What are ya doin' New Year's Eve?

My bandmate Shawn recently picked up the ukelele, so we decided to learn "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." The song, penned by Frank Loesser in 1947, was brought to the fore last year by Zooey Deschanel and Joe Gordon Levitt.

And now we are covering it! Enjoy!

My first music video! Drive

Last October, my friend Erica shot my bandmate Shawn and me at Coney Island.  We hung out in the boardwalk, drove bumper cars, and ate hot dogs.  I finally edited the video last weekend -- here it is.  Enjoy!

Quote from Grace Coddington

And what of the up-and-comers? “I think they need time, and I think too many of the young designers really think that they can step right out of school and be a best seller, and that’s a mistake,” Ms. Coddington said. “I mean, you know, Nicolas took forever to get where he was. Marc got fired 10 times before he made it.”
Anyway, it wouldn’t hurt young designers, or anyone for that matter, to have “a few things going wrong in their life,” she said. “I mean, I hate to say it, but it teaches you a hell of a lot, you know.”

- New York Times article, "Always in Fashion"

cool photo of my hair from a month or so ago

A while ago, I decided to bleach my hair (again).  My stylist, Lynne, was redoing her website and gave me a discount in exchange for modeling for pictures for her new website.  She styled my hair, adding white streaks to tone down the color (which always turns out a little brassy), and teasing it.  She had a makeup artist there to do me up, and her friend Stan took pics.  They came out cool -- here is one!

I am growing out my hair so I can do a mohawk ponytail (the plan is to continue to keep the undercut on the sides).

ponies will bite you! perform Miss You at Rockwood Music Hall

It's been a while since I've updated my blog.  I started a new job in June and tried to enjoy the summer as much as possible when I wasn't working.  My band has been active lately as well, which is why I'm posting today.  I wrote a new song and performed it at Rockwood Music Hall a couple of weeks ago.  I hope you like it!



Also, this German climbing mag, Klettern, posted the shoot I did in the climbing gym a while ago on their website!

Bridesmaid dress

About a year and a half ago, I "made" my friend Rachel's wedding dress.  Her best friend got married recently, so after helping her search for the right bridesmaid dress unsuccessfully, I offered to make it for her.  She wanted a simple black dress that was made out of a knit fabric, and that she could wear again after the wedding.  She told me the bride wanted something like this dress: 

We set off for Mood, where she purchased black bamboo stretch fabric.  I used some old fabric to make the muslin which we fit in the middle of her birthday celebration at Dave & Busters, and then went ahead and cut the actual garment.  I was glad I had her buy 4 yards of fabric because the skirt was quite wide.

The dress is very simple, with a higher front neckline, and a bit of a scoop in the back neck.  There are two layers of the circle skirt, which is why it took so much fabric.

On the mannequin:

Rachel and Ryan at the wedding in Kentucky!

Rachel's been wearing the dress to castings and says she has been getting lots of compliments!  Which I guess goes to show that sometimes people don't want edgy fashion, they just want clothes that make them look good.

My cousin Mary rocks the corset dress

My cousin Mary visited New York a couple of weeks ago.  It was her first time in New York, and the first time I'd seen her in about seven years.  She just graduated from college and has already started a job in advertising.

Here she is, looking super cute in the fuchsia corset dress!  We had a good time shopping and eating together.  Mary is a very talented singer and drummer, and we jammed for a bit too.  A love of music runs in the family!  Hopefully I'll get to visit her in Chicago, where I've never been.

You can find the dress at our online shop: http://www.graeyny.com/shop/dresses-1/corset-dress.html

Another sketch

Tom Ford's Advice for Aspiring Designers

Advice for Aspiring Designers
It might be the same thing that people used to tell me when I said I wanted to be an actor, which is, “If there is anything else in the world that you would be happy doing, do that.” I’m serious. This is the harshest industry. I have worked in the film industry with people like Harvey Weinstein, who is a great man but he is also very tough. But, I’m telling you, that industry is easy compared to what we do.

Some sketches, a new tumblr

I did these sketches a few weeks ago, thought I'd share.  They are not my usual style, at least design-wise, but I like the way they came out.  They are more geared towards ladies who lunch.

I started a new tumblr.  The difference between my tumblr and this blog is that the tumblr will be, at least for now, exclusively image-based, whereas here I write about my thoughts.  I am going to post photos and sketches on there of my work.  You can find it here: http://janetleekim.tumblr.com/

Spring 2012 Roundup - M-P

Beautiful embroidery at Marchesa...

Love these straps on the pants by Mandy Coon...

Marios Schwab...

Mark Fast

Mary Katrantzou

Michael Angel

Mugler

Norma Kamali

Paco Rabanne

Peter Pilotto

Prabal Gurung

Prada

Preen

Hearts and crafts

Hermes has produced a documentary on its artisans called Hearts and Crafts.  It's beautifully done.  You can watch it here.

