Archives for February 2021

Restyling Your Wardrobe

Restyling your clothing is always a fun adventure and a fabulous way to turn your clothes into something you will love. We want to share some of our recent restyles to inspire you to reimagine your clothing! 

We worked with our awesome client Penny on a few of her garments these last few weeks. Penny has so much fun with her clothing and has such a unique style. The restyles we did for her clothing are a great example of how you can transform, restyle, or upcycle your clothing! 

Penny brought us a fuzzy pink sweater from Target’s girls clothing line and a jean jacket to restyle. For her jean jacket, we added this amazing tiger fabric to the back, with some fun ball fringe across the top. A great way to add something uniquely YOU to a simple jean jacket. For the pink sweater, we split it straight down the middle and turned it into a cool jacket for Penny to wear. This is a wonderful idea for anyone looking to upcycle sweaters to give them a new fashionable look.

There are infinite possibilities when it comes to restyling your clothing! Get creative, find that spark that is uniquely you, and most importantly have fun reimagining and redesigning your favorite garments! What are your favorite ways to restyle clothing? Comment below!

For restyling and upcycling needs please get in touch with us. We love jazzing up our clients’ garments! Send an email to love@jenniferoberg.com.

Upcycling 101

Though there has been an undercurrent over the last few years of thrifting, shopping vintage, or upcycling by younger generations, these trends haven’t seemed to stick in the larger Fashion Industry until recently. In response to global climate change and a pandemic, fashion leaders have recognized the necessary changes that need to occur around fashion. Big name brands like Levi, Miu Miu and Maison Margiela have created secondhand initiatives for their clothing brands. And Patagonia has been running their Worn Wear initiative since 2017. The future of fashion is green.

At the atelier, we are passionate about sustainability and doing our part to help create a more sustainable Fashion Industry. We want your clothes to live a well-worn and long life! That is why we wanted to share a bit more about what upcycling is and how you can upcycle your clothing so that every garment can be used for much longer!

So what exactly is upcycling anyway? Well, upcycling is simply reusing clothing and turning the items into something of higher quality than before. It is not that you have to go reinvent the wheel, but it is taking something that you may otherwise not wear or keep and changing it so the garment can feel stylish and new and can continue to be worn. Upcycling is a great way to make the most out of your clothing. It is also a great way to spice up some hidden gems found at secondhand or vintage store! Check out some of our ideas on how to upcycle your clothes:

Ways to upcycle:

  • Change the style of your clothing – turn long sleeve to short leave, turn a button-down shirt into an off the shoulder blouse, turn your worn out jeans into shorts or a denim skirt, create a crop top out of a ripped shirt
  • Add fabric – add a velvet stripe down the side seam of your pants, fill any holes with patches of your favorite fabric or lace, add a breast pocket to your favorite shirt
  • Embroidery – there are so many clever ways to embroider your clothing, you can keep it simple or you can embroider an entire work of art
  • Beading – this is another fun one to add something extra to clothes that just need a little sparkle
  • Combine two garments into one – use another piece of clothing to add sleeves to a tank, or to turn your shirt into a dress
  • Be creative! – there is no right way to upcycle, let your imagination wander as you discover clever ways to jazz up your clothing

There are infinite ways to upcycle! Have fun exploring new ways to continue to reuse your clothes. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you need some assistance in creating your upcycled vision. We are here to help upcycle, restyle, or alter any vintage or worn clothing you have! For any alteration or restyling needs on clothing, send us an email at love@jenniferoberg.com. Happy upcycling and restyling!! 

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/style/upcycling-fashion.html

All About Bustles: Ballroom Bustle Part II

A few weeks ago we shared a bit about what bustles are and a specific type of bustle called The Ballroom Bustle. A Ballroom Bustle is when you take the train of the dress and you bring it up on the inside of the dress. It is the perfect solution if you don’t want to have the look of bustle folds and pleats on the outside of your gown. This is Part II of the Ballroom Bustle but featuring a simple and elegant style gown. 

When your wedding gown has a Ballgown or A-line silhouette the Ballroom Bustle is a nice solution to accentuate the silhouette. It keeps the focus on the silhouette rather than on the bustle. When you have a sheath silhouette with a train, the Ballroom Bustle is another perfect choice for the simple, elegant essence of this dress. It helps maintain the length and clean appearance of your gown.

Hiding the existence of a bustle, the Ballroom Bustle is the ultimate 2-in-1 solution for your wedding dress. It allows you to flaunt your gorgeous gown with train and all, and then like a new gown, you can delicately pin the train inside to create a dress that is ready to dance the night away.

We recently worked with a bride on Maui, Erica, on her beautiful sheath silhouette wedding gown. There are 29 bustle points that hold up this bustle. You can see in this picture how we fold it inside and create bustle points to support the train. For this exquisite gown it is the perfect solution to secure the train while maintaining the elegance of the gown.  

When choosing your wedding gown, it can be very useful to see how different silhouettes work with different bustles. It helps give you a better idea of what styles you are drawn to. Stay tuned for more bustles from JOA to help you dream-up the perfect wedding gown!

 

Finding the Right Alteration Specialist for your Gown

Finding your dream wedding gown is such an exciting moment! There is joy, relief, enthusiasm, and more. Though it feels like you can check the wedding gown off your list, it is very likely that you will need to have a few alterations done on your dress to ensure it fits just right. Sometimes these can be simple fixes, but often wedding gowns are more complex than your average dress and will require a specialist with years of experience working with wedding dresses. So how do you go about selecting the right Alteration Specialist to work on your wedding gown?

  • Find a Professional Dressmaker – Working with a professional Dressmaker is the best way to ensure your wedding gown gets handled with the utmost care and precision. The wonderful thing about working with a Dressmaker is that they understand how to construct a gown so they are very skilled at reverse engineering some of the more complex alterations. Plus, if you want to modify the design of your dress, they will know exactly how to help you transform your gown.
  • Find an Alteration Specialist with previous wedding dress experience – When it comes to altering a wedding dress, there are a significant number of factors to consider. Is your wedding dress a particular brand, has your Alteration Specialist had experience working with this brand? What type of fabrics are they familiar with? What types of bustles can they create? Can they add beading or any other extra embellishments? When you find an Alteration Specialist with years of experience working with wedding gowns, chances are they have a wealth of knowledge for each of these elements. This will only make your wedding dress experience more pleasant and stress-free when you can rest assured that your dress is in good hands.
  • Look through their work online (websites, social media, etc.) – Social media and online portfolios gives you a nice opportunity to see some of the previous work of your potential Alteration Specialist. You can see pictures, client testimonials, success stories, and maybe more details on what types of dresses they have previously worked with. Pictures are some of the best ways to get an idea of the type of work they have done.
  • Word of Mouth is always our favoriteIf you are still hesitant about choosing your Alteration Specialist for your beautiful wedding gown, then ask around! Word of mouth is our favorite way to meet new clients. Ask friends or family in your local community for their recommendations. Chances are they know someone they highly recommend.

We hope this helps you in finding the right Alteration Specialist for your wedding gown! If you are located on Maui and need assistance with your wedding dress, then we would love to help you. Visit our website or social media accounts to see some of our previous work. We hope we can help give your wedding dress those final touches to make it absolutely beautiful! Send us an email at love@jenniferoberg.com to book your appointment.