Angie collection - finished!

I'm back! and I'm married!

More about that later.

For now I'm excited to say that I have "finished" the Angie collection. I say "finished" because I didn't end up producing as many pieces as originally planned. As I said in the previous post, I ended up going back to Australia early to attend a funeral and so I was away longer than I thought I would be. I didn't want to drag out this collection forever and fall behind, so I finished off the items I was working on and called it a day. Time to move on to the next collection!

I'm just in the process of adding the last few items to the Etsy store, it will all be there by the end of the week. I'll also have lots of wedding photos to show you on Friday!

Tonight, in an effort to make working from home feel like a normal job, my husband (!) and I are going out for after work drinks to celebrate finishing the collection. I think it's better than celebrating things alone in the studio with my mannequin.

New in store: Angie & Ayumi T-shirts

Remember I mentioned maybe calling the new collection 'Angie'? Well, this is Angie. Angie arrived in Tokyo with nothing but a sewing machine. She knew no-one and got lost frequently. One day she stumbled upon a textile workshop, filled with happy chattering girls dipping scrunched up fabric into indigo dye. Angie introduced herself to Ayumi, who immediately said 'Angie? from the Rolling Stones song?' and Angie knew they would be best friends.

These t-shirts were made from quick illustrations I did while teaching a fashion design class. I liked how the girls turned out, so we made them into a screen print and coloured in their dresses by hand. Each one is slightly different and they are very limited edition.

This is Ayumi, in her favourite rainbow dress.

She also likes to wear her blue polka dot dress.

Angie has a blue polka dot dress to match.

Get the girls from the etsy store!

New(ish) items in the shop!

I've been adding some random items to the shop lately. Most of them are from a sample collection I made a couple of years ago when I was applying for my business grant. I didn't end up producing any of them because I wanted to focus on bags at first, but I sold a few of the garments at my market stall last year. Then when I was packing up our apartment in Sydney, I decided to photograph the rest of the collection and add it to the shop. The prices are really reasonable, most items are around $15-$25 as they are just one-off samples.

SHOP NOW!

As all of these samples were made for a presentation, they are all an Australian size 10 (to fit an 87cm bust, 69cm waist and 99cm hips). Most of the garments, due to their shape or stretch fabric, have a bit of room in them. Check each individual item's page for measurements.

On the subject of measurements, which do you prefer/expect to see - a full measurement (ie. tape measure round the body) or a half measurement (garment measured lying flat). I can never decide... I used to do measurements lying flat but it gets confusing for people when it comes to things like stretch waistbands and measuring lengths and sleeves. This time I've done full measurements but that has its problems too - I need to make it clear that it's the garment measurement, not the measurements of the body it is designed to fit! It's all very tricky and I know measurements are really important to online shoppers... so what do you think? I'd really like your input.

Oh, and yes, I know Americans prefer inches. I usually provide both but I've been listing so many items lately I haven't got around to doing the conversion yet. In the meantime, use this.

Reversible Skirt featured in WILD FIRE Magazine

Just a quick note to share these photos of Bell Street's blue & green reversible skirt featured in WILD FIRE magazine. WILD FIRE is a free online Vegan, Fair-Trade, Fashion, Food & Wellbeing magazine based in Melbourne, Australia. It can be downloaded from kohiilove.com or viewed on their Facebook page.

I love the location and styling of the sixties-influenced shoot.

 

Want the skirt? get it here!

Only three more days until I fly to Manila... and life has been crazy. Planning a wedding, finishing a master's degree and organising an international move is a lot to do in one month. I'm ready for a bit of a rest!

Raincoat

I made a raincoat with black binding for a customer a while ago and thought I'd take some photos of it before sending it away. I love how the black looks with the clear plastic and doesn't detract from the outfit underneath.

I won't be doing raincoat orders anymore as I have plenty of custom work to keep me busy at the moment, and I designed the raincoat in 2010 - gotta move onto new things. I might do another version of it one day.

Shop update!

My online store now has all of the pretzel necklaces, bags, t-shirts and reversible skirts. Yay!

Now get shopping!

Pretzel bag

This is the second of my Bell Street bags. I've been calling it the Pretzel bag simply because it has a pretzel printed on it, but then so does the other bag! This bag was designed first and in my mind it'll always be the pretzel bag.
So I invented this one while I was at uni, where I had to carry ridiculously heavy books and equipment to and from uni every day. I would sometimes use a backpack, but being a fashion student I wanted something that looked better. I also hated having to take my backpack off every time I wanted to get something out! I decided I wanted something that could be a backpack during my 40min walk to uni, and convert quickly into a shoulder bag on arrival. There are hundreds of convertible backpacks out there, but none of them were right for me - they either looked hideous (I would rather have just been seen with a normal backpack) or the conversion was too complicated. I didn't want to have to stop, put my bag down, and deal with fussy zips and clips. I'm pretty much always running late so I needed to be able to convert the bag while walking up the street.
I'm so proud of this bag. There have been a few versions of it where I have made little adjustments to the size and straps, but I'm really happy with this final version. They key point for me is that when you are wearing this as a shoulder bag, you can't tell at all that it can also be a backpack. Oh, and it converts in a matter of seconds.

Untitled from Ali Kenworthy on Vimeo.

Shopper bags

This is one of the two main bag styles I have created for Bell Street. The Shopper is roomy, has an inside lining pocket and two clear plastic outer pockets for important things like your sunglasses, phone, keys etc. There's nothing worse than digging around a bag full of school books to find your keys, or having your sunglasses squished by a bag of vegetables!
I love the size of this bag and the pockets are so handy. I take this to the supermarket a lot and the staff have often commented on its practicality!
I've been making up samples of these and hope to be able to start production when I get back from New Zealand - I leave tomorrow. I'm going over for the iD Dunedin International Emerging Designer Awards. Exciting!