MELANGE FASHION SHOW 6TH AUGUST 2011

So over the last few weeks I have been in touch with America the parcel containing my collection was sent off last Thursday without me packed inside it boooooo hooooo! My bad luck kicked in this morning when I received a call stating that my stuff had been held up at customs and that I needed to re-write in DETAIL the desciption of:
* where it was made
*who its made for
*how much EACH item cost.....AGAIN!
the amount of detail you have to state at ridiculous hours in the morning is not only aggrivating but bloody time consuming. Fittings for Saturdays show are taking place in San Francisco today and need to be there....if they dont arrive I wont be part of the show...meaning I cant book my tickets to attend the event! It is all such a domino effect.   

Ok so that part was written this morning and I have only now (23:11) Just managed to attend back to my blog, with more updates as you can imagine its been over 24 hours! I have been on my mobile solidly for the last 9-10 hours liasing with fedex in the UK as well as the US may I just say the huge 5 hour time difference has been a total nightmare, and the lack of communication between both cities has wasted a lot of time!

So the verdict is...I am no longer flying out to San Francisco. Yup! total cock and bull shizzle right there! Customs have been holding my stuff all day and can not reassure me when it will be released. This has delayed me in being un able to book my flights as no clothes means no show which quite frankly means waste of time to fly out. 


After all the stress ive dealt with today it has almost become a relief to finally have closure on a descision. If you know me well enough at all I am a Libra and we find making decisions difficult at the best of times! A long sigh later and a phonecall conversation to Nick in the States meant I will have to video myself giving thanks for the award which will later be posted back to me alongside my collection.


I was assured by Nick that Fedex will be having a lawsuit filed against them for incompetence and that hopefully I will be refunded for the delivery charge. Another designer has been faced witht the same dilema as me and wont be able to fly out either. Booooooooooooooooo!


Im having faith that my colelction will speak volumes without me being there, and any buyers or press interested will get in touch. Its not exactly hard to track someone down these days with all the news feeds about is it?!?


For once I'm staying optimistic.....lets see if todays misfortunate events happened for a reason.

SPIRIT UALS MUSIC VIDEO 2ND JULY 2011

I was contacted by Kenny Shaw the producer and organiser of Spirt Uals new up and coming music video that was to take place on the 2nd July 2011. They asked if I would jump on board as head stylist and told me the theme was sin city slash female warrior. The first part of the video has already been made in Tokyo and the rest of the scenes were to be finished in a lush designers studio in Ladbroke Grove. I was given two days to turn around looks for four girls which left me no time at all! I explained to the team that I was infact a designer as well as a stylist and gave them a link to  my site and work. Fortunately for me I was contacted straight away and asked to bring a majority (or my collection I had available) with me to the shoot.

The scenes we did was a full body workout, Ritchie the choreographer was over enthusiastic and was giving us directions behind the camera. He fuelled us with adrenaline as we had to re in act what he wanted us to do. That day I was fighting with num chucks, holding albino pythons, dancing in front of the camera, riding bikes and playing the electric guitar in a pandas mask! A lot of multi talent going on I must say! But over all a really successful and fun turn around and plus more contacts for my book!

I AM OFFICIALLY

HAYLEYLAI.COM

ONE OF THREE- I AM THE UK WINNER!!!!!

Dear Hayley,

I apologize for the delay as our teams have been busy evaluating 
candidates. I want to send out a big congratulations! You have been 
chosen as one of the three Student Designers to participate in our 
fashion shows!

After much deliberation with our executive team and fashion team, we 
would like to honor your achievements in the fashion industry with a 
Student Designer Award. This is a huge accomplishment, and we hope you 
are excited to build your presence and exposure in California.

We feel that you have been a role model for other Student Designers 
through your creativity and talent, showing the world what fashion has 
to offer in terms of creative diversity. Your constructions are 
statements that are reflective of your unique, raw aesthetic. You have 
been an inspiration, and we would be honored to have you as part of our 
shows.

