TFS: T Lo Interviews Angel

How did you get started in fashion?
I started a long time ago when I was 16. I was living in Indiana where fashion doesn’t really exist and I had written a letter to my favorite designer at the time, Anna Sui. She was the only person I wanted to work for, so I sent her a letter, she wrote back, a few months later I moved to NY, saw her at her store and she offered me an internship. From there, I started working in the industry. That was way back in high school.

You also worked for Donna Karan and trained at the studios of Viktor & Rolf and Marc Jacobs. That’s quite a fashion background.
Yeah, I’ve been really fortunate in all these different experiences and to work with people that I really admire and working for those who founded their own companies and who are visionaries in their own right. I’ve been really lucky and I learned a lot from them.

Your work has also been featured in ELLE, W, Vogue, and in several international publications. How did you manage to get that so early in your career?
It’s funny because when I started my collection I had been writing a lot of runway reviews for French Vogue online. I knew what the other designers in NY were doing and I knew there was something missing, and that was innovation. I was working with new materials, it was this technology crossover that I saw happening on the fashion side. I think my first collection was very timely. It was inspired by these tech-oriented materials and it happened that at the time Balenciaga was also inspired by technology that season, it was for Spring 2007. It fit with the trends at the time. I think magazines and editorials - the industry really - respond to new ideas, to something with substance and innovation. I did my collection, I put the work out there, and the press just followed it.

You also specialize in fabric development and that’s a very interesting segment of the industry. New technologies, new fabrics can really change the way designers approach their creations.
Yes, that's true, when I was at Donna Karan a lot what I did was developing fabrics and embroideries, working directly with the textile mill and creating inspiration and design concepts every season with my boss, who was the Senior Creative Director. In a way, we were the R & D department for a major designer, so I brought that back into my own collection.

I get invited to speak at conferences on wearable technology and there I meet people from chemical companies, people who are working with silver fiber or LED fabrics, flexible paper batteries, all these things that have a long R & D lead time, like seven years, and that are really confidential -- they want to cross over into clothing and the fashion industry, so I’m kind of like the conduit to doing that.

Moving on to the show and the last episode, do you think there was some confusion regarding the challenge? They basically assigned you a b-girl but ended up judging you based on hip-hop style.
Yes, there was some confusion and I think a lot of the confusion was…I feel like the judges, I mean aside from Kelly, I think the judges didn’t know what a b-girl was, so they couldn’t really judge me on that look. I feel like a b-girl is a very specific niche in hip-hop culture. I wouldn’t say it’s synonymous with hip-hop and for those to judge me based on hip-hop was a bit misleading. Very misleading, actually.

Most of our readers felt that Kelly was very rude to you. We have to say that it was a little awkward to watch you having to apologize to her.
I was very surprised by her remarks. On TV, she was extremely harsh and some people were like, “you shouldn’t have apologized at all.” Yeah, it was weird because she was insulted and I didn’t understand why. It was supposed to be inspired by that particular clique, not to create a look for an actual b-girl.

I think in this episode the judges were particularly harsh, not just at me, but at everyone in general. The level of cattiness jumped three levels amongst the contestants as well. They weren’t criticizing me based on my design skills or my design work. I couldn’t really have a strong reaction to that. “You don’t know something.” How can I be mad about that?

And that’s particularly tough when the designers can’t really prep or do any type of research like a designer would do in a normal situation.
Yes, there is such a limited time frame and so much of that time is spent actually sewing the clothes and I think, as a designer, for me finding inspiration and doing all the design research and fabric development is the most difficult part of designing a collection. Every time I do an interview with someone, they’re always asking me “What are you inspired by?” “Who are you thinking about?” I travel to all these different countries and read all these books just to get the visual materials to create an inspiration. In this competition, we weren’t allowed to do that, you don’t have the full picture of what makes a design a design. You don’t have the substance. You don’t have the reason for fashion to exist.

It seemed that you were always running out of time, finishing the garments at the last minute. Was time management an issue?
Obviously time management was an issue, but at the same time, if anyone else was given that amount of time, they would’ve had half of a garment. For me, to even be able to create a full look in that amount of time it really amazed me. I didn’t know that I could do it, I didn’t know I had the skills to do it. The last time I sewed my own jacket, it was like…god, when I was in school. Now I work with professional sample makers who will spend a week putting that together. While I was running out of time on the show, in fashion, we’re always sewing buttons on until right before the fashion show. Maybe viewers are surprised by that, but in the real world of fashion that’s exactly how everyone works.

