It’s almost fashion week again. I’ve been attending since 2005, I’m getting a little jaded, and I’m getting fewer front row invites. I’ve been thinking back to the excitement of my first fashion week show. I was nervous bordering on terrified, wearing a borrowed outfit I couldn’t afford and sitting front row at the Project Runway fashion show beside Nick Verreos. I felt like I was royalty that morning, and a million people/reporters came up to talk to me. “Do you know how lucky you are to be sitting in the front row? Is this the best day of your life? Who do you think will win? Tell me a secret about the show without violating your contract.” I was still trying to get over the fact that I was actually in a Bryant Park fashion week show. Debra Messing walked by and said “Hi Diana” and I was like, “OMG, Debra Messing, you know my name!”.

And then two men came out and started removing the plastic covering the runway, the lights started to dim, and there was finally, a hush. It’s like unwrapping a present, the show was about to start. I’m filled with excitement, pride, anticipation. At this moment there were so many possibilities, anything could come down the runway! And I thought, “I am so excited to be a fashion designer!”

It doesn’t matter how many shows I attend, I still feel the same thrill when they peel back the plastic to start the show. I’m excited to see what possibilities this fashion week will bring.

I’m excited about my new Ladybug Pin collection. I wanted the pins to look as realistic as possible so that it will look like the wearer has a real ladybug crawling on their shirt. The pins are modeled after 11 different species in the Coccinellidae or ladybug family (pictures of the real bugs are below). I was really surprised that there were so many different species of ladybugs. There was even a ladybug that looked like it had flames painted on the sides… unfortunately, I was not able to replicate that one. Nature is pretty amazing. Pins are $75 and available in my shop.

a. Cream-spotted Lady BeetleCalvia quatuordecimguttata, b. Fifteen-spotted Lady Beetle Anatis labiculata, c. Three-banded Lady Beetle Coccinella trifasciata, d. Seven-spotted Lady Beetle Coccinella septempunctata, e. California Lady Beetle Coccinella californica, f. Cream-spotted Lady Beetle Calvia quatuordecimguttata, g. Montezuma Lady Beetle Thalassa montezumae, h. Fifteen-spotted Lady Beetle Anatis labiculata, i. Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle Harmonia axyridis, j. Myzia interrupta, k. Two-spotted Lady Beetle Adalia bipunctata

Here’s a quick little video to demonstrate the Jack Frost Scarf in action. It’s not cold enough in NYC to demo it outside, so I used an ice tray. You can buy a scarf in our shop.

I’m getting ready for my next photo shoot and realized I forgot to post photos from the last one. So here’s a look back at our Laser Lace photo shoot:

When fashion photographer (and friend) Ricardo Louis and I were walking around Prospect Park scouting a location for our photo shoot, we decided to leave by way of the Grand Army Plaza arch. We walked up to the fountain and immediately thought, wow, can we shoot on the statue?

The answer is, yes, yes we can. We just had to overcome the issue of traversing the water surrounding the statue with model, hair stylist, make-up artist, photographer, assistant, and me.

My intern Kristin had the excellent idea of outfitting all of us in rain boots and we brought a step ladder to help us climb in and out of the water.

We had the pleasure of working with an excellent model from Click Models. She did a really nice job making dreamy model eyes. This is surprisingly hard to do, because the models squint a little which usually makes one eye bigger than the other. Some models do special exercises to maintain evenness. In addition, we are using reflectors to shine the sun directly into the models face (and eyes).

I wanted a 40′s hair style, so we worked with Selda Cortes from Lotus Salon who specializes in vintage pin-up hair styles. Make-up artist Jessica Jade Jacob often works with the NY Pin-up society, did the make-up.

I’m not one for glamor shots. But I discovered my narcissistic side when Jonathan Monaghan resident artist at MakerBot 3-D scanned me for their “New York Notables” event… and then was kind enough let me get 3-D scanned again. Scan with hair up, scan with hair down, scan with glasses, I even tried to curl up into a little ball so that my whole body would fit in the scanning area.

Here’s a phone video of me getting scanned courtesy of George Shammas. I think it’s like when they used to take old photographs, you had to sit still for a really long exposure and you only got a photo taken once or twice during your lifetime. Black colors don’t scan so I am covered in corn starch. The scans have lots of noise and don’t come out perfect (there’s extra little pieces everywhere and some empty spots as you can see in the image above. Jonathan cleaned up a 3-d model/scan of me with ponytail which you can download from Thingiverse.com and you can download my intern, Kristin. Below, I am printed on a MakerBot.

Thanks MakerBot and Jonathan for making a 3-d record of me the Summer of 2011. I plan to show the scan to my grand kids so they make fun of how dated I will look.

Thank you nice customers who have been pre-ordering Laser Lace Tees and Tops! As a special surprise, artist Katherine Moon designed a trio of buttons for me to give away with all of my pre-orders. We just sent the art off to the button making factory, but here’s a photoshop rendering of what they will look like.

Katherine is one of my favorite artists. She loves to collect photos of mushrooms, and they show up in a lot of her work, like this piece titled, “Stink Horn.”

Katherine says that she ironically loves hand drawn images, since there aren’t many in today’s digital age. She makes most of her art using the computer (including the above piece titled, “Cat’s-Meow”). Cat’s Meow was created from a scanned black and white painting, but Katherine says that she likes to draw her latest work directly on the computer using Painter 12 and Photoshop. I wonder if a tablet will soon replace her Moleskine and gel pens.

I love Katherine’s work and hope that you will enjoy her buttons.

I am excited to be launching my new mini collection of Laser Lace Tees and Tops. The idea for this collection started with the book Bossypants, where Tina Fey writes: Don’t wear what fashion designers tell you to wear. Wear what they wear. and then shares her love of comfortable clothes. I could relate. I love wearing t-shirts and jeans and don’t usually wear light up clothes with 140 volt circuits. But t-shirts and jeans aren’t really design studio appropriate. So I decided to distress a bunch of T-shirts in lace patterns. The laser was a perfect solution to creating precision lace patterns coupled with techniques found through A LOT of experimentation to properly distress and stabilize the lace.

Photos of the Glass Flower Collection from Harvard Museum of Natural History

However, when t-shirts are worn, the patterns are stretched out, so I looked at floral anatomy and botanical cells for inspiration. The cells create a structure that is similar to the stretching patterns of the shirt. Since the anatomy is from flowers, it still adds a femininity to the designs.

Cross-section of a dicot root with fragments of lateral roots originating at the pericycle.
courtesy of Flickr’s BlueRidgeKitties and Carolina Biologicals

Cross-section of a dicot root with a lateral root breaking through the epidermis.
courtesy of Flickr’s BlueRidgeKitties and Carolina Biologicals