I have been meaning to post these pics for a while but better late than never! It has been quite an amazing journey returning back to Miami and every single day is full of surprises and excitement! There is not one doubt in my mind that my return to this amazing place was the right decision and over the next few months I know so many awesome things are going to happen for me! : )  A couple of months ago my good friend, James Recio who is the founder of Cosplay, a weekly party at Sushi Samba on South Beach asked me to design some crazy costumes for the dancers. There wasn’t a theme which allowed for my imagination to just run wild and I kind of had this whole crazy airplane stewardess in mind and for the boy…. well I am not really much of a male designer so I went with a crazy hoody. All the designs were made with a combination of old Cosplay party fliers, newspaper and screen. My dancers are all well known in the Miami scene and took my concept to the next level with their amazing styling and totally rocked Sushi Samba bringing the art to life! It really was such a fun night and people really seemed to love it!  I had such a good time with these and hopefully will be showing them again during Art Basel coming up. : )

What an awesome group! They totally rocked this!  Love them!

(And that’s me on the far left…haha) : )

Blaze Farringer

Kristen Knight

Andy Wardrobe

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Playing with some new materials – Aluminum Screen and Wire…. Shot in the courtyard of my apt in Chelsea – Jake did a great job capturing the mood and I love the feeling of the images! 

I got to play designer, creative director, hair and makeup artist so that was fun!! haha 

Top: Alluminum Screen
Skirt: Newspaper 

***All recycled of course.

Thanks also to Brittany Pace who was our awesome model!! More, More!!

Check out more pics on my facebook fan page HERE!!

Yes I do name all my mannequins….I also create stories of their lives….it makes me laugh and I am weird.   LaQuanda’s story is my favorite and she is certainly my most loved!  L.C. (as I like to call her) was born and raised in Brooklyn and she used to be a very successful model and rap video vixen…her claim to fame was working with Jay Z in the height of his HOVA days in the late 90′s until she had a tragic accident and lost both of her arms and ended up in South Beach working as my fit model….Yep…I am really weird. haha

Truth is that an awesome guy named Dov Brafman owns a mannequin company and donated her to me when I was planning my first show in Miami. I told the girls working on the project with me that we needed to find some mannequins to be distributed to various artists and sold for charity at the show…literally three days later, I got a message on LinkedIn from a guy that wanted to introduce me to his friend who had a mannequin company. I thought it was WAY too good to be true and didn’t even bother responding until three weeks later when we still hadn’t come up with any. Next thing you know I had an apartment full of mannequins which Dov so kindly donated! So amazing!! His website is www.mannequinhub.com for all you fellow mannequin junkies out there!!

L.C. will always be special to me because I created my whole first show on her which resulted in her looking really really messed up…. so after a year and a half, I finally gave her a makeover! My inspiration came from Rihanna, a love of ”Frohawks” and a slew of high fashion photo shoot images that I am constant obsessing over. I wanted her to look like the badass that in her heart she truly is, lol….I also wanted to work with some new materials so I incorporated, wood, wire, vinyl, cardboard, faux fur, faux flowers, a used paint roller and her Mohawk made of pillow stuffing which was formerly in a couch pillow…and I love her…she came exactly like I had hoped. She will be in my shows this year for sure!!

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So excited! As of last week I left my day to day business to pursue my career in art and fashion design full time!!  I will be launching a new website, hiring a publicist and planning a gallery show for the fall so of course that all costs a pretty penny! So if you are interested in any of the below paintings please email me at julia@pearlandcompany.com for details!!

Lucy the Secretary  39 x 18

Ms Veli 19 x 10

Umi 34 x 24

Milai 29 x 23

Girls Night Out 21 x 34

MMMM Wine 33 x 30

NYC Winter 34 x 23

Tuna 31 x 20

The first 3…only 7 more to go! Cardboard, news paper and acrylic.

