Some runway pics, and random other stuff

I went to the show tonight as a spectator and had a lot of fun! Some times I feel like ... when did I become the cool kid? I feel like everyone knows me and it's neat. I was never super popular so it seems a bit surreal. I'm not complaining, nor am I bragging, I simply find it flattering and some what baffling when people make such a fuss over me. I'm not used to it- and I definitely still struggle with lots (you who read the blog may have noticed) and I am still definitely still a bartender ... oh so fancy. Its good. Still having a real job to pay my Real bills keeps my grounded....not that I wouldn't mind being a full time designer someday, I'm just not there yet.

These are some of the photos from the show. They're the first I've seen so I posted them for those of you that missed the it. I'm sure some more good ones will surface, and I'll probably post those too. I'll also post the creatives I do with my photographer friends... yay pictures! sorry they're lined up so wonky- I tried to put them side by side but they sorta went all turrets on me. I'm still figuring out this upload pictures thing. Oh computers...magical boxes that make stuff happen, how you puzzle me,, anyways...I'm getting better.

Katia and Mandy my bodacious girlfriends wore a couple of my looks to the show tonight-just as spectators. It was so fun! Me and Geoff dressed up too. We all felt so fancy! Katia is such a good sport- she wore my look right off the runway hat and all! She looked awesome, I can't wait to post those pics. I also lent a dress to Jessica Mclaren tonight- she's the official photographer and her and her husband are responsible for turning the beautiful historical building (the bank of Nova Scotia on Stevens ave) into an incredible restaurant and fashion week venue. She's going to buy the dress and wear it to her wedding reception. It's the last pic I posted, the full skirt white dress with the chandelier silk screen print. I'm so flattered- she's going to look incredible. I'm also going to make hats for her 6 bridesmaids...they're going to look so couture, I'm thrilled!!!!! More hats!! I love pretty girls in pretty hats. They make the world go round.

I could cry with joy

Well, I did cry with joy.

I cry lots though. My parents used to say I was sensitive. . to avoid saying the obvious... anyways. The show was a hit. I don't really know if it could have been any better. Every girl fit every dress no problem, nobody was stuffed into anything, everything looked amazing. The hats that I made this week out of screen from screen doors were awesome. They really completed a lot of the looks. (thank you art school!)

Its so overwhelming to go into the crowd after and have a flurry of people rush up to you. Its hard to focus on anyone or anything, it all happens so fast. I had so many wonderful friends there and everybody was so supportive. Thank you everyone that guided me through this journey. It's such an epic process that takes so many people to pull together. Every kind word, every comment on here, facebook, or in life, every pat on the back, creative support, technical support, it all contributes to my being able to pull something like this off. It might seem tedious or insignificant but it all matters to me-so thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

opps, crying again. I shall attempt to be less mushy. Without tooting my own horn too much, I definitely felt strong and proud last night. All of the late nights..not only sewing, but lost in thought trying to pull every little detail together, was worth it. That being said-I'm glad its over. I can clean my studio....

I had a couple of people want to sell my stuff in there stores... You might be seeing Kyle Nylund in a store near you very soon! until then feel free to come over and play dress up- I have a closet full of pretty dresses.

Tomorrow!!!!!!

Well, I broke down. I opened the cupboard and there it was, shinning like a beacon of comfort food- Kraft dinner. I don't even know how it got in the house to be honest.... the neighbor gave us food when she moved away...that must be it. I haven't made myself a pot of Kraft dinner in probably a year. . . but there it was. All my troubles. All my cares. Melted away as I watched the tablespoon of butter ooze into the delicious pot of cheesy pasta. I added a can of Cambells tomato soup the way my mom used to. So Good. It also explains why I was such a fat child.

I decided that I deserve it. I've worked so hard. . and the show is tomorrow. I might have to let out my jacket since I've basically applyed the pasta directly to my obliques, but I don't care. Is it just me or does Kraft dinner cook faster than regular pasta. I never noticed that before...they make it so easy...tricky Kraft.

I have some anxiety about tomorrow. I haven't tried anything on the models. I hope to god I picked girls that will fit my stuff. There was no fitting, it's taken this long just to solidify everything and confirm the models in the first place. I'm scared. I'm nervous. I'm full of Kraft dinner.

