squirrel's preparation for winter

The winter is coming!!  It's the season everybody needs warm jackets. Here snacku have 3 new styles.

We had a photoshoot for this new tiny collection and now I am super busy editing these photos.  you guys will get a new catalog soon.

 it was a super busy 2 weeks but fun!

Brandy styling Veronica's hair.

Taylor  is checking the lighting etc.

Amazing Veronica!

after this studio shoot, I suddenly decided to have an editorial shoot! how crazy! :oB

Luckly, they said they can do it! 

Unfortunately Brandy already had a plan, so I asked Sovantha.  He's an amazing MUA, too!

checking angle

shssh!! found a poor dead crow!!!

 such a beautiful Saturday morning to hang out in the park

after the busy days,  had a break with my sister...having some yummy brunch at caffe delucchi.

their pulled pork is always the best.

to avoid the heat of indian summer, which was even still hot at night,

we ran to bar tartine to hide.

great food and great vino!

nothing can make us this happy especially after the hard work!

it is already getting chilly tonight.  How can the indian summer go this quick? 

The squirrel gotta hurry to deliver you the jackets!

thank you,

Veronica Boyer for modeling,  

Brandy Mcafee

(Brandy Mcafee Makeup)

and

Sovantha Bun 

for hair/make up

and

Taylor Reyes.

( Tylershoot Photography)

hobo inspiration

It is not leather this time. It's wool.  There are some reasons that I decided to make jackets in wool.

One big reason was that I got so many tiny leather scraps after cutting more than hundreds pieces to make jackets that I can not throw away.  So I decided to use these scraps and make something new. It can be elbow patches or  It can be under collar of blazer jacket.  It can be anything!  The other reason is that my friends in fashion industry always get mad at me and yell at me I am the worst sales representative!!  They slap my butt telling me I gotta bang the door of the stores and buyers more. Be pushy!  They always say my jackets are already great and why don't i push more to sell my jackets?   And these sweet friends always give me some tips to sell my stuff.  They recommend me to send out samples directly to fashion bloggers etc and ask them "hey! could you please write about my jackets?"    I've been too naive/ignorant and didnt know those tricks until recently.  It seems a good idea but the thing is I don't really want to send out my samples. The leather jackets are too precious to send out easily for free because everything is hand made. What I am doing is too old school to fit current trend of fashion business.  I would say  that is what I like about what I am doing but, on the other hand, I can't be that laid back to sell my stuff, you know. I have to pay my bills.   And then coming back to this wool jackets idea...."wool can be a bit more flexible!!".  They let me move around a lil more free comparing with leather.   Maybe it is a good idea to make wool jacket once and become flexible to advertise my stuff. Then people will eventually know this designer is making awesome leather jackets, too.  

Moreover, I was a big fan of poets of beat generations especially Kerouac and Burroughs and wanted to make something inspired by these poets.  To be honest this is the main reason to make wool jackets collection.

Hobo originally means "workers" who are wondering to get jobs around 1890.  The way they wonder around eventually translated into the meaning of "vagabond" or "bums" mainly by beatnik poets in 50's  (correct me if i'm wrong.). 

Researching about Hobo, I noticed they always wear big comfy look wool jackets / coats.   

Also poets of beat generation are always taken pictures when they are in comfy big wool jackets.

↓　as long as I remember, Burroughs was always in his tweed wool well tailored jacket in all of his pictures.  Sometimes with a gun. Sometimes with Bowie.

So I researched fabric mill and hit an awesome fabric mill in New Hampshire.  

Got a great navy color camel hair (so light) and tweed chunky wool and I was ready to go!

continue to the next episode! :o) 

Meet the designer "squirrel"! :oB

the designer of snacku is featured on her art school blog.  the highlight of this interview is what the caveman said to her when she couldn't make it to new york fashion week.  also, check out what is most inspiring her now.  

Academy of Art University Fashion School Daily

snacku is featured in INSPIRARE magazine!

snacku is featured with a san francisco based denim brand, Mark Allison Jeans in the October issue of INSPIRARE MAGAZINE.

to view the magazine,  click here.  INSPIRARE 005  p.25 - p.35

thanks, Sean and Adrienne for making this happen!

 

here's some behind the scene photos!

catalyst

Niita the cat is the youngest brother of my family.  He's an awesome cat.  He's very smart, very calm, very cute and very sweet.  Not everybody has this 4 elements at once.    He got a testicular cancer recently.  He looked like he survived the cancer after the surgery but recently my mom found something like pimples spotted on his body and those look never be cured. His doctor and my mom are now concerning if the cancer had already transferred  ( I hope not.) My mom has experienced lots of death of her family members. My dad passed away almost 10 years ago. After my dad's death my grandma and one of my aunts deceased. My mom has been incredibly brave in all those sadness and Niita has been the one who has supported her after my dad's death even though her two selfish daughters left her to the US.  Especially while she had to go through that craziness after the disaster in Japan, Niita was always there with her.  So my mom and Niita have a special bond. She confessed to me yesterday over the phone that this was actually the first time she really felt she was overwhelmed by the sadness of loosing someone very important even after she experienced lots of death of her family.  She started laughing and said what truly made her face to death was not her husband or parents.  This tiny cat is the one who makes her think of what life is or what death is deeply.......so we laughed.  I told the caveman about my mom's confession this morning and he said "Niita is the catalyst".  Then I came up with a joke like "yeah, Nitta the CAT is really the CATalyst". It is sad but funny. Our lives always have both sides.  Funniness in sadness. Sadness in funniness just like good funny jokes always have sadness in there somehow.  We laugh while we are in sadness or we cry while we are laughing.  Maybe we are just trying to balance out in that way or maybe it is some kind of instinct to survive...but anyway, seriously, hope Niita will survive.