We have been so impressed by your accomplishments - congratulations on 
receiving this Student Designer Award!

The CEO of Mélange Productions, Nick Navarro, would love to speak with 
you next week to discuss the next steps and logistics. He has been Cc'd.

Can you let us know your availability for next Tuesday, Wednesday, and 
Thursday (your time)? The call should take no longer than an hour.

We look forward to speaking with you! Please let us know your 
availability, your number, and your Skype id (if your have one) as soon 
as you can, and we'll do our best to accommodate your schedule!

Warmest regards,

Michelle 

OMGGGG!!!This is very surreal right now! Over a hundred designers were contacted from around the world to take part in this AMAZING competition in San Francisco on August the 6th 2011. It was then narrowed down to 50 and then the finalised 3 were chosen last week. I AM ONE OF THREE!! The other two contestants are from Australia and China and will both be flying to California for the event.

A guy called Nick who is from the directive team contacted me on wednesday to brief and congratulate me with what's going to happen from here. I have to submit my graduate collection along with 4 more new looks for one of their biggest catwalk shows. Unfortunately flight expenses are not paid so I am still contemplating if I will have the funding to fly out as yet....fingers crossed. I have another pressurised deadline to work towards in order to perfect and make my collection. As you can imagine its over a year old and has various wares and tears!

Nick complimented me on having top talent in the student graduate shows and said how artistic and unique my collection was. I will hopefully be receiving a student designer award certificate as proof of winning such an amazing achievement. I asked how he found me, and according to his styling team they were given three months to source the best graduate designers and to contact them. So in the next few weeks its design and knuckling time now.....things are really on the move.....

Please check out the venue by viewing this link...it is absolutely outstanding!

http://www.sfvenues.com/galleria/photographs.html

Mélange Student Designer Nomination for 2011 Summer Fashion Shows

Hello Hayley,

I work at Mélange Productions, Inc. in San Francisco, CA. Our company brings together elements from fashion, music, dance, and theater to celebrate all types of artistry and contribute to charity. We are preparing for our three summer fashion shows beginning July 30, 2011 in San Francisco, and you have been nominated to be a featured Student Designer for our fashion shows in San Francisco, CA. 

This is a great honor as we only select three Student Designers to participate in these summer fashion shows. We are interested in potentially featuring your garments because we admire the dramatic quality and exceptional craftsmanship in your Graduate Collection 2010. Your creations are surreal and are powerful statements in themselves.

Our mission is to support up and coming designers and to celebrate diversity by featuring models and designers of diverse backgrounds. Our Board of Advisors includes Guila Clara Kessous, Jean Paul Gaultier’s 2011 creative director, and Bill Guttentag, a two-time Oscar-winning producer-director. Designers like Nicole Miller will be showing at our shows! We encourage you to visit our website to learn more about our organization: http://membersofmelange.com/. Based on your designs, we think you might be a good match as a designer we would like to promote through our local and national networks. 

If selected as a Student Designer fashion participant for our summer shows, you would benefit from on site marketing, online brand promotion, and potentially a new channel for selling your garments. The attached document reviews some initial details of logistics for participation. There is no financial cost of participating in our productions if you are selected as a 2011 Student Designer. 

If you are interested in potentially accepting this nomination as one of our three 2011 Student Designers, please get back to us by June 3 with the two following materials:

1. Please answer one of the questions below (150 word limit). This will help us get to know you better and to evaluate if you are an appropriate match as a Student Designer for Mélange.

· What are the key experiences in your life that have shaped your perspective as a designer?

· What do you turn to for inspiration?

· Why is celebrating diversity important to you?

2. Send us a link showing the garments that would be available to showcase for our summer fashion shows (e.g. a link such ashttp://www.catwalking.com/GRADUATES/GRAD_10/BA_shows/shows/Westminster/shows/08-Hayley%20Lai/index.html will do).

