Andrea Pelletier - Clothing Designer

Andrea Pelletier was one of the designers for the Red Dress Gala & Fashion Show '13. She has a very unique eye for fashion, and I'm proud to say she was the designer of the red dress I wore that evening. The bright colours and eye catching patterns she chooses to work with bring her designs to life and stand out among the mass market.

Alanna Tinsley-Roy - Fashion Designer

Part of planning my Red Dress Gala included making video profiles of the designers who contributed some of their pieces to the fashion show. Part of the reason I wanted to take on this event as my end of the year project is because I knew there would be a lot of opportunity to use the skills I learned and harnessed through journalism, advertising, and media production. I didn't have any video production skills going into CreComm, and it was something I quickly fell in love with.

Below is a video I shot and edited of recent MC College graduate, Alanna Tinsley-Roy, one of five designers who took part in the Red Dress Gala.

Winnipeg's Finest

October 15th - Episode 2: Photographer, Charmaine Mallari

Charmaine is a Winnipeg photographer who is fairly well known throughout the community. She has a strong passion for fashion photography and has worked with a large number of local

designers who are always impressed with her work. Her love of photography started when she was really young and just beginning to learn the ins and outs of a camera. Charmaine's business name, TRUE CHARISMA PHOTOGRAPHY, is reflection of how others have seen her throughout her life, and is a description she aspires to live up to everyday.

I introduce you to one of Winnipeg's Finest, Charmaine Mallari!

• Podcast Now Available

Winnipeg's Finest

October 1st - Episode 1: Fashion Designer, Dee Karpa

Dee Karpa is a 24 year old local fashion designer. She moved to Winnipeg from Croatia when she was a little girl, and began her fashion journey when she was in high school. Her designs are inspired by the image of a powerful woman, and include a lot of dresses and business attire. Her upcoming events include her participation in the Red Dress Gala & Fashion Show, as well a White Project created to detach the stigma that is often linked to people with mental illnesses.

I introduce you to one of Winnipeg's Finest, Dee Karpa!
http://radio.rrc.ca/?p=168

Winnipeg's Finest

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve decided to host my own talk show on Red River Radio. 

Winnipeg’s Finest

Winnipeg’s Finest gives you the opportunity to get to know the different and interesting folks who walk the streets of Winnipeg. Our talk show has a variety of guests from fashion designers, to photographers, to young entrepreneurs. There`s a lot of talented people in this world to get to know, so why not start with the people in your own backyard?

Winnipeg’s Finest will be streaming live every Monday from 5PM-5:30PM, on radio.rrc.ca, starting October 1^st. For those of you with iPhones, soon you will be able to stream all Red River Radio shows directly to your phone! Be sure to visit the website for more details. 

October 1st Guest: Dee Karpa - Fashion Designer from Croatia!

Red Dress Gala & Fashion Show

As you know, I’m in the process of organizing a Red Dress Gala & Fashion Show, being held Wednesday February 13, 2013. I’m organizing the event as part of an individual professional project (IPP), with the proceeds going towards the Heart and Stroke Foundation. 

With such a big event comes a million tasks and responsibilities. This is the first time I’ll be creating something major with all of my own ideas, and a final say on how the outcome is to translate. Although this gala is going to consume the majority of my time, energy, and creativity for the next six months, I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to ride this roller coaster. 

Over the next few months you’re likely to be hit with Facebook updates, tweets, and more blog posts about the gala along with tips and tidbits about the importance of taking care of your heart and overall health. Don’t hesitate to join in any conversations, voice your questions, or concerns, or to even make any suggestions about the kinds of promotions you’d expect to see with such an event. I can’t emphasize enough how much of a learning experience this gala is going to be for me, and I’m sure having your input can only benefit me along the way. 

Looking for other ways to keep yourselves up to date with the gala, along with workout tips, recipes, and all sorts of surprises?  Here’s how to find it…

Twitter: @RedDressGala13 (follow)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RedDressGala2013 (like)

Event Blog: http://reddressevent.blogspot.ca/  (follow)

Email: charmainejennings@hotmail.com

P.S. I’m still on the lookout for one or two more event committee members. Send me an email or comment below, for more information.

