I made two shirts: the blue/white bengal striped shirt features turnback cocktail cuffs and a detachable collar, and the plain white one features a soft collar, chest pocket and barrel cuff.

Below is a great example of this:

I have a pair of WW2 Navy trousers.  They are made out of a great, thick wool with wonderful button details and a flattering overall silhouette. They have a hidden pleat that runs down only one side of the back hip.  It was added into the design so a sailor could let out the waist of his trousers without needing anything more than a pocket knife.  It was unlikely a sailor would have time, especially on the high seas, to locate a tailor that could let out a traditional center waist and re-sew the trousers.

Here’s a quick documentation of me opening up this hidden seam.

The back on the trousers.

The inside of the trousers with the seam still sewn shut.

The seam opened up with a seam ripper.  I had to steam out these creases, as they haven’t budged in over 60 years.

This book features some of my fashion design work and has my illustrations on the back cover.

You can order it online here.

Here’s what it looks like all cleaned.

Here’s what it looked like when I first brought it home.

And here’s what it looked like after a cleaning and brushing.

Here are the sketches followed by the water colored versions.

It was great to see the frames I designed worn down the runway, especially since they were featured on many of the looks.

1) Remove four buttons using a seam ripper.  Be sure to leave the top button alone.

2) Take the shirt to an embroidery shop or a very versatile tailor where they have the machines that can add these button holes.  In Manhattan, I went to Jonathan Embroidery Plus at 256 West 38th street.

3) Have the new button holes lined up with the existing ones.  I did this by leaving the button thread in place after I ripped the buttons off.  The technician at the machine then used the loose threads there as guides for the holes she added.

4) Voila!  That’s it!  Now go enjoy your updated new shirt!

I decided to see if I could rip apart the bowtie and use the existing material to create a proper self-tie bowtie.  There ended up being enough room for my 15.5 neck size, but I could have probably gone as high a 17 necksize.  The pictures reveal that there is not enough material in the actual bow to make a butterfly shaped bow, so I had to create a straight bow.   This is not my ideal shape, but I was happy to have this instead of nothing.

Anyway, here’s a very basic step-by-step process.  The red one is my Brooks Brothers bowtie used for reference and the blue tartan one is the one I am re-constructing:

1) Use a seam ripper to cut apart the pre-tied bowtie.

2) Iron and steam out the creases of the bow.

3) Flip the fabric inside out and sew shut two of the three open edges, leaving a small side un-sewn.

4) Unfold the bow so the correct material is now outward facing.

5) Iron and steam this shape flat.

6) Fold the open end of the bow into the thin band that goes around your neck.  This will take some fiddling and re-ironing.

7) Sew the bows to each end of the band.

8) Wear with pride!

I really like the simplicity and high-contrast of these sketches; I hope to do more of them in the future.

The basic steps are listed below with some iPhone documentation:

Step one, wrap the outside of the holders in painters tape.  Be sure to cover the bottom!

Step two, take the holders outside and wear a respirator while using the Krylon Mirror Effects spray paint.

Step three, light mist the inside of the holders with water (from the black spray bottle pictured).

Step four, spray a few light coats of the Krylon onto the inside of the holders.  It will seem like it’s not coated enough, but err on the side of too little paint than too much.

Step five, let dry, remove the tape, and enjoy!

Here’s a quick collection of some of the snapshots I took at the presentation.

One aspect that I love about some of these older house are the boot scrapers that are built into the wrought iron railings on the front steps. These feel like vestigial organs left on these houses from a time when the roads were dirt and traveling usually involved a horse.

Here are some of the scrapers I’ve come across on my walks.

Below are the iPhone snapshots I took as I worked on them.

I used basic muslin as I thought it was accurate to the look of real ones and tried to make them look a bit rough and handmade as the original ones were.

The process:

Cut

Sew

Paint

These are some quick bag sketches I did for Nike.  These sketches are inspired by vintage German children’s school backpacks and the gear made by Boblbee.

I found this old picture of me on an external hard drive.  At the time this picture was taken, I was toying with the idea of environmental graffiti:  How could the environment be tweaked so as to leave a mark?  When this jet plane flew overhead, I stood up, held my hand up, and asked my friend to take a picture of me drawing the sky.  Below is the result.

Another birthday card was needed and I came up with a quick sketch for the birthday boy’s card.

This is another envelope sketch.  Apparently ‘Steve Perrell’ is someone whose name I jotted down, but I don’t recall why or what for.

I am not sure how I was elected, but I somehow became the guy who makes the birthday cards for all of my colleagues.

Here’s the result.  The whole bag-on-the-knees, pigeon-toe’d thing is an inside joke with the birthday girl!

I am working with adding color to some hand sketches using Photoshop.  These are some of the first tests.

I am doing some online research into armbands worn by French Resistance fighters during WW2.

I found these images online and am working to create a pattern and sew a few of these for Reading, PA this coming summer.

I went by the Nautica Fall’12 presentation during NYFW.  It was a bustling energetic crowd.  I took a few snapshots of the models wearing some of the eyewear I designed.  It was a fun event and a nice way to see my products on display.

I created the uniform with an authentic red wool ‘onesie’ swimsuit (which was really hard to find) and modern pants that I had hemmed into the short trunks seen in these photographs.

The detailing was hand stitched on, and I tried to match the uniform accurately, but decided against ‘antique-ing’ the finished piece.

I wanted to recreate his look for the Jazz Age lawn Party here in NY, and began a fun research project.  The Ocean City Historical Museum was a great source for seeing actual gear from that era.

My grandfather – and namesake – was a lifeguard at the beaches in Ocean City, NJ back in the 1920′s.  The above pictures show him in his uniform.  The red tint was added by the photographers of that time, but it was the color of their suits.

…..and ultimately decided on a collegiate placement.  (You’d be amazed at how hard it is to find letters in that font at that scale.

I sketched out some ideas of how the letters of my last name “GALE” should look in the sweatshirt.

Older sporting imagery really inspires me – particularly the team badges, logos, and insignia.  I wanted to create something for me to wear that reflected these embellishments.

Just some loose fashion sketches.  Daywear, eveningwear, 192o’s sportswear (oxford bags)

I oftentimes sketch on the backs of envelopes when having a conversation on the phone.  These are some of the recent ‘conversations’ I’ve had.

I was doing variations on J.C. Leyendecker’s work in order to practice how he put down a bold line.  Of course he was using oil paints and I am using water colors, but laying down a solid contrasting line was a good thing for me to practice.  (Note the left figure’s cheek shadow.)

I was thinking more about summer suiting and formalwear recently.  This is probably because I have to bundle up these days when I go out to dressier events.

I was thinking it would be neat to contrast exotic animal skins (faux, of course) in a formal ensembles with these wild slippers.