We have nominated you because we believe designers like you have the creativity and talent to contribute to the diverse image of fashion. Of the nominees, only three Student Designers are selected to participate in our fashion shows. Winners will be announced by mid-June. Please don't hesitate to let me know if I can answer any questions you may have about this exciting opportunity. 

Thank you so much for your time, Hayley, and I look forward to hearing back from you! 

Warmest regards, 

Michelle Fong

Director of International Fashion

Mélange Productions, Inc.

Cell | (650) 283-9287

E-mail | michellefong@membersofmelange.com

Visit | www.membersofmelange.com

Hi Michelle,

Here is the answer to one of your questions:

What do you turn to for inspiration?

I consider myself to be an artist when I create clothes. I can envision clothing from bizarre things be it a paper clip, strand of hair or an origami shape.  My design aesthetic usually stems from something completely non fashion related and is put together in a more challenging way. Recently I have been encapsulated by architectural shapes and forms. I take on a more modern approach when I design and am infatuated by the architectural harshness, futuristic and edgy feel.

Buildings are not the only means of my inspirational research I have been motivated by strong characters found in origami and furniture forms too.  My previous collection is an example of how I linked strong structure in to my clothing as I used modern fabrics such as plastics, denims and card and manipulated them to create solid three dimensional shapes.

Hayley Lai

international festival of young fashion designers of charleroi - belgium

Apologies for the absence over the last few weeks but as you can imagine A LOT has been going on.
During and after BFW I received some pretty fabulous emails!!


As you all might be aware I went to see a fortune teller back in May my cards read that I would be going to Europe at some point this year (I dont want to jinx myself) but one of first predictions came true a week later....I was sat in my living room when I got an email directly to my blackbezza....

Hello Hayley!

I'm Aline and I work for the International Young Fashion Designers Festival of Charleroi. This years edition will take place at the Palace of fine Arts of Charleroi, Belgium, on october 15th & 16th, 2011. The aim of our festival is to exhibit young designers that we consider as tomorrow's great names of fashion. Guest designers can exhibit their creations and also sell pieces.

We really love your work and would like to know if you would accept to take part to our exhibition market in our gallery during those two days, amongst different young talents of fashion.

Please have a look at our pressfile attached.

Housing and transportation can be provided if needed. 

So, are you interested? In case it actually does, technical details and further information will follow, of course!

GreetingsAline Decat
Coordinatrice

+32 493 54 06 35
alinedecat@hotmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/fijcc 

30, rue de Marcinelle
6000 Charleroi
BELGIUM

Hi Hayley,

Thanks for your fast answer! That's great news. 

We try to have guests from different countries, so I can already tell you who "the belgian one" is, it's Celine Lellouche : http://www.celinelellouche.com/

For the rest, we cannot say yet, because you are one of the very first designers we contact this year. But I think you can have quite a good idea of the level and style we want by having a look at last year's line-up. As you can see, we try to reach many different styles.

The idea of the festival is to let people discover new talents, but you have to keep in mind that also many people will be there to buy original and/or unique clothes, so it's always nice if you have a collection (or two, or three) to sell, or accessories. This is also why we choosed to make it as an exhibition+ catwalk and not only catwalk. We ask 10% fees on the designers' sales.

About the housing, we can offer you to stay at a hostel or a bed&breakfast. If you want to stay at a hotel, it's ok, there are severals in the center of Charleroi, but it will be at your expense. For the transportation, it will depend on where you will be leaving from.

So, in order to complete the informations we have and can give you, and also so prepare the communication campaign, could you send us a little biography (a few sentences is enough), a few good pictures of your work in general, and a small description of what you will bring with you :) This is not urgent, but the sooner the better.

I will keep you informed with all the rest of course, and also with the confirmed guests. The website will be updated soon too, but if you have any questions, you can contact me by mail or phone.

