La Roux Wears Natty Paint & The Process of Making a Custom Suit

Posted: April 29th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: EPIC!, Natty Fame | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

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!

La Roux wears Natty Paint!

Posted: November 16th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Baltimore Mayhem, EPIC!, No WAY!, So Fierce, Super Rad! | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment »

After the Birthed from Within fashion show, my best friend and I hurried over to The Ram’s Head in Baltimore to see La Roux.  I’m a huge fan of their music and their fashion sense, and have been so for quite a while now!  It was always a dream of mine to be able to give them some NP, and when I found out one of my friends who also modelled for NP was a friend of one of the keyboardists in La Roux, it all came together!

So, after the show, I ended up going backstage and meeting La Roux!  Elly and Mickey loved the clothes, and we got some great pics together.

Here’s a pic of Mickey signing an adoring fan’s shoe while wearing a Natty Paint vintage blazer with our dragon design!

And here’s a pic of Elly and me hanging out in the dressing room.

Everyone was very chill and down to earth, which was incredibly refreshing.  It’s great to meet people my age doing what they love to do, being successful, and still being down to earth and approachable.  I found out afterwards Rye Rye also stopped in to say hi after the show, I must have just missed her!