumbling way of talking endlessly entertaining.

Pearl kissed Violet’s cheek, careful not to smudge her lipstick.

“Seems like I’ll be the luckiest girl at the party,” Pearl smiled.

“Why?”

“Because I’ll have you as my date.”

[costumingofkira]

So let's talk about what it took to make World's End Dancehall. I choose this cosplay because I have by far, the most progress of it saved.  It has been my most complicated and detailed costume I've made to date.  I made it in Late 2014 and won 1st place for it in Dokidokon 2017's Intermediate division.

For those of you who don't know where this costume comes from, it is from "Hatsune Miku Project Diva F" for the PS3. This is Miku's "Emerald" Module for the song  "World's End Dancehall". You can watch the Video here.

So here's a rough breakdown of what she cost:

If you add it all up, supplies cost me around $277, what it would be if I bought everything new but I didn't so I roughly spent $250, because I had the twisted red cord already and I used left over white fabric from another project.

** Side note - I bought a brand new machine for this project. It was the first completely new machine I've ever owned.  I bought a  CE1100PRW  Brother Project Runway 100 stitch

So my project costs were closer to $400

___

I started this project by collecting more reference than I probably needed, by downloading the music video of World's End Dancehall off of Youtube and print screening crap out of it.  I also sourced this image  a lot.

So I started with her sleeves, because I had an idea of how I wanted to do it but I wasn't sure if it would work so I figured if I could get her sleeves to work then I could do the whole dress.

So I patterned out the sleeves and marked on the fabric where each part of the gradient should go with a pencil.

They ended up looking something like this:

I sewed these pieces together and prepared my first dye bath. I got a little bucket I didn't care about, filled with the hottest water I could and added some salt for brighter colors.

This was the combination I used this time. I wanted everything to come out teal but it wasn't the right color the first time I dyed them so I ended up making a second batch and dyeing them again.

There were lots of test swatches done in the process of finding the right color. They ended up coming out like this:

I left the bottoms in longer than the middle, I would watch it with a timer and slowly bring it out the water little by little to give it that gradient effect.

(Please always remember to use old towels and wear gloves when dyeing fabric)

With that done I had to wait to do the next step because things needed to dry, but once they were ready I got to work.  

I looked for my now almost impossible to see pencil guides and laid down the dark blue fabric I'd bought and pinned it to the bottom of the sleeve after taking them apart so they could lay flat.  I drew the design I needed to be on the bottom of the sleeve in with a white colored pencil.

* Please use a dressmaker's pencil instead. It washes out until colored pencil, I was lazy. Don't be like me.

After putting in my guidelines I sewed them all in place and removed the pins, once they were sewn down, I carefully pulled the fabrics apart from one another and cut out the pattern:

I ended up putting the gold lines down first so I had a place to match the leaves to, I also used white ribbon for the border at first but I hated it so I took it all off and started over.

I used this stitch for the golden lines:

Of course I didn't use it in it's original programming. My Machine is computerized so I made it much tighter together so it would look cleaner.  I don't remember exactly what I sat my machine to, but it was much smaller than it's standard version.

But since I down right hated the ribbon, I tore it all off and started again. I later ended up putting a white braid on in it's place.

From there I needed to put the leaves in and I did it one at a time. Basically I used the following stitch. I let it make one full leaf, stopped it and moved it to the next spot to continue the pattern.

Here's a really terrible video of me trying to show how I did it on my facebook. I didn't have any way to film at the time other than my phone and the apartment's lighting was really awful.

*at this point I was working on the dress *

The sleeves with the new white braid and leaves ended up looking like this:

What I was doing was running the braid over the unfinished edge of the blue to cover it. It took a few minutes to sew on because I had to slowly wrap it into place.

Here's some close up on the detail:

So from there, I lined my sleeves in the same blue fabric I'd used at the bottom of them and I put it around the top in the same way I'd added it to the bottom. A golden line was sewn down the middle of the blue at the top and then I added braid to the top and the bottom pieces. At this point the sleeves were done and I was so proud of myself.

So then came the complicated part.  

I had to replicate all the work I just did on the sleeves, on to the dress.

One sleeve was close to 8 hours of work, consider 5 of them were spent just sewing all the golden leaves into it.

I knew this was going to be a lot of work.  4 months went by with having no chance to work on things, but eventually I got back to it.

So I started by patterning out the dress, which took a few fittings to see how it worked since I didn't own a dress form at the time.

I ended up with something like this, pencil guidelines and all.

I had to pencil in where my bust hit in the dress so I didn't dye past it and from there I dug out an even bigger tub I didn't care about and went to trying to replicate the same color in a second batch of dye.

I used this:

to brew this:

I emphasis, please use towels, and wear gloves when dyeing fabric. I can still remember the dripping trail I made when I drug my dress to the sink.

I dyed my dress much in the same way that I dyed my sleeves, in that I slowly brought the dress out of the water little by little to create that gradient effect. It took a lot longer, because I was stupid  and dyed a dress in almost cold water so I had to leave it overnight.

PLEASE DYE IN HOT WATER, THE DYE TAKES FASTER AND IT WILL SAVE  YOU TROUBLE.

But eventually I got the dress to the correct color and I took it a part at a seem so it could lay flat.

I laid the blue fabric on top of it, pinned it in place, drew the design in with a white colored pencil. (Again, don't be me, don't do it.)  I had to not only reference the picture I posted at the beginning but I had to turn on the game (Project Diva F) so I could have the model to turn around.  

After sewing one side in place, we got here:

Rinse and repeat, it's on the next side and soon enough after doing it all over again, we were here:

I'd started putting all the gold lines in but they took some time because again, I had to reference the model. I would be spending a lot of time with the model in coming days, little did I know it.

So once I got all the lines in I had to start the process of putting the leave in one at a time, all over again. The problem with doing it this time, is I had to check the model to make sure the leaves were flowing in the correct direction, so I couldn't just sew them in. I had to make sure all the tips were pointing the correct way.

So  it was a very

Slow

process.

Many Mountain Dews and sleepless nights later, I finally got all the leaves sewn into the dress. So from here, section by section I had to wrap the white braid into each section and sew it in place.

This also was a slow

Process.

I stood on many chairs to take these pictures, but after a while the braid was in and I put the dress back together to work on the top.

I had to put in the "boob window" as my husband likes to call it and again it needed a test fit, things got pinned for measurements while on me, because remember no dress form, and then penciled in later.  Eventually we got here:

After putting that part into the top of my dress, I put on the blue parts much in the same way as I did the rest of the dress. With placing things where they needed to be an anchoring them as I went along.

The golden designs were put into the top of the dress with the same stitch I'd used to make the gold lines for the leaves. After which I covered all the edges with white braid just like I did everything else. I'd killed about 4 , 5 /yd rolls by now.  

After that I placed small grommets at either side of the opening at the top and them four for the closures at the side slant of the dress.

I created a collar for the dress and installed it, complete with blue and gold detail with white braid.  After which I added a zipper up the side of the dress.

It was complete! The dress was done! Four months of work and finally she was complete.

From there I styled my wig - which was a chibi in Ocean Green from Arda Wigs + 2 long pony clips in the same color.  (Apparently they no longer sell it in that color, but it's available in teal)

I ended up taking the side ponytails that came in the way out and pulling them up higher, since Miku's pigtails set higher on her head with this costume.