Regards
Aline

 

As you can imagine I skimmed this email over and over until I totally freaked OUT! Hopefully this will happen so I can promote myself in Belgium and encourage other design students like myself that breaking in to the fashion industry is possible, and there are people out there that do appreciate unique work. At college or university I was always told my work would not sell and that I limited myself to the market. Part of this is true, but in a way I have appealed to a wider audience than anyone probably thought possible. I stick to what I said from the beginning: It is easy to be commercial but teach someone to be creative and unique is harder. My work can be toned down with the same concept in mind. But for the time being people seem to be enjoying the pieces I produce so I will continue down this path leaving my HayLai mark in Europe.........fingers crossed!

BEAD BITZ

After living in London and forking out on fabrics, haberdashery and beads as a second nature, you almost become oblivious to how your spending. Sometimes its better you dont know and just chuck your plastic at the machine and hope for the best. Pay now worry later moto. My collection cost me grands, and thats because I never had the time or energy to properly research how or where to get cheaper materials. I am an addict for haberdashery and enjoy really textile based work. I spent my life in beadcraft in Carnaby Street spending a fortune on their beads and other bits. VAT was also whacked on to the price which made it ten times more expensive. The more I came out of London the cheaper everything became and the more I recognised just how much London rips you off>> especially Kliens. I found a trimming in there that I sourced in Hitchin for 3 pounds a meter being charged at 12 pounds without VAT. It was EXACTLY the same!!


So I started to make more appearances to my local market in my home town in Hitchin and source more goods there. A bead stall opened up just after I did my collection and supplies almost EVERYTHING at fantastic prices. A bubbly lady called Dawn who runs the stall knows all the history of her beads and always educates me on how to make my own and suppliers that can manufacture in large quantities. The stall has such a large variety and is often updated seasonally so you are aware of the current trends and styles. Dawn supplies vintage beads as well which are always inspiring and unique to see and often spurs on visualising clothes and design ideas!


I just wanted to share this with everyone who reads my blog and advise them to leave enough time to research their materials. You can discover something far more unique and pay half the price for it! I have purchased a lot from Dawn which ranges from Swarovski crystals to metal beads and jewellery chains. I am some what addicted to her hospitality and stall and make a journey at least one every 2 weeks to see what she has. It keeps me motivated to produce exciting pieces!


You can contact Dawn for any enquiries on: beadbitz@ntlworld.com
Or visit her stall in Hitchin on tuesdays, fridays and saturdays

PRESS IMAGES

Jade Alexander

Positive- Magazine

Charlie Bland

MY CLOTHES FEATURED IN NEW UP-COMING ARTISTS VIDEO

Today was spent ploughing through all my emails that I had received since christmas from clients, and to chase up any images/ videos over due. Its always really exciting as I get loads of stuff back all at once! However, it is a nussicance chasing people-its one of my pet hates to be quite frank but hey!


So the flood of new things came and so did a very interesting video! My first music video to actually feature my collection. It was sooooo surreal witnessing this on the screen the hot pants are a real dazzler! Look one of my first collection has proved to be extremely popular and it defo works well on the new and up coming artist Amina. Im impressed with the video and the song...its quite catchy!!

LOVE THIS QUOTE

'Remember, people only rain on your parade because they're jealous of your sun & tired of their shade' -Kim Kardashian

BFW COUTURE SHOW TEASER

I am such a massive Twitter whore at the moment. Great people are tweeting me left right and centre and are keeping me up-to-date with the latest from BFW. Lottiesimmons tweeted me a link to a snippet of the Couture show. Its always lush seeing my show from the audiences point of view as designers like ourselves will never get this opportunity! Its so fab seeing my mum on the front row, I do it for moments like these <3 

SOME FEEDBACK

Tanja Stöcklin

thank you sooo much for letting me walk for you! I absolutely LOVE your designs 
and felt very honoured walking for you! xxx Tanja

Hi Hayley,

I just wanted to write and say what a pleasure it has been working with you, and to thank you so much for all your hard work. I was so excited about seeing your new collection, and thought it was absolutely amazing, honestly you are so talented.

