Don't bite your nails, shred fabric/inspired by Molly Grad

©Christina Paone, Liz Harrington
Model - Christina Paone
Illustration by - Christina Paone

This t-shirt was tediously shredded (not joking, it takes about 3 hours to shred half a t-shirt). It usually works best with knit fabrics, since once you begin pulling the threads apart, they don't completely crumble. The top of the shirt is a sheer off-white material, just to hold the shredded mess up on your shoulders.

The most captivating thing about Molly Grad are her drawings. Most of them consists of basic lines, spattered colors, and overlap, giving them a feeling of transparency. Each line is drawn with precision and an extremity that can captivate you.

An illustration of hers can be seen here and another here.

Her use of pastel coloring adds just the right amount of color, and leaves the viewer with a feeling of whimsy.

Molly Grad's spring/summer 2010 fashion designs can be seen here.

It's late, yet Jorgen Simonsen Inspired this lengthy blazer

©Liz Harrington
Model - Liz Harrington (also wearing Vera Wang leggings)

It's late, but being snowed-in in Philadelphia many nights in a row and surrounded by gorgeous fabric, we can't help but keep going. I've outplayed The Album Leaf, Elliott Smith, and the Counting Crows to the point of annoyance, but Liz has managed to keep pinning and producing this perfectly fit, lightweight blazer in an adorable black pinstripe material.

Jorgen Simonsen draws to perfection. His drawings are elaborate, highlighting the woman's figure. His use of color, through mostly crayons, pastels, and Pantone markers, makes his gray-scaled illustrations pop. Simonsen's sophisticatedly detailed style makes it hard to believe that a human could render with such precision.

Ambitious Dress Inspired By Gianfranco Ferré

©Christina Paone, Liz Harrington
Model - Christina Paone

Gianfranco Ferré was an Italian fashion designer, who majored in architecture, which explains his geometrical lines and edges in his drawings.
Some of his designs can be seen here.

This dress was obviously overly ambitious, and sort of has some humor to it. Although it doesn't fit in with any sort of collection of ours, it was more a fun project inspired from the coming spring, it being a "flowy" (not that it turned out that way) dress and all.

Coincidence?/Betsey Johnson Inspired Romper

Is it just a coincidence that a lot of this Spring/Summer 2010 collection has a striking resemblance to pin-up girls?
According to fashionising.com, "many recent fashion trends have pointed to it, and given the popularity of the likes of lingerie as outerwear." With designers nearing invisibility with their hemlines, there should be quite a reaction this coming season. Maybe we won't even need to buy new bathing suits.

We all know Betsey Johnson. She uses highly saturated and brightly colored computer images for most of her fashion illustrations. Usually they incorporate elaborate tattoos, jewelry, flowers, and other exotic feminine accessories. The light pink color used in this romper follows the fashionable colors for summer 2010. The use of cut outs has been a theme throughout most of our collection. It also fits with the revealing nature of the classic pin-up girls.

© Christina Paone and Liz Harrington
Model- Liz Harrington




























Even Abbey Lee Kershaw's doing it.

Antonio Ciutto/Anybody Got a Match? Inspired Skirt

Antonio Ciutto is a London based South African designer. His drawings give the general feel of the motion of the human body, with lines drawn where shadows would normally fall. He uses primarily black, white, and grey in his drawings, but his use of color feels pixelated and enhances his more scenic drawings.












































































This skirt also garnered some insight from the films of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bacall often wore black and white, and when she said her infamous and first line in Hollywood, "Anybody got a match?," she donned an elegant jacket which served as inspiration for this garment. The skirt attempts the sophisticated look of Bacall's costumes in her films with Bogart, as in To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, while also appealing to the high wasted fashion of today.


































