Nicole Richie was spotted out at the FiFi Awards the other day looking sparkly in her Emilio Pucci frolic from the Spring 2012 Collection. I’m straddling the fence on this particular dress and her total look. I have fat knees and I hate my legs so I am not a fan of this style of dress where the front is short and the back is long.They are in every store I’ve visited now, argh!  It’s so adorable on younger girls but when you become a woman of age like me, it ain’t all that cute lol.I think Nicole did ok in the dress but the makeup could have been a bit more vibrant looking lol. I do love her hair though. She paired the dress with Brian Atwood “Marcella” black pump. Sidenote:Can you imagine having to go somewhere every freakin day,find an outfit then later someone snapping photos of you to be then criticized online? Lawd! I’m giving these celebs a break from now on! xoxo

I thought it was quite interesting when my fellow blogger buddy Kia(Cinco Mom) had the chance to visit Pixar and interview one of the cartoon designers from the upcoming film Brave. She got to ask designer Claudia Chung about making characters costumes. It was a fascinating read and I thought I would share this with you guys, since we all love fashion so much…

“So we first start with art, ” Claudia said. “  So it’s kind of their (the art department) idea, a conceptual idea, of what Merida’s dress should look like.  And basically those are the- the fullness of the skirt, the length as well, the tightness of the bodice, and how those two layers, there’s a shift underneath and then there’s a blue wool dress on top.  But there’s other key features that we want to make sure we hit, and that’s- that’s what’s happening on her elbows and shoulders,” she explains.

According to Claudia: ……the length of her dress, I have to hit that. The fullness of the skirt and the tightness of the bodice and other key features that we want to make sure we address.

So in this case, for this reference, what we notice is what’s happening on her elbows and shoulders, right? There’s these breaks there. And what you realize is that doesn’t look like the typical, fine dresses of that era where they’re like these poufy material. It’s actually something Merida cut into the dress herself. Merida cut it up in order to do the archery she’s so fond of. The reason why we know this is because the back of the elbows are a lot looser than the front. As a tailor we want to make sure we get that look right. For those of you who know sewing, you know that to do gathers or to get frills you take a really long piece of fabric and you sew it onto a much tighter, smaller piece and that’s why you see this strange halo up here. It’s sewn onto her collar. And then the last step is actually to put it on the character, right? So it’s not like in real life where I can go, “Merida, let’s go into the dressing room. Let’s put your dress on, your costume, you’re all set to go.” No. There’s no way. She’s animated. So instead we actually built the dress on the character. So you don’t see her there, but she is.

Then they pull and push on the computer and get it just right. Making sure that it moves with the characters. Now what about the boys? The men wear kilts and it’s a similar process.

……the other process that we use is draping. With the kilts, because of the complexity of the fold and stuff, we do actually more draping techniques of putting the pieces of fabric around the character and then relaxing it on. So here we have Fergus. He’s actually the most complicated costume we had to build on Brave because he has eight layers of fabric. On top of that, on his drape, that’s folded six, six to eight times. So it’s actually sixteen layers of cloth. The skirt really is a long piece of tartan, it really is just a flat piece of cloth like this. There’s no magic going on there. So we gather that all up and then we get to see how everything comes together. ….. we can say, “Action,” and he starts being animated and we make the cloth follow him.

What’s training like for tailoring clothes in a computer?

“My training is in computer science. I went to Berkeley and computer science.  I was very technical when I came to Pixar,” said Claudia. When I started on Ratatouille that’s when I went over to the tailoring side of things and it was actually a really hard process, a leap for me. It looked terrible when I started. And I got to the point, …..I was like, “Claudia, it’s time for you to take a sewing class.”.

Then we were off to hear tales of epic battles and mystical legends with Louis Gonzales, a Story Artist with Pixar. We explored the rugged and mysterious highlands of Scotland with Steve Pilcher, Production Designer and Tia Kratter Shading Art Designer. These two and their team worked extremely hard at making sure Brave had the true  look and feel of Scotland. They even took a research trip there and took more than 10,000 photos of the landscape.

BRAVE arrives in theaters everywhere on June 22nd!

“Like” BRAVE on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PixarBrave

How did I let this slip by me? A documentary about shoes? Me didn’t know anything about this darn film! “God Save My Shoes” is the first documentary film to explore the intimate relationship women have with their shoes. Featuring star designers such as Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Pierre Hardy, but also celebrities like Kelly Rowland,Fergie, Dita Von Teese, and many more, the film journeys into women’s psyche and closets, examining the psychological, sociocultural, and erotic significance of these objects. It’s on dvd now! xoxo

Check out the trailer!

www.godsavemyshoes.com

The chicas at Single Ladies is back and ready for more drama,shopping sprees,scoop and more in their new season! LisaRaye McCoy,Charity Shea and new cast member Denise Vasi all look fab! I liked watching this show and from viewing the new trailer, It looks very steamy! I’m loving the new promo pics and have my tv set to watch on May 28th on Vh1 for all the fun! Check out the video too! xoxo

I don’t own a designer Chanel jacket but one day I will! I have many Chanel inspired jackets though that look just as good. I just can’t drop down that much for one but boy would I love to have it! Check out these fun models rocking Chanel jackets in many ways for Elle’s June issue. Models  Ella Verberne, Josilyn Williams, Veranika Antsipava and  Vika Kuropyatnikova look great! FYI: I got my jacket from a Goodwill that was $5 bucks last week and it’s from White & Black. Not too shabby huh? xoxo