A Geek Girl's Guide to Swimwear: Part Three. Superheroes.

(Posted on Wordpress June 26th, 2014. Half done moving key pieces over!)

For the final installment of this series, I give you a shopping guide for superhero swimsuits. I have mixed feelings about all things geek having gone terribly mainstream in the last decade but, I must admit that I love how accessible the clothing that is inspired by this culture is and, as long as I'm publicly divulging, I have as many pieces of clothing featuring superhero logos as I do ones with punk band logos. I'm also trying not to hit backspace.

I promise that I will try really hard not to have to rename this post "Part Three: Wonder Woman-inspired Swimsuits" but... Check. These. Out.

Wonder Woman:

Plunge halter one piece by Pinup Girl Clothing is my favourite (I'm on the wait list, as it's currently out of stock). $40.00 USD.

 

Also by Pin Up Girl Clothing is this one-shouldered piece. $40.00 USD.

 

Also sold out for now and also at $40.oo USD is the bikini set, from Pinup Girl Clothing.

Lastly from Pinup Girl Clothing, as far as Wonder Woman goes, is this graphic print swimsuit. $48.00 USD.

 

Sci Feye Candy, on Etsy, has this wonder-kini for $95.00 CAD.

 

Fit 2 Be Tied Clothing, also on Etsy, has a Wonder Woman monokini for $66.16 CAD.

 

Batman/Batgirl:

Bodydecorator.com. $24.99 USD.

 

 

Pin Up Girl Clothing has this bikini for $40.00 USD.

 

The lace-up back one-piece suit by Pin Up Girl Clothing. $48.00 USD.

 

Hot Topic has a reversible Batman bikini. Now on sale for $17.15 USD.

 

Other:

Fit 2 Be Tied Clothing, on Etsy, also has this Green Lantern-inspired bikini. $53.00 CAD.

 

Hot Topic. Captain America monokini. Currently on sale for $10.49 USD.

Sci Feye Candy also has this BAM-POW-kini for $95.00 CAD.

 

 

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A Geek Girl's Guide to Swimwear: Part Two. Wizards, Dragons and Magical Woodland Creatures.

(Posted on Wordpress June 24th, 2014)

Whether, like me, you've been reading fantasy since your teens and your passion has evolved and changed over the years; you're suddenly into fantasy because OMFG GAME OF THRONES (!!!) and who knew dragons were so awesome (a lot of did but that's okay); or every year you look forward to those two weeks in summer when you can wrap yourself up in velvet robes, dawn pointy, latex ear tips and charge into the woods with hundreds of other enthusiasts, with a scrap metal and paper maché shield  on one arm and a foam sword gripped tightly in your other hand, this list might be worth checking out because it's summer and geeks, whether raging or burgeoning, go to the beach, too!

Lord of the Rings:

As with my post on Star Wars-inspired swimwear, Black Milk is going to take the cake on this one, with their Middle Earth collection.

Featured, are pieces like their Tree of Gondor swimsuit. $100 AUD.

 

Black Milk's Lord of The Rings Montage swimsuit. $100 AUD.

 

Jolly Chic has a Legolas print swimsuit. $12.99 USD.

 

And, while a lot of companies seem to be selling this particular number (I've located a wholesale company in China that is selling them, as well as some of the other LOTR printed ones, online), Summer Sonic, on Etsy, is offering this piece for $21.90 CAD.  This, once more, makes me raise my eyebrow at Etsy, but that's a can of worms for another day.

By now, you're getting the pattern: Black Milk is boss, when it comes to geeking out on the beach, Etsy has some great, if dubious, options and, once in while, I can find great pieces offered by others (as you'll see in my next post). With that out of the way, let me wrap this list up for you!

Harry Potter:

Modest Luxury, on Etsy. $37.41 CAD. (You can get the same suit on Black Milk for $100 AUD).

Summer Sonic, on Etsy has this one for $21.94 CAD.

And this one, for the same price.

Game of Thrones:

Summer dress that I think should qualify for this category of clothing. Black Milk Reversible Thrones Skater Dress. $95 AUD. Most sizes are now made to order.

The Woman Win or Die swimsuit, on Amazon. $20.50 USD.

