Originally posted November 20, 2010
My youngest – the soon-to-be-18 year old (male) is taking fashion design at school. This wasn’t necessarily by choice – but, because he tends to dress as a “fashion plate,” his guidance teacher suggested that fashion design might suit him – no pun intended. His response, as usual, was – whatever and when can I get back to the computer!
Well, we have discovered, because he has to commit to a post secondary program this year, that he wants to write apps – good choice since soon the Internet will be just a collection of apps. Ryerson is the target and the faculty that supports apps also supports – dance, theatre, interior design (different from interior decorating), fashion design, photography and a few others. So to get into “apps” with not the greatest marks in math, might be to start with fashion design and then switch. He actually could have done theatre or dance – but fashion design is what is offered at this school – so FD it is!
Well, it’s 3:00pm on a Sunday afternoon and he announces that he needs fabric for tomorrow. He needs to make an apron! OK. The shops suggested by his teacher were:
1. The other side of the city & closed on Sunday.
2. Yorkville – think the most expensive shops in the world!!
So, what happened to the cheapies!!! I decided that we could get some interesting and inexpensive fabric at Ikea – just 20 minutes away.
Well, the conversation evolved as we browsed the very limited, but very Swedish, fabric selection. This had to be an apron that you could walk down a runway with – cold sweat – maybe we were in the wrong place. Wait a minute; he loved a very busy design that would have made a great gift apron for a well dressed hostess….. But it needed something else. Underneath a few bolts were some gauzy fabrics – probably for sheers. (I knew we were in the wrong place) Anyway he decided that the navy gauze would make a lovely tie at the back of the apron and as he said “and this would go right on top of her butt”. At this point, I realized, that not only were we in the wrong place; but also, that I had failed as a mother! We bought the gauze, the busy print and a solid complementary fabric for, pockets I guess, I’m not sure what one needed pockets for, in this soon to be a boudoir apron.
Well, at least the total bill was just $16.00 – today that is. Because, as we were leaving he said, “I was also thinking of leather and we need buttons, lots of buttons.”
This was not going to be your grandmother’s apron. This was really, as I finally gathered, a forerunner to a more high fashion garment, but the students’ sewing skills were still developing. In my naivete I thought apron; he thought Alexander McQueen!
Fabric is just one step removed from yarn. There is a danger that we may be imposing our own limitations on knitting designs because of our own limited experiences. Maybe the next “scary” thing you do is to knit this or something as challenging, just to see what happens – untie those apron strings!!!
| Spiral Top from Vadis Designs |
Dinner? Something daring…..and raw. How about a Ceviche of shrimp. The heading for this recipe said that it was regularly served on the beaches in Mexico. Well, you’d likely be wearing more than and apron – OK a little more anyway. Enjoy!