Who doesn’t love a little America’s Next Top Model? The mega hit reality television show is coming to Canada. From May 4-6 at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre you can experience the world of fashion, beauty and modelling while enjoying a weekend of incredible shopping and entertainment! How redonkulous is that going to be? AND [...]]]>

Who doesn’t love a little America’s Next Top Model? The mega hit reality television show is coming to Canada. From May 4-6 at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre you can experience the world of fashion, beauty and modelling while enjoying a weekend of incredible shopping and entertainment! How redonkulous is that going to be? AND I will be there with my Skinny Sweats line, in the “Divine Canadian Design” shopping section of the show! I am really excited about this weekend in the city- since I don’t get out much :) The people watching is going to be extraordinary! The street style! OMG, excited. I will definitely be scouting models for my next lookbook shoot.

“Live runway shows, style stages, beauty bars and even an open catwalk are some of the many highlights individuals can look forward to throughout this experience. Even if you are not one of the models walking down the runway, there are still many chances to be discovered! Sutherland Agency will be searching for their next top supermodel with the chance of walking in the All Stars Runway Show with ANTM celebs Laura, Bianca, Isis, Camille, Shannon and Alexandria. Performers Danny Fernandes and Karl Wolf will also be performing live.

Tickets to this event are on sale now. VIP tickets include the opportunity to hang out with the ANTM girls, get autographs and pictures with your favourite model!  They are only $29 and also include entry into the event, a VIP seat at the Schwarzkopf Professional Main Stage Fashion Show at a specific time and VIP Swag Bag – but they are limited!”

I have 10 tickets to give away! Follow Butikofer Clothing Co. on Facebook before May 1st to be included in the draw. I will be drawing for 5 sets of 2… even if you don’t live in Toronto-try to win anyway! Maybe you can gift them to your long lost cousin living in the GTA. Good luck!

For more information, visit www.antmlivetoronto.com or call 905-477-2677.

or visit ANTM on Facebook or Twitter

I was like, aha! STEGA. This is my chance.

I had a whim a while ago for [...]]]>

treasure map

I entered a competition not too long ago, it was to create an “art to wear” type design for Barbie through the Toronto Fashion Incubator. The prize was a cool 10 mill. I mean 10 grand. Serious stuff.

I was like, aha! STEGA. This is my chance.

I had a whim a while ago for a simple top with Stegosaurus like sleeves, basically spikes going down the arms. So I designed an outfit for Barbie on this premise- called her “Sunstar” Barbie. It was my opportunity to create my Stega masterpiece, and with purpose to boot. The inspiration [I had to make up] was something along the lines of “Barbie gets a hard time, a lot of the time. From Moms. From Feminists. From Feminist Moms. You know, everybody loves to hate Barbie, give her flack about her unachievable proportions, her being a bad role model for little girls. She is often acquiring another career to appease her critics, to make her more of an independent woman who is in charge of her own destiny.” Something like that, we all know this to be true. So my gal, Sunstar Barbie, is the antithesis to the criticism. She’s all about being the unapologetic center of attention, the centre of the universe, actually. She’s rockin in the free world, strutting her stuff, a happy, fun, shiny star.

I am not a magnificent artiste, so I sent this representation of the design to my friend fashion illustrator/blogger extraordinaire Danielle Meder, to turn into a masterpiece for my entry.

And here is what Danielle put together- amazing! I would totally buy this Barbie for my daughters. I didn’t want my design to have anything to do with sexiness, or even beauty (in the Barbie sense). I guess. But this Barbie is a dynamic, individual of a woman that I want to know more about. Total manrepeller.

And then, I didn’t get into the finals, unfortunately. They were picking 25 finalists for an ultimate showdown on the runway. I was mucho disappointed for an afternoon, but I got over it pretty quickly. I realized that most of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that I really wanted to make the design. So I was like, that’s cool, I’ll just make it. Although I of course thought of a million reasons why I didn’t get in- Too obvious? Not complicated enough? Did I insult them with my Sunstar Barbie explanation (which I guess is really, Inyoface Barbie) Do they hate me? And so on.

While I was waiting to hear if I got in or not, I had a flash of insight into the pattern I was going to draft to make it. And it was going to have . . . . NO SEAMS, or no overarm seams anyhow.  This is exactly the kind of thing that I get really excited about, I love a one piece pattern.

Here we go on a lengthy tutorial- but first-  here is the final product (more pics at the end too) I have to say, I kind of love it. I made it out of a really heavy t shirt knit, the stiff and stretchless kind. I guess you could call it a beefy tee knit. I feel like ranting a little about how sick I am of flimsy knits. It’s so fast fashion. This shirt will probably *gasp* get better with wear and age. It’s like the leather of knit cotton. And I could do some amazing stuff with this fabric, pattern wise, because although it is a knit- it has a backbone.

STEGA!!!

