sick of fashion?

Yes mam, you can imagine it happens that fashion designers have it up to here (over the head) with fashion. Now is Milan Fashion Week and before it was London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week has not even started. I am just glad New York Fashion Week was first! I was all energetic for it starting out. Saw a great many shows, including my own and mingled at the best parties in town. Lots of inspiration at the end of a season to go right back to the drawing table and start designing Fall 2010!

Over the course of the last 3 weeks I have become a little numb to the fashion news, sorry to say. That feeling will last for a day or two, then I usually snap right back into it! It's that one bad day per year we're all too familiar with. The quick fall after the long high. Melancholy maybe. But holy cow and thanks goodness: My customers don't wait, they want more designs, new designs, freakin' every day! And I love it. I do. I LOVE what I do. I have a dream job.

I guess I just don't understand why everybody has to come up with new collections at the exact same time, thrown at you all in a span of a mere 3 weeks!? It's commerce. I got it. The season clearly calls for us to buy new clothes now, the ones from last season are no longer fashionable.
You know I don't believe in this. I always wear my old classics, that is what personal style is about. It's about not letting anyone dictate what you wear at what time. You decide.

Oh, let me be grateful to you, for just hanging in there with me, while I freely dispose into cyber space what's on my mind, all these scattered thoughts which may or may not make much sense.... Thanks for just going through this little personal evaluation with me!

Anyway - so no - of course we are NOT sick of fashion just yet and I am confident once the last show goes over the runway and the curtains finally close, the lights are turned off, life goes on. We will come up with our own styles and we might buy a new dress or a coat. It's all up to us.

To my customers: Thanks! I adore my customers. Some of them send me pictures of themselves wearing the clothes they bought, sometimes they look great, sometimes not so great, but it's all good. Sometimes they look just stunning!

...karen and artist tyler jordan...

So to end this season on a really great note, here's the shot of Karen, the original hippie chick in the Woodstock Dress (the absolute bestseller of my season) and Tyler Jordan as Jim Morrison! PEACE.


O.K. I am on to Fall 2010!

the invasion of the michael jackson skirts

Just like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson is making a lot of money even after his death. Some predict the King Of Pop's estate may be bigger than the King Of Rock 'N' Roll's after all.

100 million dollars for a movie deal and various merchandise contracts - to which I have been contributing a small part too - is what Michael Jackson made up to date, still days shy of his passing 2 months ago. Executors expect another 100 million to roll in by the end of this year!

No doubt. I believe it! I haven't stopped producing the Michael Jackson Skirt, since I made the first sample a few of weeks ago...




Our production facilities on 38th Street in Manhattan's Garment District have literally been invaded by the Michael Jackson Skirts! Michael Jackson Skirts everywhere you look!

Check out a few of my past posts about Elvis and Michael:

Inspirational trip to Elvis Presley's Graceland!
Fashion Rocks inspires: Blythe in a Elvis dress!
I want more Michael Jackson!
6/25/09 Michael Jackson

broadcast yourself

"Broadcast Yourself", an new exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery (April 1st - May 2nd), will address the issues of power and control extended by traditional media outlets in contrast with the do-it-yourself attitude pervasive in the tech-savvy younger generation. Symposium panelists will also speak to the impact that radio and television can have in shaping the events of our time; how artists can directly engage, challenge, or subvert the structure and authority of broadcast media; and how our culture is shaped by the actions of individuals and artists.

...sweet independence..

This is a first of it's kind show and goes for anyone. In my profession and most others, Internet-savvy kids or young adults can completely surpass any traditional methods of marketing themselves and their art or their commercial business. Do you grasp what that means?! You finally get to do and say exactly what you want and you can show and say it directly to consumers worldwide via laptop, cell phone, TV, etc.

I am waaaayyy pumped about this development because it will and has already changed the whole geography of what will be consumed and how. The younger generation is on the steering wheel and it becomes more squeaky clear every day.

Why is Barack Obama president now? Because he is a part of that new generation and he had the knowledge and the desire to change the world and he was able to be elected with the help of some of the tech geniuses of our time. It doesn't get any better than that. It shows what is possible now - let that recession end and pay back that debt (Obama still has to get it right. Why not start a whole new banking system, instead of fixing this toroughly broken one?) and this new reality will be prominent - but it is already going on no matter what. It's 2009 do you know what Analytics is??

We finally can decide our own future and become (I guess more or less) independent of the mob. So watcha wait'n for??

ahead of the game at last?

It's always difficult to move on to the next post if I happen to like the current one. You can see I have been hesitant to shove down The New Yorker cover for nearly a week now. But the time has come, where I must do the inevitable, if I want to keep the readers (you) interested in this feed that is.

