Sweatshops

A sweatshop can be defined as, a working omnent with very difficult and dangerous working conditions, where a lot of times the workers are not given rights and are paid very little money. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers are often forced to work long hours for little or no pay, regardless of any laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labor laws is also a huge problem.
And as horrible as this issue is, it benefits our industry. Some of the people who have to do this as a job, may not be able to find jobs any other way, and rely on this to feed their families. So many of the children are forced to work to take care of their families as well. And as awful as these conditions are there are worse things that could be happening, they could be sold into child prostitution in some of the poorer countries if they were not doing this.
One of the main reasons I shop at American Apparel is that they are made in California and are sweatshop free. I can feel relaxed and at ease with every garment I have and know that I am not wearing something that a small child was forced to make. I also like how it is made in America, because we need to get our jobs back in the US to help with the economy.

Art vs Usability : Milan Fashion Week

The age old question when it comes to fashion is if it's wearable, art or wearable art? In my opinion, it's up to the person wearing it. People have different tastes, and some people would actually wear some things that the average person would consider not everyday attire. Generally speaking, high fashion pieces are more on the art side, while clothes at the mall can be considered more on the usability side because they fulfill everyday needs in clothing, such as protection while the high end are something that only few can afford and are sometimes only worn once.

A lot of the clothing for the Milan 2009 Fashion Week included geometric design, transparent materials used in many dresses and probably the most unique to Milan's Fashion week this year were the sky high heels. The heels were insane, and it's no wonder that some of the models took a plunge on the runway. The transparency of some of the dresses made them look more like lingere, but then again some were paired with solid fabrics which made them actual wearable peices for than just wearing them to sleep.

I personally enjoyed Dolce and Gabbana's collection for 2009 in Milan. They took normal evening gowns and jackets and took them to a whole new level. They used a lot of poofy sleeves and embelishments and really knew what they were doing. They looked vintage still, but with a new age twist.

Inspiration & Design

I was an art major before I transferred here and decided to do fashion. So I've made garments before but they were more for the visual aspect than wearable purposes. But that is a question that's brought up time and time again, is fashion art? The first dress I made in high school out of 4 decks of cards and duct tape for a project to make clothing out of something that's non fabric or like materials. Last year in my fibers art class, I made a was out of men's underwear for a deconstruction/reconstruction project. I really enjoyed the idea of this more so than ever making actual clothes, because I never worked on the construction skills to make professional looking clothing.
(my friend wearing it as a Halloween costume last year... only picture I could find of it :/)


My inpiritation when it comes to designing and fashion in general is vintage. I love clothing from the decades past, especially the 60's and 70's. I recently received a lot of clothing that belonged to my late great aunt that had been stored away in an upstairs room for atleast 40 years untouched. I really like wearing something that belonged to a realative or even a second hand shop that I know no one else I know will have.

I really like dresses, I wear them a few times a week, and if I had enough I would wear one everyday. I really like feminity and over sized buttons, exaggerated prints and large bows. I find myself wanting to combine garments a lot when I am shopping, because I would like one peice more if it had the characteristics of the other or the embelishments or coloring of the next one.