I made 3 hats and am going to make one more. They're so pretty, I'm really happy with them. I used window screen and wire to achieve the look I wanted. My hands feel like I've been playing in barb wire but it was worth it. I borrowed shoes from Townshoes and jewelry from Beadles beads and jewelry. I was lining up my stuff to look at it about an hour ago and realized I was missing two pieces. I panicked. I searched found them after about a half hour of looking but it was a half hour of terror. With photoshoots and running around picking stuff up, borrowing stuff, I was so scared I left them somewhere. Thankfully everything is present and ready for tomorrow.

They used my image for all the publications. I wasn't sure if you noticed- but its pretty exciting. They're posted all around the city. That was the big secret news that I posted a few blogs ago. I knew they were going to before I was allowed to tell anyone. I'm sorta famous. just sorta. just this week.

I should probably wear a big hat. or a spandex unitard. I have a couple....

soar. oh so soar

It has been brought to my attention that I am hideously out of shape. We did the film at the Banff center on the weekend and I think it's going to be awesome!! very Moulin Rouge meets... homo. I'm the homo. Anyways the main seen is one where the audience watches me perform an 'spectacular hula hoop act' on stage. Meanwhile there's other drama, yada yada, basically every take from every angle, every time an actor did something wrong or different, every time the director changed her mind- I got to hula hoop, again and again and again because I was the background performance shot.

I'm not complaining about the organization- this is the nature of film, and it always takes a while to get things right.... I was just so SO tired by the end of filming that day, and have decided that I am in fact very out of shape. and I'm very soar today. I think I lost 5 pounds in a hot costume under the stage lights hula hooping though.

We did have a lovely time. Geoff was there only for the first day of filming. We went out for a really nice dinner Friday night at the 3 Ravens lounge at the Banff center. I ate duck, hmmm delicious duck. Banff is so beautiful, we stayed at the Banff center too, which was so nice. I would love to do a residency there, or a work study or something.

I went looking for one of the props I lent on Sunday morning and found the unlocked costume room by accident....i had to go in. They were making these crazy wonder woman looking costumes with epic cone boobs. I had such a hayday looking at how everything was made, it was so neat! I would love LOVE love to work there. I got caught by the janitor though.... I was sneaking through and she kicked me out...

Today is Monday and I only have a few days to organize everything for the show. I feel tired of all this. It's kinda dragged out. First show, film, second show, collapse. This is the natural order of things

i want to make hats this week...big hats.


I am showing at the Banke Friday night so get your tickets everyone!!

I couldn't help myself.... here's a sneak peek of the photoshoot I did with Noah on Tuesday. Nothing is photoshpped or anything yet but I think they're going to be pretty good. This is also one of the pieces I'll be showing at fashion week.

Anywho, I'm driving to Banff tomorrow to do this film and I feel completely unprepared.... if you're in the film.... don't worry, I'll get it together. I just haven't had time to get everything organized. It'll be fine, I have today and tomorrow off so I can get everything ready. The film is really neat. It's an abstract dream sequence of the main character. Every character in the dream is an aspect of her psyche, and every character is based on a Tarot card. Geoffrey my partner is in the film, playing the Devil (quite fitting;) and I am Hula hooping in the film... I think I'm the world... I'm not sure actually....better figure that out. Anyways, I get to organize all the costumes and style the film! and I'm even getting paid a little! yay! I would have done it for free (shhh don't tell) I just like to make art

That brings me to my next point... I need to learn how to make money. I should hire a business partner who isn't an artist. I get really caught up in the creation and the process. I never really think about the 'who will buy this' aspect. I just like to make stuff.. and then if I sell it its exciting. Maybe I should focus some energy on the selling of my work. Last night I showed a gentleman at the bar a photo of one of my paintings that I had taken with my Iphone. He commissioned me on the spot to make him a painting! and he said I should make limited edition prints and sell them and .. oh I dunno, he said a lot of things...about making money.

