It’s Official: Hem & Jaleo Showcase is On!
Join us for an evening of upcycled fashion and flamenco
Hey everyone,
How is your September so far? Have you done some eco-friendly acts or developed new kinder, sustainable habits in your life?
And for the fashionistas among you, are you caught up with New York and London fashion weeks, and excited about Paris, Milan, and beyond?
If you are doing Re/Make’s No New Clothes pledge, how is it going?
If you ask me, the answer is NO for most of them, and “successful before I traveled overseas for two weeks” for the last one :) I will tell you about my trip on another newsletter.
Aside from my odd traveling schedule, it’s been straight up sewing, planning, marketing, and more sewing. I told you a couple of months ago that it would be a crazy few months, so please don’t mind the state of chaotic calm that I’m currently in.
Yes, this newsletter issue is 3 weeks late. I had another draft that I first worked on in February, but…. it felt stale. So I scrapped it, even though I’m honestly behind schedule for my sewing workload. This may cringe many writers out there, especially those who have developed the habit of batch write-ups to fill out their backlogs.
Sorry, I tried but it doesn’t feel right for this month. For this issue, I’ll keep it relatively short. No list of topics, just a straight-up updates related to my in-person textile upcycling showcase for next month.
P.S. The newsletter will resume its normal publishing schedule next month: Thursday of the first full week of October. I will be delving into the three upcycled outfits I’m making for the showcase - inspiration and story behind each outfit. Please look forward to it!
There seems to be an influx of new readers lately, and this may be the first time my newsletter arrives in your inbox. So uh, hi there, nice to have you here! First times are often awkward and that’s OK. You can check my About page, my Gallery, and Instagram page. I hope you will enjoy reading this newsletter!
You are invited to come to Hem & Jaleo!
Hem & Jaleo will be my first ever in-person textile upcycling exhibition. Following up on last year’s Virtual Textile Art Gallery exhibition, I have the opportunity to do an in-person showcase this time in my capacity as Climate Creative’s Artist in Residence 2023.
After much brainstorming and vision editing, the planning and execution of Hem & Jaleo is well underway! In seemingly a blink of an eye, we are mere 30 days away from the event. Oh boy.
This in-person textile upcycling showcase will be held in Oakland on Saturday, October 21. Just like the name implies, “Hem & Jaleo” will have two parts:
Fashion Life Drawing to showcase my newest upcycled textile outfits (more context about them on next month’s issue).
Three models will wear them and hold a series of poses while attendees draw / sketch around them. Basic sketching supplies are provided, but attendees can totally dress up in their best painter’s outfit and bring their own easel!Live Flamenco - a full set of flamenco dance performances featuring the one and only Clara Rodriguez. She will be joined by three more dancers, a guitarist, and a singer.
But wait, there’s more! We will have a vegan food truck, as well as free wine and refreshments on site. Attendees also will also enjoy the unique, artistic vibe of the performance space, called The Dome. It’s been a pillar for the Bay Area artist community, and I’m thrilled to host my showcase there.
We have a maximum capacity limit at the performance space, so if you or anyone you know would like to attend, please reserve your spot ASAP (suggested donation is $45 and up). I sure hope to see some readers there!
For regular Hem & Jaleo event updates, follow me on Instagram. I recently made a reel outlining the event and inviting people to reserve their spot(s).
More information about guest performers and artists will be released soon.
If you cannot come but would like to support me and help cover production costs, feel free to tip me directly! Thank you for your support.
How I Do Event Planning
Not gonna lie: I’m freaking out right now. My recent 2-week overseas trip put a wrench on my wheel of momentum, and I also got sick (FOR ONE WHOLE WEEK) upon my return. It was not fun. But it doesn’t matter. Despite my icy cold hands, I’m strangely, relatively calm.
I have past Mira (from a couple of months ago) to thank for that. In addition to creating a mindmap and overall project timeline on Figma, I documented my showcase backlog on Airtable. The backlog has everything I need to do, not just designing and sewing. Looking at the status of things today via a bird’s eye view, I’m not in too much of a bad shape. Sure, there are many things that have yet to be done, but considering how much was already done, I think it’s going to be alright.
The weakness of this backlog is I cannot assign weights to each task and record my scrum velocity (i.e. amount of total work done in a given scrum cycle; in this case, a week). Life Drawing takes the most hours, as I have to source, design, sew all outfit pieces, as well as coordinate with the models for fittings.
Flamenco is also labor-heavy, not only in designing and sewing, but also in dance practices. Sssh, I’m going to be dancing in the flamenco part of the event!
Conception and House Crew tasks are not that many now that the planning is underway, but they are crucial to do in the most timely manner so we don’t f*** up when we are too close to the finish line.
Event marketing tasks are obviously A LOT, but they are mostly digital and relatively not as time intensive. I have Climate Creative’s Director Logan Evasco helping me with digital asset creations, so that’s a big help. Canva is our best friend in tackling these tasks. Right now, most of the Event Marketing tasks involve reaching out to so-and-so to invite them to Hem & Jaleo. Wish me luck so this event can be a success!
If you are interested in joining and have burning questions, reach out to me on Instagram. That’s the fastest way to get my attention during this hectic time.
Current State of Making
Calm or not, I fully realize that I still have 4 complete outfits to make, 3 garments to refashion, and possibly one garment to repair. All to finish in the next 3 weeks tops, in-between all the other tasks. Can I do it? Time will tell.
This is what my sewing studio (i.e. a converted small bedroom) looks like right now.
I’m focusing on the Life Drawing garments right now. One of them will be made out of deconstructed jeans and knit rib scraps, one will be a new iteration of Gathered Cloths (with a grand total of 100 ruffled cloths when I’m done with them), and the last one will be the top part for the embroidered petticoat.
Out of the three, I have the most interesting time with the denim and knit outfit. I ditched my sketches a couple of times, and finally decided to play directly with the deconstructed jeans directly on the dress form. That proved to be the trigger that kept the ball rolling.
I only went back to sketching when I’m pleased with some concrete progress working directly with the dress form. So far so good.
As for the top accompaniment for the petticoat, all I’ve done is collect some white tulle and cotton scraps to do the job. They are in the brown bag shown in the foreground on the picture below. I hope it’s not going to give me too much grief to get this top done. Fingers crossed.
ALSO, I need to add some balloon sleeves to a polkadot tank so I can match my flamenco dance mates for a group number. I’m done with flamenco outfit refashioning works for my dance mates, so now it’s time to do the same for myself.
After that, will that be the end of my sewing work? Of course not. There’s still a couple more outfits to make. Just not this week. Or next week.
Parting Thoughts: Peacock as Art Symbol
If I’m not working on my showcase, I’d be sharing the textiles and patterns I got or encountered during my overseas trip to Indonesia. I will be sharing a more complete story some other month, so I will share just this one picture. It’s a picture of a peacock, a section of a repeated motif on a cotton fabric I got during my trip.
I found out that in Yogyakarta, peacock feathers symbolize art. There is a tradition that when a new Sultan (king) is crowned, he is gifted with many symbolic items - for example, a keris for sharpness of the mind, a shield for dexterity, and a spitting bowl for decisiveness in taking actions (instead of saying empty promises).
Peacock feathers are amongst such gifts, symbolizing the sultan’s artistic focus / duty. During his reign, he needs to compose and publish at least one new piece of art (a dance or a song). Isn’t that cool?
When I have time, going down the rabbit hole of which sultan produced what piece is something I’d definitely want to do. Maybe I should put it on my backlog :)
Thanks for reading; until next time,
Mira Musank