Aimee Echo spotted wearing a Marky original!

Meeting Aimee Echo, lead singer of my favorite band, The Start, was such a wonderful experience. They always say never meet your heroes because they will end up disappointing you, but Aimee proved that the infamous saying isn't always true.


Yay!

Over two years ago, I designed a dress for her, inspired by her look and my favorite album of all time, Shakedown. The dress screams Aimee. I guess you can say she has been one of my muses as a designer. Designing a dress for Aimee to preform in is one of my cheesy but very important life goals. After interviewing her for my fashion column on NewYorkCool.com, I finally got to present her the dress after two years of waiting. Of course she loved it, and I had to refrain from screaming like a twelve year old girl at a Hanson concert.



But the cherry on the icing is that Aimee was spotted wearing a Mark Tauriello at her very own Birthday party! She chose to wear the official Aimee Echo dress on the official Aimee Echo day. I can't wait to see her preform in it. Seeing this is very fulfilling not only as a fashion designer, but as a super fan as well.

Watch out Bjork! Marky is coming your way!!


Me and Miss Echo herself, August 2009.
http://www.newyorkcool.com/archives/2009/August/fashion_Mark_Tauriello_Fashion_Column.htm

Journey Through the Desert

As I have mentioned before, I am in the process of making a 10 piece collection. I have 2 pieces finished, 8 more to go. It's my first collection ever, and I am hand sewing everything, nothing it being touched by the machine...until further notice.



am pulling from many sources of inspiration for my designs/ photographs. The 3 main sources are Nico (Her life philosophy, and her album Desertshore), Freddy Krueger (Mainly the Nightmare on Elm Street 1,2,3,4 movie posters) and finally all things post apocalypse/ sci-fi. It is going to be a very raw collection that is all hand sewn and dysfunctional.



The piece you see here is a hooded poncho that took me about a month to make and edit, and months to plan a shoot. I used nothing but old fabrics from old clothes, design projects, and scraps. Nothing fresh. With them, I draped the pieces over my form, sewed them together creating a base. After making the structural components of this piece, I then added many many strips of different fabrics, textures, lengths, and widths. Adding and hand sewing each strip is very time consuming, and it's quite easy to get lost in a sea of fringe.



The poncho is a bit of a self portrait. As mentioned in my previous post, this has been a year like no other. I felt nomadic more or less. I was going from job to job to job to job, nothing was really consistent. Aside from that my boy friend of 5 years left me, causing me to withdraw from the world and begin on a new life journey and path to recreating my self and becoming an entirely different person. So the piece really reflects a time in my life, which is still happening. I just keep going, with out any place to really settle. You can view each strip as an event and the rawness as my emotions. I used a dark color palette consisting of deep purples, forest green, black, and some white.



To capture the feeling of time and weathering I spray painted and bleached various strips, creating a gradient and textural contrast.


On a more technical level, I was very lucky to have a friend of mine who is a professional make up artist come to my set and work her magic with my model. I spit words such as "alien, dead, volcanic, geometric" at her, and she rolled with the punches creating the face I wanted for the shoot.
I also decided to focus a little more on styling since my styling/ make up was pretty weak in my past shoots. That being said, using my Nightmare on Elm Street 4 movie poster inspiration, I created a hand piece/ weapon inspired by Freddy Krueger, but fit for a post apocalyptic nomad who hand makes her home, clothing, and weapons.





In picking a location, I decided to go for a very vast and open site reminiscent of Mars, Iceland, desert, of even the Moon. That being said I found a perfect construction site that provided me with everything I needed. I also wanted to use the sky and the rocks as back drops to my piece. I honestly believe this is my best photo shoot to date, and I hope that I can only continue to create these pieces and get better.

The Story So Far...

What to say what to say...
It's been almost a year since my last post. I have been busy busy busy taking on the fashion industry. I have some how managed to get my own fashion column for NewYorkCool.com, where I go to fashion events, do runway photography, and meet fashionistas, oh and most importantly, ATTEND FASHION WEEK! It makes my dull life a little glamorous every now and then.


Photos I took from the Irena Shabayeva Winter 2011 collection, and the Diego Binetti Spring 2010 collections.

Aside from doing that I have bounced around retail jobs like no other (H&M, American Apparel, Club Monaco, and now Urban Outfitters. Last Stop, I promise).
Also, I have managed to get 2 internships. One for Kate Ryan Inc., a fashion agency representing stylists/photographers who's work is seen in magazines such as Oyster, Vogue, City, and other various publications. I left after 2 months because I was not getting what I needed out of it. The learning experience I got from the internship was that people like to use you. So you move on.


Me with Daniel and Kennly from Project Runway after Stella's Show.


Stella w/ models after the show.

I also have assisted Project Runway Season 3 contestant Stella Zotis, famous for her love of leather. Working with her has been really interesting. I get to see her during the designing process, I have assisted her in various tasks, I even helped her during fashion week when she showed her collection at the Bryant Park Hotel.

So I am finally on my mission of becoming part of the fashion world... but the only challenge is....I have not made any money from my work...and there are millions of billions of other people competing as well. The rumors you hear are true. Most people in the fashion industry don't care about you, your aesthetic, or what you are capable of doing. It's all about ME ME ME. I have learned that you have to roll with the punches, and that you should never work for free when you have 3 internships and a college degree under your belt. I am going to stick to what I know and what I am passionate about, and do my own thing.


My favorite piece by Naoshi Sawayana @ Japan Fashion week in New York.

This has been an interesting year for sure. Graduating college, messy break up, doing new things, job bouncing, and trying to grab my dreams by the balls. I am an entirely different person, and maybe I had to go thru what I had to so I could be where I am now. I am making a 10 piece collection with hopes of getting a show in New York. I will write about my collection/ inspirations in the near future!

Runway Coach Dexter Ivy and myself having fun before a show.