Disclaimer: Yes, I realize that there are terrific snowstorms happening on the East Coast right now and yes I realize that a lot of you will hate that I’m not wearing six layers of sheepskin right now, but what can I say? I’m pretty sure I’ve invited you all to move into the adobe wonderland I call Tucson, but you were not convinced. It’s ok! All the madmen in this town have either been caught, or are quietly enjoying the psychedelic sunsets. I swear.
So yeah. Perhaps a strapless American Apparel bodysuit, a high-waisted A-line vintage skirt and a pair of platforms isn’t the most creative combination one can imagine, but it is a flattering silhouette that gives any body shape the illusion of an hourglass. How to take it up a notch or 3? Make each piece an unrelated Pantone reject and BOOM. Your flattering outfit goes from safe to sensational.
Some people (carpet owners named The Dude, boy scouts, etc), however, often feel the need to “tie the madness together” somehow. Something in the outfit should match, right? What better way to do that than a little bit of gold jewelry to match my gold braided belt? I added one gilt fern leaf and turquoise earring from Wingflash, but I’m badly coveting an oversized turquoise with 14K gold overlay cocktail ring I found on ShopNBC, it would have been like Lebowski’s rug to this outfit.
Bodysuit by American Apparel – thrifted for $1
Periwinkle skirt – thrifted for $1
Gold braided belt – thrifted for $1
Earring by Wingflash Designs on Etsy – Gift
Red Patent Vintage Platforms – Swapped with Emilie of Preen Vintage, Tucson
So, yeah. I guess this outfit cost me $3 and a pair of shoes. Not bad.
Remember Painfully Hip’s very own Jamaica Cole? Some of the most riveting articles on this site were written by her. Well, she is also a true-ass fashion designer. Always looking for a way to promote real talent, I wrote this article about her latest collection for Zocalo Magazine. Accompanying is one of my favorite Painfully Hip Design Collective shoots to date! Enjoy.
THE EVOLUTION OF “HEARTBREAK”
JAMAICA COLE SEWS HER HEART ON A SLEEVE
By Amber Mortensen
photos: Ryan Mihalyi
Fashion designer and founder of Sapphire Cordial, Jamaica Cole, has been sewing almost since she could walk. But as we saw at Tucson’s inaugural Fashion Week last month, it takes more than just knowing how to sew to be a designer. So how did Cole go from sewing amorphous cow-patterned potholders at 7 to designing entire collections of elaborate dresses without patterns twice every year?
“Trial and error,” she says plainly, “emphasis on the error.”
Sewing without patterns is not only difficult, but yields one-of-a-kind pieces that don’t allow for exact duplication. But Cole has been doing it this way for every Sapphire Cordial collection since 2006. She compares her process to a musician selling only a single copy of his album.
“This has not been incredibly lucrative. Imagine a musician rehearsing all day all night for an album release show. He plays the songs! The audience cheers! People want to buy the album! But then they get to the merch table and there is only one copy of the CD. Someone buys it and takes it home, and the musician forgets how to play the songs. Such is the life of an independent clothing designer.”
On the other hand, why would an artist want to paint the same painting twice? Before moving to Tucson one year ago, Cole lived, showed and sold her ready-to-wear collections in Northern Californian boutiques, inspired by flowery visual influences ranging from New Orleans architecture to Edwardian luggage.
However, Cole’s Tucson Fashion Week collection was something else entirely. Based on her very personal interpretation of the grieving process, the Anatomy of Heartbreak was her first haute couture collection and her most costly and labor-intensive to date. Echoing themes of human anatomy, transformation and death, this collection was not designed to be a crowd-pleaser or quick-seller. This was art for art’s sake.
“2009 was an exceedingly dry year for me artistically, but since moving to Tucson last year, I’ve launched my website (SapphireCordial.com), shown at the Tucson Museum of Art and Preen Vintage, and created my first couture collection for Tucson Fashion Week. I don’t know if it’s returning to the land of my birth, all the wonderfully sincere people I’ve met here, or just something in the desert air, but moving to Tucson has completely recharged my creative batteries and I’m very content for the first time in years.”
The rest of this amazing shoot:
(click the full screen button in the bottom right of the player to zoom)
Photos by Ryan Mihalyi
Clothing by Jamaica Cole
Modeled by Katie Palmer
Art Direction/Styling by Amber Mortensen
Hair and Makeup by Danielle Cushing
Special thanks to Abraham Cooper, James Grip and the Rialto Theatre, Tucson
It is not a well-known fact that venerable vintage retailer, Buffalo Exchange proudly calls Tucson, AZ its headquarters. Considering their 36 year history of recycling vintage clothing in a modern way, before it was considered cool kid status, it was just a matter of time (exactly one year since I moved to this cuddly city) until we tried a true collaboration on for size.
It just seemed so inevitable. On my second day after moving to Tucson, I walked in a Buffalo Exchange Glam Rock fashion show. Then in April, Buffalo Exchange featured me on their homepage for the Clockwork Orange-themed fashion show I participated in. Last month they offered to let me pull for any missing pieces in my Every Dog Has Its Day benefit show. It also turns out that my bestest Tucson bestie, Bradley Rhea (at the tender age of 23), just happens to be a purchasing assistant for all the new trend-savvy merchandise in Buffalo stores across-country (and the too-cute-for-words redheaded model in my aforementioned fashion show).
