Thoughts and findings
Collection of findings, learnings, opinions, etc.
In a world where there is good and evil, there is beauty and ugly and all the rest in between. We can choose to add beauty or choose to add something else. These things are not clearly defined to man on earth, as people have the tendency to not be able to define this well based on their own reasoning even though most believe they are right in their own eyes.
Personal opinions on the A.C. and TSOM endeavours and learnings
I don't think everything they do hits the worth it beauty note for me. Most is not worth replicating in terms of time. I wouldn't allocate personal time to remake much of their stuff. And they have put heaps of effort into hitting those notes. Refined beauty is very actually difficult to achieve. Even the same swatch can look better on some cuts/garments than others, and the ones which are lesser beauty is not even worth my time. If it didn't take long to make them, yes I'd probably think that replication is worth it, but we are talking about maybe hundred of hours of a person's own life to... recreate a single garment? Well it better be good. Hence the hard line that must be drawn to determine if it's worth remaking or not.
I have remade several a.c. garments that are close to the originals and found that I didn't even really like it that much when worn. There is a real advantage to shopping ready-to-wear, not just for the sizing issue but for the colour, cut, everything. RTW shopping is truly a first world privilege that not many have.
Everything that designers make can be a work of art, but is it a work of art that one must have? We all run out of life and expire sometime. Does our poor generation line need to inherit something they don't even necessarily enjoy? I don't think so. Just wear the garment to the ground, sell it or give it away. It's ok.
If people asked why things have to be beautiful they may very well enter a spiritual journey and get some spiritual answers. I think that's worth it.
Quilting stitch and binding stitches around the neckline and hand sewing - does it add beauty or does it not? Not always. Sometimes it just looks scraggly.
Colours. Colours say something in and of itself. Hence the rendering of the same cut can say something so different just because the colour has changed. Not all colours are equal for the same cut.
Cotton jersey is almost never warm but multiple layers are too hot in a warm-hot climate. Having made garments from triple layers and quadruple layers, it's not worth it for the warmth it gives you. It creates a heavy garment but the warmth factor it gives you is very low for its weight. Then it takes days (3-5) to dry in a cold climate. Wool is already a far better option. Cotton jersey is really a spring/summer/humid/hot/pyjama/undergarment kind of fabric. It may be made for the cool but it's not made for the cold no matter which way you look at it. A.C. styles will not keep you warm in places like Norway or New Zealand for most of the year.
I am thinking of making large a.c. type wall hangings. Because plain walls can look more beautiful and get looked at a lot more frequently than a garment that is rolled up inside a drawer/robe.
I was wowed by nearly everything a.c. for a few years and really caught on but I think I was more enamoured by the photography many a time. Photography really has a way of capturing something and also blurring out some other things. Furthermore, the elements in the photo have been arranged to match and create a beautiful combination but can you recreate that whole combination? Does it even look good on you? Do you have teal coloured knee high boots to wear with that specific blue (which was part of the outfit that made such an amazing combination)? Probably not! Are you going to buy them? Probably not. If you have them, do you wear it often? Probably not. The beauty in promotional photos can be misleading. These days I'm better at assessing that I wouldn't wear it no matter how good it looks in a photo.
A.C. cutting templates (patterns). A little out dated since they released most of their cutting templates I think a decade or more ago. Some stand the test of time, but for the most part, do I want to look like a.c. 20 years ago? Do I want to look shabby chic / slightly peasant / particularly feminine like? Not really. Their recent release of utilitarian patterns a couple of years ago now are interesting but a little strange too. I purchased all four of them. Hence I guess the right to comment. Fractal dress: strange seam division in the waist, just take it out. Why divide when the length will give great flow to the body? Fractal 3/4 sleeve top: the turtle neck aspect sucks and the top is a little short, much more elegant to remove the turtleneck and extend the panels' length. Maybe just change the whole thing to a classic raglan. See Maker's Atelier for ideas on their similar cut, the flow is much nicer. Asymmetrical coat: just can't see myself wearing it yet, haven't seen them come up with a wow combination, it's just a little strange. Pencil skirt: the classic shape is the only one I've made several times.
Cotton jersey has a way of just looking like children's clothing, almost no matter who makes it. Unless it's decorated amazingly, but for the most part, you might feel like you're wearing Burt's Bees Girls for adults. It's not a bad thing, but generally speaking it just kind of has that aesthetics. Cotton jersey is undeniably comfortable, but if I am making a.c. clothes, I am definitely not wanting any combination that makes me feel like Burts Bees even if it is embroidered. I prefer the sophistication of beads and a.c. sequin designs. I think they've really excelled there to modernise the use of beads and sequins where it doesn't look cheesy but takes cotton jersey to a whole new ball game, and totally unrecognisable as cotton jersey. Cotton jersey doesn't have the beauty of sheer or sheen, but the way a.c. uses beads/sequins/metallic paints really makes up for that.
I've learned I don't want to make a.c. cute or sweet or peasant anymore. It's too meh meh waste of my time. I don't want to look like a 1990-2010 time capsule, I am not fond of their designs of the Project Alabama years, and I don't necessarily like their bright combinations either. Other designers have done the bright colours better and really produce some wow effects. Some designers really just ace this area better. I don't think it's a.c.'s core strength. It really takes a lot of focused energy and discovering to hit some amazing notes. However I think a.c. got some great combinations going on their fabric palette in around the late 2010-now. Their beading palette is pretty eternal also, except for some of their latest bead mixes which look a bit like a futuristic jumbo.
With all the a.c. imagery out there and the thousands of hours they put into design, experimenting, culling, exploring, then putting it all into production over their 21+ year lifespan, I still only find a handful of things worth remaking. Mostly because of the amount of time it takes to make their garments.
The a.c. price tags act as a motivator for me to make a garment. Or a feel good factor. I don't know if that's the intention they have but it doesn't matter cos we're not in each other's lives. Say if their price tag is USD700 for a corset singlet top, well if I bought forty tees for USD60 on clearance, even if I have way too many tees for my own need, I just spent a whole lot less than seven hundred bucks. (It only takes two huge tees to make a corset top).
It is a great, huge thing that the founder of a.c. open sourced her techniques.
The ethics of clothing manufacturing is not something I have been inspired to investigate heavily yet. I do know that while there is abuse, it is not correct to say that it is all bad.
