Side Walk Sale

Side Walk Sale on NW 23rd.  Come by and check out some great deals at our shop and neighborhood boutiques.  Enjoy your weekend!

Come by and say hi and pick up a few things from our sale rack! We’d love to see you. – Modi Upcoming IDOM events: Thursday, July 16th : : Installation Show at the Courtyard Marriott Saturday, July 18th and Sunday, July 19th : : Shop and Adopt, an Humane Society Charity Event from 1 pm until 4 pm. We will have four kitties in the shop window and two dogs outside for ready for adoption. Saturday, July 25th : : Make A Wish Foundation Charity Benefit Fashion Show Details to come.

Fantasy holiday

Brad and I have been talking about how we haven’t traveled together or had a holiday anywhere with each other in such a long time.  Almost three years since we moved from New York and started the shop.  I found my old jewelry and some ceramics that I bought in Sydney a while back.  They brought back great memories.  Someday I hope that Brad and I can visit Australia and New Zealand together.  He would really love it there.  My dad has been going to Sydney every year for work.  He has been inviting us to come along.  Perhaps next time we will.   This is just me day dreaming about our make believe holiday.

Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia.  How I wish we could go swimming in the warm ocean.

More beautiful Sydney.

My favorite shop in Sydney, Dinosaur Designs.  The best ceramics and jewelry.

Thank goodness that there is a Dinosaur Designs shop in New York on Mott Street.  Go check them out if you are in New York or visit them if you go to Australia.  Click here to view their work.  Hopefully we can start traveling together again soon.  It is lovely to dream.  Night, night.

Givenchy Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2009

This is one of my favorite time of the year for fashion.  It is the haute couture time in Paris.  I am so thrilled that the couture shows are still existed today.  Many people have used the term “couture” so loosely these days.  This is a specific ways of making clothes.  Haute Couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing.  The techniques are executed by hands with very high quality fabrics and trims.  In modern France, Haute Couture is a “protected name” that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards.  It drives me mad when people referred to other things such as food, hair, cars, ready to wear clothes and many other objects as couture.  My couture teacher would have a fit with these terms.  The craft needs to have much respect that it deserves.

Givenchy collection makes my heart sing and dance.  I wish I was in Paris yesterday seeing these shows in person.  It is beyond incredible!  The ateliers are hard at work this season.  There were so many amazing details on all of these exquisite pieces.  One piece can take the ateliers two to three months or more to constructed.  Riccardo Tisci is the designer behind Givenchy.  He was inspired by goddess like creatures from fantasy land.  His influence came from Morocco, Berber tribes people, and equestrianism.  This is one of the best haute couture collection that I have seen in such a long time.  I hope that you will enjoy the beautiful pics as much as I do.  All photos are courtesy of JAK & JILL.

Many thanks to JAK & JILL blog for the amazing photos.  Please check out their blog here.  You can view more pieces from this collection on Style.com.  Ta ta for now.

Dreamy work from Marit Fujiwara

I was so blown away by Marit Fujiwara.  She is a BA Textile Design grad from Chelsea College of Art and Design, UK.  I saw her work via Style Bubble.  Susie always finds the most exciting work of all things fashion.

These details are incredible.

Would love to see all of these pieces in person.

Must have taken her hours of work.

Love, love, love.

I love the mix of embroidery and wavy ruffles.

More pieces of her textile work.

I am in textile heaven.  I hope you enjoyed these pieces as much as I do.  Thanks Susie!

IDOM is in Portland Mercury!

Many thanks to Marjorie Skinner from “Sold Out” column via Portland Mercury for writing such a lovely article about IDOM.  She has been so supportive and so good to us.  Thank you so much!

Please read “Sold Out” column here.

Please meet my village

Many people have asked “how are you doing all of this by yourself?”  Running the business, designing the clothes, minding the shop, doing PR and marketing,  graphic design, online e-commerce, photo shoots, clothing production, logistics, legal matters, accounting, buying new products, cleaning the shop and much more.  As I mentioned before, it takes a village to make things happen at IDOM.  I could not do this without the help from my amazing group of friends, my sweet partner, and my brave parents.  Their relentless faith and love for me are beyond my imagination.  It has been two years of tough struggle to make the business work.  These are the people who have stood by me through the good and the bad times.  We had a delightful celebration of our new IDOM home on NW 23rd Street on Monday night.  It was lovely to see so many of my dear friends.

