TEXTURE

When I was at the MoMA, I was intrigued by sculptural details and wanted to touch everything. Instead I captured on my sad little camera a few things I wanted to recreate in fabric.

Mmmm delicious.

In other news, here are the first few pics I've gotten from my NYFC show.




I feel weird posting these right after a bunch of Lacroix pics...but whatever. I just need to photoshoot the rest of this stuff. These pics don't do the colors justice, especially the rust charmeuse satin minidress. You should see that fabric in person. Also, it has these sweet little golden buttons on the shoulders that you can't see at all. More pics to come!!

I'm so bummed I had to leave NY before actual fashion week. Not that I neccesarily would have been able to see any big shows..but just to be there an extra week would have made me feel fancy. I happened to be in London last year during fashion week. Complete accident, but I saw a show at Topshop the day before Valentine's day and I felt very glamorous.
Anyhow, to see what I missed I've been on style.com all morning.
As always, I fucking love everything Christian Lacroix touches.



Wowowowowwwwww.
These two from Zac Posen are super inspiring:

I love the difference between the tight gloves and voluminous sleeves. So romantic!

And oh my god I love this!!! The floral is so luxe and the sillhouette of the whole look is divinnneee. It makes me want to be all matchy-matchy, which usually just makes me think of old ladies and little girls.
Its funny, I'm so fashion-focused, but I look like such a ragamuffin most of the time. I feel like I'm always on the verge of getting my life under control, but I never can cross that threshold.
I only dress the way I want to when I'm on vacation.
Who am I trying to impress in Sacramento?
But in a way, it makes way more sense to make an effort in my home town than to dress to impress people I'll probably never see again, right? I don't know.
Anyway.
Givenchy is a label I've never really taken an interest in, but I happened to come accross this magnificence:

It makes me want to take this whole Egyptian-archeology theme one step further and dress my girls like mummies....hmmmm there might be a little wrapping involved...

It's nice to be finally keeping track of the transformation of ideas in my head. I usually just write little "note-to-self"s on scraps of paper and lose them.

DREAMS OF SPRING

Wishing for warmer weather has me dreaming up vacation clothes and designing my Spring/Summer '10 collection in my head, since I'm too busy right now to even pick up a pencil. Those wide-legged high-waisted green pants (see below) are still calling my name, and I think the 1930's will be a full blown inspiration this time around. Specifically 1930's/40's archeology digs in exotic locales. An expansion on last spring's not fully realized (in my opinion) "Transatlantic" collection.  I was having a hard time focusing and only ended up with 6 or 7 looks.

Whereas my focus a year ago was on luggage, modes of transport and Gibson Girls, this time around I'm thinking forward 20 to 30 years and more about the locations themselves.

What would be your ideal costume for this climate?

Mine would consist of pastel satins, flowing cooling cotton layers, mosquito netting and sweet silky cloche hats to keep the Sahara wind from blowing my curls all over the place.

But there is a wild card. I was recently romanced by the Golden Eagle Nomads photography series by John Delaney. A friend in New York introduced me to his work a couple of weeks ago, and the photos keep reappearing in my daydreams. I've always had a strange draw to the traditional costumes of Mongolia and Russia (though Russia might have to wait a season or two for me to tackle). 

Delaney's photographs are sharp and inspiring, and though fur and thick fabric doesn't make any sense for Spring/Summer, I enjoy bending boundaries. We'll see what happens with this in the mix. I certainly don't have any idea.

Just to clarify though, overall I'm thinking The English Patient. Not Indiana Jones.

To those who may not (and probably don't) know, Sapphire Cordial is a clothing label I (Jamaica Cole) started in 2006. Its been a long process of lack of motivation, lack of funds, apathy battles and enormous frustration to get to the point I'm at now, a place where Im focused and sick enough of working shit jobs for other people that Im willing to risk not making rent in order to devote all my time to material endeavors. 

SC is based in Sacramento, Ca. 

I've done a variety of fashion shows in the area in the last two years (Church of Satin, Magnum Opus in Spring 07 at the Library Galleria, Fashionably Live at Avalon, Mantra at Red Lion Inn, Threaded and Fashion Riot at Townhouse).

I just got back from my first out-of-Sac show with New York Fashion Connect in Manhattan as a pre-curser to NY Fashion Week.

Photos to come of that show soon. In the meantime, here are some pieces I showed there:

This dress is approx. a size 4, made of shantung satin with vintage buttons up the side of the bodice and its currently hanging in my room (which psssst: means its totally for sale)

I wore this outfit to LACMA a few days after the show with a vintage cashmere fur-collared cardigan and a Naik Fur hat and felt like Marlene Dietrich.

This is one of the most comfortable dresses in history. The back dips low and with it on you want to become a ballerina.

The star of the show. I am obsessed with grey and silver right now. And as always, with ruffles.

(Models are  Liz Liles and Jillian Oliver. Photos by Jesse Vasquez)

New York was bustling and full of flashing lights and snow flurries and I wish I could have stayed longer. I flew into LA briefly before coming home and used the opportunity to sport my own clothes, which I rarely do. (I plan to correct this promptly)

Stay tuned for much more reliable and regular updates...not just one every two years (see below...haha). 

PS: This blog started with dreams of being travel blog, since I always want to take photos when I travel. Problem is, I dont have much of a camera and I dont travel very much. Well, not nearly as much as I'd like. (I have some long lost photos of NOLA and the UK, but I dont see those going up anytime soon. Screw the past. Its onward and upward!

PSS: My plan is to trick some manner of investor into buying me a digital SLR, a garment manufacturing licence, a sunny second story workshop with hardwood floors and tons and tons of satin, wool and soft knits. Mmmmmmmm lovely to dream of.