FiSF Diary - All the Little Pieces

Even though I'm on-schedule with my collection (finished all my samples, thank you very much!), it's hard to sit back to admire one's handiwork when there's so much going on all at once. Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. My collection is done, I'm headlining a fashion show at Supperclub tonight and my lookbook shoot is this Friday. But a finished collection is only a tiny fraction of the work in running a fashion business as any designer will quickly tell you.

A little detail preview from S/S 2015

In apparel design, the percentage of design to non-design work that comes up time and time again is about 10 to 90. So when you consider that the creative side is what most apparel designers prefer to do, 90% of the time spent on the nitty gritty of a small business seems like an awful lot of not-so-fun. That said to even have a shot to survive in a highly competitive industry, none of those tasks can be ignored. Even though I'm hardly what I would call business-minded, in that aforementioned not-so-fun, there are pretty awesome things. Like seeing your website or branding come to life, or making an unexpected online sale. Each little piece of the business is part of something at once immeasurably complicated and immeasurably awesome.

DIR Dahae works her tail off in high style

I have tunnel vision this week since my shoot is on Friday - it's all I can think about at the moment! Photographer Kelly Puleio is the brains behind the project and I'm really excited to work with her. Fittings with my model went so incredibly well - I can't express how illuminating it is to see a completed collection on a human and not a dress form! With photo shoots, there are so many minor things to consider, more little pieces that can make or break a project. My internal checklist goes on and on: get shoes, steam lingerie, choose jewelry, bring extra nail polish, locate props, stockings or no stockings?, grab a palette from Elizabeth Street Cosmetics for the makeup artist, update Pinterest inspiration board, decide on flowers with John James Designs, etc etc. Lingerie walks a fine line when it comes to styling which is definitely on my mind right now - there IS a such thing as too sexy and since lingerie is implicitly so, the model has to be made up just right. Too much and you enter vamp territory. I love to over-style, so I'm grateful to have Kelly on board. She's very much about measured styling and classic simplicity and she'll have no qualms editing my sometimes over-the-top sensibility.

I can't wait to share completed shots! For now, I'm looking forward to Friday and will be ready to kick back with a big glass of wine once it's all done.