I did some light styling to the bangs like trimming them and bringing them to tips where they needed it but over all it didn't need much work.

I bought my stockings from a local adult store, and my hair clips were purchased from a vendor we found at Youmacon 2014's artist alley. (I wish I could remember their name)

My shoes are just standard plain high heels.

It wasn't until I realized I'd forgotten at the con, that I made small black wraps for my legs to mimic the straps of Miku's shoes.

And at last Miku was done!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! If you would like me to breakdown more cosplay for you guys, please tell me in the comments!  

As Usual, thank you all for your support! It really means the world to me!

All Photography of My Completed Miku was done by Artisticaise Cosplay Photography.

[yaz-pike]

My line manager had to be in isolation so i had to send a parcel of everything she needed to work on to her home.

As my line manager was isolating, she asked me to send her a copy of every spec from each range.

The product and development manager asked me to email everyone in the company a copy of the SS22 range directories for both the PRE and MAIN line including all the up to-date numbers on sales.

The Barbour international designer asked me to print out an A3 copy of the colour board and add some swatches to it so that everyone could see what the colour looked like on fabric.

The coast to country designer asked me to do a few updates on some specs for her as the sizings and some fabrics were changed and to colour them up for our website.

I was asked by the designer who works with collabs like Alexa Chung to find some new and interesting quilting patterns as the old onion quilt and the diamond quilt has been used too much so i did some research and put a pack together of different quilting like patchwork quilting and square quilting.

My line manager asked me to find some variations of a baby blue colour that had been used for a previous season as she needed some new light blue colours for SS23. she also wanted this to use on a brief for House of Fraser so they could pick a colour that tonally worked throughout both clothing and outerwear. (none of these were used in the end so i can show this haha! ) 

[jeremystrele]

A Day In The Life Of Artist, Designer And Small Businesswoman, Rachel Castle

A Day In The Life Of Artist, Designer And Small Businesswoman, Rachel Castle

A Day In The Life

Sasha Gattermayr

Rachel at the CASTLE studio with Sydney the sausage dog. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A morning walk around the neighbourhood with Sydney. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel starts a morning at the office with a coffee from Ona in Marrickville. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel and the team! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

The ever-bubbly, gorgeous Rachel Castle! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

The studio slash office is filled with prints, inspiration and works-in-progress. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Chatting with Design and Production Manager, Simone. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

There is no shortage of colourful paints to play with lying around! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

There is always time in Rachel’s day for sketching, painting and drawing. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A true artist’s space! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel started embroidering in the evening when her kids were little and in bed. Now, she has to do it in the early hours of the morning before her team arrive at work! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Rachel gets into the studio early to sew, and catch up on TV! Her current favourite is ‘Ramy’. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Swathes and swatches of fabric in rainbow shades. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

A piece in construction. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

It’s the mark of a true creative spirit when they spend every spare second making something for the sake of it. This was how it all began for Rachel Castle, who picked up embroidery in the early hours of the evening when her young kids were in bed, the only time she had to herself during their childhood years. It was here that her true calling revealed itself.

But before she was an artist, designer, and the director of her own small business, Rachel’s professional life meandered from PR to marketing. She and friends Alex Willcock and Russell Pinch used to run a branding company in the United Kingdom, but when their second child was born, Rachel left the business to become a full-time mother. She considers this the best decision she ever made.

‘I believe you can definitely have everything in life, just not all at once,’ she says. ‘I was never conscious of a path, I just worked with people and product I loved, and the rest worked itself out.’ Though the meandering route she describes is encouraging for others who might be in the same working-it-all-out boat, it undersells the seriously hard work Rachel has done in establishing her cult lifestyle brand. Between her firm focus on keeping her business small and practice-based, and the overtime hours she clocked developing her distinct artistic style over the years, Rachel is a tenacious, self-made professional.

Rachel took TDF around her heavenly Marrickville studio where we spent a day in her sunny, colourful world. Her creativity knows no bounds!

FIRST THING

I’m definitely a morning person.  My husband recently retired which means (hallelujah!) for the first time in a decade I can go to work whenever I want. For years I had to scramble around to find the time to work, but now I’m free as a bird, which is an amazing feeling.  If I wake and can’t sleep at 5am I go to work, but generally, I’m in the car by about seven. I don’t do social media in the mornings, I’m too old and can’t handle the early morning scramble to find my glasses and get three sentences together that make sense, so I just amble around quietly and slowly, a way better and nicer way to start each morning.

It’s a half-hour drive to work so lately I’ve been listening, for the first time in my life, to a really good AM radio station. During the protests its had some really diverse speakers, activists, writers, artists, poets. I’m converted! Also, I can’t work out how to change it back to FM so I’ll leave it here until the end of 2020 and see what else I can learn.

As soon as I arrive in Marrickville I grab a coffee from Ona down the road, and get straight to it.

MORNING

Emails and DMs…. Omg there are so many.  I check all the inboxes and delegate where necessary and then, best part of the day, I sew and watch TV until the girls arrive at 9.  The earlier I get to work the longer I can spend watching anything from Homeland to Ramy to The Real Housewives; this is my junk time and I LOVE IT.  Sewing for me is like getting a massage or going for a run or doing yoga, it’s my outta body knock-knock-there’s no-one home time.

The girls slowly start to arrive and its the normal chit chat (‘Where did you go last night? Did the NBN guy come? Where’d you get your pants from?’) and then we all move into getting the orders out for the day, getting the artworks signed, the tea towels sewn and the commissions sorted.  I potter around watering the plants, and mid-morning try to sort something with our Wholesale and Web Content lead, AJ, for socials, a little video or pics for our stories or a new wall for our studio. FINALLY having the space in our studio for a bed has transformed the way we spend our days as there’s so much bed-making and wall painting to be done!

There’s really no routine to the morning, I just go creatively wherever I feel the need, I might try to cut up some new embroideries, or prepare some canvases for painting, or do some little watercolours on paper. So by lunchtime, I’ve generally got 7,000 things started and not a single thing completed (not joking) every single day of the week.

AFTERNOON

Generally at around 3pm we all have a heart attack and realise, ‘OMG! It’s 3 o’clock!’. The girls get some lunch and I get ready to spend some time with Simone, CASTLE’s design and production lead. No two days are the same, but this week we’ve been working on our new towel shoot with Stephanie Somebody, and an upcoming collaboration with Gorman, some new sweater designs and our next Spring/Summer range. In between there are all the usual production issues!

During COVID-19 the Indian ports were closed for a month and a lot of our suppliers are on skeleton staff, so it’s been a very challenging period for us and for them. It’s very slowly getting back to normal, and we hope and pray things for India start to improve soon. Over the years we’ve become very close to our suppliers, they are as much a part of our family as our customers, we send them love.

LATE AFTERNOON

From the minute I wake up I start chanting my mantra….. ‘I will do more painting today, I will do more painting today.’  It only ever happens around 5pm and recently I’ve been coming to terms with this. I’ve tried LITERALLY everything to get more time painting but I just can’t do it. So I’ve started reframing the narrative, and now I’m grateful that I get an hour to do it at all.  The advantage of having grown children with no more play dates and park visits is I can go into work on the weekend, where I can smash out a thousand brush strokes in an hour. Time stops in the studio on the weekend, it’s an incredibly peaceful place to be.