We were really impressed with your dress-shirt dress.
Yes, that was really cool. I was able to be innovative and yet still be appealing to a public audience. Those two don’t always align. For me that was a great achievement as a designer.

You mentioned in one of your interviews that women have changed their roles, and changed their lifestyle but the structure of their clothes has remained the same. What did you mean by that?
I designed my collection after 9/11 and after the East Coast blackout and there was a point, sort of a realization, like a light bulb went off, that I felt that clothes didn’t match my emotional experiences at the time. They were supposed to be protective, comfortable. I just felt really vulnerable in my clothes, and when I was at Donna Karan, we would buy vintage garments as an inspiration for the whole design team and the design process. I felt that we should not be designing something based off a WWII bomber jacket, otherwise, we’re designing for that life style from way back then when we should be designing for our lives today. Having seen how the design process works in many different fashion houses, often times they were being inspired by the past, and I wanted to move fashion forward and that’s what I meant.

Tells us a little bit about your collection and your clientele.
My clientele is fashion-driven women, very self-aware, they travel a lot. They’re very chic, but they also need clothes that don’t wrinkle a lot, that are lightweight and low-maintenance but still stunning. I try to work with fabrics that don’t wrinkle a lot, don’t require a lot of dry-cleaning, that won’t weigh a suitcase down. And multifunctional, they can be worn two, three different ways and are always extremely stylish.

Thank you, Angel, and good luck to you.
Thanks, guys.


Some of Angel Chang's designs from previous collections:

[Photos: BravoTV.com/Dan Lecca/Angelchang.com]


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TFS: Congrats and Bye-Bye

Oh, kittens. We may just have turned a corner on this show. That would be the corner at the intersection of It's Not So Bad Street and This Show Sucks Boulevard.

Let's start with the challenge itself. It was stupid and pointless. Generally speaking, adults do not dress in the same style as their high school years and adults that DO dress in the same style as their high school years are generally considered not particularly stylish people. They might as well have called the challenge "Design a look for an immature loser!"

Look! It even made Chicken cry! Of course, in reality TV, that automatically meant he was going to win it.

Just so. Congrats, Merlin!

When this was walking the runway last night we thought it looked pretty fabulous, but in the harsh light of day, we have to say that as an outfit, it's a whole lotta look.

But when we look at each piece separately, we like them all.

It was a pretty good take on what a Mean Girl would wear in her '20s. It's basically a version of a Beverly Hills Princess, like something Paris Hilton would wear.

We have nothing more to base this on than a hunch, but we suspect this look and his first winning look are as close to his own design style as he can get on this show. Merlin likes to pile on the textures and the colors and just keep building up.

The only thing we have a hard time getting behind is that sweater jacket.

But we have to say, the fit and the execution was top notch. We were starting to get a little worried about our Chicken Diva. He's been so low-key these last couple of episodes. Not only did he come roaring back with a pretty great design, he also gave us our new catchphrase:

We're going to say that in a Honduran accent every chance we get.

So long, Angel. You got royally screwed last night.

"Angel...for her not to know what a B-girl is...it's kind of like...retarded."

We don't mind when contestants smack talk each other in confessionals. In fact, when they're good at it (Santino, Laura, Nick), they're entertaining as hell. On THIS little trainwreck, though, they're just nasty as hell. In fact, we can sum up our whole problem with this show: it's a meaner, nastier, darker version of Project Runway and who the hell wants to see that?

Anyway, back to poor, screwed Angel.

Let's start here. We're not going to defend the look. It was terribly dated and not particularly fabulous or stylish.

On the other hand, it was surprisingly well-executed considering the extreme time constraints.

Of course, we kinda can't blame her for coming up with a dated look because in the brief for "B-Girl," they gave her those sunglasses and that cap to define the look. Who WOULDN'T come up with a dated look around those items?

We're not going to pretend like it wasn't bad. There were reasons to send her home last night but the judges didn't cite them. Instead, in an effort to make this dull as dishwater show seem more exciting, they raked her over the coals for not knowing what hip hop style was. Guess what, assholes? YOU DIDN'T ASK HER TO DESIGN A HIP HOP LOOK!

What you asked her for was a "B Girl" look, and while we can get behind the criticism that a designer should know what hip hop is, we think it's a bit ridiculous to act so offended that she didn't know what a B Girl was. In fact, Kelly managed to do something she hasn't been able to all season: provoke a reaction in us. Of course, that reaction was "Oh, SHUT. UP." She found Angel's design "offensive." Puh-leeze.

