We were very excited to see Mickey O’Brien, the keyboardist of Grammy winning group La Roux, wear a Natty Paint custom suit at Coachella. We love dressing musicians and nothing is more satisfying than seeing your work worn on stage.
This collaboration was a long-term project that started this past winter, inspired by a photo I saw in Elle magazine.
Note that the inspiration was actually a JUMPSUIT! (Seems like we have a penchant for jumpsuits).
The process of creating a custom suit is quite the process, from sketching design, making muslin samples, fitting adjustments, and finally making the actual garment from fancy fabric. I ended up making a suit set of 1 jacket and 2 pant options (harem and wide leg trouser).
Here’s the sketch for the jacket. This was a take on the tuxedo look, with shiny details on the sleeves and shoulders as well as the lapel.
Here’s the sketch for the harem pants. I was really excited about the exposed zippers…
Next I started drafting the pattern for the jacket in paper. The most important part for me was getting the body of the jacket to fit correctly, sleeves would come later.
Here is the first version of the jacket I did in muslin. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s going on with a pattern until you make a version of it out of fabric to check it. Here you can see the lapel is dipping in on the sides, something I was able to see and fix after making this sample.
And here’s a shot of the back…
Sometimes pattern pieces can look so weird! It’s like putting together a puzzle. This is the first draft of the lapel.
And finally once the patterns and fit were figured out, I got to cut out everything. Look at all those suit pieces!
I had custom leather tags embroidered with gold metallic thread for Mickey. A custom suit deserves a special garment label! BQ Sports in Greenpoint did such a great job. I 100% recommend them for any custom embroidery projects.
Here’s a photo of the finished jacket in my studio… The fabric is 100% silk, selected from Mood with the help of Kooan Kosuke, my favorite designer from Project Runway Season 10.
My favorite angle of the jacket is from the side. You can see how the bottom slopes up in the back.
Here’s a detail of the leg of the harem pants…
And here are some photos of Mickey in action at Coachella in the finished suit.
We’ll be seeing La Roux perform at the EDC festival in a few weeks, we’re sure there will be more photos to follow!
I decided this year was going to be THE year I would go to Coachella. I have always wanted to go and after getting an order from Urban Outfitters, decided it was time to treat myself to some fun. Even before the line-up was released I was planning on getting a wristband. Once the line-up posted, there were a few acts I was really excited to see, like Hot Chip, La Roux, Tegan and Sara, Benny Benassi, and oh how I prayed for a Daft Punk appearance (didn’t happen!) but I mostly wanted to go just to see what all the Coachella fuss was about.
1. THE WRISTBAND!
Note: Said wristband has metallic thread woven in! Naturally, a neon arm party was a necessary accompaniment to said wristband.
2. FERRIS WHEEL
If any of your friends went to Coachella, I’m sure you saw this landmark pop up on their Instagram feed. I didn’t even go on it but it was so pretty to look at and really was the icon for the entire festival.
3. DO LAB
This “pit” was where it was at! DJs were spinning sets non-stop and there were water guns being sprayed at everyone dancing to cool them down. See those rainbow horns in the photo above? The pit was in the middle of all that. While there wasn’t shade in the pit, the horns served as shaded tents for people to rest.
4. WATERMELON
With it being almost 100 degrees during the day and the sun beating down on you, water just wasn’t enough. Watermelon was the perfect snack when I wasn’t really hungry because of the intense heat, but knew I needed to eat. It took a while to eat a slice, so the process was all about savoring the moment and cooling down at the same time.
5. AWESOME OUTFITS
The photo above is just one of the many amazing and fun outfits the entire time I was at the festival. There’s just something about seeing live music in a desert that brings fun outfits out to play.
6. RUNNING INTO FRIENDS
Nothing’s better than going to a concert with over 100,000 people and ending up randomly standing next to a friend you were hoping to see! Also note the amazing combo of purple ombre with a Ralph Lauren swimsuit.
7. SOCIAL MEDIA
Despite all the warnings of losing cell reception and cell phone batteries not lasting the day, everyone was posting photos on Instagram and tweeting about the bands they were seeing. Even the H&M tent had an interactive social media feature where you could take short videos and post them online.