I got confused and started thinking about the painting I would make for him... anyways. yay a painting. A commission is making money, look at how business savvy I am! I'm pretty much Donald Trump

I was being sarcastic obviously, ironically Donald and I have the same birthday. how about that?

I have a life again!

Hurray! I went on a lunch date with Jen on Monday, and a photoshoot with Noah and Jen yesterday, and today breakfast with Katia, and yoga and lunch with Preston! I've had to catch up.... I haven't seen anyone in weeks it feels like. I know I know....there's still stuff to do before fashion week..I have to fix that stupid zipper... and make hats. I made one for the photoshoot and it worked out pretty well, I'm excited to try and make more. I was going to make that coat for the show for myself to wear, but I'm not sure if there will be time

I'm styling a film this weekend at the Banff Center. I'm excited, I think it'll be really fun. Everything is pretty much decided upon, I've had some say in the process, but haven't had very much time to go look at costumes with the director Danielle French. I'm sure it'll all come together. I'm also hula hooping in the film!

I'm famous


Well, maybe not famous, but kinda. I'm working on it. This should be a lot of fun. Geoff and I are driving up on friday and I'll be coming back Sunday morning, Geoff is going to leave Saturday night. I'm also going to go see Ronnie Burkett on Sunday afternoon! He is a puppeteer, - - and is possibly a genius

I went to see one of his shows last year. He makes the sets, and the puppets himself and also is the puppeteer doing the show AND he writes the scripts. I thought it would probably be a good spectacle last time, not necessarily a good story line. Turns out it was one of the most profound pieces of Theater I've ever seen. SPECtacular. Moving, innovative, and it was beautiful. The puppets and set were incredible. If you ever get a chance to see him I highly recommend it. It was 1000 times better than anything I expected, and probably the best piece of theater I've ever seen.

It makes you feel like your crazy when you're crying over the well being of a puppet. Just throwing that out there. crazy.

It's been so nice to just go to work and spend my days (well, two) hanging out with friends. I know I have to start preparing for the grind again though... I have a film this weekend and the fashion week the following. I'll just ignore it....and eat pancakes.

Recap.

Okay, so yesterday was really fun, everything turned out really well. I was there from 12pm until 11:30 pm so it was a really really long day. The venue was beautiful-however-it was in Narnia (very very far in the NE, through a secret passage, guarded by a Spinx,) but I found it.

Everyone got a kick about the mop dress, and thought it was awesome. Most people didn't realize it was made out of mops, but when they did they were really impressed. Conceptually I thought Kenzie and my installation was the strongest. We built a really cool looking space for her to reside in during the show. We even borrowed a chandelier from an interior design store that got hung above her. I'll post pictures of that very soon. I'm not going to post any pictures of the garments until Alberta Fashion Week is over. I am showing my collection on March 26th btw. Its a Friday.

So, everyone looked great in the clothes. I think the models really liked the stuff. The audience seemed to respond well too. I got a lot of positive feed back. There are some tweaks that need to be made, but its no bid deal. There are two outfits that I was going to eliminate because I wasn't sure if they went, but everyone thought they went really well, so I'm going to leave them in. I think the show needs another full length dress.....which is lots of work, but I'm going to consider making one for Alberta Fashion week.

Just before the models went onstage I had a zipped bust in my full length lace gown. I had to sew the model in, and was seriously just tying the knot and the girl was like '3 seconds' and I JUST got it tied in the nick of time before she stepped on the runway. . . I'm hyperventilating as I recount this for you... jesus. But it didn't bust on stage so thank god. .

My house is a disaster from that final push over the last few days. It seems I've built a nest out of scraps in the living room. Maybe I should lay some eggs to make use of it. . . . or just clean it up.

sleep

I just wrote a long descriptive blog about the show, and then accidentally closed the window... and I'm too tired to write another one tonight.... a special thank you to Judith Dutton. She put together two dresses and a skirt for me and saved my life. Also thank you to Andrea Strand and Katia Asomaning for sewing petticoats. Lots and lots of work goes into those silly things that no one really sees them, but I appreciate it so much. Not to mention all three of you helped conceptually and with all your advice I think the collection was cohesive and strong.

I need to sleep. Love you all. Kyle out.

