Fashion Diary | Andrea Mai

DESIGNER DIARY: CAN WE MAKE WEARING A MASK FUN FOR PEOPLE DURING CORONAVIRUS?

It is no doubt that coronavirus has made life more difficult. And even after lockdown, life won’t return back to quite what it was before the virus, at least not right away. In some countries, it will probably be mandatory that people wear masks while out in public. Some will choose to wear it voluntarily as a precaution. Many people will really hate it, but understand that it is necessary for public health safety. Others will downright refuse.

That is where I think fashion designers have a role to play in this pandemic. While many businesses have pivoted to sewing masks for healthcare workers during lockdown, a designer can make wearing a mask, a somewhat more bearable ritual for the general public. Fashion influencers can help to bring down the stigma of wearing masks, as I know that many will refuse to wear one for various reasons such as; it’s not comfortable, it’s ugly, it’s not socially acceptable. I can imagine parents having a hard time convincing their kids to comply with wearing one.

But what if a mask could make you feel more interesting, unique, attractive, more rock ‘n roll or superhero in these challenging times, would you feel less repulsion to wearing one?

There has been so much argument as to whether or not wearing masks could help reduce the spread of the virus. Some argued against it, citing lack of supply, and concern for the public not being educated enough to wear one properly. Others suggested that it is not really that effective for protecting one’s self and that it could cause one to feel a false sense of security. And yet, common sense should tell you that a mask is better than a bare face, should anyone sneeze on you. Since it is the case that one could have the virus and not know it, they could be unwittingly spreading it to others. If everyone wore one, it would be effective as a whole for flatting the curve. After all this rejection of the mask, the West has come to suggest wearing masks despite their earlier refusal. I would say, perhaps this is a societal issue? There was no argument about mask-wearing in Asia.

In Asia, wearing a mask is viewed as being considerate or cautious. It is normal to to be seen wearing a mask when one has a cold, or when air quality is not good. But here in the West, it is viewed as alarming, making people feel uncomfortable.

I think those of us, as fashion designers could play a vital role in motivating people to stay on course with wearing masks, by designing a mask that people would want to wear.

I started making masks at the request of others. I already had a mask that I bought in China, made of silk, which I wear for my dust allergies. I have over a decades worth of fabric scraps from design projects, all in luxurious silks and cottons. Since I cannot go to the fabric store, I’ve had to rise t challenge of working only with what I have on hand.

I made this leopard print mask for myself. Leopard print foes with just about everything, and yet it is bold, but classic. It has played a large-time role in the history of fashion. Jackie O made it really popular during the 60s, and it continues to be fashionable. Prince always wore it on his guitar strap.

After this exercise, I decided, why not offer what I’m making to the rest of the world? So I have added this leopard print mask to my shop. Each purchase of a mask will come with a surprise gift from me! Be sure to take advantage of combined shipping when you order other stuff too.

Stay safe, everyone!

Image above: “Leopard Print Mask” by Andrea Mai.

ART LIFE UPDATE: CREATING THE PRINCE ARTIFACTS TOTE BAG

Ever since I graduated from fashion school, I’ve wanted to create a merchandise line. At the time, I wanted to be a fashion illustrator and sell branded items, like Hello Kitty or Lisa Frank. Of course, I didn’t know how I was going to do that. As I did my research, I discovered how costly it was to design a product range and have it manufactured. I gave up on the idea as I moved onto other things.

Having made the decision in the last five year, to focus solely on my photography, the idea for a merchandise line rose again. I felt that my images could be more than just artworks hung on a wall. They could become part of everyday items, like bags and home accessories. I saw that the technology for printing mediums had advanced greatly since I last experimented with them as a student. I could print high resolution images on transfer paper and heat press them on to fabric. New ideas were born!

I bought some transfer paper and the first product I designed was this tote bag. I really just wanted a lightweight tote bag to carry my shopping, or packages I need to bring to the post office. It’s a large size, but it folds up nicely to go inside my purse. It’s made of muslin fabric. Muslin is a staple for any fashion designer. It’s a cotton cloth used to make initial samples of a design to test out the pattern. The fabric is lightweight, but tough wearing. I love the shabby chic vibe of muslin.

