Meet The Man (and see his work) Behind Fergie's LEGO Dress.

If you've been on the internet or have seen the news this week, chances are you caught a glimpse of The Black Eyed Peas' Fergie and her fun LEGO dress worn during the 24th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Nickelodeon held last Saturday.




The heavily blogged about LEGO dress is a hoot, but hardly impressive when compared to other work by the same designer. The dress was created by Michael Schmidt Studios of Los Angeles and New York. You may not now his name, but you certainly know his work. He's been designing for musical legends like Tina Turner, Cher, Deborah Harry, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler and Grace Jones since the late 1980's. He was even nominated for an Emmy Award for Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program, "Cher... At The Mirage" in 1991.


above: Michael's chain maille and crystal designs for Cher and Tina Turner in 1986 and 1989.

More in demand than ever, Michael continues to design for today's popular entertainers like Madonna, Lady Gaga, Dita Von Teese, Rihanna, Brittany Spears and the Chrome Hearts brand. Often working with lots of Swarovski crystals, snake-like imagery and scales, corsets and chain maille, Michael produces sexy, body conscious clothes for concert tours, award shows and other appearances.



above: Michael Schmidt's designs for Lady Gaga, photos by David LaChapelle

Michael has also made several forays into the world of interior design. Projects include the installation of a massive bamboo 'Wave' construction at the restaurant Simon At The Palms, Palms Casino, Las Vegas. Another creation is a knotted rope curtain for the lobby of the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, CA, woven from more than a mile of white cotton rope. Past projects include designing the VIP rooms of the Palladium nightclub in NYC, featuring the installation of black leather floors upon which silver studs spelled out the lyrics to the classic Iggy Pop song 'Nightclubbing' in Braille.

His costume and accessory designs are nothing short of body sculpture and last year the PMCA (Pasadena Museum of California Arts) featured much of his work in their California Design Biennial: Action/Reaction exhibit.



above: Rihanna wears his denim-printed metal mesh shorts on the cover of last month's Rolling Stone


FERGIE
Working with stylists B. Ackerlund, Schmidt as also created other memorable outfits for Fergie. Hand-sewn snake scale and Swarovski studded body suits and boots for her 2010 appearance on American Idol Gives Back, chromed body armored catsuits, even a vacuum-formed and chromed corset:







MADONNA
Some of his pieces designed for Madonna's 2008-2009 world tour:





DITA VON TEESE
Designs for Dita Von Teese include Swarovski Crystals soldered onto aviator glasses and the Swarovski crystal-embellished outfit and accessories worn in her Opium Den show:






CHROME HEARTS
Michael has created sterling silver and diamond jewelry, accessories and mesh clothes for rock n' roll luxe brand Chrome Hearts:




Designer Michael Schmidt amongst a retrospective of his work at PMCA:

photos: Scott Nathan, Christopher Polk, Steve LaNasa, Steven Meisel, Laurie Stark, Mark Seliger and Shawn Smith
stylists: Arianne Phillips, B. Ackerlund


Michael Schmidt Studios

Hip Leggings & Sci-Fi Swimsuits From Black Milk.

above: The Helvetica leggings are just one of the many cool pieces of printed stretchy clothes from Black Milk.

Black Milk, a line of trendy fashions by James Lillis has been getting a lot of attention lately thanks to a post on Boing Boing which featured the fabulous Artoo and Threepio swimsuits and has resulted in a four week wait for both of the suits shown below.



But there's a lot more fabulous items in the collection- not just Star Wars-related clothes. While there's other fab space imagery, there's also some wicked rock n' roll, skulls, abstract patterns, union jacks, dollar bills, bones and other hip iconography printed on LYCRA in the form of swimsuits, leggings, shorts, catsuits, jackets and more.

Some of my fave swimsuits:
C Threepio Swimsuit:

Artoo Swimsuit (R2-D2):

Dark Side Swimsuit (Love the combination of the Pink Floyd album cover with Darth):

Galaxy Swimsuit:

Black Ribs Swimsuit:

Resurrection Swimsuit:

Sesame Street Pulp Fiction Swimsuit:

The Great Wave swimsuit (clearly inspired by Hiroshige) and Jaws swimsuit:

Black Skull and White Skull swimsuits:



Some of my fave leggings:

Helvetica Leggings:

Galaxy leggings (shown in black, also available in red):

Dreaming Desire leggings:

Leg Bones leggings:

Newsprint leggings:

Colored Comics leggings:

Black and White comics leggings:

Little Skulls leggings:

Dollar leggings:


Not all of the above suits and leggings are still in production, please check their online store for availability.





In James' own words:
At the beginning of 2009 I walked into a little sewing shop and bought two shiny new sewing machines. It was a slightly unusual sight - a shop full of older women making patchwork quilts for their grandkids... and me.

I didn't mind. It seemed very punk at the time.

My idea was fairly simple - I would teach myself to sew, buy some beautiful stretch fabrics, and make insane leggings. Then I would find girls who would get into them. Girls who wanted leggings that could pack a little more punch than the ones on offer at your average department store.

I made the leggings, found the girls, and so was born Black Milk.

Things were slow initially, but the girls who bought the leggings were always really positive, which was super-encouraging for me in the early days. The turning point came when I decided that I was going to figure out a way to wrap chains around a pair of leggings. It took me a week of drawing, sketching, scheming and failing before I finally figured out how to do it. I called them Cages, and they were a minor cult hit. From that time on, so many girls were ordering Black Milk gear that it became a full time job.

We've come a long way since those early days sewing leggings at midnight on the kitchen table. We've sold thousands of pairs of leggings all over the world. We've been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and blogs from the local paper to Vogue. Best of all, Black Milk has now got score a reputation as one of the most exciting designer leggings labels in the world.

But a lot is still the same. I still stay up to midnight sewing. I still personally design each piece. I still get a buzz every time a girl emails me a picture and tells me how many people commented when she wore out her Black Milk leggings.

Yeah, it's still fun.

xx
james Lillis


Shop Black Milk here.