© Liz Harrington
Models- Christina Paone and Liz Harrington
Illustration by- Christina Paone

James Thomas Inspired Saggy Sweater + The Mountains

©Christina Paone
Model - Christina Paone
Illustration by - Christina Paone

James Thomas creates most of his fashion illustrations by cutting out tiny pieces of paper and lying them over top of one another. This is why his illustrations are mostly solid colors, composed primarily of bold shapes. In the book Fashion Illustration By Fashion Designers, I came across his fashion model collages which I quickly obsessed over. The photo on the right is Thomas', one that he made specially for the book. The computer image on the left was my semi-sorry attempt to create the beauty that he can through simple shapes and colors.

I wanted to create something wintry, since it is still 30 degrees here in Philadelphia, which is where I came up with the idea to make a saggy sweater. The neckline of the sweater extends at the top, which allows it to be worn draped down in the front, buttoned under the neck, or folded backwards behind the head. The fabric is a semi lattice light gray soft material, that easily drapes over a slim figure.

Underneath the sweater, I am wearing the sleeveless pocketed t-shirt (that we have for sale) with Zara pants. The shoes are from Urban Outfitters.

Doo.Ri Inspired Sleeveless Pocket-T

©Christina Paone
Model - Christina Paone
Illustration - Christina Paone
Photos Edited by - Liz Harrington


Doo Ri Chung is a fashion designer and illustrator who graduated from The New School (Parsons). Her jersey dresses are her biggest accomplishment, so I tried to incorporate a sporty jersey look into a plain tank, with a small pocket in the front. Most plain tanks have a look of masculinity, but I tried to give the garment a more feminine look, by adding an exaggerated neckline with a slinky black fabric. Although not entirely see-through, the garment has a bit of translucency, which also adds to it's airy and feminine feel.

Special thank you to Jen Brown!

Walter Van Beirendonck Inspired Short Sleeved Men's Hoodie

©Christina Paone
Model - Liz Harrington
Illustration - Christina Paone

Walter Van Beirendonck is a Belgian fashion designer and illustrator. His drawings are very strongly and graphically designed, almost giving the illusion of some sort of graffiti.

For more of his illustrations and designs, you can see his website here .

This hoodie was special ordered. Although it isn't cohesive with the rest of the collection, we wanted to show it anyway. It is made from a light weight sweatshirt heather grey material and is made to fit a young male (although Liz pulls it off beautifully).

Hall Ohara Inspired Blazer

©Liz Harrington
Model: Liz Harrington
Illustration by: Christina Paone

Basso + Brooke Inspired Slinky Black Dress

©Christina Paone
Model - Christina Paone
Illustration by - Christina Paone

Basso and Brooke is a fashion label that became well-know with their use of digital printing in the industry. Although their Spring 2010 collection bears no resemblance to this simple, black dress, they inspired the dress through their various fashion illustrations from the book entitled Fashion Illustration by Fashion Designers by Laird and Borrelli. "Drawing is the vehicle for the big picture," says Brooke in Fashion Illustration by Fashion Designers, "it's the stage of the design process when you can express volume and silhouette without limitations."

It may be hard to see any sort of connection from Basso + Brooke's pristine use of flashy colors and voluptuous use of fabric. Their illustrations pop, this dress does not. But, none the less was inspired from one of their more simple illustrations in the book.

The dress is made of a slinky black fabric that bounces up and down as you walk. It's comfortable and form fitting. More can be made upon request.

Lacroix Inspired Funky Dress

©Christina Paone
Model - Christina Paone
Illustration by - Christina Paone

This dress, was put together in literally 15 minutes. A very fast dress, that was meant to turn out entirely different, ended up working out just fine. My original intentions included a stretchier fabric (this is sort of hard to move in), with black sheer fabric draping one shoulder and a thin strap of velvet on the opposite side.

Of course, not being able to get away from lattice, I tried that, which was messier than I had anticipated it to be. So much so, that I had to tie a black bow in the back in order to secure it in place.

Christian Lacroix, a fashion designer, and a fabulous illustrator, was the inspiration for my design. Some of his fashion designs can be seen here . More of his illustrations can be seen here .