Last weekend several cast and crew members from Camp Kickitoo attended the San Diego Black Film Festival to watch the premiere, walk the red carpet, and attend the awards ceremony. I am pleased to announce that Camp Kickitoo won the Best Comedy Award! Now I have to print out a copy of the award certificate to hang on my wall.

SDBFF Certificate Camp Kickitoo

Camp Kickitoo Cast and Crew

I dream of a musician wearing my designs someday and with BurdaStyle’s latest contest that dream could come true. BurdaStyle is teaming up with Style X to offer a design challenge to have your design worn by a musician performing at one of the largest music events in the United States! To enter, BurdaStyle members must post one fashion sketch and one mood board as a project, detailing their dream rock star fashion look. All submissions must be uploaded by February 7 at 11:59 p.m. 5-10 sketches will be chosen by BurdaStyle, BERNINA, and Style X. On February 8th, BurdaStyle will announce and contact five winners. Each winning designer will then be given the opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind look for a well-known musician featured at SXSW Music! Winners will be responsible for sourcing their fabric and notions. The winning looks will be featured on the Style X runway and editorial coverage on the BurdaStyle blog.

Please see here for the rest of the official rules.

Style X Design Challenge 2012

Camp Kickitoo’s official website is now live! Check out the trailer, cast and crew, and make sure to “like” them on Facebook. The director informed me that he entered the film in over 20 film festivals and that Camp Kickitoo has been selected for screening in the San Diego Black Film Festival January 26-29th! I will update if the film gets distribution, awards, and DVDs for sale.

I finally treated myself to a new pair of shoes. What better day to do it than on Halloween? The $50 Spring Frost gift certificate I won back in February from the Fashionably Connected Networking Event went towards a new pair of Sam Edelman Berlin Boots. This beautiful chestnut brown crinkled leather boot has a chic vented design in the back. Its breathable leather, slight heal, and easy silhouette make these a breeze to walk in.

Sam Edelman Berlin Boot

I received some awesome news this week from the directors of Camp Kickitoo, the film is officially completed. The film is being submitted to film festivals in hopes of finding a distributor. After submitting to festivals there is talk about setting up a private screening. For now I received an IMDB credit and my design featured on the movie poster!

Camp Kickitoo poster

The TCE Trash Makeover Party was the first recycled fashion show I have participated in. The title of the show was “Fashion and Art Reuse Challenge” and they weren’t lying when they said challenge. The initial challenge was to figure out what materials to use to make my garment and how to obtain these materials. I settled on bedsheets, placemats, and VHS tapes from my local Thrift Town. I created a strapless dress that has piping trim and an above the knee skirt draped with VHS film. After completing the dress, I decided to hand wash the chalk marks I made for alterations after my models fitting. To my dismay, the placemats bled black dye all over my dress. I only had one day until showtime to repair the dress and luckily I had enough time and fabric! A little bird told me that the TCE plans to do a trashion fashion show every year due to its success. Now I have much more time to plan my design for next year!

Clark Patterson Photography

Next week the Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) will be celebrating its 20^th year anniversary by throwing a trash makeover party. Tina Sparkles the author of “Little Green Dresses” invited me to participate in the first-ever Trash Makeover: Fashion and Art Reuse Challenge, how could I say no to Ms. Sparkles?! It made it even harder to refuse after seeing the celebrity panel of judges involved. The fashion panel includes Stephen Moser – fashion writer for the Austin Chronicle, Marques Harper – fashion editor for the Austin American-Statesman, Andrea Mellard – Interim Curator at the Austin Museum of Art, Leslie Bonnell- owner of the fabulous Stitch Lab sewing studio, and Gail Chovan – the owner of Blackmail boutique. I see this as a great opportunity to impress some big names in the Austin fashion industry. This is a lot of pressure and I only have 10 days (September 24^th) until show time.

After researching recycled dress ideas on Google I found all sorts of wild recycled looks everything from dresses made from tea bags to condoms. I had a few ideas of objects I wanted to recycle into dresses but found celebrities like Rihanna in vinyl record dresses and Ke$ha in VHS tape gowns. After a trip to Thrift Town, I grabbed a 2 tape set (VHS) of Titanic, some old bed sheets, and placemats. It’s time to “Be Kind and Rewind” and pray to the fashion Gods!

Coffee filter/tea bag dress created by Angela Bright

Condom dress created by Emma Kaywin

Rihanna wearing a record dress created by Maison Martin Margiela

Kesha wearing a VHS tape dress at the American Music Awards

Crocheted red and white barrier tape looks created by Craig Lawrence

The director shouted “That’s a wrap!” on the set of Camp Kickitoo at 2am Tuesday morning. It was a long, strenuous day of filming and sewing designs on the fly. The wedding and performance scenes were filmed at the Sky Lounge on Congress Avenue. I provided a wedding dress and performance look for the lead actress and wardrobe for several other actors. I’m really excited to see the final cut; the director is anticipating on having it completed by September to submit to some major film festivals. It will be such a thrill to see my designs on the screen and name in the end credits!

Yahel, Scene 4

Detail shot

Scene 4 Rehearsals - Behind the scenes



Five days from now I will be anticipating the phrase, “That’s a wrap!” on the set of feature film Camp Kickitoo, directed by Ric Sternberg and Mike ‘Sully’ Sullivan. Nearly two months ago I was hired on to create specialty costumes for several key characters in the film. I still have several designs to hammer out in a few days time but everything is coming together nicely. I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside Caroline Pruett (Wardrobe) for the past few weeks. Caroline has been in the industry for over 30 years. That being said I’ve learned lots of tips and the ins and outs of what it takes to be in the wardrobe department on a film set. Check out the most recent film she worked on as a key costumer “The Tree of Life” in theaters now!

Camp Kickitoo - Clapper

Camp Kickitoo Cast

Caroline Pruett and Yahel Johnson

Yahel Johnson as "Wanda"

Jessica Obilom as "Jasmine"

Here’s more footage from the BurdaStyle DIY Fashion Show! I am in love with the close-up photo of my feet exiting the stage and the video footage turned out excellent too, thanks to Jose Lozano at Magic Spoon Productions! I’m so excited to get interviewed for BurdaStyle’s new “Meet the Designer” series within the next few months. I’ll keep you updated!

Sabrina doing makeup backstage

Jasmine rockin' the runway

Encore!

Photo © Fabian Villa

BurdaStyle and Etsy present D.I.Y. Fashion Show @ Venue 222 South by Southwest 2011 from Magic Spoon Productions on Vimeo.