BLOG: LISA MALANIJ // D1G1T4L F4SH10N BL0G!

Hey guys!  I'm back!
My blog got a huge makeover!
Like the new blog layout?  It finally has the aesthetic feel that represents me, my persona, and my brand. Clean, minimal, edgy, bold, with a dash of digital. [CYBERPUNK].
Wonder where the quote on my header is from and why it's there?
It's the opening sentence to my favorite book, Neuromancer by William Gibson. Seriously, go read it if you haven't already and think of me. My next collection will be based off of it.

Basically I am so proud of myself that I created the graphics and the html code to design this blog the way I wanted from the basic "bleh" blog design it was before ALL ON MY OWN. WOOO!!! Such a learning process. Thank goodness for google and friendly programers with their easy to follow tutorials.

2013 had been a year of growth for me personally and as a designer and budding creative entrepreneur.

The past year I've been teaching myself basic HTML, and other creative entrepreneur necessities like personal finance, excel, social media in marketing, and graphic design (photo retouching, and batch automating tasks!) to compliment my fashion and marketing skill set.


Also since late 2012-2014 I've been focusing on promoting and selling my remixed line, 3xHearts by Lisa Malanij, in the upcycle movement that is growing in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Collective Upcycle Boutique and the ever popular growing Cleveland Flea have been my sales stalwarts for my remixed line.  I hope to open 3xHearts online store as well coming soon!
You can learn more about 3xHearts here.

In the mean time, I have tons of backlogged events, photos, outfits, adventures  I need to catch up share with you too! While I make progress on catching up and sharing my adventures 2012-2104, feel free to drop me a message!
Like me on Facebook the most up to date news news on my Facebook Fanpage.

Here are the links to all my social media pages if you want to connect!:
WEBSITE: http://www.lisamalanij.com/
FACEBOOK FANPAGE:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Malanij-Fashion-Designer/10150157755880157?fref=ts
BLOG: http://lisamalanij.blogspot.com/
TUMBLR (PERSONAL): http://lisxxor.tumblr.com/
TUMBLR OFFICIAL: http://lisamalanij.tumblr.com/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/LisaMalanij
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/lisamalanij/#
LOOKBOOK.NU: http://lookbook.nu/lisamalanij
COSTUME/COSPLAY PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LISXXOR-cosplay/125200474309135

LISA LOOK #004: Hunger Games, Fabulous Flavius

This outfit was one of my entries for Capitol Couture.pn's District Style Challenge #4: Deck Yourself Out contest.

My inspiration for this outfit was the Cinna’s hair stylist prep team member, Flavius. (Cinna and his prep team trio are my favorite characters in the Hunger Games series b/c of their over the top fashions and Capitol attitudes I can totally relate to being a boldly dressed fashion designer myself). :]

Flavius is described as tall, wears purple lipstick, and an orange hair with a large curl in the front. I imagine him to be a bit of a dramatically well-styled dandy. I also added two tiny heart-shaped beauty marks by my eye as a throwback to 17th century French aristocrats. Unfortunately I was unable to find temporary orange hair dye in time for this contest :[ But my front curl turned out awesome.

Also this is my first time dressing as a dandy menswear inspired. It was fun! <3 I really enjoyed putting together this look :]

LISA LOOK #003: Hunger Games, Effie Trinket-Tastic!

I title this look: EFFIE TRINKET-TASTIC
My inspiration for this outfit was the fabulous, frivoulous, famous Effie Trinket! For this Capitol Look I limited to the clothes I already had in my closet, pulling this monochromatic pink look together using a blazer, party dress, exaggerated pearls, chiffon flower and a lot of magenta.

Monochromatic Pink is the color scheme I chose for this Effie inspired style. I incorporated dark pink to light pink color gradients in my nail polish, eye shadow and lips.
The ombre kabuki lip was made by using OCC lip tars (Anime and Tone), the nails a light pink color with hot pink on the tips with China Glaze Hunger Games Capitol Colors nail polish “Luxe and Lush” glitter top coat to blend it all together for a sparkly finish.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of Effie Trinket’s Capitol style!

 

LISA LOOK #005: Hunger Games, Venusia Venia

My inspiration for this outfit was the Cinna’s nail tech prep team member, Venia. Cinna and his prep team trio are my favorite characters in the Hunger Games series. Their over the top fashions and Capitol attitudes I can relate to being a boldly dressed fashion designer myself.

Venia, being my favorite, is described in the book as tall, androgynous, having blue hair styled in spikes with gold tattooed eyebrows. Unfortunately I am not tall or androgynous, but for the sake of this contest bear with me ;] Also if I had my spiky blue hair still I would have made my hair it into real spikes, but the wig had to suffice.

Gold and pale blue were my color scheme for Venia’s outfit. I imagine she likes over the top accessories, like large triangle earrings and necklaces to enhance her already sharp style. I wanted originally to have a pale blue dress or gold maxi skirt but couldn’t find any. Instead I used this gold silk dupioni dress. I took artistic liberty to interpret her spikes as cone buns and give her diamond implants above her eyebrows, which gives this look an Art Deco Molly Soda crossed with Asuras (Hindu deities) appearance. (HAHA). The silhouette of the outfit and hair are reminiscent of Maria, the android automaton in Fritz Lang’s 1927 “Metropolis”.

I do hope you enjoy my interpretation of Venia’s look.

LISA LOOK #002: Hunger Games, District 12

Who says literature can't inspire fashion?  In excitement for the movie premier of the Hunger Games coming out this weekend, I decided to throw together a couple of Hunger Games inspired outfits to show off my new Mocking Jay pin.  I might put together some more later this week - wanna try to channel some serious Effie Trinket.  This is Variation #1:  Down With the CAPITOL! that is featured on my Lookbook.nu page.