EVENING

I’m home every single weeknight by 7.15pm. I love my drive home, this is my time to ring my mother and speak to my friends on the phone. It’s just me and the boys at home, so we eat together and Lucas goes off to study (apparently). He’s in Year 12 so a big year for him where we all try to be as quiet and gentle as we can. Cleo moved home too during  COVID-19, and I have to say the family time has been nice!

I don’t cook or go to the supermarket anymore (SOUND THE TRUMPETS) and it’s the best part of my new older life, so the evenings for me are spent eating and then doing my social media… then falling asleep reading with my glasses on and then trying to find all the right creams for my face at 10.30pm. Then snooze and sleep like a baby.

Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Right now I’m listening to/watching/reading…

Watching Ramy I laugh and cry from one scene to the next, it’s teaching me a lot about Islamic culture and religion. It’s hilariously funny and, equally, really tackles the big issues, it’s really good.

Reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It’s a beautiful Indian tale covering the country’s growth over the past 30 years. Knowing the history of this beautiful country is really important to me.

Listening to any podcast I can get my hands on, and always a daily dose of Dan Savage!

One important thing I do every day is…

Eat dinner with my family. Every weekday of our lives, it’s a deal breaker for me.

I get my best work done when…

I’m in the studio by myself with my music on and my phone switched off.

A philosophy I live and work by is…

Touch it once.  Emails, DMs, designs, products. Going back to something we discussed yesterday doesn’t work for me. We resolve it on the spot, or resolve it to a point where we can pick it up later.  I never say ‘Let’s sleep on it’, which means I make mistakes, but we need to keep moving because inertia is the DEVIL!

My productivity tip/tool is…

Definitely the above, touching it once.

Something I learned the hard way is…

Don’t put a whole range on pre-order just before a pandemic… note to self!

[elanorjane]

Picture of Beauty: Rumbelle Funny Face (Ch1/?)

Summary: Fashion house Jefferson-Mills needs inspiration. Photographer Gold believes a librarian he photographed by accident has what it takes. Now it's up to Gold to turn Belle into a model worthy of Paris Fashion Week. Based on the movie Funny Face. Rating: This chapter PG-13 A/N: Unbeta'd. I have no idea whether someone had already written a Rumbelle Funny Face, I was too afraid to look. 

AO3

“I’m so bored I could kill all of you.” Regina Mills stood behind on her desk, perfectly framed by black and white demask curtains.  

Her seven garment men stood in a row in front of her, work boots scuffing the marble floor. Each one held at least two bolts of fabric in various colors and patterns.

Leroy looked down the line of exquisite cloth, “Whatsa matter with ‘em?”

Regina had put in the order herself. She’d okay’d every design detail down to the perfect shade of ultra violet for a lily to be printed on silk charmeuse. Leroy and his men hand dyed and cut patterns to her exact specifications. It was this kind of attention to detail that made Jefferson-Mills one of the emerging premier fashion houses. Now the latest swatches were staring her in the face...and they were hideous. A complete snoozefest.  

"It looks like my grandma’s knitting circle threw up in here. Where's the freshness? Where's the youth? Youth is beauty. I should know, I've been selling that lie for years."

Walter, standing at the end of the line and usually very docile, piped up, "Aren't they what you wanted?"

Regina circled around the desk. Walter swayed on his feet but stayed where he was. She spoke through clenched teeth, "They're exactly what I wanted. But not what I need." She threw her hands up in the direction of the fabrics, “It’s tired. It’s been done.” She stood in front of the blue and tan floral print Walter held, “That’s Chloe Spring 2017,” she dismissed. She took a few steps to her right and stopped at a sheer lilac, “And that’s Valentino Couture 2006.”

Leroy shrugged, "How many more types of fabric can there be?"

Regina gave him a withering glare that Walter and the others slunk away from. She paced back and forth, the men parting to make way. "What's missing? What do I need?" she muttered to herself.

Doc leaned forward, giving the collection an academic eye, “Pink?”

She grimaced, “God no.”

The double doors to her office burst open and Jefferson strode in. "Who's ready for Paris?" he sang in an exaggerated French accent. Everyone spun to look at him and Jefferson came to a standstill, eyes sweeping over the prints that stretched from one end of Regina’s office to the other. "Ugh, hideous!"  

She rolled her eyes, "They're your designs!"

"Really?" he squinted and bent at the waist to better study a linen Doc clutched to his chest. He straightened, shaking his head. "They're hideous."

"I know," she sighed. She tilted her head at them. If she stared at them long enough they might become what they needed.

Regina had discovered Jefferson when he was a single father schlepping away at design school. He was obviously brilliant, but in desperate need of some editing. Underneath the sketches of a madman, his clothes were brilliant and she saw his designs for what they were: dreamy fairytale looks that transported the wearer to anther realm. They could be a turns romantic and street. But he was a classic creative with no business sense. He needed an investor, a partner, to make them luxe. And that's where she came in. She brought order to his madness. Made a cohesive collection editorial enough to put in magazines and made them cost effective enough to put into production. Without her it was all top hats and ascots.  

Speaking of…Jefferson revolved around the men and the bolts of fabric. He wore a long black coat of his own design with steel buttons and gray collar. Everything else he wore was black except for a merlot ascot, his signature accessory. When he shows he pairs it with a top hat, an eccentricity she couldn’t cure him of.  

He pulled the end of his necktie from his shirt, snatching off Leroy’s hat and miming shining his head with it. The workman grumbled and swatted at Jefferson, snatching his hat back and jamming it onto his head. No one was taking this seriously.  

"Jefferson, we need forty two looks for Fashion Week and right now we barely have one!"

He scoffed wandering aimlessly around her office, picking things up at random, "That can't be true, what about the stuff I sent you last week?"

She followed him around her office, “Gold started working on the photos this morning.” She crossed her arms, “But it’s not going to be enough.”  

Jefferson threw himself onto the divan,  "What can I tell you, Regina. I have no inspiration right now! I'm done, I'm kaput!" he threw his arm over his eyes dramatically.  

"Well get inspired now or we're all kaput!"

He deflated, "Regina, you know nothing about the life of an artist or the artistic process."  

She leaned over his head sweetly, “If you want to keep Grace in private school, you will get up off your ass, right now, and design me some winning looks.”

The door to her office opened again and Gold strode in, a folder of photographs in his hand.  

Jefferson craned his neck, "Gold, darling, when are you going to let me dress you?" he called.  

Gold didn’t break his pace to assess his own pristine three piece suit. "And what, Jefferson, is wrong with the way I dress?"

Jefferson vaulted up from the couch, "Nothing, love, absolutely nothing. And that's the problem. Every time I look at you I just want to put you slightly out of skew." He pulled back, assessing him like an auteur. He reached forward as if to adjust Gold’s tie.  

Gold swatted his hand away, "That is one thing I can guarantee you, Jefferson. You will never, ever, see me askew." He turned to Regina, immediately reading her face, “What’s wrong?”  

“We don’t love the looks we sent you. We are lost.”