We'll let Angel have her say, because she said it better than we could in her Bravo blog:

"Normally, I would do a bunch of research, read all about the group, take pictures of b-girls looks on my wall for inspiration and really immerse myself in that culture. I would go to the bars and clubs that they hang out at and really study the way they dress. In this challenge, however, we could not do any outside research. In fact we have been cut off from the outside world since Day 1 of the show, so we cannot do any kind of research at all."

"The judges criticized the look because they said it didn’t look b-girl at all. Actually, on their notes, it said it was b-girl/hip-hop. Had I known I was supposed to do a hip-hop style, I would have designed something more fun and sexy. I didn’t know that b-girl was synonymous with hip-hop. With all the '80s references in the backpack and b-girl written on the folder in graffiti letters, I felt it had more of a break dancing vibe. It seemed trendier and niche than the hip hop category that they thought I was assigned to do."

Nailed it!

Okay, two things before we turn the floor over to you: 1) We've reached a point where we're fairly disgusted with how this show is playing out, but we still think it has potential and we plan on doing a mid-term report card in the coming days to point out what it needs to do to improve, and 2) Even though we came on a little strong in this post and we can tell from your comments last night that you're as pissed as we are, we once again want to ask people to monitor themselves a bit. Specifically, no calls for violence (not even "I want to smack her") and keep the nasty name-calling to a minimum. Now. Have at it.


[Photos: BravoTV.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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TFS: Highs and Lows

Merlin's tiny tie says, "Hit it, bitches!"

Yowza. That is BAD (and not in the Michael Jackson sense). The color, the length, the fit - everything here is wrong for this client.

"She thinks her hips are wide so I'm making an off-the-shoulder dress just to give her a very sleek long look."

From what we can tell, her hips look fine. Sometimes a person isn't the best candidate for assessing their own body. That's something a designer should be able to do. You name a body part and there's a woman out there obsessing over hers, but if there's such a thing as the Number One body part that women obsess over, it would have to be their hips. When a client tells a designer that she hates her hips, the designer should take it with a grain of salt and assess it objectively.

It seems to us that if there was any part of her body that needed to be taken into consideration, it was her shoulders. She's broad up top and there are certain necklines that aren't going to accentuate that in the best way.

Like this neckline, for instance. A great look for square-shouldered women is a halter and we can't help thinking that if this dress had one, it would have been immeasurably improved.

It doesn't help that Angel apparently forgot that this woman has breasts. The whole top of the dress is badly proportioned and terribly fitted.

And that belt/sash thingie is ugly and too complicated.

Gotta say, Reco knocked this one out of the park.

They never showed him talking to his model. We suspect that for all of his shade-talking, Reco is probably very good at dealing with clients. Since there was probably no drama in the interaction, we never got to see it.

Lorenzo does not love this look. He thinks there's a - as Nina would say - "taste issue" with a lot of Reco's work.

Admittedly, that top is perhaps a bit too clown-like (especially when she has the vest on), but the overall look was so well rendered and well designed that we both agree that taste is really a secondary issue.

Love the trim detail. You'd never know he whipped this up in a matter of hours.

Yes, it's super-tight (a little too tight across her stomach), but it really is a sassy little look and for our money, it was miles ahead of the frumptastic disaster that won this week.


What a disaster.

Chicken Diva, what has happened to you? All the promise of drama and well-made clothing that you demonstrated in the first episode has totally evaporated. Instead, you've been quietly producing one bad look after another.

This was just another in a line of big missteps for Merlin. Pretty much everything about it is wrong.

For one, the proportions on this look were terrible. The jacket was too heavy and too broad and the skirt was outrageously tight.

Look at her. That is the face of a woman in fear of organ failure. Or perhaps it's just fear that she's going to wind up splitting her skirt in front of a room full of people and cameras.

There was no reason at all for this to be so tight on her. We're confused as to how he could have been so off-base. Presumably, he took her measurements and when you take into consideration his demonstrated technical skills, it makes no sense that he would be so far off.

Okay, that's two down: proportion and fit. What's next? The fabric choices.

Kittens, that is some seriously ugly fabric. Cheap-looking and in ugly colors.

Even worse, the fabrics just don't go with each other. That houndstooth is nice, but what does it have to do with that skirt?

Overall, it's Merlin's worst entry yet. Step it up El Pollo Loco. Without you and Reco, this show is going to head straight into the toilet. We expect bitchery and fabulous clothes from here on out. Do not disappoint us.


[Photos: BravoTV.com - Screencaps: Projectrungay.blogspot.com]


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