Daisy x


It was a pleasure to meet you at the launch party Hayley, I'm Jess the tall blonde student who works for Brighton Fashion Week who found you on catwalking.com. Your collection was stunning, you got a standing ovation from me and my friends! An inspiration. Well done and thank you so much for your advice at the launch that you gave me.

Jessica Kayll

www.printedthreads.blogspot.com

Hi. Congratulations for the show. Your collection rocked- Aris Vrakas

lottesimons Lotte Simons 

@hayley_lai Just saw your collection for BFW, LOVE! The origami piece on Aj is amazing.

LOOKS

My Star Wars music pumps throughout the bassy system whilst my logo appears on the large screen in sync with my tune. My models are lined up backstage getting in to character. My assistant and I are fussing about making sure everythings in order, that every hem of a skirt is down, socks are pulled round in the right manner, certain hoods are on heads and all fastenings are done up. 

Everything fell in to place. No one falls over, all the mods remember their sequence event though it had only been practised once that day. So all in all quite a successful show. I even had to go out and take a bow to the audience. This for me was slightly embarrassing and cringe worthy! But the applause was so worth it, I felt everyone appreciated all my hard work. I hope I put on a good show!

Aj who wore look five comes off and scurries over to me in her sky scrapper shoes. 'OMG, when I came on all I could hear was wow, everyone seemed really impressed. Im definitely going to recommend you to my agency they will love your stuff. Your stuff is so sick!' Aj kept stroking my origami piece asking how I made it and complimenting me on how original my work was. She was so lush!

The adrenaline rush is absolutely insane! It really is a euphoric feeling. I was on a complete high, all that worrying when everything turned out just fine. I wanted to get straight back out and do it again!

We have some press backstage that take pics before we undress the models and bag up all our garments for the evening. 

One last finale closes the show. Each designer goes down with one of their looks for more applause before we can finally be released to go and drink ourselves silly. I however, have to bag everything up, cab it to the station and leg it for my last train back to London. I am far from being able to unwind from a hectic day yet.

Outside waiting for the cab to arrive people are making their way out of the church. I hear my name being shouted at the entrance and I turn to see a girl walking towards me...'Hi excuse me are you the actual designer Hayley Lai? I just wanted to say your stuff was my favourite I think your amazing....where can I buy your clothes from?' To hear this is such a blessing. We stand and talk for a while before I punch my details in to her blackberry before being driven to the station. Its actually all over. The climax has ended. I feel lost. I sit in the cab wondering what tonights show will bring. Its always exciting reading the press the next day.

Lying in bed my twitter was going crazy. I was exstatic to read peoples feedback.

3rd of June was officially show day! So the night before was spent doing those nitty gritty finishing touches and we had ourselves in bed by 5am. Equipped with two large suitcases and hand luggage my assistant and I were ready to conquer Brighton for the Couture show. 

On arrival at St Martins Church it was heaving with make-up and hair teams, naked models, camera crews the works all elegantly running around with either a frappaciano or a can of hairspray. The atmosphere was electric not to say chaotic in the least! Maybe this was due to the high redbull intake and lack of sleep..... who knows!everyone was on a high!

I'd barely been there 5 minutes and was getting bombarded with teams from all fields intergating me on if I needed help. I was ushered to my rail and introduced to my second dresser Pavi. I was being treated like royalty and had people fussing over me majorly!!! It made me feel claustrophobic, I really was in the spotlight now. 

One by one my models appeared for their first fitting (taking in to account no one had tried any of my garments until this point and it was a real gamble if anything was to fit) Luckily it was a success and I got straight down to doing the running order. Having worked as Emilio's stylist for many seasons now organising this part seems to flow easily. I had to find out who my quick changes were to make sure we could change in time for my show and the persons after. Most of us were all sharing the mods which added to the stress and pressure- but hey ive done worse!

Martha was my styled model. Along the walls were images of my ideal styled look and it was lush to see they were following my boards. As a designer you have so much control of your overall image it almost becomes quite surreal. I have had so much to organise in the short period ive been part of BFW but I still managed to do it. Seeing it come to life is such a climax and reward.