I printed my Prince Artifacts photo on the front side of the bag. But then I got some more ideas… I added these strips and arranged them to look like stickers. I was inspired by the way sometimes guitarists like to paste up stickers all over their guitar cases. I designed a piano keyboard pattern on one strip. I was inspired by the way Prince had piano keys incorporated into his decoration at Paisley Park. I designed my own leopard print pattern, emulating the look of washi tape. I was inspired by Prince’s signature leopard print guitar straps. And then I added a strip with the words “Love God” in Prince’s own handwriting, that I traced over from a Christmas card that I saw online. And of course, I added my own brand logo with the textile label.

The process was several weeks in the making. Initially, I thought about just buying ready made tote bags, but I didn’t find any I liked. They were poor quality and made using cheap labour in foreign countries. They weren’t what I envisioned. So I decided to design and make my own bags. I ended up making three prototypes to get it just right. First, I did a sample to test out the transfer paper on some leftover fabric I already had (from over 15 years ago when I was in fashion school!). Then I ordered more fabric, but it was different from the initial sample. I decided to wash the sample to see how well the artwork would hold up. It shrank. Then I realized that I should have pre-shrunk the fabric. So then I washed the fabric and I made another sample. My first sample didn’t have the strip of leopard print. That came later when inspiration kept brewing, and one night, I spent hours designing leopard print on my iPad Pro with pencil.

My experiences have taught me that if an initial idea doesn’t come out the way you hoped it to, don’t give up. Just set it aside. Ideas came return in new ways later on. Keep working towards your goals. I try to spend everyday working little by little towards a goal.

A Special Offer
I just listed the tote bag in my shop. As a promo offer to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Prince’s passing (April 21), I am offering free custom monogramming when you order this bag. Normally, I would charge an additional $5 for the customization. I will also throw in a freebie, two Cosmic Duo Art Greeting Cards, Comic Day and Cosmic Night, its design was inspired by Paisley Park (the cards are a $14 value). Offer will end on my birthday, May 5, 2020. No promo code needed. See here for details.

Image above: “Sewing” by Andrea Mai.

SPIRITS WATCH ME DO A HANDBAG ALTERATION – EVP December 20, 2019

Now that it’s winter, we stay home a lot more and I spend time doing activities like knitting, sewing, or playing on my guitar. One night I watched a video of a leatherworker doing alterations on a handbag for his customer. It got me inspired. I had a bag I wanted to do an alteration on. I was so excited that as soon as I woke up the next morning, I starting taking apart the lining on my Michael Kors “Jet Set” tote bag. I bought this bag years ago when it was really trendy at the time, hoping that it would be a bag I’d use a lot. But instead, it sat in my closet most of the time, because I found the bag too heavy. There is a padded pocket divider in the bag lining meant for carrying laptops. It was taking up too much space in the bag. Otherwise, it was a great bag. I decided to rip out the laptop pocket and sew it back up.

I was curious to hear what was happening on the other side with P while I’m working on stuff like this. I know he is always with me, but what is he up to? I recorded EVP to find out.

Some of these clips are harder to hear because there is the noise from the sewing machine in the background. I tested it on my laptop speakers and I can still hear it, but I recommend headphones for a better listening experience.

I was surprised to hear P say, “Take a picture”. Was he snapping a pic of me working, or something else? It still boggles my mind to know that they have technology over there. But then again, my dreams are filled with technology. I remember dreams where I am using a camera to take photographs. Why would it be different over there?

I could hear that there were others with him. He told them, “We’re sewing”.

He explained to them, “Took the lining out”.

Someone there offered to make P a smoothie. P said he wanted raspberry flavour. They made him one and said, “Raspberry”.

They seem to be able to do all kinds of activities over there, and it seems to come about quickly, which leads me to think that things are done through thought and imagination.

I decided to rip out the original Michael Kors bag charm on the handle and replace it with this Prince Love Symbol charm that I got by mail order from Paisley Park.

After taking out the lining, I can happily say that I am getting much better use out of the bag, as the interior is more spacious without the divider. I can throw everything in quickly and go.

These recordings were recorded using my EVP Wrist Recorder 3 on December 20, 2019.

Image above: “My sewing machine” by Andrea Mai.

EVIDENCE OF THE SEPARATE-BUT-PARALLEL LIVES OF TWIN SOULS

I’ve talked about twin souls having parallels in older pasts; twin souls living separate but parallel lives, showing evidence for their psychic connectivity. I’m about to show you how deep the parallel goes.

