Starting here... (The gasp) and a Teen Perspective

No, it's not September yet... but you know I can't shut up, so...

Whoops - updating (5:13 PM) I buried the lead!

My daughter did this self-portrait last week.  Yes, she's still 13. No, I'm not kidding...

On creativity:

Sometimes, I think about just how many colors there are in the world, and how awesome the whole spectrum is, and I can't just choose one favorite, so, sometimes I just flip to a new favorite...

-My son, age 10

I posted about this fabric some time ago, when my kids initially fell in love with it.

Then it found a dance partner...

Leftover peach-skin screamin' green lining from a client project some months ago.

Then it became...

Something my daughter greeted with a gasp, when she saw it on the dress form.

A new shirt for her journey to high school.

The journey to this one is particularly hard to articulate.  In New York City right now, there seems to be a movement afoot... if not an anti-movement, really.  With no particular allegiance to any unique color palette, any particular brand, musical style, celebrity, or social cause.  It is a celebration of the individual, listening to his/her own drummer, and adding a spark to the mosaic of New York City.  I'm seeing it everywhere. Dip your toes in the feeling of Afropunk (click the link), to get an idea.  If this is a burgeoning style movement, my kids are natural members. And it's not a Black thing.  It's an everybody thing. See this slideshow to get an idea...

This is something that starts right here.  Today. Not influenced by anyone else in particular- just a feeling in the air.  No one else's idea.

It was a long time in the making. A shirt for my daughter that sat around as four rectangles. For a long time.

The shirt. Note: Shown here on a misses dress form, which has a lower bust than she does (explains the high dart).

Fabric source: Fabrics World USA and a secret store near me (green fabric), that has a truly hit-or-miss inventory.

Pattern: self-drafted/draped, but the shape of the sleeves was inspired by this.

And then she danced in it!