Stega: How I Made It With Only One Piece Of Fabric

I opted to just draw the pattern right on the fabric. Rather than work with a 2 metre square piece of pattern paper (brutal!). I used a dolman pattern I had as a place to start from. The top edge of the fabric is a fold.

patterning

One half drawn, and ready to be folded and cut.

one half drawn

Cut and laid out, with two alternate necklines. The top can be worn with the V in the back or front.

laid out

 

I opted to fuse the overarm area where the spikes will be, to give it more substance and stability. Here it is fused and marked for sewing.

sewing lines marked

And here are the lines sewn. Notice the U shape.

sewn

So next, I carefully slit into the tiny space between the two sewing lines and made a tiny Y shape into the corners at their interior. Which gave me this. I have already added a wide wrist facing here as well.

getting closer...

But, the boxes were actually too tall! DOH! So I had to put a seam in their upper edge after all, this would be eliminated  second time around though. Oops. So here is what they looked like after that-

pre-flip

So I’ve already sewn the shirts seams that hold the back to the front and it’s time to flip. I flipped it right side out and ever so carefully work the squares out without puncturing the ever so tiny seam allowances between them. Then, I took the corners of each square and pushed them back in towards the center, creating a triangle. Voila! That’s it. I tacked the two corners together on one but found it was actually kind of unecessary so I didn’t go any further with that operation.

getting a nice press

The really exciting thing is that I think this pattern making principal could be applied anywhere on a garment. It could be an interesting way to control fullness and add shaping, by grabbing sections of fabric here and there, and then doing this to it. The spikes could be tiny, or huge. . . there are so many possibilities to play around with the idea.

 

Here are a few more pictures of my new top! Love it! If anyone else wants one, I’ve got it listed on Etsy (just for the hell of it.)

When I first tried on the coat, it was [...]]]> About that coat I ordered- welll.  .  . the shipping was pretty fast. It only took about 10 days from the day I ordered. Not bad from China! Although I had to pay an extra 20 dollars or so at my doorstep. That’s the worst. Boo.

When I first tried on the coat, it was pretty much exactly how I thought it would be, and I was “happy” with it, even gave the seller a glowing review on Etsy. The sleeves were gloriously long, and it was oversized like a big duvet. It’s very light- so I wasn’t sure if it was going to stand up to extreme cold but it was big enough to layer with other pieces. And it was basically a blank canvas, for me to fancy as I pleased. I was thinking a leather mosaic of somekind.

Like, here is a coat I embellished! a basic heavy cotton grey trench from Club Monaco that I embroidered with some pastels, back in 2003. The new black coat was going to get some serious pizazz.

And then I wore it for five minutes.  And almost immediately the poly fill batting/stuffing of the coat started to creep out of the too loose weave of the cotton of the coat. MAJOR design flaw. And nothing could really be done about- no lint roller, a run through the washer/dryer- nothing really, besides maybe shaving it every so often and I’m not that motivated. The stuffing is embedded in the weave of the fabric, and wherever it rubs against itself it forms little white balls. Basically, I look and feel like a bag lady when I wear it, and not in a Mary Kate/Ashley kind of way. It’s embarassing. So anyway- jacket has been designated for mucking the barn (shovelling the shit). We don’t have a barn, yet. But, it will come in handy when the world-as-we-know-it ends and we move to the country to live off the land. Boo.

taunting me with disappointment

I am in the trenches of cleaning out my basement and studio right now. I have reconciled to parting ways with a lot of my old projects, and the weirdness that I used to make and wear when I was a student designer. As a way of preservation and letting go, I will be blogging [...]]]>

I am in the trenches of cleaning out my basement and studio right now. I have reconciled to parting ways with a lot of my old projects, and the weirdness that I used to make and wear when I was a student designer. As a way of preservation and letting go, I will be blogging about them before sending them to their appropriate graves.

Above is a photo of a coffee filter dress that I made for a recycled materials fashion show in 2001, the summer after my first year of fashion school. I worked as a barista at the time, and me and all the other baristas at Le Cafe in London, ON  saved the used coffee filters. She is a bride, the necklace was supposed to represent coffee beans. The dress had a collapsed square coffee filter silhouette.

The photo was taken by me on a vintage SLR with black and white film. It looks much older than it is.

I will be here Friday and Saturday, selling most of what I have in stock. So if you are in Toronto, do come and check it out.

Open to the public. No admission!
Friday, December 2, 2011
12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December [...]]]>

I will be here Friday and Saturday, selling most of what I have in stock. So if you are in Toronto, do come and check it out.

Open to the public. No admission!
Friday, December 2, 2011
12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 3, 2011
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Cash, Visa, Mastercard & Interac accepted. Participating designers include FGI members:
Women’s wear: Aime M. Project, Marika Brose, Adrienne Butikofer, David Dixon, Florsfashion, Carrie Hayes, Thien Le, LOVAS, Andrew Majtenyi
Luxury outerwear: Sentaler Studio
Jewellery: Jewellery by Karen, Kristen Laborde, Pangea Collection, Peru Productions
Bags, fur & accessories: Rue Pigalle, My Wild
Menswear: Killigrew, Off the Cuff Resale Designer Menswear
Confections: Saxon Chocolates, FGI Bake Sale
Skincare: Soya Boutique.com

Black duckboots! So hardcore.