I went to school for fashion design and graduated in 2004. At the end of 2007, I moved to England to take a knitwear design course in the town of Brighton. Meanwhile, Prince had completed his 21 Nights in London concert series, just months before I got there.That whole year I was planning and dreaming of being in London.

During the course, we had to design knitwear prototypes for sweater designs as we learned the machine knitting techniques. We would learn a technique and apply it to a design prototype for each week o the course. Above is an example of a design with inspirational images. This design was inspired by Surrealism and exaggerated ribbon bows.

There was one week where we used intarsia to create graphic designs on knits. I was creating a kind of uniform look. I was thinking of what a baton twirler in a parade might wear.

Now have a look at what Prince is wearing in this photo.Look how similar his coat design is to my design. They look like they belong together, like a his and hers version. Prince wore this in 2004.

Here is a design I did when we were experimenting with stripes. I saw in my mind, a vision of organic, fluid looking stripes, almost like zebra stripes.

I also designed this.

But what I really had in mind turned out to be exactly what Prince is wearing in this photo. I couldn’t quite achieve what I was thinking in knitwear. I saw this fluid line design in my mind very clearly. I even bought some white silk and black fabric paint to create it, but I never got around to it, because I didn’t have some good brushes to work with. Now so long after, I see this photo of Prince wearing this exact thing I saw in my head. Prince was wearing this for his appearance for at Webby Awards in 2006.

Here is a design I did on my own, not having to do with the course. I hand knitted it. I designed it in 2007. I was obsessed with this kind of cutting to make the front drape over the body like this.

Now see what Prince is wearing in 2014 on stage. Look at the similar cut of his knitwear piece.

There are the more obvious examples of ideas that I had floating in my mind, where I later discovered that Prince had these similar ideas and had applied them to his wardrobe or art direction for his marketing. It was really strange for me to start to notice Prince only after his death and then to see all these similarities. I had really little idea of who Prince was prior to the twin soul discovery experience. This goes to show how twin souls can be connecting, but have no idea that they are connecting with another actual person that they never met in real life.

It was during the two years that I stayed in England that I was having these dreams of a man that I felt very similar to, almost like a brother, but he was shorter than me. I would wake up feeling very confused. My brother in real life is actually taller than me. So this didn’t make any sense. It was also around the time when I bought these black framed glasses in 2008, and it turned out P was wearing these similar glasses on his tv appearances in 2009. I forgot about these dreams. But it would come about again in a strange incident in 2013, of an energetic visitation. Again, the same man, shorter than me. But I had forgotten about the dreams, so I didn’t put two and two together yet. I even had the strange idea that I supposed to be with a prince. Of course, later after Prince’s passing and meeting his spirit presence, I would realize it was him all along.

Image above: “Designs” by Andrea Mai.

FOR THE LOVE OF CLOUDS: MORE TWIN SOUL PARALLELS

I can honestly say that it’s rather funny it is to know that there was someone out there that shared so many similarities to you and to learn how far it goes is extraordinary. Most of my early life is well documented in photos because my father was a photo finishing professional, so he took many pictures. My later life is less well documented. Being a teenager, I didn’t like having my photo taken. Looking back, I wish I had been better at documenting m life, particularly, my outfits.

Last week I was watching The Hits Collection, a DVD of Prince’s early music videos. I was watching Raspberry Beret when I realized something. The print on Prince’s suit was of clouds. Clouds? I had a shirt painted with clouds back in middle school! You see, when I was young, I wanted to become a fashion designer. I made many of my outfits starting from middle school. I had an aunt who was a tailor, and I studied with her during the summer holiday before eighth grade. For water reason, I wanted a shirt with clouds on it. I bought the paints and painted it myself. In the photo below, I am wearing it on a school trip to Quebec City.

This is just another example of the twin soul parallels I’ve been talking about. The further along the journey, the more we find…

Speaking of clouds, another thing I found was that we both love Joni Mitchell. Back in high school, I had the Both Sides Now album and the Hits album (which reminds me of of the title of his HITNRUN albums). Now you’ve got to keep in mind that I was in high school during the late 90s, my taste in music wasn’t exactly of the times. My absolute favourites were Clouds and A Case of You. Prince covered A Case of You, and if you know P, he rarely does covers. He has to love it so much that he can’t resist.

