blogs i love

i want to tell you about the blogs i love!
i want to make this a regular feature, if i can find the time. i have far too many cool blogs clogging up my feed reader. must share them with you!
maybe a couple at a time, whatcha think?

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fly: andrea is a design maven based in philly, and her ridiculously colorful, positive, and dynamic blog focuses on anything from food to art to fashion to whatever strikes her fancy to write about at a given moment. bright hues, geometric patterns, bold accessories and clothing abound. she loves african fabric, clothing and accessories (!!!) to say her aesthetic resonates almost exactly with mine is to put things lightly...sometimes i feel like she's living inside my head and somehow (weirdly!) talking straight to me. haha! i literally get pangs of excitement every time i see she has updated her blog.

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threadbared: where i like to get my academic fashion fix satiated. it's wordy, intelligent, political, thoughtful, and of-the-moment spot-on...reading it makes me want to get my phd in fashion theory (something i am seriously considering)...

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button candy: like buttons? vintage and new? this blog is definitely for you. [as an aside: i am a poet, apparently i didn't know it...]

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what are some of YOUR favorite blogs? inform me in the comments!

threadbanger: how to fashion sketch

http://www.threadbanger.com/embed/player

this is a tad old (and i am hopelessly behind), but i have to pass it on anyway: threadbanger met up with bonnie simmons of simplicity pattern company, who gives viewers (i.e., you and me!) a lesson on how to make croqius/fashion sketches (those oh so important precursors to making your own designs). she makes it look easy, eh? speaking from experience with this sort of thing (i drew such things until my hands nearly fell off whilst a student at parsons back in '05-'06!), practice makes perfect. not suggesting you have to pull all day long drawings sessions like i had to...but if you keep up at it, you can get fairly good. give it a try!
as a related aside, two books that i found invaluable on this subject of making fashion illustrations (should you be interested) are 9 heads by nancy riegelman, and fashion sketchbook by bina abling. any of you designers out there have any alternative suggestions for fashion drawing/illustrating tomes? chime in!

mrs. jones & oxfam = DIY & restyle

a couple months back, the british charity/aid organization oxfam teamed up with "stylist to the stars" mrs. jones (who, according to their website, has dressed the likes of the killers, kylie, scissor sisters and goldfrapp) for a PR campaign that includes a spate of fun DIY how-to's (which include instructions on making a skirt from a pair of old jeans, turning a tee into hammer pants, and spiffing up a pair of shoes). they also have a very cool collection of refashioned clothing designed by mrs. jones available for sale on their site (which is just plain fun to peruse) and a gallery of styled up discards that look anything but (see bottom photos above, and/or scroll down to the bottom here). good ideas abound, for mere pennies and the cost of your time and effort!