Marc to the left (so sorry we didn’t get a better photo of Marc).  He was our prop master, stylist and our guest window dresser for this month.  He has been a vital part of IDOM.  His beautiful wife Nicole is in the middle.  She designed our current look book and was our model for Fall 08.  Her wonderful best friend, Maura was also our model for the underwater shoot.  Salwa our delightful buyer was forced to mind the counter that night (again sorry that we don’t have better pic of Salwa either).  IDOM would not still be here without all of their love and support.

The stunning Maura in the Maura dress.  The piece was inspired by her.  Maura is so amazing inside and out.  The most kind person you will ever meet.  I’m so lucky to have met her.

The most beautiful and fashion forward physician ever!  She is the proud owner of an Amanda dress.  Linda has such an exquisite style.

The sweet Fuchsia to the left and Jessie to the right.  Jessie designed our online website layout.  She is a fantastic print designer of Pattern People.  The green dress in the center was named after Jessie.

Does this mean that I need to designing baby clothes?  Josh to the left with baby Thomas.  My dearest friend Sarah wears her Sarah blouse.  She is holding her baby Charlotte.  Sarah has been doing all the PR for our label since the beginning of time.  She was still hard at work while being pregnant with baby C.  This makes Charlotte a true IDOM baby.  Our friend Dan and the cute Jonah.  The great Trevor is married to Sarah.  To the farthest right is my husband, Brad.  He is my legal depart and enduring being married to a self employed small business owner.  He’s the best partner I could have ever hoped for.  Thank you for always supporting my dreams.

Delicious cookies from Two Tarts Bakery and lots of drinks.

Sorry Marc, I still don’t have a better pic of you.  Angie is in the center.  She is a do it all girl.  The blog layout and the online shop has been designed by her.  All the product photos and e-mail blast are under Angie’s department.  She is the most loving person and a wonderful designer.  We are saying goodbye to Angie at the end of August.  She is leaving us for a design school in Denmark.  We will miss her a lot.  My friend David to the right.  He wrote our online purchasing policy and a true IDOM cheerleader.  He is a brilliant film maker and a fantastic editor.

Gorgeous Jackie is in the hand loomed Tracey Ikat dress.  She has been so good to me and our little IDOM.  The dress fits her just so.  Thank you, Jackie!

Funny moment.  These two tried on the same blouse.  Heather to the front took home the Jackie blouse.  Jackie to the back is the person that the blouse was named after.

Please meet our talented photographer, Elizabeth.  She is the one behind all the beautiful images from so many of our collections.  Elizabeth is in an Elizabeth dress.  I LOVE working with her and Marc.  I wish we could shoot together every week!

Andrea to the right.  She has been helping us at the shop quite often.  The flowers were sent from Jennifer my old neighbor from Alberta Street.  The flowers are arranged by Beka of Origin Flowers on Alberta.  Thank you for the lovely flowers.

My friend Mary who has been with me since day one was away on her holiday.  She always keeps me grounded.  Also Lance the illustrator and the graphic designer behind the IDOM identity was ill and could not make it to the party.  Sorry that there are not any good photos of Nicole, Marc, Miles, Evangelina, Salwa, Caitlin, Beka, Jonathan, and Brett.  Next time I’ll get better photos of you guys.  Many thanks to all of my friends from New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Bangkok.  All of your US and foreign currencies really helped support IDOM too!  Thank you to my friend Sue for always letting me invade her house in New York with many trunk shows!  I’m also sending my mum and dad much love.  Thank you to them both for always believing in me.  And thank you to my lovely village!  This is truly a labour of love.

Our awesome Autumn/Winter 09 photo shoot

Our dream team was back together again on Saturday.  What can I say?  They are amazingly talented group of people.  Plus they are a tremendous joy to work with.  No egos or no aloofness.  It was pure fun!  This is our first time of shooting in the studio.  We have been shooting on location for the past two seasons.  This was so dreamy to be shooting in door with perfect lighting, big computer monitor, working toilets, full kitchen and we were not freezing.  Thank you so much to Elizabeth and Marc for making this project realized.

The collection was inspired by music especially by work of Bob Dylan.  Marc and Elizabeth built this set for us.  All of the equipments are from Marc’s basement.  Photo courtesy of Marc’s blog, Dust Breeding.  Check out his wonderful blog here

More photos of our set via Marc.