Take Care of Your Heart 

Best Dressed Male & Female of the 2012 CCMAs

Last night was the Creative Communications Media Awards, and I extend big CONGRATULATIONS to all the first and second year award recipients. I’m especially proud of the cute and quirky Kyle Jahns who won the Good Guy (or Gal) award, as it was well deserved. If anyone else had won, there would’ve been a definite uproar I’m sure. 

I would like to give out an award for the Best Dressed Male & Female CreComm student of the evening. The best dressed male was a first year student, soon to be a valuable member of the advertising field. He wore a swanky medium-grey suit, with a black dress shirt underneath. The lack of tie didn’t hurt the ensemble; in fact, it made it look better...chic and casual I’d say. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the strapping young gentleman...but most of you probably saw him last night.

The award for Best Dressed Male goes to....

KELLY MCGUINNESS! 

*Kelly also won best print ad for his Big Rock beer ad. Good job!

The award Best Dressed Female also goes to a first year student. Heads turned as she walked into the room, struttin’ her stuff in a sexy but modest, orange laced dress. Not everyone can pull of orange, but this brown-haired beauty did it flawlessly as the compliments continued to flow her way throughout the evening. 

The award for Best Dressed Female goes to.....

 LAINA HUGHES

 *Laina and myself shall be partners in crime as we tackle the life of PR students, next year!

Runner-up for Best Dressed Female is Chantal Verrier, who sported a sexy black dress, which had one strap going across the chest, and two going across the back. Her ensemble was completed with a beautiful silver necklace that was surely one of the main focal points of the evening. Absolutely stunning!

Looking forward to the Glitz N’ Glam the 2013 CCMAs will bring out next year. It will be the 10^th anniversary of the event, and I’m sure Josh and Liz have tons of goodies planned!

CreComm Assignments Page

From time to time instructors ask us to blog and specified topics, some of which I put on my designated "Crecomm Assignments" page. Since there's only two days left of CreComm, I figured I'd delete the page for the summer. Besides, I only have two assignments on there anyway, and now...I have them below.

Enjoy!

Journey for Justice 

March 30, 2012

I thought it was really smart to start the story right on the day Candace disappeared. It may seem tempting to starts with some family history or information about the city, but Mike McIntyre made the right decision on how to start. It is an engaging read right from the beginning, which lead me to keep reading.

His intro started with Mark Grant being interviewed as someone seemingly getting back on track with his life, and ended with letting the readers know that Grant was Candace’s murderer. This may seem unusual but because it is a true crime novel and not a work of fiction, conducting the intro this way made sense.

There were too many doctor reports towards the middle of the novel. This slowed down the engagement of the story and was hard to get through. From what I gathered, most of the doctors had said pretty much the same thing; Grant is likely to re-offend.

As a journalist it is important to remember that when you’re writing an article, you’re writing a story. McIntrye’s book wasn’t filled with fluff, but with facts and strong quotes, but he still managed to tie everything together to make things flow rather than sounding like a long list of facts.

I was not impressed with how the presentation went. McIntyre started off the seminar by talking about his role in this book, and other book’s he’s written previously, which was fine. However, he talked for the first 30minutes. Then he finally turned it over to Wilma Derksen, who I was more interested in listening too. She talked for 12 minutes then McIntrye cut her off and told her it was time for us to ask questions, but then he did one last rant about himself. Not cool!

 

Fall 2011

Bloggin' Love

Skepticism

I never really thought that I would become a blogger. I used to read a few blogs years ago, but was always bored with the content. From what I saw, people mostly used their blogs to complain about all the terrible things that happen to them in their life. You know, waiting in line at Tim Horton’s for more than 10 minutes, being cut off in traffic, the cold winter weather that always seems to surprise Winnipeggers when it approaches; such horrible things that they can’t wait to get on a computer and blog about. To me, most people seemed to use their blogs as their journal and unfortunately the ones I read, weren’t very interesting. And so, I didn’t want to become one of those who bored people with the mundane details of my life; who cares right?  I felt the same way about Facebook. I didn’t see the point or the excitement of updating your status every few minutes outlining details of your day that nobody wants to read.  