We done one rehearsal that day which took place at 3:30 four hours before the show. Must admit it was an absolute nightmare! So much so I wasnt convinced it was going to be an easy ride. Almost like a tragedy waiting to happen.

By this point tiredness started to kick in and everyone was becoming impatient with all the waiting around. Redbull was vastly disappearing and food was out of sight.

Alas 2000 subway sandwiches emerged and everyone indulged in a bit of fresh food which lifted our spirits completely. Hair and make up teams were back on the go, by now it was an hour till show time and everyone was already making their way in to the church to be seated.

We all took our places and waited for our call time. Models were all over the place as some had to get ready backstage due to all the quick changes there were. This meant I had to run backstage after changing a few of my mods in a separate building to go and finish doing the rest from the previous show. Absolute manic I tell you, but by now the adrenaline was pumping so much in my system there wasnt even enough time to think you just had to get on with it! I could have done with an extra dishing of a bitch slap though just to give me focus!

The church was completely packed! It looked absolutely beautiful with the high rised arched ceiling and stain glassed windows. Candle light flickered through the hall and gave off a nice relaxed vibe. 

I was 5th on the running order which meant I was in the first half before the interval. Tim Rhys show had just finished and models were tip toe-ing as fast as they could for their quick change....I needed to find Tori quick to put her in my closing outfit as this was not an easy yet practical dress to put on!

BRUNO MARS SINGS IT FOR ME PERFECTLY

Still up!! Currently printing off the photos to stick on my garment bags with instructions. Went to print and the printer has started to play silly buggers with me! So I went to make myself a tea to realise im so low on tea bags!! A sign of one too many all nighters I guess. So now im jabbing my USB in any hole I can to make it work whilst playing this song very LOUD!!!! All nighters can be fun! And their usually even better when your not doing them alone!

DAY BEFORE BFW COTURE SHOW

Headaches, snotty noses and bloodshot eyes have kicked in. Since last Thursday my assistant Sam Smith and I have had about 4 hours sleep a night if that. Its the day before the show and lots of prep is needed to make sure everything runs smoothly. By the way I still have no shoes and have not even tried my collection on one model! I am quite resentful that travelling to and from Brighton takes so long. In the early hours of today we will be equipped with two mahausive suitcases trampsing down to Brighton for the second time this week. What a mish!

Today has consisted of organising the running order, tacking things together, cutting off loose threads and all those other nitty gritty bits. There hasnt been a sight of a Redbull or Relentless throughout this week-how impressive is that, we've lasted off the laughing fumes we've exhaled when things have gone wrong....like making all the neckline holes too small to even fit a head through. If you dont laugh you'll only cry...im saving the crying for tomorrow if nothing fits the models. This whole collection has been such a gamble. Pretty much like my whole life!LOL

At the BFW VIP party, most contestants were shocked to learn that I had made a completely NEW collection! ermmmmmmm is this not the whole point?!?! SO gawwwddd knows if their showing last season's stuff. To be honest I dont really know what the point is...you have the opportunity to show new things to new eyes. Most contestants have had 3months minimum to pull a new collection round if so, I have done this in just over a month!!!!Since 16th April to be precise!  This week I even decided to make a whole new complete look from out of no where!Im very good at pulling things out of my arse I must say. 

Most nights we have two machines on the go. Sam sews on the desk and I sew on the floor and get serious back ache and a series of pins and needles. My electricity bill is going to be so GROSS. I mean the tv, itunes, lights, iron and any other electrical appliance has been on the go 24/7!

I dont know what to expect from tomorrow or who is even seated on front row, most of the day I will probably spend avoiding people. I may even do a Karl Lagerfeld and wear glasses to avoid the 'you look so tired' line.

As soon as I arrive tomorrow its straight in to fittings. Its crunch time. Make or break. Really hope all these late nights pay off and that the audience enjoy what ive produced in such a short space of time......see you all tomorrow!x