And for something a little more subtle, they say "mermaid" and I say "dragon".

High-waist swimsuit bottom from London Blushes, on Etsy. $37.38 CAD.

From Sidewalk 616, on Etsy, here is an adorable, pink, mermaid (*cough* dragon*cough*) bikini bottom:

(These last two are definitely handmade so high-five to these sellers!)

And, last but not least, Black Milk's Drogon Dragon Eggs Vegas Suit. $100 AUD.

I've decided to save the best selection for last so, up next: Superheroes!

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A Geek Girl's Guide to Swimwear: Part One. Star Wars.

(Posted on the wordpress version of this blog on June 19th, 2014).

For many, the ideal epitome of girl-geek-meets-bikini is, of course, the little number Leia Organa wore when captured by Jabba the Hutt, in Return of the Jedi. You can purchase this costume from one of many web sites and wear it wherever the hell you you like (because YOLO?) or you can read on and choose from one these fabulously geeky and (mostly) practical pieces.

I began by looking up licensed clothing but, a lot like when I made my own Leia costume and it was a dozen times prettier and more realistic than the the shiny, poly blend messes I found online, I am choosing to ignore my original findings in favour of these.

I think it's safe to say that Black Milk is top dog when it comes to geek swimwear. They actually have a Star Wars collection that features these:

The Artoo Swimsuit. $100 AUD

The AT-AT Swimsuit. $100. AUD

 The Force Swimsuit. $100 AUD

 Nerd Meets Girl has also come up with their own  collection of swimsuits that pay tribute to Star Wars. Each piece has the same shape but the graphics vary. Grab one for $90.00 USD.

 

Etsy also has a slew of Star Wars swimwear, some of which is a direct copy of what Black Milk is selling and some of it more original.

I think this R2D2 wrap , which is going for $47.28 CAD at Rooby Lane is pretty rad.

 

Summer Sonic, another shop on Etsy, has this Darth Vader Swimsuit for $22.11 CAD.

 

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My Production Crew Karma Must Change (Or: Man, Do I Hope Things Work Out With This Pattern Maker)

I've already touched upon some f the following in my Roots series but I have had phenomenal bad luck when it comes to hiring pattern and sewing help in Montreal. Phenomenal. A part of me thinks that this may be due to some of the things that happened with me very first crew.

In 2003, when I was twenty-three, I created a cybergoth/rivethead line and I had a fantastic crew of three to help me make the patterns and assemble the clothing. at the time, I was still self-taught so they were actually more knowledgeable than I was and, because they believed in me and in what I was doing, they worked for free. I was able to give them each an envelope with some bonus money it in at one point but that was it. Despite several hiccups, I put on a fashion show at Foufs, in front of a packed house and most people loved it. I was young and the single mom of two babies at that point, though, and the reaction to the show made me panic. Instead of producing the clothing and moving forward, I hid and didn't design anything for a few years, dropping my crew on its collective head and feeling ashamed for quite some time.

I get it now but it was hard for me to swallow that failure for years afterward. Once in a while I tell myself that that move was what created the shit karma I have had when it comes to pattern makers.

1. The Story Teller and her friend

At the beginning of 2005, I hired someone who convinced me to hire her friend. I'd seen girl number one around at parties and the only thing I knew about her is that she was semi-stalking one of my friends. Desperate times, though. I hired her anyway.

To make a long story short, girl number one missed almost every meeting we had, coming up with a more outlandish story each time and then, when I passed by her place to pick up clothing for a shoot, I didn't take the time to check the quality of the garments before paying her. I got home and discovered that the most of the seams were crooked and non of it had been assembled with care. It was sloppy work and I was stuck with samples I would have to camouflage in the shoot and could most certainly not sell afterward.

Girl number two wanted work right away so I asked her to make a batch of ties while I finished up work with number one. She handed me a bag of twisted up bits of sewn fabric that looked like they might have been ties at some point in time and the proceeded to charge me for ten hours of work. I refused to pay her for the garbage I had been handed and she actually filed a complaint with the provincial labour board. Because she had never bothered to call me after tie number one to let me know that she couldn't handle making them, I ended up winning.