But before I move on to a completely different subject, I would like to say how much I appreciated Patty Marx's article and the fact that she mentioned me in it.
Love the cover too! At first I thought it's the artwork of Love and Rockets comic book artists Los Bros Hernandez, Gilbert, Jamie and Mario Hernandez. I was wrong. The illustration picturing a few (!) Michelle Obamas smoothly modeling some garments down the runway is credited to Jean-Claude Floc'h.

Interesting that Floc'h puts emphasis on Michelle's unique color choices - of which I have been talking about in my previous posts - of the outfits along with some key style elements that the first lady is getting known for: classic sheath cuts, decorative waist belts, layering, etc. The only thing missing was something sleeveless.

While Michelle is wearing American made designs, she is - like all of us - sporting lots of China made wear (J.Crew) these days. It's therefore fitting that Patty's article, which dissects the history of production in the U.S.A, is a cover story of the style issue.

I am Swiss. We Swiss are very proud of the label "Made in Switzerland" or "Swiss Made"- if not obviously - and for good reason. Just look at the watch market, anything worth your time and money is Swiss Made, the same goes for chocolate sweets and sewing machines (Bernina), not to mention the fabulous St. Galler Kinderfest Bratwurst, which I am missing every day. The "Swiss Made" label is of quality.

So when I moved to New York in 1992, I did not care about anything but me, sure....

Then I started realizing that I am now producing an item made entirely in the U.S.A. At first I did not embrace that fact and lamented that I would love the Swiss made label instead. However, since I was now living and working here, I started to get friendly with the Made in USA label and I made sure it was known to the customer, via hang tags.

...imports once felt exotic: now homegrown goods seem special...
illustration silja goetz, the new yorker

Little did I know that in the year 2009 I am one of the very, very few left that is actually producing in New York, in a city where originally in 1910 something like over 70% of woman's wear was produced. I learned that today it is a mere 10%. Over 300'000 people worked in the garment industry in the 1950's, today the number is 20'000 and stagnating as we read. If you read The New Yorker article you already know that.

Little did I know. For me it was not really an option to out-source. As a small business, I wanted to keep production as close to home as possible, so that I could literally smell the oil burned by the industrial sewing machines. Sure in the early 2000's I considered, in order to lower the prices, producing elsewhere. There was Turkey, where my cousin (yes, I am half Turkish) was head of a production company. I made a couple of attempts to find a production managing company in NY. But after checking out my options, there was no way that I was in the position to move manufacturing. At that point it would have required a huge amount of money to add jobs (in a foreign country), which I did not have and did not care to look for. So I kept on producing my line in the fashion district just about a mile from my studio. It just made sense to me.

While more and more big companies are shutting down altogether, I have a strange feeling that I am, at last, ahead of the game. Able to sustain an economic downturn, because of the size and local of my business and the uniqueness (not mass produced) of my product, made entirely in the U.S.A.

...always close to the production facilities... day and night...
photo by carl posey

incentives? interviews.

So yes, I am sure I am not the only one in this situation of having to come up with ways to put a new spin on the business. Besides other things, I am working towards making my products more affordable.

The first things NOT to do is becoming cheap on the materials or loose the nice packaging, or - heck no! - start to deliver staggering quality. NO!!

I get irritated when I hear how companies try to swindle a couple of cents on their customers by sneaking smaller packaging with less content for the same old price or put padding between meat patties to make it look like there is more...

I am trying to do something that may also help the very dry job market and by the responses to my ads for seamstresses, I can say for sure that there is a lot of demand for jobs right now. You may say: "But if there is no business why add jobs?" By adding more work force, I produce more in less time and the cost goes down. Plus, if well done, I have more time to invest into equally important and sales driving strategies such as ideas for marketing etc.

You read this, are an exceptional seamstress and looking for a job? Apply for an interview now!

It's just great to be able to pick and choose the absolute best person for the task. Employees are in addition more careful of how they work and don't allow themselves to be late or otherwise inefficient. That all will result in lower prices of Idil Vice clothing.

I am going to have a few interviews in the next few days... we'll see how it goes!

chanel mobile art

Finally got over Pipilotti!!! No, seriously: listen, you guys. I cannot possibly post the same day I experience all these things. I am not - despite visiting mobile art exhibits - mobile blogging. I have mentioned several times - and as a reader, possibly through a feeder, of this blog you should be aware by now - that blogging is NOT my business, but a passion (I always was good at writing and story telling in my own way and after I won an impossible case against my landlord, I also knew a talented lawyer was lost on me).

I feel blogging somehow will be important for me later down the line and will become a part of my business, etc. So, I really try to take this seriously - I want you to know - despite the fact that time is scarce and time is money. Therefore here - late, but don't hate - finally the pictures and impressions of the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit in beautiful Central Park on an incredible Fall day early afternoon on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 . The day after the election. So the mood was really amazing, it was the first day with a new president elect and it seemingly still has not sunk in with many... so in this trance, we got here....


