Esther Loves Margaritas!

While originally being inspired by how it's always happy hour at my grandma's house, it then evolved into a narrative/celebration of a lady I created, Esther, who is the epitome of all things fun and youthful. Though Esther is in the twilight of her life, this doesn't stop her from being the life of the party and she does not let age define what she can wear.

Celebrating old Miami architecture and classic beachwear, Esther Loves Margaritas! mixes this with glam elements from Esther's past. Using layered screen printing to nod at the layers of Esther's life and my "double vision" shirt which plays on the idea of Ester having one too many drinks (but is there really such thing as too many drinks). I was selected for an academic partnership with Swarovski which fueled my development of the "salt on the rim" crystal placement on my margarita print; I also added crystals to mimic the ocean sparkling, the water dripping effect and the sparkling of drinks under bar lights. 

While developing my patterns I worked a lot with CLO3D to quickly develop silhouettes and see what was working and what wasn’t. Below is one of the test animations I did to see how the fabric would shift and move while being worn.  

I layered screen printing with text inspired by vintage tourist t-shirts and postcards on top of store-bought fabric to elevate it and make it my own. The layers of text are similar to the layers of a cocktail. Phrases such as "What are you having?", "I <3 Margaritas" and "Welcome to Miami" make up this busy print.  

Physical sketchbook which contains the bulk of my design and fabric process and development.  This  helped guide my developments and patternmaking in CLO3D. 

Below are some of the early patterns developed in CLO3D.  The woven t-shirt pattern (right) was drafted in CLO and then the pattern was altered physically based on changes.

Utilizing CLO3D to create and alter patterns quickly was crucial as some of my pieces created were more focused on the fabric manipulation and treatment; such my take on a Hawaiian shirt and the crystal shorts.

Process from 6th look created in CLO3D

6th look created in CLO3D.  Inspired by beach umbrellas and woven beach chairs.