He tossed the pile of photographs onto her desk, “And I’ve had my time wasted.”  

Regina perched on the edge of her desk and flipped through the prints he’d made from that morning’s photoshoot. The model pouted, thrust, and arched her back in every photo. Not the aesthetic they were going for. “What happened?”

He sighed, “I told her to imagine herself in the Museum of Modern Art. I got Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Get me someone I can work with, Regina, or I quit.”

“No, you don’t. Who else would let you work in a darkroom and develop prints like it’s 1957?” She’d had enough grievances. She stood up and faced all of them. “Now here this. In mere weeks we are supposed to be boarding a plane to France with forty plus looks. Paris Fashion Week happens with or without us and I would prefer not to be a laughing stock!”  She leaned a hand on the photos and turned to Gold. “What do you need to fix this?”

Gold scoffed, “Someone who could keep their overt sexuality in check long enough for me to take a picture of the dress they’re wearing.”

“Sex sells,” she countered.  

“Sex is everywhere,” he replied, disinterested.  

For the first time, Regina’s fiery determination petered out to self-doubt, “Can I have possibly scraped the bottom of the barrel of asking women to feel terrible about their looks?”

“You could make them feel stupid,” Gold suggested.

She was intrigued. After all, she was in the business of making people feel inferior, “How so?”

“Move your focus upstairs.”

She glanced at the ceiling, “The marketing department?”

Gold shook his head, “No, the brain. Find someone with some intelligence. A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual.”

She thought on that for a minute before shaking her head, “Maybe a different background. We could go on location. Somewhere intellectual. Somewhere with books.”

“A bookstore.” Jefferson offered.

She made a face, “Bookstores don’t exist anymore. A library.” She warmed up to the idea. “Yes, one of those little ones everyone’s always trying to save.”  Regina pointed at Leroy, “What’s the closest podunk town?”  

Leroy already had his phone out and Google Maps up, “Storybrooke.”

[gd512676]

Poster Designs

After looking at the past posters, as you can see from my last few posts, I liked the idea of focusing on simple images that convey a lot of ideas. 

 I started by laying out some ideas of what I wanted to do and began sketching ideas out. The brief required me to make an eye-catching piece that explored a subset of underground culture and I instantly knew what I wanted to do. 

The idea food being a cultural and social culmination of identity is widely known, and it made me think of all of the small restaurants littered around London. The idea of the city's small communities being held together by the fashion, the food the traditions really stood out to me in my research and sent me on this adventure of looking at Londons minority cultures.

My research fell into several niches, Indian, Chinese, Japanese,  West Indian and carribean cultures. These cultures seem to have made smaller communities in London and have established places to visit and join ion with the culture. One set of my sketches looked at the idea of visiting cultural places, like china town or the Indian temple or the Japanese garden. I felt that these ideas were strong, but not strong enough. Another idea was to base the posters around the cultural materials of each minority. However from a distance I don't know if these would really make sense or if they could just look like a swatch of fabric.

After deciding on the food angle I knew that I was ready to find some images of food and start drawing. My initial sketches were very rough, but with some reference I managed to make a visually nice drawing that used the colours of the London Underground logo. 

Originally I was going to use all the colours of the different lines, but I found these to be too different from each other to use in the type of illustrations that I wanted to make for the piece. 

A lot of inspiration came from Risograph prints. I saw some illustrations created in Risoprint form. Matt Glen created this great piece called Full English that really inspired this piece. The use of limited colour really helped the illustration to pop. 

This also led into the the idea of having a tablecloth background that linked all the illustrations together. I used there underground logo to cement the idea of this being created for a location dn I felt that it bound all of the illustrations together. 

Here are the final illustrations. I was really pleased with them, after this I carved out the area where I wanted the text to go. I had already planned this out in the sketching phase and this then meant that I could think about the next step, the typeface, branding/ logo and slogan. 

The typeface that I ended up using was called Enia O1 in Semibold with a little adjustment to the kerning. I really liked how bold this looked. I also kept in with the limited palette. I knew that I wanted a bold type to be visible from a distance, as this was going to be a big poster I wanted the message to get across instantly. 

I added the logo of the underground in, keeping it it white and minimal, to match the table cloth.Looking at a lot of older posters for the underground seemed to have this layout and I wanted to link it it past posters if possible, I like the idea of constancy and tradition to not only link into the cultural aspect, but the undergrounds history. 

The slogan was honestly so hard for me to come up with, I’m not great at making things sound snappy, but I really tried to make the text tie in with the poster. 

Lets eat together was the thing that was in my head from the initial design phase, and I felt that made a pretty good tag line. 

Explore multicultural Londons diverse cuisine was something that took me a while to make sound half decent. Its not the most well thought out phrase, but it says everything that I wanted the poster to explain. 

This poster is saying that this campaign is about exploring multiculturalism in London and the cuisine is diverse and that you should go explore it yourself. That the London Underground can take you to these communities like brick lane and chinatown so you can experience these culinary delights for yourself. 

Here are some of my final thoughts for the posters. Overall, I am really happy with how they have come out. There is a certain appeal to them which I feel comes from the limited palette, the design that links all the pieces together. I really like how you can tell they are a set and yet shows off the different cultural cuisine.

The final posters - 

If I was to do this differently next time I would maybe put the cultural locations on the posters (Like the tube line and postcode for chinatown etc) and I maybe would experiment more with vector illustrations, the risograph sausage print really filled me with inspiration to make something even clearer and simpler next time. 

[elicatherogue]

10 Tips From a Cosplayer

Okay, so I’ve been doin this nonsense for about 8 years now and here are my 10 biggest tips for anyone else doing this sadistic hobby (This is a bit geared towards people who make costumes just FYI. I will post another more geared for beginners or those who buy later)

1) Remember Why You Do This.

Maybe you showed up to con and were 1 of 74 Jinx’s. Or maybe your costume wasn’t as accurate as someone else’s. Or maybe it feels like everyone else made theirs and you bought yours. So what? Did you have fun? Did you meet friends, and/or bond with the people you came with? Unless you’re in the contests, remember that it ISN’T a contest. And even the contests are meant to be fun. Alternatively, don’t let any elitist fans ruin your fun.

2) Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously.

Remember that being a cosplayer doesn’t make you ‘more’ of a fan than someone who doesn’t. Remember that you do this for your own enjoyment and that is all that matters. Spend as long or as little as you want on a costume, end a con with 20 silly selfies and some new friends, compliment that other cosplayer in the same outfit because you clearly both have something in common, don’t think of them as competition.

3) Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help.

Parents, siblings, teachers, friends, neighbors, craft store employees, theater teachers, art teachers, people online. There are tons of people who could offer help with even little things like what glue to use on foam that needs heatshaping(non-flammable x-treme elmers glue is nice) , what paint to use on leggings (apparently fabric paint stretches with it just fine), ask your grandma what stitch is best for rounded edges on cotton (idk), ask a JoAnn’s associate what thread to use. In my experience store associates are extremely helpful, even with things like a second opinion on matching colors.

4) Use Coupons.