Our talented hair and make up artist, Lori to the left with an amazing model Megan to the right.  I can’t get enough of Lori’s stories.  She was so funny and sweet.

Caitlin has been with us at every shoot and fashion shows.  I love working with her.  Here she is amongst all the samples steaming away.  Thank you Caitlin!

The beautiful Hilary.

The exquisite photographer Elizabeth.  Marc and Hilary on set.  I am so lucky to be working with Elizabeth and Marc again.

Nick to the left is Elizabeth’s husband.  He is also a photographer.  Nick has been very kind to help us out on all the shoots.  He is so wonderful and patience.  Here is Elizabeth looking at the shots.  It is so much easier to view all the shots on a big monitor.

Marc showing off his musical talent.

Megan rocking the set.  We truly enjoyed working with the fantastic Megan.

Jillian looking stunning before set.  Thank you so much for joining us for this project.

Thank you very much to Elizabeth and Marc for letting us invade your work space and for making my dreams come true.  Many thanks to Lori, Caitlin, Megan, Nicole, Hilary, Nick, and Jillian.  As I said before it takes a village to make IDOM works.  It has been a pleasure of collaborating with everyone. I always look forward to every season for our collaboration.  It is so rewarding to see all of our work comes alive.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your time, your hard work, and your expertise.  Stay tuned for our collection photos.  Ta ta for now.

Come celebrate our new IDOM home tonight

Please come by tonight and help us celebrate our exciting journey in our brand new home.  Sweet treats from our neighbor Two Tarts Bakery and refreshing drinks.  Looking forward to see you.

Dear Friends, Please join us on Monday, June 29 from 6-9 p.m. for IDOM’s grand opening celebration at our new home, 827 NW 23rd Street. We will have sweet treats and cool drinks throughout the evening and are offering 20% off all new summer pieces for one night only. (This excludes jewelry, handbags, LnA tees and gift items). Please drop by on Monday night and don’t forget to enter our drawing for one lucky shopper to have the chance to win a private shopping experience with Modi Soondarotok, owner and designer of IDOM. All party guests can register to win one IDOM ensemble worth up to $350.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Fashion Show, First Year Students

In my humble opinion I feel that Belgium has one of the best fashion design school in the world.  The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp is one of the most experimental fashion program.  As I mentioned before this is where the “Antwerp Six” went to school.  Some of these designers are my personal favorites, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Mikkembergs, and Marina Yee.  Here are some eye candies for you.  This is the first year students work.  Quite fantastic!

How I miss the freedom of school!  It is so refreshing to see something creative, experimental, and fearless.  I’ll post more pics of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students work.  Images courtesy of Jeroen Visser.

Got to go to bed soon.  Early call for our photo shoot tomorrow morning.  Promise to share with you behind the scene photos.  Night, night!

Brilliant James Jean

I find that James Jean’s work are out of this world!  I still can’t believe he did a big project with Prada for Spring 08.  If you have a chance check out Prada animation ad campaign on You Tube.  It is lovely and creepy at the same time.  Which by the way I like the creepy and the beautiful dichotomy.  Much of his work reminds me of Japanese animation I grew up watching on Saturday mornings in Bangkok.  Plus I was so fascinated with Japanese comics as a kid.  I first saw his work in New York.  I was so blown away.  Thought I would share some of the images with you.

“Supertron”

James Jean was born in 1979, Taipei, Taiwan. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

“Toy Maker”

“Shattered”

“Horse”

“Bloom”  This piece is from Prada Spring 08 campaign. He also illustrated his work on their fabrics and their handbags.

He illustrated this amazing wall papers for their store.  Prada says it “represents the somewhat perverse intersection between Hieronymus Bosch and Aubrey Beardsley. The image depicts an intense landscape of man-eating flowers, dragons, hybrid creatures and eerie fairies.”

More wall paper from Prada.

“Sink”

His sensibility reminds me of my friend Lance’s work.  I’ll have to try to sneak some of Mr. Lance’s paintings on here one of these days.  I mentioned him before.  He is the illustrator behind IDOM logo and decals.  Our dream is to collaborated and come up with original prints for IDOM collection.

“Dive”

View more of his work on JamesJeans.com.  All images are courtesy of James Jean.