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F/W 2013 LOOK BOOK

Fashion for me has always been a way to express myself. I always feel like my best self when I am able to express who I am and how I feel through the clothes I wear. I say this because the inspiration behind this look book is fashion as an expression of self. I created graphics to go along with the photos to enhance the feeling and attitude of my collection.

Cicely Carter flew out all the way from Kentucky to Seattle to shoot with me and we shot at a permanent outdoor installation called “Wake,” in Seattle Olympic Sculpture park. Richard Serra created 6 these towering curved steel forms (our backdrop) that mimic tidal waves. The thing I loved about this back drop the most was the versatility and rich color. The configuration of forms look different from every standpoint suggesting that the whole cannot be known all at once. This installation is truly an experience, if you are ever in the Seattle area I strongly suggest visiting this installation!

Los Angeles Fashion Week!

As many of you know I have been working like a crazy woman getting my Fall 2013 collection together as well as getting ready for small production. In the midst of putting everything together I ran into a youtube video of last years first plus size fashion show during LA fashion week. The wheels immediatly started turning in my head and I got a hold of the shows producers and applyed to be part of this years Haute Curves LA fashion week!

About a week after they reviewed my application & let me know they’d love to have my collection in the show. You have no idea how elated I was/am! It’s the perfect opportunity and timing for me to show my debut collection to the world.

It’s happening October 12 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I’d love to meet everyone so grab a ticket & come! Tickets go on sale soon so be sure to get yours at www.elitecurvesinternational.com

PS. There’s still time to donate to Cicely’s fund me campaign to help her travel to Seattle in late September for our shoot! Anything helps http://www.gofundme.com/CicelyPlusmodelFFFWeek13

Cicely for the Launch of Liesl Binx!

I’ve finally found a model to be the face of my Fall collection!

I met Cicley over a year ago on twitter and I’ve always admired her work. Ever since I saw her gorgeous face she has been my muse. Unfortunately Cicely lives in the East coast so I never thought it would be possible for her to model my collection. After speaking with her a couple weeks ago I found out she really wants to model for me and is willing to fly out to Seattle for the shoot. You can’t imagine how elated I am! The only catch is raising the money to get her out to the West coast & basic model supplies like makeup, undergarments, hair expenses & accessories for the shoot.

Cicely has been chasing her dreams of being a full time agency signed plus size model. In 2012 she had her first published features in Vibe Vixen of the Day in September, and in the first issue of Rack Plus Magazine and on PlusModel411.com (a website dedicated to the positive exposure of plus models).

Any donations towards our venture are greatly appreciated. Feel free to share our page on social media outlets to help spread the word!

Please help support us @ http://www.gofundme.com/CicelyPlusmodelFFFWeek13

Fatkini Illustration

Original Design & Illustration by Liesl Binx

On twitter I’ve been pretty vocal about how challenging drawing fat fashion figures has been for me. In school I was never allowed to draw “plus size” (meaning if I did I would fail & be forced drop out of fashion school) As most fashion design students I was taught the 9 heads elongation of the fashion figure, which is 100% alien. It’s impossible for humans to attain this 9 head fashion figure body, the average body is about 7.5 heads. In fashion sketching 1 I spent hours upon hours drawing front, back, profile and 3/4 view croquis all with 9 heads of length. In fashion sketching 2 I did the same thing only now I was drawing croquis from magazine references and learning how to render (color). These figures were also 9 times out of 10 white & on the special day that an instructor decided to demo a person of color the figure would have white features and then just render darker skin. I was disappointed that such talented instructors expressed little diversity in size and race. In my technical sketching & portfolio classes I demonstrated mastery of these alien fashion figures. During these 2 years the size zero 9 foot tall white alien figure was beaten in my head. Although I made efforts to draw “plus size” on my own time I struggled to find references & pictures of fat women to model my illustrations after. As an illustrator so much of what you see is expressed with your pencil and its been extremly challenging for me to get 9 head figure out of my brain.

Thankfully being out of school has given me all the creative control I ever imagined and I have a lot more time to draw. I’ve also since discovered the online world of plus size blogging which has given me plenty of inspiration. My fat figures definetly aren’t as big as I want them to be yet but It’s been great drawing a variety of body types & sizes on my way up the numbers ladder.

process drawing this illustration.

I started out by hand sketching this croqui from scratch, then I continued to sketch the face and design the fatkini right on the figure. I inked the outline of the figure and then rendered. After scanning the figure into Photoshop I got rid of the color and just stuck with my inking. (I wanted to play with different color schemes) I again rendered the figure but with photoshop & added a drop shadow. I found an image of a floral print on a pillow I liked on google images and created a seemless tile (photoshop) to be the main print of the bikini. Then I brought her into Adobe Illustrator to color the bikini with the seemless tile, add shading, put gradient inside the sunglasses and create an interesting background.

There are SO many different ways/process’s of creating fashion figures and this is just one way I like to do mine! I have to admit I don’t like using the dodge & burn tool on fashion figures for shading and this was the first time I used the pen tool in Illustrator for creating shadow shapes! It gives the illustration a more graphic feel which is fun.

PS. As many of you know I am in the process of making the garments for my Fall Collection! I have been working like crazy and I expect to be done sewing by the end of June. 😀 I can’t wait to share my designs with everyone!

Outfit of the Day

About a month ago I went on a great shopping spree at JCPennies! It was the first time in in a long time I found so many clothes I liked all at once! Here is one of my favorite outfits from my haul. This is also my first shoot with my new DSLR camera! 😀

Shirt: JCPenny: a.n.a  $25

Skirt: JCPenny: Worthington $25

Stockings: Hue $6

Shoes: H&M $15