COSTUME/COSPLAY #002: Lady Gaga 2010 MTV VMAs Meat Dress

I made my own Lady Gaga Meat dress costume! I debuted it at SPACES gallery's POP ROYALTY benefit costume party.

I've been itching to make a costume based on Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress. I bought the materials for it last year, but hadn't got around to creating it. For the wig, I purchased an all white long haired wig, then spray painted it with turquoise and silver temporary hair spray paint. For the necklace and bracelets, I glued gems onto leather strips and turned them into velcro bracelets.  As for my "Meat Dress," I made entirely out of red felt, red jersey knit for the lining, and fabric paint <3  (I like using knit fabrics for the stretch in costumes - it's more forgiving on fit than wovens.  However if you are more comfortable with wovens, follow this tuturial but leave 1" to sew in a side seam or back zipper to get in or out.)

Personally I loved all the outfits she wore to the 2010 VMAs, she looked gorgeous in her S/S 2010 Alexander McQueen 1st outfit, and her custom black Armani couture gown for her 2nd look.  Her 3rd look, now known as "the Meat Dress" left people loving it or disgusted. What draws my attention to this outfit are the colors:  The white/grey and turquoise ombre hair with the start contrast of the red and white of the meat. I LOVE IT.  Her shoe wraps remind me of chunky platform shoes of the late 90's.  Not to mention she was dripping in jewels.  That's what I liked most about it, the colors...THE COLORS. I loved her Meat Dress 2010 MTV VMAs outfit so much I even included it as an illustration in my 2011 Sketchbook Project.

Meat has been used in art as material and fashion photo shoots time and time again. It was a very Dada-esque thing to do. (Marcel Duchamp, Elsa Schiaparelli, and Salvador Dali would have approved). Kind of a big "F*%& You" to the red carpet and PETA.

Meat Gaga" by Lisa Malanij, The Sketchbook Project 2011

In this video of the Pop Royalty party from CoolCleveland.com, you can see myself and my Katy Perry girl friend at :15 sec, and my girls Pam, Laurel, and Carolyn at 1:26 sec.

The Pop Royalty party was a blast. Among many other pop stars running around, I made friends with a girl dressed as Katy Perry (Though she had an awesome blue bob wig that could have totally passed for CFDA Fashion Awards 2011 Gaga). After the party, my friends and I decided to get food at XYZ Tavern in the Detroit Shoreway area.  I didn't have a change of clothes, so in my full Gaga ensemble I bravely went to the bars with no shame. HAHA. I am truly a brave soul.

Here are my "red carpet" photos taken at SPACES Gallery during their Pop Royalty event :]

COSTUME/COSPLAY #001 - Adventure Time with Fionna & Cake Costume

I've decided to make a new section of my blog for costumes, since I am a fashion designer with the power of pattern making and sewing and all ;]

This Halloween I set my heart on being Fionna from Adventure Time, as I feel she is pretty much a cartoon version of myself.

Me as Fionna and Cake from Adventure Time! Costume and Cake Plushie made by me!

Me as Fionna and Cake from Adventure Time!

THINGS LISA LIKES #001: Cult Films - The Phantom of the Paradise

"He sold his soul for Rock n Roll"

The Phantom of the Paradise is one of my favorite cult films.

So it makes me very happy that this Saturday, September 17, 2011 the Capitol Theater will be playing Brian DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise as part of the Cleveland Cinema’s Late Shift Movies! OMG YES! <3 Even better, Simply His Servants, the same cast who performs during Rocky Horror at the Cedar Lee will be performing live throughout the movie.  So if you are free this Saturday come see the Phantom of the Paradise at the Capitol Theater. I might even bust out my  black Makeup Forever Lipstick in Rouge Artist Intense #50 to channel my own Phantom.

There’s nothing quite like a favorite cult film playing on the big screen with other fans shouting out things at the screen ;] (Side note:  Simply His Servants acted out Clue during a Late Shift movie last April 2010, which was awesome!)

I even doodled the Phantom in my 2011 Sketchbook Project. <3

THINGS LISA LIKES #011: I ♥ Adventure Time!

I am absolutely obsessed with "Adventure Time With Finn & Jake" on Cartoon Network.  It's this surreal children's cartoon with lots of wacky characters and situations which I can only describe as if Tim & Eric and Dungeons and Dragons had a lovechild.  With it's simple yet wacky animation style, it's quickly become a cult favorite among kids and adults alike.   The premise is a  boy named Finn and his BFF dog Jake go around fighting wizards, finding treasure, saving towns, having dance parties... you name it while having fun in this magical land of Ooo.

On Sept. 5, the long awaited "Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake"  fan service episode will be featuring Finn and Jake's gender-swapped counterparts: Fionna (a girl adventurer) and Cake (a cat).  To celebrate I drew some doodles of what I would look like if I was in the world of Adventure Time.   

So this is me, Adventure Time Lisa with my stretchy pals Snowball and Tube Socks.

Snowball is my favorite stuffed animal who I took everywhere with me when I was a kid.  He started out as a white, fluffy Precious Moments stuffed rabbit.  He currently looks like a gray, flattened, loved to death, stuffed animal resembling more of a slushball than a snowball.  It doesn't matter.  I've already decreed he will be buried with me in my coffin. He currently sits on my bed.

Tube Socks is the family cat we saved from the streets.  In real life he is a very handsome black and white tuxedo cat with a really chill personality.   His cartoon alter-ego would be sort of a trouble making dickens I suppose.

Fionna and Cake meet Finn and Jake

BLOG #010: New Business Cards for 2011

Hey guys!  Here are my new business cards for 2011!  I made them at the end of July so I could hand out my updated business cards while on my vacation to NYC networking to other designers, friends, industry professionals, and cute boys. *cough cough*