2. The Swimsuit Massacre

I studied fashion design at Collège Lasalle and then, a couple of years later, designed a few swimsuits and planned a shoot. I hired someone who was about ten years older than me, had tons of experience and was desperate for work. She had a cross stitch machine and showed me samples of her work so I didn't see a problem. Our meetings went well and communication was great, in general. She got a full-time job about a week before my shoot and tried to push back the deadline. I told her this was impossible and that the pieces had to be done on time. It was only three swimsuits, after all!

The night before the shoot, I cabbed out to a café on the Plateau, met with this woman, gave her an envelope of cash and left with a sports bag containing the samples and patterns for the three suits. I had yet to learn from my past mistakes and so I didn't even look at the work before leaving. I know, I know (now).

I went out for a drink with a friend, went home, woke up the next morning and started pulled the first piece out of the bag. I pulled the other two out. Then I sat down and cried.

Thankfully, I worked with a photographer and models who were very understanding. The crotch width of each piece was more suitable for a five-year-old girl's swimsuit than for a grown woman's and models kept having to stand in such a way that they could inconspicuously hold the bust in place. the last swimsuit we shot was a disaster. There were gaping holes where there should have been seams and the seams were very crooked. I was so lucky to work with a woman I had actually gone to school with and who convinced me that we could at least get a few promo shots with the shoot.

Here are two excessively camouflaged shots of the worst bathing suit in the line:

3. The Swimmer

Not long after the swimsuit fiasco, I hired someone to fix the mess the previous pattern maker had made. she was very young but had studied fashion design and, being a professional swimmer herself, was quite interested in the designs. She took my green leopard fabric, one of my patterns and disappeared.

4. Madame AWOL

I interviewed this woman in a Verdun café. She seemed together and excited about working with me so I hired her. I assigned two pairs of shorts and two blouses to her. She made the patterns, the  muslin samples. We had a fitting and everything went really well. I couldn't believe that I'd finally found someone with whom I could work. She insisted on a second fitting so I asked her to go ahead and make second muslin samples. She disappeared. This time, at least, she didn't have any of my patterns or fabric. Just more money down the drain.

5. Now

And this brings us to now. I hired a girl who really seems to know her shit and we have a lot of friends in common so I know she can't disappear (I can't believe that had to be a factor but it was!). Communication has been great and I'm meeting her tomorrow to pick up the first muslin samples. I have a fitting on Monday and my fingers are crossed! If this doesn't work, I'm not supporting local contractors anymore. I will outsource everything to NYC and finally see some finished products.

What helps is that, this time around, I'm busting my ass too so I'm guaranteed to have pieces for the shoot, whether or not things go well with this pattern maker. There is also the fact that I have finally learned from my lessons and will be double-checking the hell out of everything from now on!

Top photo source: 101fashiontoday,wordpress.com

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Swimsuit Styling Guide: Wearing White Or Yellow On The Beach When You Can't Or Won't Tan. (Or: From Pasty to Ka-POW!)

When it comes to selecting a bathing suit, I'm not sure just how many times I've either been told to avoid certain colours or witnessed one of friends gripe about how she wished she could pull off white, yellow, tan, coral or green. Before going over options, let's be real. I am of Lebanese, English and Québecoise descent. I am wicked pale and I've never tanned to more than a light golden but, thanks to my Lebanese heritage, in certain light, I appear to be tinged with a hint of... green. This has made me shy away from yellow for years. Most of us have a colour or two that make us look sickly but I find too many people are terrified of wearing a yellow or white swimsuit.

THE WHITE SUIT:

Let me first dispel a ridiculous notion by hereby declaring that pale women can wear white swimsuits. That said, know that the paler you are, the more washed out the suit will make you appear. As with most suits, the cut is very important but how you style a white suit will make a huge difference. My recommendation is to buy a vintage-inspired suit, top it with a vintage headscarf or floppy sun hat; oversize sunglasses; a wide, plastic bracelet and/or chunky, plastic ring; waterproof mascara, a light dusting of bronzer and a matte red lip or coral gloss. This works for any skin tone and hair colour. Embody Marilyn and work it. 

Here are two white suits that can help you accomplish this:

The Bathing Beauty two-piece in white from Modcloth. $89.

