Wear it Purple Day & Daffodil Day Fashion Illustrations

I wanted to contribute something for Wear it Purple day (Aug 30th) and Daffodil Day (Aug 23rd) but couldn't think what I had to give. I couldn't but all the wrist bands in a shop, they were all sold out anyway. Having friends and family affected both by cancer and also to show my support for LGBTI young people by saying no to bullying based on sexuality or gender diversity. You have the right to be proud of who you are. So I thought I'd do two fashion illustrations for you, to give something to show my support for both days. facebook.com/BelindaZanelloFashion

Blank Canvas Winner - A Night of Fashion

I'm still seeing stars from Saturday night at Honda Present's A Night of Fashion at the Art Gallery.
For the Blank Canvas competition the theme was "Art + Fashion", garments to be made from calico and/or three additional fabrics.

The Blank Canvas comp was sponsored by Attitude Fashion Magazine and Cibo Espresso.
Made with calico and I was chosen to win by SA Art Gallery Director, Nick Mitzevich. I still can't believe it! Falling ill during the Hairspray costumes job made me have to quit a lot of other exhibitions and even a scholarship to Japan, I'd let go of other freelance jobs and my uni 5 week placement because I needed a month to recover for a month, however I couldn't bring myself to let go of this project. And I'm glad I didn't.

In total I spent around 50 hours working on the gown, including 5 toiles on the bodice alone, around 14-16 hours of hand sewing for the honeycomb pieces and around 10 metres of calico fabric was used. I owe my friends a lot of gratitude for their support through the whole journey, which I've also been filming along the way so you can see what it was like to make this gown. Watch this space for the video release.

The other designers were incredibly talented and fit their designs beautifully to the mannequin! It was lovely to see some familiar faces back from when I was a fashion student at Tafe and to see what people are doing now. It was also wonderful to make some new friends on the night too.

Here are a few pics from the night, I will post more regarding the Behind the Seams pics of the gown construction and the video, and of course the social pics from the night.

www.facebook.com/BelindaZanelloFashion

p.s. Apologies the photos keep rotating back, even though I've rotated them! Sorry if anyone gets a sore neck! x

My Fashion Photography BEHIND THE SCENES

This year I've been studying photography at Uni SA. I bit the bullet, bought my first SLR camera and had a go. For our final assignment we had to produce 6 images using photo manipulation skills on Adobe Photoshop CS6 and of course our camera skills, shooting manual. I'd like to thank all my friends who modelled and helped me, offered guidance and supported me.

6 image series – “Anywhere but Here”

Storytelling through imagery has been in my life since I first discovered my passion for art and then fashion design. Now I have chosen to explore the possibilities of digital art and photography as a medium to express, convey and hopefully provoke some reflection and feeling stimulated from my work in digital photography.

 

This series was inspired by digital artists such as Kirsty Mitchell and Alexia Sinclair, and commercial/artist photographers Tim Walker and Annie Liebovitz for their strong storytelling narrative work, though very literal and symbolic, I find their work to make great statements which are very memorable and trigger memories and stories for their viewers to unpack.

All six images are connected by a common thread – quite literally. Each model is wearing a gown or item of clothing made by myself from my days as a designer/seamstress. Subconsciously I chose each gown as I found it suited the character in each shoot. Only the Madame Butterfly doesn’t technically have a dress of any sort though.

The common thread doesn’t stop there though, in this story it is about a woman, who is represented by 6 different women. She is in the most opulent of decadent realities, the sort people can only wish for, and yet she isn’t happy, isn’t whole. Wherever she is, she wishes she were someplace else. Is it wanderlust? Is it the desire to find more meaning to her existence? And why has she woken up from this dream life, what could have changed her? We hope that wherever she is next, for women across the globe included, that she finds what she is looking for. Wherever it is. 

www.facebook.com/BelindaZanelloFashion 

These are just the Behind The Scenes shots from Instagram:

www.facebook.com/BelindaZanelloFashion

Styling Music Videos for Vydamo and Esther Stephens

Earlier this year I was fortunate to work on two music videos, Vydamo's 'Hurricane' and Esther Stephen's 'Under You' with Unity Sound and Visual. 

Here they are:

HAIRSPRAY Costumes Complete!

The last few months have been manic! Glad to finally post again! I fell really ill towards the end of the Hairspray costume work but had to push on and finish those costumes!

I'm so glad I got them all done, after that I was hospitalized twice but fortunately got out of hospital on the night I was planning to see the show, so I could attend! I have been recovering since and am feeling much better a month later :)

From April to August I drafted patterns and sewed around 20 costumes from scratch and 3 padded body suits and altered around half a dozen. We had a full cast of around 100 girls, all singing, all dancing! It was an incredible night and everyone went to so much effort to get this production to shine, especially my best friend, the musical director, Emma-Jane.

I also wanted to share, the dress I wore on the night was made by my great grandmother for my grandmother in the '50's, to wear out dancing. It's like an organza or organdy fabric. It needed some repairs and I made a slip for it with netting. Can you believe I am the exact same size as my grandmother, it fit me perfectly!

Enjoy the photos! To see the production shots of the musical, check out St Aloysius's school facebook page photo album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153058025715268.1073741830.314765525267&type=1

Willunga Almond Blossom Festival Art Exhibit

This year I entered into the 2013 Willunga Almond Blossom Art Exhibition! (Willunga Show Hall).

I entered my pink tulle gown from my Fashion Graduate collection as it looks like a giant almond blossom!

Also I completed a Fashion Illustration of 3 muses wearing almond blossom garlands. Unfortunately I fell ill and was unable to attend the opening or the exhibit but here are some photos of my work.