One Quarter Of Century !!

It's my birthday and so for this occasion I have a little treat for you all.

Starting now and until the end of the month everything on my Etsy Store is 45% off with this promo code : onequarterofcentury

Enjoy!

West Coast Road Trip

Moving to Vancouver was also to have the opportunity of travel a lot. After the Sunshine Coast in BC, I wanted more. So we did an amazing road trip with my boyfriend and one of my friend who was visiting us.
I fell in love of the West Coast, especially San Francisco, but I also loved all the smallest cities and National Parks on the 101 Highway.
We began with Seattle then Portland and San Francisco was the last stop in the south. And with a lot of stops between all this cities.

Since I came back I realized that I have mostly summer clothes with me and it's definitely not summer anymore here! So I have to make some winter as soon as possible. I will came back shortly with that.

Last thing, a surprise in my Etsy shop at the end of the week, so you should come back ...

Here some the road trip pictures.

A cute map made by my boyfriend with all our stops.

If I look impressed it's certainly because I am. The Seattle's troll and me.

Famous Public Market of Seattle. 

Going to a concert in Seattle is so great! It's really a city of musics.
We saw Beach House that night. 

Portland...
A place were you can even have a party in a convenient store... with an actual DJ!

Our sweet Portland couch surfer Mike, me and my friend Anaïs,
 (also known as my fashion model).

Whaaaaales!! A male and a female!

My favorite : Sea Lions.
Tried to steal one but didn't succeed...yet!

So gorgeous view of the coast.

The Redwood National Park and its huge red cedar trees.

San Francisco

We should have taken the cable car but we always forgot.     

 As a big big fan of Tales of the city, being in SF and especially in Castro was mythical. 

A last view of the city...

Sausalito and its beautiful houseboats.

 

On the road again.

Crater Lake and a new friend.

Hood River's pumpkin fields.

Work in Progress

Hey!

I know you missed me (at least I hope so, haha!).
I went away for traveling around with my boyfriend and our new-old van (how hippie of us).

We travel to Squamish and the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Our first vacation in a while.
Moving out to Vancouver doesn't really count as holiday for my part.
Nevertheless I enjoy it every seconds!

The Sunshine coast is so beautiful. It was a really inspirational, quiet and resourcing holiday.
We camped in the woods, ate fire melted marshmallows on a stick (the best!!) and did kayak on the sea.
And I saw seals when we were kayaking!!! I was so unbelievably and ridiculously happy!
I know seals are not that unusual, on the sunshine coast it's practically like seeing pigeons on Paris street, but seals and sea lions are my favorites animals. I know weird, right?

I wish I took pictures of it, there were like twenty of them, swimming around us with their cute little heads popping out of the sea, looking at us intrigued. But a camera and the sea is not the best idea so I conclude it's was one of those experienced you have to remembered.

And now since we came back, I'm in the process of making my new collection!
Usually I do sketching on my notebook and when I'm satisfied with the design I start my pattern on a piece of paper. Then I'm doing the sewing and construction.

But this time, I decided to make things right. Like a real fashion collection.
So, first thing no more scribbles on paper.

My friends, I start learning Adobe Illustrator. Yay!

I did a lot (like seriously HOURS) of illustrator tutorials online for this.
The best I found right now are this and that.

And tadaaaaaa!

An another seal is hiding on this picture. Can you spot it? 

Now I can do perfect flat sketches for my collection.

I love how it has a very clean, bright look. I'm kind of a perfectionist with drawings (someone said maniac?).

Next step, patterns on illustrator. That's a big challenge.

There will be more coming soon, guys. Stay tuned!

Back to school...work?

C'est la rentrée, people!!

This is the french to say "back to school" but I'm still not sure it's the same...
Because when we say "rentrée" it not necessarily means "school". Do I have to say "back to work" because I'm an adult ??!! Oh, I'm very confused with learning a new language and expressions!

However, more seriously, because this a serious topic, the "back to school" topic, here what I like about the end of august/september month:

First, I realized (again) this morning that now I'm a grown-up I will never have to go to school again!
It has been years now, but everytime, each september I'm so happy I have to repeat it : NO MORE HIGHSCHOOL!
No more mean girls! No more homeworks! No more pimples-on-face-when-speaking-to-handsome-guy! Hmm, no this last one is not so-true, damn chocolates and french charcuteries...

September is also one of the most important month for fashion.
You have all the new trend for Autumn/winter in magazines, the new collections in shops and soon the fashion weeks!!
I love how I get very inspired in Fall with all this (and now that I know Pinterest, I'm over the moon with it!).

So I have to go, because now I want to make a new trench for fall!!
I have a perfect fabric for that. A very thick sateen cotton! It's pink, so not very fall-ish to me (Brown and burgundy are the colors) but it will be very pretty! Maybe I will take some picture soon for you.