For those of who may prefer a replica of the infamous Marilyn suit, I found one on Etsy for $215.19 CAD.

THE YELLOW SUIT

I'm not going to lie: Yellow is by far the toughest colour for a pale woman to pull off, no matter what her nationality is. Would I wear a yellow swimsuit? Maybe. Once more, the way to pull this colour off is by going retro, whether it be elegant and classic or cutesy and fun.

If you want a fantastic example of how a yellow swimsuit can be elegantly styled, check out this listing. This photo alone is enough to convince me to make myself something similar!

Prints can also soften the effect of yellow against alabaster. Add white polka-dots to a suit and you've got an entirely different feel.

The Seasons of The Sun swimsuit from Modcloth is an example of this. Top: $49.99 USD. Bottom: $39.99 USD. 

On Etsy, I found this great little two-piece for $75.32 CAD.

Wearing yellow when you are pale and blonde is even more difficult, as brown hair warms up the overall effect and red hair compliments yellow (the brighter the red, the better!). Remember to accessorize with reds or blues to cut through all the yellow!

TATTOOS

All of this can apply to women with tattoos but I feel that, the more you have, the more you can pull off the above colours without worrying too much about styling. When the expanse of your skin is adorned with black and/or coloured ink, it is impossible to look as washed out. 

ETC...

In the next few posts, we'll look at swimsuits for the grown-up punk, statement pieces, beach body care, beach make-up, summer hairstyles and summer hair care. 

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Roots. Part Seven: riff-raff clothing co. And My First Swimsuit Shoot 2008-2010.

Until last year, the first half of 2008 was the happiest I'd ever been since the year we first moved away from Montreal, when I was a child. I was head over heels in love with a local psychobilly musician, we had just moved into the flat I still lived in today, we were engaged to be married and, aside from some of his skeletons occasionally rearing one of their ugly, hollow heads, life was great. After years of botched relationships and general hardship, I'm not sure I even knew what to do with that much happiness and had a hard time staying away from the self-destruct button. We both struggled with that (the string of relationships he'd had were messes, to say the least) and, by Christmas, we had hit a few major, personal bumps in the road but we continued to plow through, devoted to each other and to a stable future together. I designed from time to time but spent most of my time doing my best to support him and stand by him while he dealt with the issues he had severing himself from the band he'd been with for eight years, The Gutter Demons and trying to launch the new, electro-rock band he'd formed a while back but had now decided to dedicate himself to... not to mention his as-of-yet untreated bi-polar disorder, the psychotic breaks he'd have when he did touch alcohol, the shakes he got when he went through withdrawal and all kinds of other rather interesting goings-on. 

On the way back from a trip to Ottawa:

When juggling all of that, my two children, and my own insecurities stemming from dating someone whom hundreds of women around the world wanted to throw their panties at became second nature, I finally settled down and started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I wanted to design but still didn't think I had what it took to dip a toe in mainstream fashion waters and so I began to focus on the subcultures that were of interest to me at the time and had been for a few years. 

I set up an etsy shop called Great Expectations, after the Dickens' novel, and started selling vintage clothing and jewelry while i ordered t-shirts from wherever I could get them and began reconstructing them into dresses, halter tops, skirts, tube tops, etc. I did fairly well for myself with this but not enough to quit my day job just yet. After years of shying away from it, I started to sketch again and I think it really helped me to keep it together as best as I could as shit hit the fan.

Some of the reconstructed tees I sold during that time:

I also made accessories from time to time:

Luckily, I had a wonderful friend to talk to. After meeting through mutual friends, we had decided to work together, seeing as she is a (super talented) photographer. Our professional relationship was made all the more interesting by the fact that we became fast friends. From the get-go, Annie was always welcome to offer her input on my designs and on styling and I always felt comfortable enough to speak my mind whenever it came to the actual photos she would take. It was great because I'd call her up, freaking out about the boy and our conversation would just slip into the realm of design and art and photography and it kept me focused and motivated. She kept me sane throughout this period.

