My line of work demands for corporate conservative, so that typically sways me toward closed-toe pumps, but I did sneak a few peep-toes into the mix as I deliberated what to get with the gift card.

Hubby, of course, pointed out that I already have too many shoes, and that we ought to “get something practical” instead. I had e-mailed him and my two fashionista sisters for a consultation. The e-mail exchange that ensued was quite cute, and a great representation of the family dynamics. I thought I’d share.

“That’s not how you calculate cost and value.” =) Classic Hubby-speak.

I would have proceeded to order shoes anyway, except every style I liked was out of size 6.5. Thus I deferred to Hubby.

We–or should I say he–got luggage, a set of matching roller thingies, whatever you call them. It’s for the two of us when we travel, because you know, there’s nothing cheesy at all about couples with matching luggage.

Now wait, back to the “grandma-ish style” comment from my 20-something year old sister. Grandma-ish!

Sigh. She’s right. Gone are the days of wearing Bebe and Forever 21. That is the greatest tragedy of growing up, exacerbated by my decision to pursue a career in law–I’ll never again try on different personalities with my clothes, won’t go rocker glam one day, punk another, or hip hop the next. Herehence and hereinafter, I won’t dare put on clear glass platform high heels and dye my hair bright pink. Doh! Forget the pink hair!– I now say things like “herehence and hereinafter”! Old, stuffy, and boring. I won a gift card and what do I buy? A luggage set. In gray. Seriously you don’t get more boring than that.

We’re getting there slowly but surely.

Contrast stitching makes me happy. I like how it looks. So most of the bags in this debut collection feature contrast stitching.

Above is a Round 1 prototype from 5-ish months ago. I lamented over the production here and here.

Below is from Round 2. Here’s a preview while the bag is being constructed:

Excuse the illustration at left; it was a sketch from when I thought the metal TZ logo plate would still be 2″ x 2″. Then I changed it to 1″ x 1″ for Round 2, which is what you see in the photo at right. To get a sense of the former 2×2, scroll up and view the round 1 prototype. Yikes. See why I decided it had to be smaller for round 2? In any case, I’m really liking the 1×1 plates! =) (Then again, this is what I said about the 2×2 plates when they first came out, so I’m an unreliable narrator.)

We’ve encountered a few bumps with production of the other designs, but nothing serious enough to make me roll up into a ball and cry. All is coming along generally well.

Looking at the totality, I’m seeing a very distinct aesthetic coming out of Taryn Zhang. (I say this like I have no control over it and I’m not the designer behind the line or anything.) Not to keep drawing comparisons back to creative writing, but it really is like creative writing. Writers have an idea of what they want to write, but once the manuscript is done, the characters take on a life of their own, oftentimes a personality the writer did not intend. Applied here, the bags technically look like what I designed, but there’s a– a something I hadn’t consciously infused into the brand’s point of view. From a business marketing and purely non-art perspective, that’s something I’m going to have to analyze and understand before I put these bags up for sale.

The more I looked at the original design for the Tycooness doctor style satchel, the more the handles bothered me. I changed it slightly and I believe that change saves the bag. In fact, I can’t even look at the original design now without shuddering a bit. Ew. What was I thinking?

The new handles give the bag a cleaner feel. Stitched on and with metal reinforcement studs, these handles are going to be super sturdy. I’ve also updated blurbs for each piece in the debut collection on the regular website, here (click link).

Funny thing is the revision in the Tycooness bag happened contemporaneously with a revision I made in a short story I’ve been working on. (For those who don’t know, prior to starting Taryn Zhang, I was an aspiring fiction writer. Lawyer by day, fiction writer by night. Now I’m a lawyer by day, handbags designer by night, and fiction writer when I can get it in.) Like the handle attachments, a minor edit in that short story changed it entirely. I had been feeling bleh about the piece,  and that minor edit was what made me go from liking it to loving it.

The contemporaneous revisions got me thinking again about how gosh darn similar creative writing and fashion design are. First and most frustrating are the tropes. Almost any narrative arc you can think of has been done before and will be done many a more times after yours. What sets one story about girl coming-of-age from another story about girl coming-of-age are the details. Likewise, an established fashion designer once told me to rest assured that whatever I come up with will be old news. Somebody else will have come up with it already, and that silhouette or arrangement of zippers or what-not will show up again after mine. It’s something every designer has to learn to get over.

I’ve also learned that after completion of the first draft (of a short story or chapter of a novel) or preliminary sketch (of a handbag), I have to set it aside for a while. When I look at it again with a fresh pair of eyes, awkward sentences, grave omissions of plot, or unsettling proportions and incompatible styling immediately leap out at me. This is because right after the first draft is done, I think, “hey, that’s pretty good, that’s all right stuff.” But then when I review it again in a few, I realize, “wow, this is junk, I’ll be lucky if I can salvage half of it!”

Without any intent of making the design of my bags autobiographical or reflective of my personal aesthetic preferences, Taryn Zhang handbags nonetheless represent my view of the world, specifically women. Same with creative writing. Even when we write a novel that we’d argue tooth and nail “is not autobiographical at all,” it still ends up one way or another an extension of who we are and what we’ve gone through in life.

Then of course, the main theme of this post, revisions. Revision, revision, revision. Edit, edit, edit. These are mantras repeated in both arts. Creative writing students will be instructed by their professors to revise and edit, and then revise and edit again. There’s no such thing as a final draft. How many times do MFA candidates hear that! Similarly, on Project Runway Tim Gunn is constantly telling the contestants to edit their pieces, edit their collections, that the most important aspect to design is editing. It’s kind of uncanny how Tim Gunn could probably teach a writing workshop and Lan Samantha Chang could teach fashion design. They’d be dishing the same set of advice to their students.