And if you are still searching for the perfect blouse to wear in september, stop searching, I have it in my shop!

Happy Birthday Gene!

A few days ago, I was walking in Main Street just a couple block from my apartment, when I was attired by something in this shop Much&Little.

I couldn't believe it at first but yes, it was a Lauren Moffatt shirt!

And they had more amazing pieces inside... Just gorgeous!

I have to tell you, I'm such a big fan of Lauren Moffatt! And it was the first time I saw it in the flesh.

So perfect outfits and so well-made. One more thing making me so happy to have move in Vancouver!

Here some of her collection :

Now I'm looking forward to Automn

Also, today the wonderful Gene Kelly would have been 100 years old. 

That would have been RAD! (haha I try to learn the slang here in Vancouver) (maybe I need to progress a little more...)

Because I love this song so much and Gene's sexy smile, here's a treat for you!

An another one I love love love! And this is a choregraphy I learned some years ago when I was a tap-dancer. 

Yep, secret past life!

See you!

Etsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny...

I remember that some time ago (yes, one year ago, I know, just shhh) I said something about putting items on Etsy.
Here it is, with the collection from my last fashion show for sale.

Many thanks to the beautiful Anaïs for being my model. You're the best!

There is half of the collection on Etsy right now. The rest will be add in a few days. This time I mean it.

Seriously.



And also a little treat for people loving Hollywood gossip as much as me, I found my next "Iwillbeonlineallnightlong" website.
Oh I'm sure some of you expected something like this, but sorry guys, I'm a classic Hollywood lover.
Enjoy!

Ready for the new adventure

Before leaving Paris, we had to do a lot of things to be ready.
Some were really annoying like moving out and storage all our stuff, organize papers, visas, a zillion doctor's visits and so on...
But one was great and exciting thanks to my beloved one!
He wanted a good coat for sooo long (you see, he's very very tall so he never finds anything good made to his size in store). And because while we prepared our depart for Vancouver we heard A LOT about the rain there, we thought about a good and solid rain coat like the britain pea-coat.
Three days later, voilà !!

I still need to take a finished picture of it with the buttons on. 

But it has been really hot and sunny all the time here in Vancouver so the coat is still at the bottom of a box. 

More of it in fall!

And sorry for the bad qualities pictures, my camera was already packed somewhere... 

Maybe I should just pretend it's the vintage filter, haha.

Vancouver rules, baby!!

So, yes I know.
My blog was in kind of a coma lately.
But I have good reasons of course (haha, haven't we all?).

I move from Paris to Vancouver in Canada, guys!

The months to come will be very different for me, obviously. And here, what is going to change in this blog:

First, from now on I will write in english (or try to do it). But if my french fan club want me to translate in french, no problem.
By "french fan club" i don't mean just you papa... I will hoping for a little more people!

Secondly, this time I will try to be more rigorous with this thing. Maybe one post each six months isn't very attractive for a blog, maybe.

And at last, I think I will not doing more Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter Collection in the next months.
This is time consuming with not a very good money-wise result.
So I will prefer to do small collection every month or couple of months, to keep it fresh and find a better opening for my fashion designs. But, we will see...

How does this sound?

Le défilé : Jour J

Couchée à 2h, levée à 6h, voilà la dernière ligne droite !
Il reste encore une pièce à faire, l'imperméable.
Je suis aidée de petites mains généreuses (Merci à Anne, Léa et Jean-Pierre) pour les dernières finitions : boutons à recouvrir, à coudre, faire les boutonnières et le repassage.
Nous arrivons à la Table d'Emile vers 17h30, place au maquillage et aux derniers essayages.
Le défilé commence de justesse à 20h. Près de 100 personnes sont présentes dans la salle et découvrent la Collection.
4 passages de 3 tenues portées par Amel, Barbara et Anaïs.
Dans le "backstage" il faut faire vite, préparer toutes les tenues suivantes avec les chaussures, les coiffures et les bijoux associés. L'imperméable pas totalement finalisé a besoin d'épingles. Les trois mannequins défilent avec grâce et de grands sourires amusés.

Le défilé dure une vingtaine minutes.
Gilles, le maître de cérémonie aura commenté et détaillé chacune des tenues accompagné par Patrick Aigrain au piano.
Je tiens à remercier Robert et Françoise de la Table d'Emile qui ont eu l'idée originale de faire ce défilé dans ce restaurant.
Et Merci à mon amie bijoutière-joaillière Hyun Jung Lee de m'avoir prêter ses beaux bijoux pour sublimer mes créations.
Les vêtements seront prochainement mis en vente sur le site et sur Etsy.
Pour être tenu au courant, n'hésitez pas à suivre la page Facebook Aïdée Doazan