This was taken in December, 2009:

By the fall of 2009, both of our mothers were diagnosed with cancer. Not long after, he took to drinking again, lying about it and staying out all night, coming home at six in the morning, with puke on his coat, bloodshot eyes and a wicked stench cloud hovering over him. Everything just fell apart and the more I tried to talk to him about it and try to help, the more he closed up for long periods and then lashed out for brief, agonizing moments. I was completely co-dependent and just rode the roller coaster, trying to hang on for dear life. Recreating a pattern he had gone through so many times before, he changed his hair, his clothing, his friends, the music he listened to and basically, in front of my eyes and alongside the life we were living together, he constructed a new life for himself and, when it was elaborate enough to keep feeding whatever delusions he needed to keep alive, he announced, in a drunken stupor no less, that he would be moving out. That was April 2010. 

This was taken about a week before:

A part of me was crushed but another part of me, one I had yet to really discover until last year, was extremely relieved. The night he left, Annie called me and asked me how I felt. When I told her I was sad, she immediately started to comfort me but I interjected, "No, Annie. I'm not sad because he's gone. I'm sad because I so incredibly relieved at the fact that my front door is closed and locked and will stay that way until I unlock it and open it again." I wouldn't  have to wait for hours and cringe when I heard the repeated scratching of a key being drunkenly aimed at the lock for a few minutes, wondering what kind of mood he'd be in when he finally tripped through the door. 

My riff-raff clothing co. tags right after I got them in the mail:

A few weeks before the last shoe dropped, I had hired a pattern maker who would also act as sample maker for a few months, to assemble some swimsuit designs I had been working on. I had come up with the name riff-raff clothing co. and had a fairly good idea of where i wanted to head with it. As luck would have it, buddy announced that he was leaving the day after my first riff-raff shoot so you can imagine how hard it was to focus on the tasks at hand. but i did and we got through it.

The night before the shoot, I cabbed across town to meet my pattern maker and seamstress, a slightly neurotic woman named Suzanne. Always check your goods before paying for them. I know this sounds simple but it can be so easy to trust people at times. I went out for drinks with a friend afterward, opened the duffle bag the suits were in, had a quick look, gasped, shut the bag again and concentrated on drinking and crying on my chum's shoulder.

The next morning I took the time to really investigate the suits. What a horrific mess. We're talking crooked seams galore, some fabric not even sewn to other fabric, where it should have been, crotches and gussets that looked like they had been made for a toddler's vagina to fit in and not a grown woman's. And I had paid a few hundred dollars for the patterns and samples. Constant adjustments, double-sided tape and tricky poses were required to keep everything looking good enough for the camera. Luckily I worked with women who were good at camouflaging and didn't judge me for my sub-contractor's shitty work. 

Here is the lovely Annie Stephens at work on the shoot. We had looked around for a location for weeks and finally found exactly what we'd been looking for in an industrial area, just a few blocks away from my apartment.

Aside from one of my models showing up excessively late with greasy hair and an attitude to match, the shoot went really well. (At one point said model inquired about who I was going through a break-up with and when I told her, her response was "Oh! I had been wondering what happened to that guy! So he's single now, huh?" I didn't really talk to her after that point, unless i had to, and when i told the boy, he lovingly told me that had anyone of his acquaintances said that, they would have gone through our tv head-first.)

Some of the photos from the shoot:

The first model, Billie Prudence, was an absolute joy to work with. She did, at times, make Annie and I wonder if we should have drafted up waivers for the models to sign, especially when she climbed up a rickety metal staircase in stilettos and began to pose on a narrow ledge, twenty feet above the pavement! This is why we loved working with her, though; this was our first shoot and the first person to be shot within it and Billie really made it easy for us, not needing any direction whatsoever.

Check out the aforementioned staircase and ledge:

The swimsuits attracted a lot of attention but nothing sold right away. I hired someone else to help with fixing the patterns and, after saying that she'd been looking for swimsuit design ideas, she disappeared with my green leopard print fabric and one of my patterns. After that I focused on reconstructing tees some more and took a breath while I tried to figure out what to do with my life, now that it had changed so drastically. I knew I wanted to move forward with riff-raff clothing co. but I also knew I wanted more. I just had to figure out what that was... 




***
addendum: the swimsuits seen here will be once more be available for purchase as of autumn 2013.

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