Cheryl B. Engelhardt’s album, “The Passenger” (written and recorded on a train), was nominated for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album for the 2023 Grammy Nomination

Her Amtrak journey took her through the Colorado Rockies which she immediately fell in love with.  Turns out one of her best friends and collaborator (Kevin) grew up in my hometown of Lakewood, Colorado there was yet another connection for her storytelling.

Cheryl had been collecting the signatures of her friends,family and fans.  It was Cheryl’s intention to take her fans with her to the Grammys awards presentation. What a wonderful idea to bring your loved ones along as passengers on such a joyous journey!

The Process

After many discussions with Cheryl we decided to have the signatures transferred onto silk taffeta, the same fabrication as the skirt.  I  took those signatures shaped and formed them and appliqued each one by one to her custom Brooks LTD bustier-crop top. Each edge of the 100+ appliques were hand frayed and stitched on a soft undergarment of knit  fabric allowing comfort and ease of movement the entire night.

First, I did sketches of options for the top. Once she selected the style she liked(I gave her 3 choices) my work began.

 I draped the choice in muslin so she could see the vision(it did change somewhat).

The tedious work.

“Admittedly, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of stitching the appliques one at a time. Many Zen moments for sure.”

“Couture Details makes my heart sing.”

On the Red Carpet

Being able to work remotely with like-minded professionals reminded me that the world really is our oyster, as we have so many more avenues of connection. Using Zoom for meetings made the process seamless. We collaborated with an Atelier in Darian, Connecticut near Cheryl’s hometown, called SOKAYRI Atelier.

As time went on the chic, sophiscated look morphed into what  She Knows says “Composer Cheryl B. Engelhardt stunned everyone at the 2023 Grammys in this mermaid-esque, custom blue SOKAYRI ATELIER skirt and a floral white top from Brooks LTD.”

The complete ensemble

The ball gown skirt was the perfect complement for the ensemble, both pieces can be worn again .  I returned all of the scraps of the signatures and the team at Sokayri Atelier put together the perfect chocker to compete the look.  As fashion designers we like to utilize all parts of the fabric, so it doesn’t end up in the landfill, we call it zero waste.

Cheryl finished her chic 2023 Grammy ensemble with a pair of sneakers to add a touch of playfulness.  Here’s to looking and being fabulous!

I can’t wait to see how she styles her crop top with jeans or other choices for her lifestyle. This is what I like to think of as investment dressing – where it’s #funtobedressedup I am a big fan of use and reuse.

We are in Vogue Magazine!

Cheryl was so perfectly put together by her team of creatives Vogue Magazine(along with many others) thought it worthy of a photo op. As a result, I couldn’t be more pleased. A dream come true for many of us who worked together on this project.

Everything is available across the continent just by reaching out to make your dream a reality.

Follow Cheryl’s music here. I trust this is only the beginning of a long future in the New Age, Ambient Music arena. Thank you for having me as a ‘passenger’ on your journey. I look forward to your next nomination.

Credits:

Model/Composer: @cbemusic

Top: @brooksltd

Skirt and Choker: @sokayri_custom_couture

Hair and makeup: @daniellebaumbeauty

Jewelry: compliments of @hudsonvalleygoldsmith

 Shoes: @juicycouture

Publicity: @diyprinc

Champagne (in blood stream but not pictures): @whitecliffvineyard

Online publications:

Vogue

She Knows

Eonline

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What is Slow fashion?  It is a term that has been talked about for a long time.  The fashion industry has been amping up the awareness for slow fashion brands.

I googled the term and this is what came up: “Slow fashion is the movement of designing, creating, and buying garments for quality and longevity. It encourages slower production schedules, fair wages, lower carbon footprints, and (ideally) zero waste. —”

Let’s look at these three terms, quality, longevity, zero waste.

Quality

Investing in quality over quantity is something that will help our environment.  Look inside a garment before purchasing it.  At a young age, I remember my Mother buying me a dress when I took it home, I looked inside and saw the seams were already raveling.  I took the entire dress apart and re stitched all of the seams including finishing the seams so they wouldn’t ravel.  That was about 50 years ago!

TIP: seams need to be finished to prevent raveling.

Longevity

Longevity, from Webster’s dictionary this means  “long existence”.  We are seeing a large trend in upscale recycling stores becoming at the forefront of retail.  This is because quality vintage items can withstand the test of time, in other words, have a long existence.  It pleases me that some of my clients still have pieces I’ve created decades ago.

TIP:  recycle your wardrobe by putting a piece in the back of your closet and bring it out a few years later. It becomes new to you again.

Zero Waste

“The Zero Waste philosophy attempts to encourage a lifestyle that ensures as many products and materials are reused, rather than ending up in landfills. The clue really is in the name – ‘zero waste’ means trying to prevent anything from ending up in landfill or incinerator. The overall goal is to keep materials in circulation for as long as is possible, by ensuring numerous valuable lifecycles. Instead of discarding resources, the aim is to create a system whereby all of them are able to be reused again.”  (excerpt taken from google)

This is a large scale term for many items-plastic bottles for instance. However,  for the clothing business it means repurposing fabrics.

Repurposing fabrics into new garments, or new accessories has been a goal for my brand, using zero waste.

Here is an example of one of many pieces that I have used slow fashion in my designs.  I had the fabric in my stash for a few years as it was on the end of a roll.    I came up with this design for the ‘leftover’ fabric.  I didn’t quite have enough so I recreated the pattern design to include the yoke at the front of the garment to make it work. The creative juices produced a new design based on  zero waste.  The hand stitching slows me down, keeps me accountable in order to give you a unique piece that only you will have, a one of a kind!

Teodora Pogonat Photographer

See and purchase this piece in my new shop page here.

Thank you for the following, 2021 will start out as a continuing challenge, I am grateful for your ongoing support as we all filter through how to maintain calmness in the middle of a panemdic.  If you have any topics you would like me to address, please leave them in the comments below.

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