Seriously. If you can, set up an email just for coupons. Going to Michaels for a 2 dollar little thing of paint? Use that coupon they emailed you and now it’s 75 cents and you have more money for other things like fancy fabric or idk food. Check if any stores have student or teacher or senior discounts if that’s applicable, then you’ll have a discount even without coupons. Especially good for big purchases. If you’re buying everything at once there is almost definitely some sort of 5 off of 30 type of coupon out there. If you are able, this is a good way to set up a savings for con or your next costume maybe, just look at the receipt, see how much you saved and set that much (or a part) aside for food/hotel/gas/merch.

5) Look at your Source.

No matter how well you know your character or your design do not go very long without looking at the source. Working on a wig? Have a picture in front of you the whole time. Maybe sketch out the different angles beforehand. Going fabric shopping? Stare at the original. If you print out a reference pic know that it may be slightly off. If you’re doing a costume where the color seems different in every shot (like Rey from Star Wars) then pick the one you like. If you can, consider coloring or painting a swatch of the color on an index card and bringing it with you to compare. Seriously. Keep checking the source when working. It’s equivalent to “measure twice cut once”.

6) Measure Twice Cut Once.

Even in crunch. I know, it’s stressful and scary and frustrating but you know what is more frustrating and scary and stressful? It being 8pm the night before the con and you just cut that last bit of fabric too small. Or your wig too short. Seriously. Just double check yourself.

7) Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself.

Outdated meme but useful tip. If you’re getting anxious to a difficult level, or exhausted physically or mentally  address it. Take a break. Take a nap. Eat a meal. Go for a walk. Watch an episode of that show you’re trying to cosplay. Play that game. Watch cosplay videos if you’re scared of losing motivation. Just don’t push yourself too hard or you risk messing up parts of your costume and more importantly, you risk hurting yourself. Don’t work until you accidentally stab yourself with a hot iron and have a panic attack. Would you rather spend 15 minutes playing with your cat or crying and bandaging yourself?

8) Use It.

Found some fabric you love for that SnK skirt thing, but it’s infused with glitter?Who cares, use it. Every cosplay you have seen of Red Hood has a lot of leather and cargo pants but you want skinny jeans and suede? Use it. The costume is for you. Make it how you want. To quote the great Hilary Duff “Why Not?” Also, go listen to that song if you need encouragement. 

9) Enjoy The Whole Process.

Maybe it is redundant at this point but seriously. Have fun. Not just at the con, party, photoshoot, meetup etc. Have a wig styling party. You finished that jacket? Nice, wear it out shopping and be proud. Make a playlist for each character you work on or general motivational music. 8-tracks.com is great for this too. Test those seams/that hairgel/ those shoes/ flexibility by putting on your jam and dancing around. Send snapchats to your friends when you test your make up. Skype your aunt to show off that circle skirt. Put your hat on your dog. 

10) Procrastination isn’t Great.

Probably don’t put off making your costume by making a list of tips for other people.

[mysticsparklewings]

Homemade Mini Sketchbooks!

More of a crafty thing today, but hey at least I'm still taking a break from all the swatch chart stuff I've watched a few different videos over the past few months talking about bookbinding and making your own custom sketchbooks and artwork storage/organizing, etc. And at some point it just kind of clicked that I wanted to give those sorts of things a try, just to see what I could do and make my book/paper organization life a little more interesting than just the store-bought stuff. Not pictured here: I recently acquired a disc-bond planner/notebook to try out, since disc binding seems like a great hybrid system between a spiral-bound notebook and a binder for someone like me who prefers spiral-bound stuff but likes the option of taking pages in and out or moving them around. The only problem is disc binding stuff is kinda expensive, so it'll be a while before I've built up a small collection of supplies/options to pick from.    I also purchased some book rings and extra folders and stuff from DollarTree a while back and have since used a combination of those things and some old divider pages and pieces from old notebooks to put together a sort of makeshift custom binder/book that I keep all my swatches and reference pages for my various art supplies in. It's kinda neat, but not so fancy that I feel like showing off photos of it. These little roughly 4"x6" sketchbooks were pretty much testers to see what I could do with what supplies I have. I made two to try out two different binding directions (side/right bound and top-bound) and two different kinds of glue: Elmer's CraftBond Tacky Glue, and Aleene's Original Tacky Glue. Neither is necessarily "preferred" glue for bookbinding (as you can get specific PVA glue just for bookbinding) but they dry flexible, are made for crafty/paper things, and one was on clearance for $1.97, the other came from DollarTree, so I figured I'd give them a shot before investing in more expensive glue. I'll run down my process in a second, but I do just want to say the main thing I felt like I really needed a proper supply for/could have done better had the urge to finally make some books not struck me in the middle of the night was a press to hold my block of individual pages for the inside together while applying the glue. Traditionally, this is done with a fancy-looking contraption called a book press, but I don't have one of those and they are also surprisingly expensive. So my option was to stack a bunch of books together, and I admittedly didn't do as good of a job with that as I could have, but now I know better for next time. But because of this and the odd hours I was keeping, the pages aren't aligned super nicely, a couple are a little loose, and I did have one page fall out of the top-bound/orange cover book. That said, I made these at roughly the same time, going over the same steps for both and working on one while I waited for the other to dry, etc. I started with the covers by taking some metallic cardstock I have and cutting it down to the 4"x6" size I wanted, and then for the front and back covers on the blue book and the front cover on the orange book I grabbed some scrapbook paper I had and cut that down to size and used double-sided tape to attach the paper to the pieces of cardstock (yes, the blue one that looks like denim/jeans is actually paper and not fabric! I got a pad of paper like that from DollarTree because I thought it might come in handy, and it does look pretty cool for a book cover!). I purposely left the back cover on the orange book blank/as just the plain cardstock just to see how it looked. Alternatively, I could've used just paper (which I thought would be too thin/easily messed up) or chipboard--that brownish cardboard stuff that makes up the back part of a lot of store-bought sketchbooks--for the covers, but A. I didn't have any individual pieces and B. I didn't feel like chopping up the back of any existing sketchbooks I had. Not for just these testers, anyway. I also could have used glue to attach the decorative paper, but gluing paper like that tends to make it warp/wrinkle/boil/bubble if you're not careful, and also once the glue is stuck down it is STUCK, and so I figured I'd have a little more room to breathe in getting the paper placement right with the tape. Funnily enough, the tape ended up being way more forgiving than I thought, but I'll talk about that in a bit. Once I had the covers decorated with the paper the way I wanted, I moved on to the most tedious/longest part of the process: The paper on the inside. I recently picked up a cheap sketchbook with paper I'm not super-duper crazy about, and I had pretty much already decided that would be the paper I used for these little tester books. It's still usable, it's just not my more expensive favorite paper. And there's plenty of it, so I didn't mind "wasting" it on these books. I ripped out 20 pages from the sketchbook, expecting to get two smaller pages for the books I was making out of each larger page, but I actually ended up getting three smaller pages out of each, and so instead of 20 pages for each of the minis, I ended up with 30. This was a good thing since it gives the books a bit more weight/thickness and made the binding steps a little easier as a result. I stacked all of the pages for each book together and got one edge as even as possible--although I could've done better and gone through and lined up a few pages at a time to get them a little bit more flush together--and then very carefully placed the stack between some heavy books to hold them together and handle them still so I could apply the glue to bind the pages together. I unscrewed the tops of each kind of glue and applied it to the spines/paper stacks with a brush. Each book got three coats of glue total, just to make sure things were nice and secure. (Or you know as secure as possible for homemade in the middle of the night) While I was waiting for each coat of glue to dry, I took the covers and some more scrapbook paper and measured out the splash pages--just double the width of the cover so it can be folded over into two pages--to make the books feel a little fancier. (I'm not totally sure that's what they're called but that's what I'm calling them--I mean the interior pages between the book covers and the actual book pages). Then I used the double-sided tape again to attach the paper to the inside of each cover, and I found out by accident that while the double-sided tape is nice and sticky, it is actually repositionable! It doesn't totally rip up the paper if you try to unstick it! (Well, as long as you're kinda careful, anyway). And so I was able to reposition the splash pages until I felt like they were as straight/aligned as they were going to get. And while I was still waiting just to make sure the glue was dry before moving on, I decided to add some stickers to the orange book cover just to jazz it up a little. The plain flower print was fine, but I felt like it needed something and I was probably never going to use the stickers for anything else (I'm a sticker collector/hoarder), so on the book they went! By this time the blocks of paper were ready, and so I removed them from the stack of books and one at a time, pulled off a piece of wide washi tape for the spine of each and then very carefully aligned the covers to the blocks of paper and used my desk to help fold the tape around the spine as crisply as possible. (This step could have also been done on the splash pages and the covers attached afterward to hide the tape, but my tape is pretty so I'm okay with it being exposed). Now, I could have left the books just like that, but I wanted to be just a little bit fancier and used a paper punch to round the exposed corners of the covers and pages. This added a LOT of polish to the final look since as I mentioned earlier my pages weren't aligned super evenly.   And just to be cheeky I did use a stamp and signed my name on the back cover of the orange book too. I'm honestly not sure which of the two I like better in the end--they both came out better than I was expected for my first tries! Honestly, this is more of a time-consuming task than it is difficult or expensive (at least the way I did it, you could very easily make this a SUPER expensive thing based on the materials and equipment you use, but the absolutely essential stuff can all be purchased pretty cheaply; a lot of it even just from the dollar store for $1!) and so it was pretty fun, and the end result is really satisfying because, "oh, yeah, I made this book!" And you don't have to stick with a small size like I did--you can make full-size sketch/notebooks this way too! Or you can use these methods to just upgrade existing sketchbooks and stuff that you have to covers or sizes you like better. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to attempt next, but I do want to play around with making more of my own books like this, and I'll likely post them here to share when I do. Also, let me know if you guys would be interested in a more in-depth/picture/video tutorial of some kind for the process of how I made these and if there's enough interest I'll see what I can do! Also I promise I'm going to respond to my correspondence soon I've just been really busy the past few weeks and haven't been able to sit down and give it my full attention--but I do read everything as it comes in, rest assured! ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[brainrattlers]

