New Pollution Designs Presents Hello Kitty Inspired Headbands and New Flower colors on my etsy shop

And kitty was her name-o! Come one, come all to my etsy shop where you'll find kawaii kitty headbands and funky flower colors that will tickle your fancies!

Come check out New Pollution Designs at newpollutiondesigns.etsy.com

Items range from $25 to $35 and I ship world wide!

Hope to see you there!
~Elisa L'Amour of New Pollution Designs

Cupcake Fetish: Wanna Bite?

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. I am so excited to show you these pictures of two of my hats used in  a photo shoot for cupcakefetish.com. My friend Lindsey Tervo-Clemmens did the styling.  You should check out the post cards made of these bevy of beauties (there are 12 of them) on their site.

Don't you just love the mood and styling of the shoot! They look like modern day pin ups. So would it be more cheesecake* or cupcake? LOL!!! Either way they all look absolutely delicious! I think one of the fun aspects of being a designer is seeing how other people interpret your work. When I design I think of abstract muses so I love to see it in a concrete form.

I hope you all ENJOY!!! And until next time...

Happy Fashions from New Pollution Designs,

Elisa L'Amour xoxo

*Wonder why I used the term cheesecake? Well here is a little excerpt off of wikipedia: The term “cheesecake” is synonymous with “pin-up photo”. The earliest documented print usage of this sense of “cheesecake” is in 1934 [1], predating “pin-up”, although anecdotes say the phrase was in spoken slang some 20 years earlier, originally in the phrase (said of a pretty woman) “better than cheesecake”.

Shout out in the Examiner!!!

Woot, woot!
Here is my shout out bit:
A friend of mine, Elisa Hutchison L'Amour (my edit not Sarah's tee hee)—who dates back to my college days—has surprised me by becoming a couture milliner, or fashion designer specializing in hats. (She has consummate skill, so I’m not surprised that she CAN make hats. It’s just that, like me, she got her bachelor’s degree in journalism.)

Elisa, a fashion school graduate of the American InterContinental University in London, recently designed a cocktail hat of feline proportions. She has created a Hello Kitty fascinator, which I see is sewn with her usual Virgo precision. There are a lot of Sanrio fanatics and kawaii fashion connoisseurs out there, so I thought I’d spread the word.

Got cat scratch fever? You can ask Elisa about Hello Kitty and other hats via Twitter.

Here is the link..CHECK IT OUT!!! (please :p )
http://www.examiner.com/x-10873-LA-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner~y2010m3d17-To-top-it-off-Hat-craze-hits-Etsy-LA-Fashion-Week-PART-II-of-II?cid=examiner-email

Hello Kitty Inspired Cocktail Headband Sneak Peek + Poem

To herald in my latest collection soon to appear on etsy (newpollutiondesigns.etsy.com) my friend, published poet, author and journalist, Sarah Torribio has kindly created a poem for this happy occasion. I hope you enjoy!

CAT POWER
Kawaii means cute in Japanese
and you are, my Sanrio siren.
Hello, I wear my love for you
for all the world's admiring.

Your kittenish sense of fashion
and your enigmatic eyes
exude your proud philosophy:
"Dress well, and accessorize."

Please check out her health and beauty blog for the examiner at http://www.examiner.com/x-10873-LA-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner
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Here is the sneak peak vid for my Hello Kitty Inspired Headbands!



Happy Fashions from New Pollution Designs,
Elisa L'Amour xoxo

It Takes a Village: Hello Kitty in a Photo Shoot

It's amazing how styling can really elevate an accessory. I mean this is a little Hello Kitty cocktail hat I made. Cute on its own but not as glam or quirky as styled in this photo shoot. My friend Lindsey (Hi chica!) is a professional stylist and she used my hat for a photo shoot and I love how it turned out. A great pic along with a great stylist, photographer, hair stylist and make-up artist (and designer...ahem)can really create an unspoken mood. So think about the behind-the-scenes of a glossy page the next time you open a magazine. Remember a team creates that fantasy of the fashion image you love.

Hope you enjoy!
Happy Fashions from New Pollution Designs,
-Elisa

My first live youtube video featuring a newly created large headband!

HOORAY! for my first 'How To' video in hopefully a long series for New Pollution Designs. This particular video features a large flower headband that I created. In the tutorial I explain ways to wear it. As simple as the advise may seem most women aren't wearing something flashy on their heads so I feel these things must be said!!! Ever so nicely of course! Hope you enjoy!

New Feather Headband

Here is a new feather headband that will make it's debut on my etsy shop once it's up and running. I hope you enjoy.

Inspiration

When I am working on a hat, sometimes I need to lay it all out to find the next step or color I am going to take.

hat a tat tat

Here is a copy of the hat that I made for Kandee the makeup artist! I hope you enjoy :)

My hat video: take 1

Ugh, I am stalling...

I have a hat that is half way done and I can't bring myself to finish it. Somehow I seem to be focusing on everything else but it!!! Ugh I have hat block...no pun intended as hats are made on blocks (just in case you didn't know that, lol :P. Yes, I am a dork!)

Milliner Lily Dache

This is milliner Lily Dache (see first photo). She was a famous French milliner (woman's hat maker) who immigrated from Paris to the US in the 1920s. She was really popular in her heyday which spaned from the 1930s to the 1960s more or less. She had two ready-to-wear lines called 'Mme Lily' and 'Dachette's'. The green hat is from the Dachette's line, I believe.

It's a shock that most, if not all milliners have been forgotten since the 1970s until today. In the past women would not consider leaving the house without some sort of hat. Now...nothing, nada, bupkis. So in my little humble way I want to pay homage to this great lady who made hats for the Hollywood greats and the little people like us(really I jest:). But here are a few photos to show her work. I could go on but it would be a whole other blog in itself. But please if you like the photos check her out.

Photos from Paris Fashion Week A/W 2009

These are two of the hats that I worked on for Vivienne Westwood Show A/W 2009. Enjoy!


With the grey felt hat (above) the brief was to make it look FU@KED! That's what Dame Vivienne said summed up the feel of these hats. Basically it's supposed to look like you found it at the bottom of a neglected box in the attic.

This hat is made of a wool-mix-crackle blend fabric. It's the same fabric as the coat. The mood of this hat is supposed to be 'pull out of your pocket' ease. Basically it's supposed to be non-fussy and look a bit worn and twisted!

Let it shine...hat's I've helped create

This hat was made for British designer Julien MacDonald's Ready-to-wear spring/summer 08. It's a patent leather black solider type hat. It also came in patent white as well. They weren't easy to make as the leather was wanting to tear when stretched and thinned down to a manageable piece. Also the shiny leather showed finger prints. At the show the dressers backstage had to wear gloves to put the hats on so that fingerprints would not appear on stage under the bright lights.

More hats and their stories to come...