Recently, Bradley was asked to kick start their blog with a fall/winter trend forecast. Bradley had a master plan of where he wanted to go with the forecast, namely, ’40s polish mixed with a grungy ’90s irreverence. Of course we decided we couldn’t squander the chance to “work” together. So we set up a session to “play” all day at the historical Shane House with our talented (and exceedingly adorable) friends, photographer Krysta Jabczenski and model, Hanah Klein.
Buffalo Exchange’s Speedway location provided such an overwhelming selection of hip vintage and trendy new merch that it was a marvel the two of us somehow managed to whittle it down a cohesive collection in just a few hours. A fresh color story (we mixed brown with black and silver with gold for a tasty dash of devil-may-care), appropriately undulating hemlines, and menswear leanings provided an excellent canvas for a light sprinkling of gypsy bling. What came out of our cerebral melding was a rocking fall lifestyle shoot Kate Moss or Stevie Nix might hopefully feel at home in.
You’re welcome very much: we chose only pieces ranging in price from $7-$35.
New merchandise is available at every location across the country. Check Bradley’s first post on the Buffalo Exchange blog later tonight to find out more.
Click the full page button at the bottom right of the slideshow player to zoom.
Many thanks to Buffalo Exchange, Hanah Klein and Krysta Jabzenski.
If you know me, it would make sense that Painfully Hip’s first fashion show would take place on the same stage that Leslie Hall melted my face from a few months previous… and involve dogs somehow. That’s just how I roll.
My inspiration for this show? Prep school kids from the desert with hippy parents. A back to school theme, just in time for all the ASU students to go, well, back to school. Four full days of pulling, sewing and styling later, I ended up with this recipe: 15 models, 6 dogs, two parts buttoned-up, 3 parts buttoned-down, 11 parts hip. Yes, my models were stunnahs, but it was the dogs that really got fierce on the catwalk.
For the full immersion experience:
1. Press play on the Caribou soundtrack below
2. Press play on the slideshow player
3. Click full screen button (bottom right of slideshow player) to zoom
Documentary photos by Andrew Brown
Fashion photos by Allan Sturm
Every Dog Has Its Day
A Benefit for Hope Animal Shelter
Aug 27th, 2010
Hotel Congress
Styled and directed by Amber Mortensen in collaboration with Bradley Rhea and Abraham Cooper
Many thanks to Preen Vintage, Buffalo Exchange and Wingflash Designs (who custom-designed a collection of single carved bone feather earrings and necklaces for this show) for contributing to the cause of benefitting Hope Animal Shelter. We raised over $1500 for Tucson’s only no-kill, no-cage animal shelter and for surgery to help save the life of Atticus the rescue dog.
Special thanks to Dan Hernandez, Club Congress, Adrienne Lake, Caroline Palmer, David Jon Muse, Aveda Institute and to all of my loverly models and wonderpup owners.
clothing designed by Sapphire Cordial, who will be showing her “Anatomy of Heartbreak” collection at Tucson Fashion Week.
Following in the freshly laid tracks of Lahore, Pakistan, Tucson will also be celebrating its inaugural fashion week this year. As per usual, Tucson will be putting its very unique spin on things when it blows up downtown (Toole and 6th Avenue) for what would be best described as Tucson Fashion Weekend, on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25.
Unlike major metropolitan fashion weeks in New York and Paris, where the hotel champagne and per diems flow like silk chiffon, the Tucson Fashion Week Collective have decided to keep it local, support young up-and-comers and donate all proceeds to charity.
That sole, deserving charity is Skrappy’s Tucson Youth Culture, an all-ages venue and youth center adjacent to the Tucson Fashion Week lot. The organization specializes in homeless youth services, free after school programs, and social enterprising for young entrepreneurs, including sewing and fashion design classes. Fittingly, some of Skrappy’s most promising fashion visionaries will be showing their work on the first day of fashion week in their very own TFW Youth Showcase.
Saturday, September 25 is when Tucson Fashion Week really busts out the cleavage and stilettos. Nine designers will be featured on the large outdoor catwalk: Siobhan by Elizabeth Albert, Sapphire Cordial by Jamaica Rose Cole, Seven Bells by Diana Deaver, Backstitch Betty by Sandra Pope, RUMb by Ashley Marie Sanders, La Fashionista by Eleonor Leon, Sass Knuckles by Shannon Stevens, Melanie Lockwood, and Silvia Bours.
While their aesthetic influences vary from lacy lingerie to the magnitude of heartbreak, all designers have been allotted the same 30 minutes and 12-15 models on the runway. The tenth remaining runway slot will be decided at The Loft Cinema’s “48-Hour Fashion Challenge: TFW Young Designer Competition” on Thursday, Sept. 16. TFW is challenging young designers to create a piece inspired by an iconic fashion film. The finished pieces will be shown before the film and the audience will vote on the winner, who will take home the coveted 10 featured designer slot.
Watch out Lahore, Tucson’s fashion scene is on the rise!
All images were either created by the Painfully Hip Design Collective, used with permission, or found on the web and believed to be in the public domain. If any images that appear are in violation of copyright law, please let me know and i will remove them immediately.
Thanks for reading,
Amber
painfullyhip at gmail.com