I Hope I Can Handle It? (Pt 2/?)

Summary: Sequel to “Think You Can Handle It?” - F/Reader is in a long-distance relationship with her man.  Traveling for the holidays!

Pairing: Sebastian Stan x F/reader

Words:  2665

Warnings: Fluff fluff fluff. Mention of potential sexy times. Maybe there is cursing? I can’t even remember. There might be. Be prepared for it either way.

A/N: Yup… here is part 2. I didn’t intend to post it this early, but I was feeling it for some reason.  Tags are open, and those are at the bottom!  Y/F/N = Your Friend’s Name

Get caught up! (Think You Can Handle It?) (IHICHI Pt 1)

The next day was a blur of getting things ready.  Checks and rechecks of your bags, making sure you had your camera and memory cards, clothes, toiletries. You had to keep telling yourself it wasn’t like you were going camping, if you forgot something, you could run to the store. Hell, there was a good chance Seb would probably have most everything on hand too. You were completely anxious though, counting almost the MINUTES until you needed to hit up the airport to head out.  

You spent a little time at Mama J’s, working in the back office, looking at a few property options.  Checking out floor plans, what utilities would run in those locations, and how seating would work.  Spread out in front of you were a few inspiration boards, including some paint and fabric swatches, and photos you cut from magazines. Mama J came back to check on  you, asking if you wanted some lunch.  She noticed the fabrics and paints, sighing softly.

“Child, don’t get so wrapped up in this, I still haven’t quite figured out how to make it all happen yet. It will, but I need to save up a bit more anyway.  I appreciate all the enthusiasm though. Keeps me motivated.”

“Mama J, if you don’t mind me asking, how much more do you need?  Maybe we can get something going to make it all happen faster.”

“I don’t want to talk money,” Mama J looked a little sad, “There is still a chunk that I need to get, would like to upgrade some of the kitchen for the new location.  Patience, child. What is meant to happen, will happen.”

The timer in the kitchen was beeping, and Mama J scurried off as you grabbed your phone to look up what a new restaurant-grade equipment would cost, and your eyes went wide. You suddenly understood that it was going to take a bit longer to save up to upgrade.  Some gears in your head started turning, but was interrupted by a text message.

“24 hours!  Cannot wait to see you!”

“Still picking me up at the airport?”

“Of course.  Text me when you leave, and I’ll find where I’m meeting you at. I might have a late night tonight, so no call tonight I don’t think, but one more sleep until I see you. *heart emoji*”

You chuckled to yourself.  You’d never expect Sebastian to put little hearts all over texts, but it was adorable.

“Yup, I will babe. One more sleep, until I get to sleep next to you. *winking emoji*”

Mama J smiled at the sight of you smiling so big as you texted.  She knew she did good.  As a surprise, she set down a plate of meat and potato colțunași in front of you.  You ate up while you continued doing a little research on kitchen appliances.  Mama J disappeared for a while during the lunch rush, but came back a few hours later to take a break and count out the register.

“I was doing some thinking, what would you think about maybe having investors, maybe even some partners, in the new location?  That would certainly help with the up-front costs.”  You questioned her, unsure of what her response would be, but hoped it wouldn’t offend her.  She got quiet, but not in an upset way, more of a thinking of a good response way.

“I don’t know how I’d feel about it.  I don’t like taking money from strangers… I don’t like taking money from family though either.  If I did, I think I’d have to be super comfortable with whomever was investing, and I would have to pay them back.”

“You know that defeats the purpose of an investor, right?” You both chuckled.  

“I know, but it just feels like cheating or something.  I want to be able to prove I can do this on my own.”  Mama J swooped the emptied plate out from in-front of you, and patted your head. “Thank you for trying to help me out though, but I’ve got this.”

You nodded, and looked at your watch, realizing most of the afternoon had slipped by.  Thanking Mama J for lunch, you left the info you compiled to her to look at while you were going to be away.  She hugged you tight before you left.

“You hug that man of yours for me, please?  And wish him and his family a Merry Christmas for me!”  You hugged her again.

“Of course Mama J.  And a Merry Christmas to you. You’ve got Skype set up, right? Just in case I want to call, yeah?”  She nodded, and shooed you out the door with a laugh, wishing you a safe trip and a Merry Christmas as well.

Heading home, you grabbed some Chinese food on the way, and sat down in your living room, staring at your suitcase.  Not able to help yourself, you snapped a photo of it, and posted it to Instagram.

