Following the Patterns of this World

This is the model I dressed. Her name is Siri and she's really sweet.

I haven't posted in a bit. Life is going by fast. Every day seems to go slow but this weekend was one whirlwind.
First of all, I got a new point and shoot camera. Not an SLR but a small Canon powershot. My mini Pentax is slowly dying on me. It was a good four year relationship. Time for an upgrade. :P

Saturday morning, I woke at 8am to help out at Fashion Week. At 9am, all of us volunteers had to haul the chairs around and arrange them around the rooms in the National Arts Club which is essentially this dark wood paneled house with stained glass ceilings. In a nutshell I helped out stuffing goody bags which was basically a box of trend colours in the form of threads and pamphlets from Cotton Inc. It wasnt anything exciting but the packaging was gorgeous- I got to keep one at the end. :P Anyway, I was there to be a dresser. A dresser literally means to dress the models since their outfit changes have to be done in a matter of 30 seconds. I got a really sweet model. Her name is Siri and I got to talk to her for a bit since the show was an hour delayed due to press and tv cameras. She's Norwegian and she came out to do modelling straight out of high school. She's 19. She'll be flying to Milan, Paris and London for the following fashion shows.
Anyway, I felt like I was crawling in a forest of legs- all the models on top of their natural height, had four inch heels on which us poor dressers had to button for them which was hellish.
Overall, it was a lot better than last year's show I had to do for some other woman. All the big guns were there: Vogue, Womens Wear Daily, Teen Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Holt Renfrew, French Vogue, In Style etc.
I started talking to other volunteers who also go to Parsons and they were all really nice. Plus I got a picture with Lisa Cant, a famous model who hails from Alberta, Canada.
I stayed there from 9am-2pm.

After that, I went home and 4:30, went to Central Park with a few friends for a cupcake picnic. HAHAHa. We obviously live in the denial of the harsh realities of living in New York. And after that, I went and crashed at my friend's place down in the Financial Distract which was very nice. Best sleep of my life. I was so exhausted from the fashion show.

And then on Sunday, I had to wake up even earlier, at 7am, to help out on Hands Crew (worship team set up). Yet while I was there attempting to help, I could hear myself whispering about what an inadequate job I was doing because essentially I am not really doing anything, nor do I look like a person who would be hauling around boxes of XLRs and quarter inches. All my insecurities surfaced then: gender stereotypes and what others thought of me. I don't know, I know most people on the Hands crew are guys and any girls who are helping are usually wearing denim. But with the sweltering heat, I much prefer wearing dresses yet I feel very stupid lugging boxes in one.
But God is good. I saw Cheryl, one of the worship team leaders I worked with, for the first time since I left NY for the summer holidays, and she introduced me to the Welcoming Committee head. The Welcoming Committee, in a nutshell, writes down people's names on those sticky tags when they first come in and hand out bulletins like ushers. I think I'll be more suited to this job since I can actually meet people and try and remember their names while I pen them down in red marker.

And as for today, on my day off, I officially started my internship at Edun. I'm working under the menswear designer of Edun. He's pretty chill and an interesting character. The job itself? It was kinda slow... I just ran two errands which required me to get paint chip colours in these dusty, moody hues that Robyn would love and running to Pearl Paint to buy two portfolios. Then after that, I ended up sitting in the office cutting and trimming to scale, images that he wanted to use for the upcoming spring collection. Though it was nothing exciting, I hope that in the future, I'll be able to do more. I just have to get over the nitty gritty portion of the job first. I'm just interested in getting to know the production process of a socially conscious industry.

The reason I recorded all my activities this past weekend was because of a particular question that has been plaguing my mind lately: what does it mean to not follow/conform to the patterns of this world?
During one of our bible studies back in the summer, we studied this chapter and I wanted to ask, but for one reason or another, held back because I didn't want to ask something that may seem so obvious.
When I speak to Christians, they seem so sure about what the verse means. Don't drink. Don't do drugs. Don't swear. Don't kill people.
Yet as a budding designer in an industry that has trend forecasters, fads and 'It' items, how does this verse apply to my situation? They seem like such a contradiction. Although I love innovation, I'm interested in trends as well. I like knowing what's popular in the States, in the Eastern countries and also in Canada. But what was Paul refering to when he was speaking about 'patterns'?
I purchased a book on Amazon called 'Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster'. It's basically unearths a lot of things we don't know about the fashion business and how they keep us salivating for more by upping the marketing and lowering the cost of production by outsourcing to China. It's going to be an interesting read.

On a side note, my gut feeling tells me that the 20's flapper style will be coming back in. It's a total intuitive thing but since I'm starting to respond to the style, I think it's gonna be a trend in about a year. Let's see if I'm right. :P