Fashion, Art and Spring

Tuesday 4/17: Spring Awakening Opening Reception at the Philadelphia Board of Ethics. I love art in public spaces.


 "Spring Nesting" by Mary Kane and Lorraine Glessner "Church Drawing No. 6"

 

 

 Dance UP 5th Birthday Party at Philadelphia's Society of Colonial Dames. A beautiful space, great food and lots of fun to celebrate Dance USA Philadelphia's 5 year anniversary.

N. B. The National Conference will be held in Philly in 2013:)

Wednesday 4/18: Happy Hour Rogues Gallery Bar Reunion Event


Thursday 4/19: AKA the day I walked for hours around the city...
First I checked out the Phila MoCA space for an upcoming event.
















Then I headed off to the Guinness tasting at the Trust building.

It was so much fun! I tried my first Guinness, learned some interesting facts and tasted the Guinness Foreign Extra and Guiness Black Lager.Black Lager has a crisp refreshing finish and Foreign Extra packs a punch.

Did you know... a pint of Guinness only has 125 calories?
Did you know...it takes 119.5seconds for the perfect pour?
Did you know....Arthur Guiness was so confident that he signed a 9,000 year lease for his factory building in Dublin?


Next I had dinner at Pub and Kitchen where I had my very first fried pickle....Yum!!!

Then it was off to Hylo Boutique for their event featuring the works of Nic*Fish , Danny Fox, Concrete Polish and Bus Stop Boutique. I met a couple of cool style bloggers, designers and artists and tried a great RHUBY Cocktail by Art in The Age.

Saturday 4/21: I designed and created 100 Masks for a client's masquerade party at Smokin' Betty's. 

 


Philadelphia Science Festival presents Design Lab: The Fusion of Science and Style at the Academy of Natural Science: Students created garments from items that would otherwise have been discarded, like last year's banner and cardboard, and were inspired by bacteria and the muscular system among others.

Setting the Mood: Music and Art

Sunday 4/8 After my show in New York, I headed back to Philly for the Harajuku Fashion Show at  Horticulture Center for Sakura Sunday of the Cherry Blossom Festival, but I was a week too early.  I did managed to spend the next hour wandering through Fairmount Park, and I got some great photos! I've been really inspired by "F" by Steven and Billy Dufala. Obviously they aren't the first artists to make art out of discarded objects, but their work has this underlying sense of humor that is refreshing.

My Bio in Print!!! at Abrons in NYC

Monday 4/9 Private viewing at PAFA for Henry Ossawa Tanner. My absolutely favorite painting is Boy and Sheep Lying under a Tree . I love how his work really captures the contrast between light and dark. His paintings are so crisp that they look like photos!
 
Wednesday 4/11 On my walk to work, I saw the oddest thing. Within two blocks of each other were two abandoned shoes...

It must have been a sign, because later that day my poor little phone died.

                                                    R.I.P. Celly

Even though I was pre-occupied with trying to revive "Celly", I still managed to enjoy "City Hall Presents: Jazz Bridge " Philly has such a thriving jazz scene, and it's nice to know that organization like Jazz Bridge exist to support musicians and performers.


Thursday 4/12 Daffy's Alexander McQueen
PhillyCHI Design Slam

Friday 4/13
The Data Garden at PMA was super cool! I walked into the Megawords Space/Zoe Strauss' Office and heard this awesome music and one of the organizers had me and the other visitors hold onto the plants and each other. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I felt tingling and saw the data of the bio-rhythms on the iPad. It was a pretty cool experience and I can't wait to see them again at Bartram Gardens in the fall!

Later, I headed to the Pageant Gallery for Nick Lenker's The Last Days of  The Apocalypse of Now  He transformed the gallery to look like a teen's basement hang out, and then he lived in the space for 3 days straight.

Sunday 4/15 The Fiber Philadelphia show has finally ended. After the de-installation, I picked up my "Ocelot Scarf". It was a bittersweet moment. Everyone was so supportive both by showing up and in words of encouragement:)

Philly Fashion Open Call

Deadlines:

Sketches/Photos and Application due by May 15, 2012 to jrochelledesigns@gmail.com

Garments will be selected by May 31, 2012

Photos of final garments are due by September 15, 2012

Garments due on site October 1, 2012

Application Information:

JRochelle Designs Fall 2012 Fashion Show Application

Please return to jrochelledesigns@gmail.com by May 15, 2012.

If your design(s) are selected for the show, there will be a $100 handling fee per designer/team.

