Left: trash bag dress created and modeled by myself; right: model wears dress from Lanvin fw 08.

You might remember me making a gazillion dresses out of one big trash bag a while ago (see pictures here). Afterwards I bought some similar looking real fabric and decided to make the trash bag dress get real (see pictures here). Well, a couple of days ago, while browsing through the latest fall/winter 2008/9 collections, I discovered a dress at Lanvin that was rather similar to one of the trash bag dresses I made. I just thought it was pretty funny. It’s not that I say that he copied me or something, because I know that is rather impossible. It’s just comforting to see that my thoughts (fashion-wise) were similar to those of the great designer that is Alber Elbaz.

Click to read the full post and take a look at my favorite pieces from the amazingly chic Lanvin fall/winter 2008/9 collection.  

I mentioned before about my participation at the “My Grandma’s Backyard” event at La Scena, in Bucharest. Well, it happened and it was a bunch of hard work mixed with fun and sales. I didn’t know what to expect regarding the clothing sales, I had yet to see customers browse through my handmade clothes on the hangers. And I tell you, it is such an amazing feeling to see the way customers react, to see them touching your designs, trying them on. You can learn so much from analyzing the way random customers react to your work! I didn’t even know it was such an enlightening and thoughtful experience. Seriously. It was such a great lesson to learn. Right now I eagerly want to get back to work, as I’m afraid not to loose my thoughts after the event.

These are the clothes I took to the event. Unfortunately I didn’t have many spring/summer 2008 designs left, as I had sold most of the collection (see the look-book here). I had to buy my own standers (the metal thing you place the hangers on; I’m not sure how they are called) and a lot of hangers, but it was cool to realize how much better the clothes look placed on hangers. I almost felt like a designer.

So, this was my corner and this lovely lady is Elena, the editor of Cosmopolitan Sunshine, wearing one of my fall/winter 2008/9 designs. I brought a few pieces from the up-and-coming fall collection too, just because I didn’t have so many of my summer designs left.

The lovely and super-friendly Andreea from Biba Bijoux had a new collection to present called Filmstrip. Jewelry featuring original cutouts from vintage magazines about movies and movie stars. The idea, like the designs, was unique and you can still get your own Alice Faye (*or any other retro, glam movie star) earrings, reasonably priced, by contacting her. Hurry up because they are one-of-a-kind.

See more photos from the event and read more about who attended by reading the whole post!  

I transformed a lot of clothes by now, most of them I left back at home thinking they would stick forgotten in their corner. But I’m gad to see my sister, Florina, discovered my [homemade] clothes and she is actually wearing them. For example this dress that I made last summer, from a pair of sweatpants. Yes, you read it right. Just look at the top part with the elastic and closure, it’s that of a pair of sweatpants. The reason why I didn’t want to throw them away was that I loved the color, soft feel of the fabric and of course the dragon embellishment on the back.

A dragon spitting fire on the ass looks a bit off putting (just like “Juicy” does), but when placed on the back it suddenly fits in. Thanks sis for being a trooper and wearing my clothes; you are indeed my first customer.

What to do with a random t-shirt that your mom stained while washing it? I usually wear them layered, so the stain doesn’t show, or if it does, I just tell those that attention me about it, that I’m a painter and that I’m supposed to have all my clothes stained with color. Guess what, it works! But this time it was my sister’s tank top that got stained, and she cared about it a lot (I really don’t know why), so she asked me to do something about it. I decided to paint it a bit, with textile colors, to hide the yellow stains that were visible. I chose a contrasting color (red-green > pink-light green), so that the eye is easily distracted when looking at it. If you do look closely at the first picture, you might actually notice the stain, but when you wear it’s unnoticeable.

So, next time you stain your shirt, don’t waist the fabric, just recycle it by painting the stained part. This way you also do something for the environment. Let’s go green!

I am a handbag person. It all goes back to my hight and the fact that I don’t “dare” to wear high heels when walking amongst normal people, because I don’t wanna look like a giant, so handbags are my favorite accessory. In about two years I got about 80 different types of handbags, I also sewed some myself. Today I got inspired to sew another one. Why? Because all it costs me is the invested time.

So, I wanted to do a clutch from textile fabric. I had about 20 bits of square fabric, but used only 6 for this handbag. It also has a harder material on the inside, because the striped fabric was too elastic for holding stuff inside. The closure is a zipper, on the inside of the top part of the bag, where the pleats are. I had such a hard time sewing the zipper on, because the fabric got too thick for the needle to properly go through. After two destroyed needles and 2 hours of work, I finally finished it. If you want it, just let me know at diana[at]sofashon.com or dianabobar[at]yahoo.com. [God, I can’t wait for the website to be finished, including the “Contact” part, so I don’t have to always write my e-mail addresses].

Anyway, looks pretty decent, right? Click for more images after the jump!