Tomorrow

Well, the first show is tomorrow and I'm really really excited. I'm not done, of course, but I'm close. We have to set up Kenzie's boudoir today. We're going to use my wing back chair, lots of pink fabric, glass wears, old books and a gorgeous chandelier that Peridot the interior design store kindly lent us. I think it's going to be epic. The mop dress is adorable and I'll post pictures of it after the show (I haven't posted anything in an attempt to be secretive, is it working?)

I know, everyone's anticipation is building so much you might all explode and I apologize. You'll just have to wait. I've come to the conclusion that a couple of my looks don't really go. Obviously I won't change it for the show tomorrow, but I can revamp for fashion week! this is like a big crazy trial run. I'm pretty excited about the pieces that don't exist yet..... why do I make more work for myself. I could have just ate bon bon's and relaxed for the next two weeks, but no, I have do continue to sew my face off. I'm crazy. I want to make myself a coat as well.... I love this red coat that I posted. I think I could make a version of it for myself and it would be very flattering. I had a long disscusion with my boss at current (who has a degree in pattern making) on how to do the vertical side pocket flaps. There is no seem where they're inserted so it's going to be tricky...I've never done anything like that before.

I'm going to finish two dresses today and hopefully make a couple of hats. That's my goal. I wish I was a power ranger. Go go power rangers! They could do anything. I had a crush on the pink ranger...but a secret crush on the green ranger. He was hot. Who says the pink ranger had to be a girl, and the blue a boy? stupid color/gender stereotyping.

I loved pink when I was a kid. I never got what I wanted. Now that I'm a big boy I get all the things I like- my pretty princess bed and lots of pink ties, and a doll house! (well, I don't actually have a doll house, but I could, if I wanted one). Ha Ha! take that parents. . . . how did they not know.....

3 days

3 days until the show. Jesus.

Today I made a body suit, a petticoat (actually Katia made it, she helped me for a couple hours) and about 1/3 a green dress which I think will be quite pretty. All of the finishing is pretty much done, except for the hem on the purple dress.

Everything is going pretty well. I'm close now. It'll probably still be a couple of very late nights but I'm so close. I bought groceries and cooked tonight! It was delightful. I made balsamic pear chicken with dried cherries. mmm. It was so nice not to eat either a can of soup or pizza. I hope this stuff goes over well, I'm getting nervous. I sometimes wonder if I'm any good at this or if everyone is just mistaken.

I wanted to make hats for this collection, in fact, the whole collection was kinda inspired by these mythical hats that don't exist because I haven't created them yet. I wanted to get some stuff called buckram that my friend told me about. Its bendy mesh basically that you can shape into what you want. Apparently you can't buy it in the city. I bought some online tonight. 5 meters with shipping was $77. sweet Jesus. The hats better make themselves for that price. I'm so crazy. Why do I do this again? I should become a traveling acrobat.

I bet it pays better.

Good day.

I had a good day today. Yesterday was good too, it just didn't feel like it at the time. I put Andrea in the purple dress to see how it looked and the zipper broke, there was a flaw in the teeth. It was a bitch to stitch rip the whole thing out and do it again but the silver lining is, at least it happened yesterday and not on the day of the show.

I hate zippers. I've mentioned this before I realize, but I would just like to reiterate how much I hate them. Its so difficult to do it perfectly. Even the best zipper I've ever put in still wasn't perfect. It's so frustrating. The next time you zip up your jacket take a special moment to appreciate the agile five year old hands of that Somalian child who put the zipper in perfectly.

As of today I have one whole dress to make from start to finish and a body suit and I'm done. I have tomorrow and Friday off work, and the show is Saturday so I think I can do it. I think I can I think I can. I hated that train...so repetitive.

I have no idea what this green dress is going to look like. I just know I have to use this specific fabric again...we'll see what I come up with tomorrow.

This is a random aside, but I just got tipped $10 on a $230 bill. I'm at the hotel bar I work in right now. What the hell is wrong with people?. What is that...5 percent? ish. People suck. All it would take is one week of that guy working in the industry to leave a 20 percent tip. I know I'm a better tipper now than I was before because I know how hard servers work. I was so attentive... even though I'm blogging.... i really was. Oh well, whatever.

what will i buy with my $10? maybe a new hat. or t-shirt that says 'I served these bastards all night and all I got was this lously t-shirt.