I also ordered these pants, which are embroidered all over with little ducks, impossible to tell from the crappy picture but they’re there.  Oh yeah. I may have [...]]]> I’m a nerd. I like what I like. I just ordered these gems from L.L. Bean! Happy Birthday to me. 

Black duckboots! So hardcore.

I also ordered these pants, which are embroidered all over with little ducks, impossible to tell from the crappy picture but they’re there.  Oh yeah. I may have to alter them to make them skinny, we’ll see how they look.  Then there will be nothing stopping their infinite coolness ; )

the embroidery!

the pants!

I was hoping to do this very thing for my imaginary fall 2010 collection. Read the blog post. 

Oh, well. It’s pretty damn interesting how these things always happen to me. I should be recording all my ideas in hyperspace- my little contribution [...]]]> House of Holland, Fall 2011

I was hoping to do this very thing for my imaginary fall 2010 collection. Read the blog post. 

Oh, well. It’s pretty damn interesting how these things always happen to me. I should be recording all my ideas in hyperspace- my little contribution to the big picture.

Might as well let my secret out, I am working on [...]]]> So, I’m pregnant again, due January 29th, another little girl! I am about six months along right now, and am definitely all about the maternity clothes because nothing else is really fitting me anymore. I’m going to start a little series of posts about maternity wear.

Might as well let my secret out, I am working on a maternity line. Have been for quite a while now, although any deadlines I set for myself seem to always be set back due to all sorts of reasons- like pregnancy for one, and real jobs. Loenne has been in Montessori school three days a week since September which has been great for getting back to work. But I picked up a couple little freelance contracts shortly after and haven’t had much time to focus on my own pursuits. All in good time. I am trying to approach my need to design clothing with less guilt, trying to kibosh the feeling that I need to be working constantly. By the time my kids are in school and I have more time, I will be only 34, a perfect time to get serious about a career, if it doesn’t happen before then.

The label is called Future Perfect Maternity.  Why maternity? Well- there’s really nothing that fun or interesting out there. Maternity is where I’m at right now in my headspace, since I’ve had so much personal experience with it in the past short while. I like designing ‘smart’ clothing, having a challenge to overcome and reasons behind my design decisions. Being pregnant and getting dressed is a problem that needs to be solved, and I enjoy that. There are other reasons too like it being a niche market and a simpler business model that I need as a busy mom, blah blah blah. I am excited by the possibilities in maternity wear- ie. woven fabric maternity wear. So much of maternity is your typical wrap jersey empire waist kind of thing, and it’s boring. No more jersey!

For now, I am focussing on one style of shirt. I made them for myself when I went to Vegas with my line and I was seven months pregnant. I take a  man’s dress shirt and recut it completely into a maternity blouse. My focus is on having a really good fit through shoulder and armhole, which gives a nice tailored appearance and feel.  Each blouse is embellished with different fabrics and trims, each is one of a kind. Here is a picture of one in progress, and also my beautiful friend Christine modelling a couple others when she was 8.5 months pregnant.

Although I am starting with the one blouse, I’ve got a lot of ideas on the back burner and I’d like to eventually turn Future Perfect into a collection. My plan is to add a few well designed styles every season, and build that way. Pregnancy is a bit of a fashion equalizer- it’s not necessarily about being on trend, but about looking great and feeling comfortable.  The pieces need to be durable, timeless and adaptable to casual and dressy, and also good for post pregnancy and breastfeeding whenever possible. 

This may be a romantic thing to say, but, I’d like the maternity wear I design today to still be relevant and wearable to my daughters when they are pregnant someday.

Future Perfect Maternity- hopefully coming to a [maternity] store near you in Fall 2011. We’ll see, nooo pressure. . .

All weekend long, The Clothing Show at the Better Living Centre starts on Friday at 3pm. . . Check www.theclothingshow.com for more details.

Find me in booth 521, which I will be sharing with Elly from Clothing Brand Experiment. We were across the aisle from each other [...]]]> It’s that time again, folks!

All weekend long, The Clothing Show at the Better Living Centre starts on Friday at 3pm. . . Check www.theclothingshow.com for more details.

Find me in booth 521, which I will be sharing with Elly from Clothing Brand Experiment. We were across the aisle from each other at the last show- she is funny and her hoodies are awesome! Great boothmate qualities. We did a clothing trade at the last show, and I have been loving my hoodie ever since, which has a great fit and a really interesting colour combo. 

I am selling off everything from the Butikofer label that I’ve ever made at clearance prices!! Because- well, I am not going to be designing contemporary womenswear any longer. I  have decided to move on and have been slowwwwwly getting my new project together, but with motherhood and pregnancy, everything keeps getting pushed back. Anyway, more on that later.

COME TO THE CLOTHING SHOW THIS WEEKEND!!

www.theclothingshow.com

Getting organized . . .

ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS!!!!!