SAVE THE GARMENT CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!

On Wednsday October 21 of 2009, the "Save the Garment Center" rally took place right in front of the BIG button on Fashion ave and 39th street. Designers like Nanette Lepore and Micheal Kors showed up to support the cause and spread the word. Statistics show that in the 90's 95% of American clothing was produced on American soil and only 5% was outsourced. Now in 2010 only 5 % of garments are made in the US.

Its extremely important that the garment center in NYC is rivitalized because in many cases it is the only opportunity given to new and upcoming designers to produce an accessible clothing line with little funds and a dream. Having the garment center in the heart of our city is hugely important to many of us because our designs and garments are close by, the trims and fabric stores, the patternmakers, embroiders and overall atmosphere is here!

Many of the sources designers have been using for years are dissapearing because they lack consumers and faithful clientel and landlords have raised rent prices pushing small business out and bringing non- fashion related businesses in.

SCOTT M. STRINGER, BOROUGH PRESIDENT
"For years we've set aside this portion of the West 30's for the garment industry, and in return, they called our city home, and turned New York into the Fashion Capital of the World. Designers and manufacturers bring billions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs to our city each year - not to mention the impact they have had in shaping the character of this neighborhood. We need a real plan to keep the garment center intact - one that takes into account our garment industry's long-term needs and survival."

FALL 2009

HERE ARE SOME LOOKS FROM MY FALL 2009 NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT WWW.PANTORA.ETSY.COM

sale

DESIGNER STORY 1

As a fashion designer the most rewarding and sometimes most difficult part of my job is working with customers. I love you all I swear I do but often times people who are extremely dedicated to their profession are challenged by lesser topic intelligent people. It's almost annoying, we often times as people dont step back to look at the "big picture", and us doing so compromises the composition of that very same "big picture." We do things with the best interest of the consumer while having to divert slighlty from the inital plans to avoid complications in the future but instead of it being appreciated its almost made fun of. Minor details that will not interefer with the design but are corrected only to enhance are being treated as if the world is coming to an end. My most interesting customers are those who start off with a negative attitude in the beggining are the hardest to please, ( I strongly believe in optimism by the way) but they normally come around and fall in love with the end result of the product I have created for them. I just wish the could be a little more happy, compromising, optimistic and understand (1out of4 would be nice). Its mind boggoling to me that some people complain about their hem being a 1/4" to small or too short, a button being 1/16" out of place! I mean I take great pride in my work, but as a human I get frustrated and I do get head aches from these types of situations. UUUUGGGGHHHH gonna sleep on the madness and wake up with a reassuring smile in the morning. :)

Sudden stop...to successful exectution

As a designer, creating a collection is all about creativity, technique, cohesion, wearability and research. You want to tell a story. So here goes mine. My fall collection fully completed, but here I was asked by my favorite stylist, Stacy Armand, http://www.stacyarmand.com/, to create some pieces for an editorial spread. My 1st thought OMG, I have no time what so ever to be doing this, but my next thought, why not I'll sleep when im dead. I researched the theme and I was floor by what I was seeing. I scrapped my whole fall collection (designed about 6months ago) to do something so unexpected, so gorgeous and so glamourous. My spring 2010 collection was coming along so well...but... i took an enexpected stop to create my fall 2009. Cant wait for you guys to see it :). Here is apart of my inspiration.

WWW.PANTORABYANDREAPITTER.COM

YES IT'S HERE! I went away to teach this month but now IM BAAAAACK, and with my new website http://www.pantorabyandreapitter.com/ . Check it out, I have some new edgy looks for you to gock at, just kidding, but gock if you'd like too. And stay current with my online shop because Im having a major sample sale, MAJOR! Feel free to email me at pantorabyandrea@aim.com , if you have any fab questions or if you'd like to join my mailing list. Visit www.pantora.etsy.com to see whats on sale!

Creative juices WERE flowing

So I'm extremely fortunate enough to have two rooms in my home to work from (destroy with fabrics and pins and pattern paper) and I've decided that I needed to really straighten out my sewing room like it was a DISASTER! Wish I had a before picture, actually I don't you guys may have been disgusted with my messy work habits. Really though I was stressed everytime I walked in and I haven't been able to do much work because of it. I felt so creative before I entered the room and then when i saw the pile of fabric scraps, paper and fallen pins I had swept into the corner day on end, my creativity hit the messy heep. So I decided I had to do something about it.

Cleaned up and re-organized, not that it matters because knowing me it'll go back to square one in a day and a half. But as i cleaned and got rid of old fabric, patterns and sketches, I realized how much i've grown or evolved as a designer and as a person.

Of course when taking on a cleaning task it gets worse before it gets better, and boy did it get bad, I was about to give up, luckily it was the coolest room in my house otherwise I would have went cold turkey on this project (no pun intended, lol well just a little.)

While cleaning my little sewing space I started pulling some of my favorite pieces and hanging them across the room (call it a temporary case of insanity) before knew it I had 30 garments on my walls. Than I zoned back into reality, calmed down and really thought about how irrational I was being. So here are the result of my organization and low temperment.

By the way I'm really going to have to start writting about fashion soon lol.

Pics of my organization well done!