ME 'N ISABEL...

For the last several years, I've been drawn to the designs of Isabel Marant, the very popular and trendy French designer. Her clothes have a slightly bohemian 
vibe, and she has been described in the WSJ with  "her trademark look, which can be described as equal parts rock 'n' roll, California surfer girl and insouciant Parisienne." Then, in her Fall 2013 show, I saw this:

This is called the "Jayna" wool-twill studded jacket, in black wool with silver-tone brass studs, cabochons and faux pearls. Like this:

I knew that making something like this would take far longer than I expect to remain on this earth (all those gorgeous things are sewn on by hand)...and it was over $3000, so I wasn't going to buy it anytime soon. But I couldn't get it out of my head.

I had a few things going on at the time (wedding, Iran trip, etc.) so I was slow to get started. My friend Sharon, from Communing with Fabric, made a snazzy LBD with studded shoulders. I followed her process, but she wound up with sore shoulders from the force needed to apply the studs, so I decided I wanted to avoid that. A little research on the internet and I found Prisms of Light, an Etsy shop that had a great selection of hot-fix studs. And then, with a little more research, I found the tool I needed (LOVE tools...) at HotFixQueen. Do you have any IDEA how fun it is, in my little rural Post Office, to receive a package from
The Hot Fix Queen? Hahahaha....

Armed with all the photos of the original jacket I could find on the web, I made a boxy, cropped jacket from my old friend, B5526, using a wonderful very heavy weight ponte knit which Sharon had found for me at Fabrix...it has a kinda abstract design (some people think it's like a camo) in gray on a black background...the reverse side is plain gray.

Besides looking good, the weight of it seemed to me to be perfect for a studded jacket which MIGHT turn out to be somewhat heavy. (I discovered that I really should have interfaced the entire jacket, as the weight of the studs pulled the
fabric out of shape a little).

I did a lot of experimenting with various stud designs on the sleeves...

and finally came up with something that pleased me. Yes, folks, those are some
MIRRORED squares mixed in with the 3 sizes of domes and the pyramid shapes.

Now began the time-consuming part...placing the designs on the jacket, one section at a time, hitting each stud with a 20-second hot fix tool blast, then putting the finished section into my Elna Press for several minutes.

Dave got a photo of me slaving over a hot iron...Actually, the process was rather meditative and I enjoyed it...I listened to The Luminaries, by Eleanore Catton, on Audible, and also re"read" American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, also on Audible.

Here is a picture of the jacket on Ethyl...with the basic border plus the sleeves...

and here is a picture of the finished shell, ready to be lined...

So...the lining was a b..ch, due to the stretching of the shell where the studs were placed; this meant that I had to fiddle with the lining, particularly on the sleeve lining, which needed gussets to fit the shell. To make a long story short, I
put the lining in THREE times, and would never allow anyone to see what the sleeve lining looks like...

For numbers geeks, I put in a total of 806 studs...

So here are some pictures of the jacket on ME...

There is a special birthday luncheon for a friend on Wednesday, in Los Angeles, where I will wear the jacket. As long as I travel with the HOT FIX TOOL and some spare studs in my purse, I should be good to go... One of the advantages of this jacket is that wearing it counts as weight-bearing exercise...

TTYL...