It's finally happened.

I'm overly sensitive which is a good indicator that I'm stressed out. I had a good cry today, everything is fine, I'm just working my regular jobs in conjunction with sewing full time and its starting to get to me. It will all be worth it in the end, I just miss having a life. Is it this hard on everyone? Are the other designers breaking down over nothing? I'm not really sure.

I had a lot of help today from my friend Andrea and I'll probably get a bit more this week with some of the finishing stuff from another friend. I'm not even that far behind, everything will get done on time .. . its just another week of focused effort and then I'll be finished and I can lead a slightly more balanced life again. Its amazing how much you appreciate certain things once you don't have time for them, like cooking, and going to the gym.

Figuring out what the hell you're making is the biggest challenge and really is emotionally draining. Trying to be true to yourself, innovative, and organized is very challenging. Making 10 looks that go together but are different and will tell a story on the catwalk in a cohesive manner can drive you mental. Designers that make 40 look collections are pretty much super hero's in my mind, but i suppose I am still pretty new at this.

Spring makes me really homesick. It makes me think of growing up on the farm, chasing the cows home in the rain, feeding the chickens, swimming in the dug out, picking berries with grandma. It was simpler in a way. Lots to do, that's for sure, just different. I wasn't quite as emotionally exposed as I am now. Being an artist and putting your work out there on the runway comes with consequences, good, and bad, and you have to be prepared to deal with the aftermath.

the chickens never judged.

Sometimes I just wish mom was alive. She honestly inspired a lot of my work. Many of the things I made in college were inspired by her strength, and they continue to be I suppose. Just in a different way now. I miss my mom telling me I'm the most talented and the most beautiful. I know she was a little biased, but it was still nice to hear.

If the chickens start telling me I'm talented and beautiful, I'll commit myself, I promise. I'll know I'm crazy because they never say anything nice. All they do is bitch and complain.

6 days.

So. There are six days until the show. Presently I have six dresses done (sort of, I'm including the ones Judith is making for me) 3 half outfits, and most of a mop dress.

The mop dress is coming along well! I dyed three of the mops pink. I braided one whole mop, then I made a corset out of canvas and layered the braided mops into the panels of the corset. At first I thought it kind of looked like a ... carpet. but its prettier now that its coming together. Its tricky appropriating things to make them into ..other things. I want the original integrity of the mop maintained, while still manipulating them enough to make it interesting. If you looked at just the corset, you wouldn't really know its make out of dyed braided mops. That's why its important for the skirt part to have some free falling mops of their original color-so that there is a visual link. She'll also be holding a mop so I'm pretty sure people will get it.

The rest of the collection is moving along in a positive direction. I can't believe I haven't posted in almost a week, that's crazy. Time sure flies when your working like a dog. I was on Breakfast television yesterday! well, not me, but the lovely model Bonnie wearing one of my dresses was. I totally thought I was going to be on TV. I had to be there at 6:15 am...I was pretty sure 6:15 was a myth until this point. Anything earlier than 8 is just cruel in my opinion. I'm kinda night owl though. I'd gladly stay up until 2 or 3 sewing and sleep until 10. Anyways, I tossed and turned all night worried I would sleep through my alarm or something. I woke up at five and felt like I never slept at all

When I got there I found out that I wasn't going to be on TV, just my model... I even did my hair. .. oh well. There was no need to toss all night. I'm not sure why I was so nervous, I've been on TV before. Anyways, Bonnie did great, and everyone seemed to love my dress *giggles with joy*

This is going to be a hard week. I had to stay in again... Geoff is at our friends having a lovely dinner of smoked salmon and grilled veggies and oh I can't remember what else. .. . probably a lobster and cakes. hmm cakes.

I had to miss out so I could stay home and sew. I had a bowl of soup, and a cucumber sandwich. We're out of groceries, but it doesn't really matter, who has time to cook? or eat for that matter.

Thin is in, so I'm told