Ready to see what the Big Apple has to offer!  18 hours, @imsebastianstan!

Not moments after posting, the comments started pouring in, squeals and people saying they were glad you were still together.  Questions of what plans were, if you would meet up with them.  And of course there were the haters that are always online, but you were starting to get pretty good at ignoring those comments.

Finishing dinner, you did  a last check of things that needed to come with you.  Bag repacked for about the 8th time, you made sure your plane tickets were on your phone, alarms set to make sure you woke up on time (not that you’d be able to sleep tonight, of course).  Finally crawling into bed, you inhaled deeply, realizing you weren’t going to feel the comfort of your blankets and pillows, and snuggled in deep.  Of course you then also realized that you’d be snuggling into something, nay, someone else in less than 24 hours.

You grabbed your phone, clearing off notifications, until you saw one that, despite it happening on the regular anymore, made your heart skip a beat.

Imsebastianstan liked your post.

Of course he did.

Sleep took hold, and although tossing and turning all night, you did get a bit of sleep off and on before your alarm on your phone went off.  Squinting, you noticed the text indicator blinking.

“See you soon, babygirl!”

You smiled, simply sending an emoji of a kiss print.  Hopping out of bed, taking a quick shower, you grabbed your things as Y/F/N knocked on the door to take you to the airport.

“I’m going to miss you, Y/N.  What if Sebastian kidnaps you and you’re stuck in New York City forever?”

You laughed. “I hadn’t thought of that, but I could think of far worse things happening. If it does happen? Well maybe you’ll just need to come visit!”

Helping you get your bag from the back of her car at the airport, Y/F/N hugged you tight, and wished you safe travels.  You promised to text as soon as you landed.

You checked your bag, you found your gate.  Boarded the plane, and were relieved to find that you weren’t seated next to any unruly children.  Right before takeoff, you texted Sebastian with a little airplane emoji and an arrow in the direction you were flying. You put on your headphones, and caught a couple minutes of sleep, when your neighbor accidentally woke you up before the pilot announced it was time to land. Once safely on the ground, you checked your phone, texting Y/F/N, and found a notification that Sebastian had tagged you on Instagram.

Quickly opening the app, you found the post in question.  Sebastian was holding a paper in front of his face, covering it from his cheeks down, but you could see him wearing his newsboy cap, eyes crinkling with a smile hidden behind the sign with “@(y/instagram handle)”, captioned “At the airport! @(y/instagram handle) is almost here!” You double-tapped the image, and not a minute later Sebastian texted.

“Are you at gate 62b?”

“Yes, but stuck on plane waiting for a section of travelers to move ahead of me. Meet me outside the baggage claim?”

“Of course. Tell them to hurry! Don’t they know I have a beautiful woman to hug and swing around and kiss passionately?”

You smiled, and tapped back “see you soon!”

Time was dragging.  All you wanted to do was get off the plane, get some non-recirculated fresh air, and see him. You “saw” him nearly every day via Skype, but this was different.  You were going to get to feel him. Smell him. Taste him. Those three senses had been grossly neglected because of Skype.  Rather, the distance. At least Skype gave you the ability to see and hear him.  Once you were off the plane and into the gate area, you quickly found your way to the baggage claim, and waited impatiently.  Finally you say your bag on the conveyor, grabbed it and damn near RAN for the door.  Rounding the corner, your heart skipped a beat.

There he was. Smile as bright as the sun, hair tucked under his cap,  holding up his sign for you with one hand, roses in the other.  His eyes were glistening, and you could tell he was like an excited little puppy, almost wiggling wanting to get to you.  Tossing your bag down, he dropped the sign and held his arm out as you ran toward him, pulling you in so close, nearly picking you up off the ground one-handed. You stood there holding him tight, him inhaling the scent of your hair and it triggering the memory of the night you spent at the park.  And then the next day together. He missed it. He missed YOU.

Finally letting go of your torso, he handed you the flowers you were sniffing, but slowly pushed them away from your face.  Sebastian’s knuckle and thumb captured your chin, lifted it up, and kissed you.  And of course Sebastian being Sebastian, wrapped his arms around you, dipping you down backward.  Few fellow travelers whistled and clapped as the man kissed his woman.  The both of you started laughing at the reactions, with Sebastian nearly dropping you from giggling too much.

“Aww baby girl, I missed you so much.  But you’re here. You are finally here! How was your flight?”  The questions started coming at you fast and furious as you picked up your bags, Sebastian making grabby hands at the suitcase to carry it for you. “What did you pack in here?”

Remembering the extra weight of jars, you reminded yourself about lunch from Mama J.

“I know it sounds silly, but I did bring a taste of home with me… Mama J insisted.  So hopefully you didn’t have a big lunch planned…”

A smile crept over Sebastian’s face.

“If we can though, I need to hit up a grocery to get a few little things to make it magic.”

After finding the car that was picking the two of you up, a small detour was made to a corner store to pick up a few necessities, like bread and cheese. You hoped he had a griddle in his apartment.  Never can tell with boys what kitchen utensils they may (or may not) have.

Arriving at his building, Sebastian insisted you carry the few groceries, and he carried your bags to the elevator.  Pressing the button to his floor, he leaned in and kissed you. You smirked as he finally pulled away as the bell alerted you to the door opening.  Leading you down the hall, he pulled out his keys and unlocked the door slowly, ushering you inside.  What you found surprised you a little bit.  Having seen bits and pieces of his home while skyping, you were able to put it all together.  It wasn’t a total bachelor pad, but it wasn’t the magazine-perfect apartment you were almost expecting.  Instead, it was nicely furnished, with an overstuffed chair and sofa, a wall of books, and a large TV punctuating the living room.  Fluffy blankets hung over the chair, and soft looking pillows sat on the sofa. There wasn’t a feeling of stuffiness or the fear of touching things. It looked inviting… comfortable. It felt like home.

Sebastian grabbed you, and kissed you again, holding you tight.  

“Babe, why are you so kissy? Not that I mind of course…” you questioned all of the affection.  He cupped your cheeks, and kissed your nose.

“Because,” (kiss) “I need” (kiss) “to make up” (kiss) “for all the” (kiss) “kisses” (kiss) “we’ve missed out” (kiss) “on.”  You smiled, giggling with each kiss, before pulling him back to your lips for a long kiss that left you both breathless, borderline dizzy. Sebastian smirked as he led you to the bedroom right off the bat, your luggage in tow.

“Sweetie, I uh, well I was hoping that we could make lunch first.. Remember groceries?”

“Duh babe, I was just dropping off your luggage and letting you see at least where you are sleeping… and to get whatever Mama J sent you out with.  But I figured just in case, I wasn’t going to snoop through your luggage, I don’t know what you packed!”

You smiled, squeezing his hand as you took the large suitcase out of Sebastian’s grasp and placed it on the bed gently, admiring the quilt over it, and the number of pillows… including a body pillow.  Sebastian must have caught your slight chuckle as you looked over the bed.

“What? A couple of those are for you… I figure sharing a pillow might be a little weird.”

“But the body pillow?”

“Um, that… is mine. I saw yours before I left… and it was really comfy, so I got one for myself.”

“Hold it at night pretending it is someone?”

