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On being a man

I love Halloween, always have.  While a lot of girls use this holiday to dress slutty, I, for the past 6 years have been different men.  I think it all started after visiting a friend who was living in Mexico City.  It was right before Dia de los Muertos, and I scored an amazing Mexican wrestling mask.  Then I tried on a fake mustache, and the rest is history.  While this costume was my first, I didn’t have great photos of it, so I’m starting with the next year, when I was a matador.

matadorMy friends from Denver were visiting, and we had a great time in the subways.

The following year, I had just moved back to Denver, and me my sister and my best friend decided to be James Brown, Amy Winehouse, and MIA.  It was a fun trio.  I took an old lamp from a thrift store and made it into a mic, learning some moves to play around with it.

james brownNext, Charlie Chaplin.  A pretty generic costume sure, but it was fun.   Mostly because I stayed in character pretty much the whole night.

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Next was Zorro.  This costume was amazing because my friend gave me a sweet fencing sword that really made the costume.  I kept making Z’s in everything all night. I don’t know what’s with the facial expressions, but it’s still me under that mask I guess.

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Freddy Mercury was last year.  This was fun because of the unitard I made.  I just happened to have the perfect fabric, and then when I decided to cut out the chest, add a nude fabric and put chest hair on that nude fabric, it really came together.  I also took some artistic liberty to be 2 different time periods.  Long hair AND mustache.  And the buck teeth were a good addition.

Also I went to a party and there were 2 other Freddies!!!

freddy all dayWhile I loved all of these costumes, this year had to have been the best.  After I decided to be Karl Lagerfeld it was like he was everywhere, the NY Times style magazine featured him, and he just kept popping up in different places.  In my research I discovered he has a very famous cat named Choupette.  She has over 70,000 followers on instagram. So, I knew that was an important prop.  The rest just materialized…

karl lagerfeldThanks for reading if you made it this far.  It was fun learning photoshop for this post! Until next years man…

xo

New Year

I am obviously a terrible blogger. It’s hard to wrap my brain around writing a blog that people will read. I use my hands to make things because it makes me happy to create something, to change something, to improve upon something. So here’s some of those things.

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Hannah’s graduation dress, 2013.
wedding dresses
Left dress: wedding dress with lace overlay, right dress: wedding dress of Italian Linen

This time last year, we were talking about opening a store. Today I write this blog from behind our cash wrap. Made of a boxcar floor of an old train. My capes and bow ties are sold here. What a crazy ride last year was. I’m looking forward to new things. The first new thing of this month is a lingerie trunk show at MY SHOP! wow. cool.

SO, if you are still reading this, thank you. If you live in Denver, come to Studio Colfax on Valentine’s Day from 5-8 pm. I’ll be there sipping wine, slinging my dear friends truffles her and her husband make. There will be new underwear for this new 2015. High cut, fantastic, sexy lingerie by yours truly. There will be perfumes. There will be new soap and other things for your body from Bar Soap Brooklyn.  

And a woody, something no Valentine’s Day should be without. Get yours at Studio Colfax.

Wool Cape +Pencil Skirt=Woody.

 

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Alteration Extraordinaire

My career has been vast and adventurous and it’s mostly because I don’t often say no to a project.  Some of my fellow seamstresses scoff at the idea of alterations.  Not me.  I’ve learned to really enjoy them because I always learn something new in how a garment is constructed.  And practice has made me appreciate the art.  When I give someone back a garment that is so seamlessly altered, they can’t even tell that I dissected it, I feel pretty good about that.  There’s a satisfaction in knowing that my customers get their garment back and now it’s their favorite piece of clothing.  A person who will spend the money on an alteration has a certain attachment to that piece, which carries over to me.  I treat each piece carefully, giving it more longevity to continue it’s story.  I love being involved in prolonging the life of a well made garment, and I love making a well made garment.  This is what Minus the Dart is truly about, the art of longevity.

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Here’s the trickiest alteration I ever did.  Relining the inside of this leather motto jacket.  I had to completely take out and re-pattern the pieces.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Mark.  May you wear it well.