My foray into still-life styling

I've been exploring getting into still-life styling. George shot and retouched the clothing, which I pinned to a thick piece of foam board, and then I arranged them in Photoshop to look like magazine spreads.  It was a bit challenging because we did the shooting on my roof, and the wind would blow and the light would change so I'd have to move stuff around, but I think it looks pretty good for a first try.  It definitely was a good learning experience.

I have a friend who has an agency that represents stylists, and she told me that with the current economy, magazines and retailers are favoring still-life shoots as opposed to using models, where you'd need to pay models and hair and makeup artists.  Just in case you're reading the captions, the labels and prices in my layouts are mostly fake.

I made this shirt...

...for a client, an artist.

She gave me a shirt that she liked that she'd bought in a thrift store, and gave me fabric to make it in.  She wanted it in a cotton since the original shirt was in a polyester that didn't breathe well.  I made the shirt from scratch, first creating a pattern from the original shirt.

I pinned the shirt down and traced it, making adjustments where she'd pinned it to take it in here and there.  Then I put it all together.  It was a little tricky cutting the fabric because the print was so large and in big blocks, so I had to make sure to line up the center front in the middle of the diamond, and that the sleeves were cut so that they matched.  It also took me some time to get the collar to look right, but I think I did a pretty good job.  She picked out the bright red buttons, which give it a nice touch.

ponies will bite you! do a cover of Come Pick Me Up by Ryan Adams

Sometimes you want to listen to a sad breakup song... here is a good one.  The violin intro is a little out of tune but it gets better, I promise.

ponies will bite you! sing about a Magic Mirror

This is one of my songs.  This song has evolved over the past couple of years... some of my songs are more angsty, inspired by my frustrations...

A couple new shots of the pink lace dress...

Where you can see the mottled bleach effect...

And... a short dress from my surf-inspired collection -- I love the combination of the dress with the tree in the background.

A dress I whipped together one night... unfortunately you can't really see much of it here, but this shot is nice.

Photos by George Evan Andreadis
Model: Carla B with Images

ponies will bite you! do a cover of Volcano by Damien Rice

We've performed this cover of Damien Rice's Volcano several times in our live shows, and finally got around to recording a video. Enjoy!

ponies will bite you! do the Charleston

Shawn likes to swing dance, so he was inspired to write this catchy tune. Enjoy!

The Secrets of the Little Black Jacket by Chanel

so cool...

Vena Cava talks about how they got their start

The Fashion Fund

One series I've been enjoying is The Fashion Fund, which is a documentary on the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.  You can watch it for free on Hulu here.  The Fund is a joint venture between the CFDA and Vogue Magazine (US).  They nominate a handful of finalists who then compete for a substantial cash prize and a mentorship, judged by a panel of industry insiders, including of course, Anna Wintour.  

The first recipients were Proenza Schouler, and I was working there when they received it.  Their progression through the rounds of the competition was documented in the film, Seamless, which I have previously mentioned.

You can view a clip of The Fashion Fund below.

Please score my tee design on Threadless so it gets printed!

A while ago, I launched a Kickstarter project to print several men's tees.  The project only reached part of its goal but I decided to submit one of the designs on Threadless.  It was approved, and now it needs to receive a high score to get printed.  It's a long shot, since I think they only pick 10 designs out of the 1000 that make it to the submission stage, so please vote!

Score this design: "Marine's medals tee," to help it get printed on Threadless!

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SJP Interviews Sarah Burton

From Interview/Fabien Baron

SARAH BURTON: I think what’s amazing about McQueen and what was amazing about Lee was that he created this process where it was never really about fashion. It was always about a feeling and telling a story. And I think he sort of trained us all— trained me—to try to tell a story and to find a world that doesn’t necessarily relate to what everybody else is doing and to believe in your own instincts.  

In this month's Interview magazine, Sarah Jessica Parker interviews Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen. Read the article here.

A hair in review

My hair has changed a lot in the past year or so.  At first I was growing it long, partly because I wanted to be a Native American princess on Halloween, although my plans were thwarted last year.

photo by Erica Soto

Last spring I went to Miami and my friend buzzed the side of my head for me, because I wanted to look like Alice Dellal.

Then I cut a ponytail length of hair off and had a half bob:

Then I got my hair buzzed.

Just for kicks, here's another pic of me with my soon-to-be famous friend B and her famous godmother.

After a bit, I decided to bleach my hair blonde.

Once the roots started growing out, it actually started looking better.

I dyed the blonde purple.

It washed out while I was in Puerto Rico (I'm guessing the sea water took a toll on the color).  My friend Pooja took this awesome pic of me.

At the end of January, George took this pic of me.

Then I went for purple again, but this time more of an ombre effect.  It's a little hard to see because of the glare here.

This is what my hair looks like today.  The purple has mostly faded, and I like the pale lavender color.  I've gotten compliments on it from a bunch of strangers in the street.  You can see the ombre effect better here than in the previous picture.  My dad also gave me an undercut to neaten it up a bit.  I'm trying to grow my hair out like Kate Lanphear, although I'm

I'm trying to grow my hair out like Kate Lanphear, although I don't really want to bleach my hair again.  I want to see what it looks like when the black has grown more and the tips are blonde.