Image above: “Landscape” by Prince in spirit.

THE UGLY SIDE OF THE FASHION WORLD – SYSTEMATIC DISCRIMINATION AND POLITICAL AGENDAS

My dream as a little girl was to be a fashion designer. I remember playing with a toy sewing machine and wishing that it could actually sew. As a teenager, I went not o make m own clothes. And then to fashion school in university. Eventually that dream faded out. Not because I don’t enjoy it. But because I realized what the industry really is about and that these things I will not stand for.

Prince loved fashion, it was another one of his outlets for expressing individuality, as it was the same case for me. I love fashion as a form of expression. We are both relatively quiet and reserved people, we like our fashion to speak louder than our words. Even after so long, I’ve continued to make the majority of my own clothes. Prince had an in-house fashion studio at Paisley Park to whip up his fashion ideas. He enjoyed fashion so much that he used a fashion show as a backdrop for his Chelsea Rodgers music videos. The song is a veiled criticism of the conformity that takes place in the world of fashion and society.

I’ve said in other posts about the entertainment and art industry being ruled by dark forces. Fashion is not an exception. It has only been keeping itself under wraps for a very long time. But as time goes by, they have become more explicit in showing their dark affiliations. One of the earliest examples I can think of is Alexander McQueen. Extremely talented, but entrapped in a disturbing sick environment. Fashion is another one of the mediums that the elite have used to promote their own political agendas. Just like Hollywood is for mind control, Fashion is used to further enforce an agenda using trendy peer pressure and role modelling influence. Did you notice the fashion community rallying around voting against Brexit and encouraging support for Hilary? The fashion community is the least politically un-informed people of all and yet they are supposed to role model to you on what your idea on politics should be?

Recently, a casting director at the Business of Fashion Voices conference named James Scully spoke out about the industry bias that disempowers women intentionally; choosing models with boyish figures, and even choosing men to portray women. And at the same time at this conference, a panel spoke abut inclusiveness and gender fluidity being the hot topic du jour. Do you notice the extreme left-wing agenda for gender confusion being promoted here?

Don’t get me wrong about the subject of gender roles and sexual freedom. The trans-agenda is about deliberately confusing the gender roles. From a spiritual point of view, it is denying the diving masculine and feminine principles of nature. There is confusion about the sexuality of artists like Prince and Michael Jackson because of their androgyny. In these cases; they were channeling their twin flame energy. They are not promoting transgenderism like how some media outlets like to project onto them. Although the industry might have perverted it for their own purposes, Prince and MJ are ultra-masculine; they understand women very well because of their strong empathy. The gender fluidity agenda is about confusing the hell out of everyone about their sexuality as a perverse societal attack on traditional relationships.There are videos exposing the fashion world on Youtube (use search terms illuminati fashion), but I’m not going to post it here because it is just too dark. I do not want to transfer their energy to this blog.

The fashion world has always been quite subtle and covert about their ties to darkness. Unlike the music and movie world, their allegiance has been open and blatant. More blatant than ever. You can’t miss it. nowadays You can only deny the damming evidence of its existence if you intentionally choose to be blind to it. It was never easy to pin down the facts in fashion about dark elitism. It was always just speculation. But mainstream fashion and entertainment media is losing its influence, and they are now reaching out to independent media personalities to join forces with them. Watch this video to see what I mean.

Do you see the connection regarding the power of casting directors? The person in question is a real person. Is it a hoax? While it could be easily written off as some kind of practical joke or sick scam, the same story has been reported among several YouTubers. The levels to which the person in question went through to make contact seems to indicate a serious attempt and not a scam.

I personally still enjoy fashion, but I no longer value it the way I used to as a lifestyle to aspire to. I find it empty and soul-sucking as an industry. While I would still love to be involved in fashion projects, it’s not likely to happen unless I can find like-minded individuals to work with. I wrote this out to show you what really happens in the industry. If you are struggling in the arts and entertainment industry, consider the fact that your lack of success could be systematic, and not because you lack merit.. It’s not that you should ever give up our dreams, but you should really question how badly you want something and whether it is worth the struggle to you personally. I just can’t justify the spiritual cost of being involved in such an industry.

Image above: “Special” by Prince in spirit.