This weekend  I began working on a collection of 10 paintings I am selling and donating the proceeds to KIDS Tsunami/Earthquake fund. Yes….it’s less than 2 weeks away and I rarely have time to work on my art during the week, so no fun parties for me next weekend! At least I busted out 3 today and I must say after spending a significant amount of time researching and looking a pics of Kimono’s I am now slightly obessed! There are so many amazing designs…..I am facinated by what I found and since this project hits close to home because of my best friend being Japanese, I am feeling truly inspired. The people of Japan are amazing! Let’s hope I sell out and am able to give a nice chunk of change to K.I.D.S!!

Check out some of the amazing stuff I found doing research:

“Lucy” – 3.5′ x 2′

I was out with a friend of mine at an event for an artist who makes masks out  found objects about a month ago, and  then the next day I went to lunch with friends at a restaurant in the West Village (the collection??) which is decorated with all recycled materials… which sparked the inspiration for this piece…also at lunch my friend was saying he needed a secretary (I quickly reminded him that secretary is not a PC title and hasn’t been since the late 80′s)  so for some reason I imagine Lucy as a robotic secretary. Yes I am weird. haha …I used a broken DVD player…which I had fun really breaking … straws, makeup sponges, cardboard, card stock fliers, and the frame came off the back of an old mirror. One of my favorite pieces for sure!  Bonus pic of me in a mask at the event where I picked up some ideas….

This started out as a simple task to put a newspaper wall behind Hilda….A month later I now have this as a semi-permanent fixture in my apartment. haha….The one good thing that winter brought me was the time to work on something like this. Everything is made from newspaper and postcard size fliers. I also used fresh water pearls and obviously a broken mirror. By far the most fun I have had working on a project yet. I can’t wait to start another….

I am excited to announce the first Professional Girls Night Out of 2011, which will be held on April 6^th at the Hill on 30^th and 3^rd !

PGNO  provides the opportunity for ladies to enjoy a night out in NYC while inspiring and encouraging each other’s creativity and growth. On the first Wednesday of every month women in the fashion and related industries come together  to network and build relationships in an uplifting, positive environment featuring a female designer, artist or corporate executive and non-profit organization with the goal of bringing attention to stellar individuals and a worthwhile cause…..but mostly an opportunity to mingle with friends and have a great time! J

This month will be accepting donations for Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) to raise funds for the disaster in Japan. We will have my Japanese friend who recently arrived in NY from Tokyo in attendance  to share her story with you. Additionally I will be showcasing a collection of Japanese inspired art including a Japanese kimono made out of recycled materials. We will love it if you can make it!!

The event starts at 7pm!

We will have  $3 draft Budweiser and Yuengling and $5 Appletini’s and well drinks as a special for all our guests.

Let me know if you have any questions and please invite your colleges and friends!!  

Please RSVP to: rsvp@pearlandcompany.com

If you are not able to attend the event, you can still visit their website at www.kidsdonations.org to make a personal or corporate donation.

Please take a minute to check out the story from Lisa Estevez who attended the event back in November and now is working at Michael Kors! Networking is an amazing thing! – http://www.shoebizness.com/2011/03/from-the-retail-floor-to-the-corporate-office-by-lisa-esteves/

 You can also check out the event on FACEBOOK!

See you soon!

Xo

Julia

 PS the image in the invite is my work!

Pearl&Company,LLC

www.pearlandcompany.com

Another fellow artist who is obsessed with mannequins, Nik Angel asked me if I would design a dress made out of fliers from her past shows for a mannequin to be displayed in a show coming up in the next month or so. Of course I said yes and had so much fun with this design……not initially.  It’s not exactly a design I would come up with on my own, but once I made it, I really had fun with it and I cannot wait to see the pics from her event!

I used to make all my dresses straight from newspaper or canvas but it’s really tough to keep them on without zippers or buttons so I decided to try using old clothes underneath so I could steal the zippers. It worked!  All the below dresses are made with newspaper and acrylic. They aren’t quite “wearable” for long periods of time, but you can put them on and take them off easily. I made these all over a couple of weekends when it was super cold….at least i have a good way to entertain myself!