Finally, perhaps the most difficult, is finding your voice, and maintaining a consistency in style. Young writers tend to sound like the big-name authors they revere. It takes them a while to find their own voice, and then once they do, it takes them a while longer to learn how to maintain it and be consistent. Turns out fashion design isn’t all that different. To start, whether we’re conscious of it or not, our designs are frighteningly similar to the designers we love. We need to, well first, become conscious of it, and then second, develop our own distinct aesthetic point of view. If that isn’t difficult enough to handle, we then need to learn how to be consistent, just like in writing. Each collection needs to be cohesive. Easier said than done, for sure.

At present, I’m scrutinizing the pieces for cohesiveness, and trying to reconcile that with what I foresee to be saleable bags. For example, I don’t think the Jetsetter is consistent in design with the Catalyst and Workaholic. But Hubby is insistent that I keep the Jetsetter as part of the collection because he believes it will sell better than the Catalyst and Workaholic. He’s got a knack for marketability and all things money or sales related, so I’m inclined to listen to him, even though the artist part of me thinks it’s an aesthetic thorn in the collection. Hence, putting together a solid line feels like one of the hardest tests on my decision-making capabilities I’ve ever encountered. Sigh. We’ll see what happens.

The question I’m left to ponder is this: which am I worse at, novel writing or designing handbags? Oh dear. Hmm….

All illustrations above were rendered in MS Paint and/or Jasc Paint Shop Pro.

In the future I would love to design my own textile and have a custom copyrightable interior lining of my own, but for now, I’ve selected a classic black-and-gray striped fabric. The issue at hand is whether those stripes should be vertical or horizontal.

The vertical stripes remind me of candy packaging, boardwalks, and referees. None of the aforementioned evoke a sense of elegance. Yet I like it.

The horizontal stripes are a bit of an eye sore, like those optical illusions. I don’t think the interior of a handbag should be an optical illusion. Yet the horizontal stripes don’t look so shabby either. Hence the debate. Should I go with the vertical or the horizontal?

I post this in the event that my friends would like to offer their input. I’ve decided not to get back to the manufacturer right away with my answer. Instead, I’m going to sleep on it a bit. Doesn’t seem like a big deal, vertical or horizontal stripes, but it is. The details will make or break you.

All illustrations above were rendered in MS Paint.

2010.07.16 Update.

Via Facebook and private messages, my pals have convinced me. Vertical stripes. We’ll be going with vertical stripes for the interior lining. Vertical stripes will hereinafter remind you of candy packaging, boardwalks, referees and…Taryn Zhang! =P

First off, that is not the “Vegas-y outfit” I referenced in a previous post, which I said I intended to wear. I ended up not even packing it because I chickened out. “I can’t honestly wear that in public! I’m not 21 anymore!” When Hubby saw what I ended up wearing, he was like, that’s not “Vegas,” honey, that’s “country club.” What’s more, I wasn’t going to let the singular fact that the evening clutch/handbag totally did not match the floral blue dress stop me from using the handbag that I spent all last weekend working on! And so there it is. What you see above. Nonsense fashion.

And what about some no-nonsense fashion? See below. You ready for it?

I… love… this dress. I didn’t even see the sign above the store yet and knew exactly who designed this. Carolina Herrera. It’s still elegant and classic-Herrera, but so relevant in the context of my generation and the climate of today’s fashion sensibilities. With that said, not just anybody could pull off this dress. It’s so intense  that it would wear most of its wearers. Pretty much, it looks better on the mannequin than it would on any normal everyday woman. It’s an Excalibur of a dress, so after taking the photo, I humbly went on my way. Can’t wait to see which celebrity does end up wearing it on the red carpet.

Anyway, for 24 hours this past weekend, Hubby and I ate. The Buffet of Buffets. Such gluttons. People go to Vegas to gamble, to watch the shows, to let loose and check out the vibrant night scene. Hubby and me? We… we go to eat. And eat. And eat. We were scarfing down fruit tarts, flan, ice cream, and cheesecakes at Planet Hollywood when Spain won the World Cup.

There’s a happy Hubby.

And there’s a happy me (albeit a happy me in dire need of a tan).

As for my tote, it’s Franco Sarto, known more for shoes, but the handbags are great too. The style is cheerful and upbeat. The above is the Vandalay A-line shopper tote. Impeccable detailing; loving the gazillion and one zip pockets; synthetic leather so no animals killed, and yet the material is soft, plush, and gorgeous; and best of all, it fits everything a packrat like me brings on a weekend getaway. Bought it a while ago though, so it’s kind of old and beat-up now.

Photo from the plane over Burbank, California.

We kept away from Internet all weekend. Monday morning I signed on and found out that two of the fabric sources I wanted for my collection were a no. And, folks, it’s back to reality. Sigh. I cried a little river, then got over it and pursued alternative fabric sources. C’est la vie.

I did try to keep the designing wheels greased, so to speak, on the flights to and from. There’s always a sketchbook in my purse. The page on the left is a doodle of an attache I won’t ever be producing. I don’t like it. Don’t even know why I drew it. The page on the right is the Tycooness doctor bag that’ll be in the debut collection. The Tycooness comes with 2 small zip pouches for makeup and things. The legal pad behind it on the left is from work. I can’t for the life of me remember why there’s the word “wheat” scribbled there! My line of work has nothing nothing to do with wheat. Weird. Very weird.