Mobil indeed. That was the impression throughout the more or less hour and a half spent on the reserved patch of the park. The capsule looked like it just landed and the wind blew the thousands of leaves from the countless trees in a whirlwind, it almost blew me away how beautiful it looked and felt.


First thing that most probably became visible to anyone upon entering the gated area around the space ship was the very cool Chanel wind breakers everyone was wearing. Black, shiny nylon with embossed CC logo buttons in crisp white. "We can't keep them" said one of the guards or "helpers" after we came closer to check them out and we let them know that we thought that that was indeed sad. I am sure there were a few inquiries about if they could be purchased - somewhere - I mean, anything that bears the famous logo is instantly a desirable item, right?

And of course they got us right where they wanted us from the get-go! No uncertainty about where you were and why you came. Because of Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel. There were a few very famous artists too.


"Can't take the cameras in. No pictures inside." O.K. I started to take some out front, opposite the mirrored building which was some administrative office which kind of disappeared by reflecting the spaceship everywhere you looked... cool!!



I will for sure always remember this day and I am glad I took all the pictures! The exhibit was organized very well and I loved the voice of Jeanne Moreau narrating me via MP3 through the space... Some installations were better than others. I guess I loved the compact powder mirror/TV screen in the giant Chanel bag the best (Sylvie Fleury), along with the wishing tree of Yoko Ono. Then that photographer Nobuyoshi Araki was excellent! That is about it.

It was clearly an attempt to advertise the brand (Chanel) in an alternative way and that succeeded, but there where several instants when I asked myself: What am I admiring here? Advertising? A brand? So far so good. Not the absolute worst try I'd say.

After the show we went bike riding through the park and that again, was probably my favorite part, after all. The scenery, the fresh air, the clouds, the time of a new beginning...

...a young couple taking wedding pictures in central park...

... and when I finally got home at sun set, the Empire State building was blue (New Yorkers know that there is no such thing as the color blue on the ES). For a moment I reflected... "Ah! It's the color of the democratic party, yeyh!" It summed up the day for me!

Good night!

chanel exhibit in central park

Yeyyh! On Nov. 4th I have a reservation (thanks to my hubs, who was experienced and savy enough to book wayyy in advance. By now all tickets - which were free - are "sold" out) to see this "Star Trek”-style spacecraft, which temporarily lands in Central Park (from Oct. 20 to Nov. 9.) and houses art from artists recruited for the project including Sophie Calle of France, Sylvie Fleury of Switzerland (who is a idil vice fashion fan since the very beginnings), Subodh Gupta of India and the Russian collective Blue Noses.

Each was asked to create a work that was at least in part inspired by Chanel’s classic 2.55 quilted-style chain handbag, so named because it was first issued in February 1955.

I will be reporting my own view after I have seen the exhibition, but as this is exiting, I can't wait until then and have to show you a couple of images I found in the NYC tabloids...


An aspect I'd rather don't think of too much is, is that Chanel will pay the city a “use fee” of $400,000 (not that we do not need it, but it is only a sad fact that the sluggish economy puts the city up for sale further). It's advertising for the French brand, needless to say.


In an interview, which was done on opening night a couple of days ago, Karl Lagerfeld did not seam very happy about the exhibition and kept mentioning that "it is too tight here... too many people, too much art and not enough space"... well, we'll see!

The convergence of art, architecture and fashion is common place these days. A Louis Vuitton bag designed by the artist Richard Prince is constantly spotted on the streets of New York, Basel and London. The Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s creations for Louis Vuitton were sold in a special shop that formed part of a Murakami retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. The architect Rem Koolhaas has helped define the look of Prada shops, and Frank Gehry recently designed a line of jewelry for Tiffany & Company.

“Art is art. Fashion is fashion,” Mr. Lagerfeld said. “However, Andy Warhol proved that they can exist together.”

printed matter

Get ready for some seriously chic printed matter!!!

idil vice fashion rocks items will be accompanied by all kinds of limited edition printed matter of the newly concepted 2008 ad campaign by "ueber" talented photographer Carl Posey. Labels, postcards, posters, hangtags, print ad's, etc. Below a sample of what's to come...


Depicted here, on a late night in NYC's Meatpacking District, idil vice wearing her own Jimi Hendrix Hoodie and her Keane Soldier printed tunic, paired with silver spandex leggings by American Apparel.

I would like to give a shout-out to the renowned Restaurant Florent (just across the fabulous mural depicted in our campaign), a long appreciated French Diner who served early breakfast, (you risked to be spoiling the party to show up here before 4AM) to countless night birds throughout the 1980's and 90's.



It is sadly closing it's doors and serves it's last Eggs Benedict on Saturday, June 28th, 2008. If you can, pay tribute to this NY institution, yet another one disappearing, making way for the commercialism controlling the Big Apple. Au revoir!