A Midwest Welcome

I’m here!
The process involved:
2- weeks of packing
1- 18 hour car ride
2- white out snow storms along the way
1- stop along the way
1- constantly singing bird
too many- caffeinated drinks
=
1 very exhausted person in Minneapolis.

But I made it and so far it has been well worth the drive.
Interviews are happening and contacts and friends are being formed.
I have been constantly yelling at my GPS in my effort to learn my way around city and find my way back to my hotel room.

Romeo helping me pack/picking fights with t-shirts

So far I have two favorite things (neither of which will surprise you).

First:
Rock Climbing!
I have been to every gym/climbing facility I can find here (which totals 4) and I love them all! It is nice to climb in places that are heated… sorry Red Barn! People have been so nice at all of them and more than willing to give me advice or help in adjusting to the city. I have never been happier to be a climber and while the climbing itself is awesome, it has a lot more to do with the comfort of being and doing somewhere familiar with friendly people even halfway across the country.
Heres a link:
http://verticalendeavors.com

Second:
Retail Design.
Well… one in particular so far. Martinpatrick3 in the North Loop of Minneapolis is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL store I have ever been to. The merchandising goes well beyond displaying the merchandise well but there is an entire mood in each new section of the store. To make it even more amazing, there are a lot of vintage or repurposed items used so elegantly its mesmerizing. They do not even sell merchandise for women but I could have stayed in there all day staring at things and letting my creativity get started.
Here is a photo of my favorite part of the store:

The Beautiful Book Spine Wall at Martinpatrick3

More to come soon as always!

MOVING!

So as I get used to my new “young professional” tag and happily leave being my “student” label, I am making some big choices.

First things first, I am moving!

With my dreams to be a display and event designer it would seen like an obvious choice to move to NYC or LA but honestly I don’t think even my passions could keep me sane in those crazy cities. I am very excited to say I am moving to Minneapolis, MN in just a few weeks! Artsy, small and full of ad and retail agencies! So I now find myself in the middle of applying to jobs.

I have torn my hamstring climbing so that part of my life unfortunately has to take a back seat but I will make sure to immediately find every climbing gym in Minneapolis. I love always being able to count on climbers to be welcoming and excited you’re there.

Happy new year everyone!

A photoshoot with all of my Greentopia Dresses

 

Greentopia Madness

As I mentioned before I was in a runway show a few weeks ago.

Well the story extends a bit beyond that. My friend Athi who was helping run the Greentopia Festival in Rochester contacted me asking me about my magazine dress. She mentioned that there were sponsors for the fashion show in the festival and that they needed someone to make garments out of the sponsors materials whether it be paper, burlap, tile etc…

A few days later I find myself hired to make an entire line of recycled material garments to walk in this fashion show! It is a bit out of my area of expertise since I am not a fashion designer but I was very very excited to do it. Below are the dresses that I made, There were 4 in all!

You all know this dress! Here is the original magazine dress that started it all!

This outfit was made from Rochester Magazine. I had never made a hat before but I am so glad I did!

This coat I made and modeled for Joe Bean Coffee. It is made out of coffee bean bag burlap and lined with thrift store flannel.

This gown is made from Rochester Women’s Magazine! It received a lot of press attention which was so much fun!

It was a very stressful event especially since I was modeling other garments as well. However I am very glad I got to be a part of it and each sponsor was very happy with their dress! I wish I could have kept the Joe Bean coat, it was so wearable and comfortable!

Special thanks to Athi, Shawn Dunwoody, all my models and each sponsor!

Its been awhile!

So sorry its been so long since I posted! Life has gone is 1000 different directions!

Heres the scoop:

-I am in my last two weeks of school at RIT! I will finally be graduating!

– I have still be climbing and have also started running (which I never thought I could do)

– Modeling has not been a top priority lately but I was in a runway show! -Post to come

-Window displays & event design have become my passion and my career so I will be sharing much more about those!

 

Paper Makes Dress

This combines two pages of the blog, ‘paper scissors’ and ‘shoot’. This past Friday I was a part of an amazing shoot with the fabulous Tom Newton at Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion. The shoot photos have not been released yet but I had asked Tom a favor. I needed to photograph a dress that I made for a class project. The dress is made completely out of magazines and worked out pretty well!

I am very happy with the results and I am already working on more recycled clothing. I am considering selling the dress (perhaps a prom dress?) or possibly sending it to a magazine or bringing it to Anthropologie. Any thoughts?

As I continue to work on other items please comment and let me know if there is something you have never seen made or if you have a material you challenge me to use!

Of course I will post the actual photos from the shoot when they are released!

The Devil May Care

On set!

It has been awhile since I posted about my modeling and I promised an update so here it is!
This past Friday I had the privilege of working on a video shoot for an amazing boutique here in Rochester called Devil May Care Lingerie Boutique The store is stunning and perfectly designed for the garments they sell. Anastasia Cerankosky, the co-owner of the store and the team including Denyse Funk,Katie Shane, Kelley Mahoney Godshall, Andrew Sloane, Ben Disinger, Mark Davis, Aaron Gordon, Alex Martin, Adam Ouellette put together the shoot where myself and a few other models got to act out a game of poker using the lingerie as our betting chips. Here is a behind the scenes video and I will post the final product when it is published.

Devil May Care – Behind the Scenes from BVT Productions on Vimeo.

The shoot was a blast to work on and my sister Erin who came to visit for the weekend also got to participate!

On a slightly tangential note, one of the guys behind the camera, Ben Disinger created the official video for the song ‘Virgin’ by Manchester Orchestra. The video is amazing!

Manchester Orchestra – “Virgin” from Ben Disinger on Vimeo.

Tomorrow I will be shooting with the amazing Tom Newton so stay tuned for that!

Quick update!

Just a quick update!

On January 7th I will be in a shoot I am very excited for with David Gerard, a fantastic hairstylist and photographer Frank Bryant. I will give you one hint: black light!

http://www.frankbryantphotography.com/

Update:

Here is a photo from the shoot!

Messy hair and good friends

Today I got to shoot with a photographer I have not shot with since June. Ken Doson (whom you can check out at ) did an amazing job catching some goofy moments between my good friend Lindsay and I.

Days like today remind me why I love to model as much as I do and it has nothing to do with money or compliments or attention, its the fact that I have the opportunity to catch moments in my life in an incredible way that many people never have to opportunity to. I was so happy to bring Lindsay into the studio, not just because she is beautiful but because we were all able to have such genuine smiles and laughs throughout the studio all day.

Here is a photo of here and I just being absolute goofballs in between shots. Sometimes those are the best shots of the day.

Lindsay and I

I have not seen many of the photos from today but I promise to post more as I see them.

Also if you wanted to see what kinds of muscles you develop from climbing, here is a sneak peak of a model ready to do some serious climbing!

Holy biceps! Having muscle like that is totally new for me! I think I like that it makes me so different from all the other models in the area.

As I said, more photos when I see them. I have two, maybe three more shoots this weekend so I will post what I am given!

Have a great night!