In terms of the acts themselves, highlights for me were Grimes, James Blake, Wu Tang, Benassi, Major Lazer, and of course La Roux, but I’ll post more about that later…
Check this out, we currently have an online exclusive with Urban Outfitters. The jumpsuit has mesh cut outs on the shoulders, an elastic waist, and is cropped right above the ankle. The fabric is super soft and silky. And it’s proudly made in Brooklyn, NY. The perfect holiday gift for that Natty Paint lover.
For our FW’12 line, we created an olive wool motorcycle coat to bring another level of sophistication and edge to our collection. Our coat combines 2 big fall/winter trends: motorcycle and military, and can appeal various aesthetics. It’s even been praised by staff at Urban Outfitters, J.Crew, and Maje!
Here’s a photo of the wool moto coat from our FW’12 lookbook,
Here are 2 similiar styles we spotted at Zara, the queen of fast-fashion thanks to their amazing supply chain management, so you know this style is a huge trend right now!
We recently printed t-shirts to help support the Russian Feminist punk-rock band Pussy Riot, and you can buy them here. 100% of the profits go towards the legal funds for defending Pussy Riot.
Check out this cutie:
The shirts have been such a hit, they’ve even been featured in South Park and worn by Jesus!
Check out the clip below:
And to further persuade you that buying a t-shirt is indeed the right thing to do, here’s a link to an insightful GQ interview with members of Pussy Riot in prison, that describes what these women’s lives are now like behind bars.
One of the biggest trends that came out of NYFW for Spring’13 was black and white geometric prints. We at Natty Paint have always loved the simplicity of two colors, intersecting shapes, and its retro vibes. Our favorite collection from NYFW for was Marc Jacob’s Spring’13 collection.
Here are a few of our favorite looks from Marc Jacob’s collection, images courtesy of ELLE UK:
We were so smitten with the sequined black and white checkered and striped dress above, but after seeing the multi-thousand dollar price tag on Moda Operandi, we decided to save some cash and make a version of our own. After scouring the NYC garment district,we noticed no one was selling black and white sequined checked or striped fabric (Future trend alert!), but we did find a black and white wave pattern which is similar. FYI we spend $95 on all the material to make this dress.
We made sure to give this dress a similar optical geometric feel to the Marc Jacob’s dress. We cut the strips for the bottom skirt so that the waves alternate in vertical and horizontal directions.
We still have tons of work to do on it, like add in the black chiffon gore panels, make sleeves, sew the skirt and top together, and add an invisible side zipper. But we will post the finished dress as soon as it’s done!
Natty Paint has designed some of our own black and white optical prints. Check out this Dot & Stripe Button Down we made for our Spring 2012 collection, which we paired with charcoal & cream Hexagon Leggings for our lookbook shoot.
Here’s a detail of the Dot & Stripe Button Down so you can see just how trippy this print is:
We just got back from Pool at Magic! Not only was it our first trade show, it was our first time in Vegas. We brought our t-shirts, summer line, and FW’12 line and the response was great!
Triangles are our favorite shape, so what hotel choice could be better for us that the Luxor, a pyramid shaped hotel??
We got to do a little bit of sight seeing before we set up our booth. We thought the fake sky ceiling at The Venetian was so cool!
We even got to do some dancing at the Marquee, and spotted Leann Rimes with her hubby, and rapper Kreayshawn.
And then it was time to start working…
Putting up the vinyl background was a lot of work.
We had to cut out a lot of squares.
It was so worth it! We brought our t-shirts, Summer, and F/W’12 lines.
My friend got me such an amazing gift-a Diane Von Furstenberg scarf and book! Can’t think of a better muse/role model for a female fashion entrepreneur.
Check out these Valentines we gave out at the trade show to get attendees to stop by our booth. The photos were taken by Ely Kay and the cards were designed by Super Rad Design. Which one’s your favorite?
We also got to step away from our booth for a moment to check out Sourcing at Magic, a trade show with factories and companies showcasing their technologies and capabilities for apparel companies.
And then the trade show was over and we had to clean up. Our vinyl wall took 6 hours to put up and under 60 seconds to take down. It was beautiful while it lasted.
And then we got to do very Vegasy things before heading back to Brooklyn:
We have a bunch of custom print orders coming our way in the next few weeks, and we’re excited to be using Permaset, an Australian water-based ink. We love their “Super Cover White”! We’ve tried a lot of opaque white water-based inks out there and this one definitely has the best coverage and is extremely soft and flexible when dry.