Designer’s Name:                      

Primary Phone:            

Email Address:

Address (City, State):   

Affiliated Institutions:

Designer’s Bio (Maximum 250 words):

Collection Description

Title and Date:

Description:

Garment/Accessory (Please copy and complete for each item submitted.)

Description:

Type of Garment/Accessory:

Category: □DayWear □EveningWear □Fantasy/Conceptual

Materials:                     

Measurements: 

Sustainability Features:

Model: □Man □Woman □Child □Standard □Plus Size □Petite           

Sketch Attached: □Yes □ No 

Photo Attached: □ Yes   □No  Photo Label: _________________________

              

Back on My Grind: Last Two Weeks in Review

Monday 3/27 I've been so busy that I treated myself to the J*Davey Concert at World Cafe Live!!!
Jack is always a great performer and her vocals are sickening. I will never forget the first time I heard Mr. Mister...

Tuesday 3/28 It was back to business as usual. I attended a "Women Entrepreneurs' Networking and Mentorship Session" presented by The Empowerment Group In addition to learning about the program, we did a networking intro exercise to see if our introduction/pitch was effective. I met an group of women with varied business interests and was even able to share some Etsy tips with one woman.

Wednesday 3/29 For both personal and professional reasons, I am trying to get re-connected with my Alma maters through alumnae groups and activities. I attended a meeting after work and then found myself coerced into join the planning committee! C'est la vie!

Thursday 3/30 About a week ago, I was invited to attend the Women Cultivating Women reception by a woman whom I had met at another networking event. It was an enlightening and empowering affair focused on relieving stress and effectively juggling responsibilities.

Friday 3/30 First Round of costume fittings for the dance performance on 4/7....still have work to do....

Saturday3/31 Fiber Philadelphia Closing Reception. The exhibit is open until April 12th.

Sunday 4/1 Another fitting....still more work to do....treat myself to dinner at my fave restaurant Bistrot La Minette.

So this is where things get tight, despite all of these fittings, I still have tons of work to do, and I've already made all of these commitments assuming that I would be finished, so I subsisted on Starbucks Frappucino and 3-5hour power naps. It was a miserable miserable week, but I made some good contacts at the Tuesday 4/3 Networking after Work at Prime Lounge, and then the next night after a semi-dress rehearsal, I attended an alumnae event at PAFA .


Finally on Thursday 4/5 I was finished! YaY!!!! However instead of sleeping, I attended the opening of "F" by Steven and BNilly Dufala at Fleisher/Ollman
 

Then I raced over to the Jessie Hemmons yarnbombing lecture at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. They're hosting a free lecture series entitled "Craft and Culture" and featuring different artists over the next few months.

Ishknits Opening at City Hall 2012

My body was telling me that it was very unhappy so I grabbed some tuna tartare at Devon Seafood and then headed to the g lounge for the RAW ART event featuring Christine Trott and Milicia. It was a great collection of different artists, but I was way too tired to stay, so I said hello to a few people I knew, networked with one woman and then headed home to bed....only to wake up at 6AM the next morning.

Friday 4/6 After work, I attended the Cheyenne Agency Fashion Show, where I won this beautiful bouquet of flowers created by Natasha Maes. The second thing I've ever won in my life, the first was the ticket to the movie premiere last month. Afterwards I treated myself to a King's Oak Burger !

Saturday 4/7 This journey started off hectic. I had a headache, and ended up having to sprint to catch the 5:00PM bus to NYC which fortunately did not leave until after I arrived at 5:07PM. Then once we got to New York, I got off on W. Broadway instead of E. Broadway, so after wandering for about 5minutes called several New York friends and was advised to just take a cab. I finally got to the Abrons Art Center at 7:30PM, to press/steam and do some last minute repairs to the costumes before the show started at 8PM. Of course no one knew where the steamer was and the iron just teleported out of there. Steamers take a while to heat up/boil, so I had to send the ladies out with semi-wrinkled garments. (They got wrinkled during the tech rehearsal an hour earlier.) Regardless,  A Fork and Stick Thing had good energy, whimsy and the costumes looked fantastic! I celebrated at the Sugar Cafe and then played musical trains to get from the Lower East side to Harlem because the F train was on a limited schedule due to construction. We were literally on 5 different trains, and traveling for about two hours, but it was still fun!

This past month or so has really inspired me, so I have a big announcement coming soon! I promise this week I will post on time:)
-JRochelle