Conversion

Of course, I gave into Facebook a couple of years ago. I don’t update my status 11 times a day like a lot of people do, but it does have its uses and entertainment value. But it wasn’t until I started CreComm this fall, that I started blogging. We were asked to pick a topic or a theme for our blog and as I’m sure you’ve noticed I picked the theme of starting my own clothing line. So far I’m having a lot of fun with it and learning a lot about fashion and the industry. I like having the chance to incorporate what I learn into my blog, so that other people with similar interests can learn new things as well, along with sharing some of their knowledge and experience with me.

For example, one of my fellow Crecommers and bloggers, Monique Pantel, commented on the pictures I posted about my design sketching attempts. She referred me to a website where I can print out outlines of people so I can just draw the clothing on them to make things easier. I haven’t tried it yet but I know it will definitely come in handy. Check out Monique Pantel's blog. If the link take you to a page with a beautiful blonde at the top, then you've arrived at the right place :D

It’s a really good feeling when people comment on your blog posts, because it lets you know that people are actually reading your blog, and are interested in what you’re writing. I’ve slacked off a little bit with posting, but hope that I will soon get back into the swing of things.

Sandbox Farewell Party

I have a strong tendency to blog about things that are looooooong over....but just because something is overdue, don’t make it less worthy of a Charmaine-friendly blog post. 

A few weeks ago my friends Kimiya, Lindsay, Maria, and I went to the final Sandbox magazine party. For those of you who don’t know, Sandbox in a local magazine about fashion and culture, and was started as a Creative Communications project at Red River College. They carried their magazine for two really successful years and have recently decided to call it quits. I’ve always wanted to go to one of their parties but it never seemed to be good timing for me, so I made sure I put time aside to go to their very last one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Let me tell you, it was a ton of fun. The room was packed with people who all shared a love of the magazine and its creators. There were drinks, dancing, live bands, singer/songwriter Flo, and so much excitement. Here are some pictures I took from the shindig. 

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Favourites

A lot of you probably watched the VS fashion show on Tuesday, or at least you should have. It was FANTABULOUS! The whole show was put together beautifully and had huge entertainment value, even if you aren't a Victoria's Secret shopper. Show performers included Maroon 5, Kanye West, Jay-z, and my ultime favourite, Nicki Minaj!

Fun Facts

• Over 300 pounds of glitter was used throughout the show
• Out of the 38 angels who walked the runway, 15 of them were brand new
• Lead singer of Maroon 5, Adam Levine, is currently dating one of the angels, Anna Vyalitsyna

Here were two of my favourite moments of the show:

I LOVE Nicki Minaj, and the whole Club Pink line was absolutely my favourite of the show! Most of the half sweaters were some of my favourite pieces, along with the half pink graffitied leather jacket.

I've liked Kanye West and Jay-Z separately, but wasn't sure if I'd like them together...I do. The song they're performing for the first time  is from their new Welcome to the Throne album. Kanye West also performed at the show last year.

I'm already anticipating how amazing the show will be in 2012!

Victoria's Secret Anticipation

The Annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show starts in 3 minutes....So excited :D

Louis Vuitton Fashion Show

I actually found a YouTube video of the spring collection fashion show if you would like to take a look. I LOOOOOVE every single purse and every single pair of shoes in the line. And I really like how the show was put together. Mind you the stage looks more like winter than it does spring, but hey, it looks good. The stage is so nice it almost makes me like the clothes...but not quite.

Kanye West Clothing Line

Kanye West debuted his new women's fashion line during Paris Fashion Week and apparently received a lot of criticism. I actually really like it. A lot of the pieces reveal a lot of clevage which I think is done in a sort of interesting way. There are a few pieces that I wasn't too fond of but overall, not too shabby.

Louis Vuitton 2012 Spring Collection

The Louis Vuitton spring collection seems to feature a lot of dresses that resemble doily patterns that I'm not the biggest fan of. What do you think?

I do really like the shoes and some of the handbags coming out. And the set of the runway the collection was presented on, was beautiful. Check out some other collection pieces and see what you think!