Sebastian squinted at you.  “Maybe?” He smiled and pulled you to him, falling on the bed, avoiding your bag.  His giggles were infectious, and you couldn’t stop the smile from widening on your face as you curled up into him.  The two of you lay there, intertwined, for a few moments.  Finally, you broke the news that if lunch was going to be made, you’d have to get up.  And after a few attempts of actually getting up and out of bed, with Sebastian pulling you back to him, you were up, smacking his hand away like a small child trying to grab sweets from the shelves at the store.  

Unzipping your bag slowly, you pulled the well-packed jars from the bag, rezipping the bag and heading out of the bedroom, back to the kitchen.  Sebastian followed close behind.  You unbagged the items from the corner store, and asked where his griddle was.  Surprisingly, he had one (which makes making grilled cheese sandwiches so much easier), and you sat it on the stove, heating up  in preparation for the coming ingredients.  Opening drawers to find utensils,  you then opened the fridge with a little bit of a shock, only finding vegetables in it.

“Crap,” It dawned on you. “He’s on a diet because he’s bulking up for Infinity Wars.”  Your suspicions were confirmed when you opened the freezer and saw chicken. Chicken on every shelf.

“Hey, uh, babe? Am I going to wreck your diet? I wasn’t even thinking…”

You felt his arms wrap around your midsection, his lips finding your neck.

“I can cheat every once in awhile, but be prepared, I eat like 5-6 times a day. And it is chicken and veggies.” Your face contorted in sadness and frustration. “I’ll just have to work a little harder those days, that’s all.  AND that reminds me, I have an early present for you.”

You raised an eyebrow as Sebastian dug something out of his pocket, kneeling down in front of you.  It felt as if you suddenly forgot how to breathe.

Tagging: @dawn121, @sceaterian, @pennyroyalcreep

[ladystylestores]

Lockdown Blues? Quarantine Queries? Jonathan Anderson Has Some Answers – WWD

https://pmcwwd.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/dscf7536.jpg?w=640&h=415&crop=1

LONDON — Jonathan Anderson has taken the British government’s wartime advice — Keep Calm and Carry On — to new heights. He’s been doing both during lockdown, pivoting like crazy — and trying to enjoy the process.

Never mind that Anderson had to close his Soho London store within days of its opening in March, or that he opened a second unit in Seoul, Korea, while he was locked down in London. Confronted with the grim realities of life in the time of coronavirus, the designer was also determined to show his men’s spring and resort 2021 collections, and make life as easy as possible for the buyers, too.

After cleaning his house in London “about 25 times” at the start of lockdown, he designed the JW Anderson collections on mannequins at home, and figured out ways to re-create the showroom experience by beaming his models into buyers’ homes, with hologram technology.

At times like this, he said, “you realize you’re not only a designer. You’re running a business as well.” In a face-to-face interview with WWD, from opposite ends of the long cinnamon-colored sofa at his new headquarters in Hoxton, Anderson said he’s optimistic, realistic and, most of all, humbled by the impact that COVID-19 has had so far.

“There has been disaster out there, but why shy away from trying to continue? It’s about supporting each other, about being humble and letting things roll,” said Anderson from behind his face mask. Indeed, when show season rolled around, he said to himself: “I’m not going to not do something.”

So he worked on multiple fronts: For press, he sent out a show-in-a-box — fashion’s answer to the takeaway delivery.

He filled his boxes with images of his men’s spring and resort 2021 collections, which were printed on different paper stock. He layered in pressed, dried flowers; fabric swatches; cute cut-outs of accessories, and inspirational cards with embossed messages such as “Keep looking up,” “Never compromise” and “Stay curious.”

He plans to compile a similar box of “ephemera” for his upcoming Loewe collections, all in a bid to record this unusual moment and create a time capsule. Anderson said he wanted to make every facet of the box personal, and to engage his audience as much as possible, because it’s the audience that “makes” the show.

Anderson also engaged other creatives to work with him on the collections: The illustrator Pol Anglada created the mannequins’ faces for the men’s collection, while the industrial designer Bertjan Pot handmade the oval, multicolored masks for the resort mannequins.

“I am equally as proud of this as I would be of a show,” Anderson said of the box.

  The JW Anderson Store in Soho, London.  James Mason/WWD

  In order to aid buyers, Anderson pushed his team to find the technology that could make their work as simple — and experiential — as possible, given the fact that showrooms are closed, and they can’t touch the clothes or watch them move.

The result was a partnership with the augmented reality startup HoloMe, which has enabled the JW Anderson team to create holograms of models wearing pieces from the collections. HoloMe is able to livestream collections into people’s homes and offices — wherever they happen to be.

During Thursday’s interview at Anderson’s studio, models were standing in front of green screens wearing pieces from the designer’s collections. Their images were transformed into high-definition, life-sized holograms that buyers could see, photograph — and even film — through their mobile phones via the HoloMe app.

Buyers can also zoom in on garments to examine the fabric and styling details.

HoloMe said this was the first time that its live AR technology, which has yet to be officially released, was successfully tested by a fashion brand for a global launch.

Early adopter Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, posted pictures this week of JW Anderson’s models hanging out in his kitchen.

“We were not going to give up on our buyers,” said Anderson, adding that he was so proud when he saw Pask’s Instagram post. He added that the collaboration with HoloMe, “was us being incredibly DIY — and it’s worked.” Anderson’s team also built a showroom into the brand’s web site, allowing buyers to browse and shop as if they were doing so at retail. The team also created moving imagery of the clothing as well as the hologram technology.

“We tried everything we physically could. This company is tiny, but in moments like this the team put on a full war effort,” said Anderson.

Indeed, he has been brimming with ideas over the past few months, and added that he’s stopped worrying about what the industry thinks. Instead, he wanted to “focus on my relationship with the customer,” and have a more emotional connection with them.

He’s been using dead stock for special collections in the Soho store; coming up with ways to enrich the content on the JW Anderson site, which saw a spike in sales during lockdown; and has even been giving away some designs for free.

Thanks to Harry Styles, JW Anderson has become a hit during these dark days of quarantine: Styles wore one of Anderson’s colorblock, crocheted cardigans on  “The Today Show” back in February. Styles’ fans around the world saw it, pulled out their knitting needles and tried to replicate it. It quickly went viral on TikTok.

  The JW Anderson Store in Soho, London.  James Mason/WWD

    Anderson embraced the hype and shared his IP: Earlier this week the Evening Standard newspaper in London linked to the pattern, and by Thursday, the designer had clocked 20,000 requests for it.

Ever the optimistic realist, Anderson said he won’t be showing live at all this year — but the show will still go on.

“You have to try, and you have to kind of leave things to run their course. You can’t force things. Work with your team, work with the structure, with the buyers. Build interesting things. There might not be a solution tomorrow, and that has made me become incredibly humble about what we do.”

Anderson confirmed that more shops will open in Korea, where the brand has a local partner, and that there are plans to grow his online business further. He said he’ll continue to focus on the needs of his clients and customers.

Regarding the future, he added: “It’s going to be a rocky two years. If we think this is going to change by Christmas we are kidding ourselves. I’m more concerned about what the fallout is going to be, the geopolitical, the financial fallout. It’s going to be survival of the fittest — and you have leave your ego at the door.”

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