made to fit...

literally "Made to Fit"

2010-06-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

so I made my first sale on etsy today!~ i have a skirt collection that I sell on www.designsforme.etsy.com and it's made to fit your specific measurements that you request! So my first client bought this khaki skirt "made to fit" her measurements! Thank you for your purchase!

Fall 2011 Jeny Lee Bridal Collection

2010-06-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

Up until now I have been working with private clients and making custom made wedding dresses. But now I am ready to officially announce the start of Fall 2011 Jeny Lee Bridal Collection. I am aiming to make a collection of about 10 to 15 looks to showcase for market and trunk shows. Please be on the lookout!~~ and wish me luck!!~

Cupcakes!!~

2010-06-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

I recently threw a bridal shower for my cousin at a restaurant called "ALEO" in the Flatiron district in NYC. The service was amazing and food was great! I actually didn't expect much as I've never really been there to eat but the reaction from all the guests were positive and I was extremely pleased with their service and food! But most importantly, my cousin loved it!

Now to the important part, the DESSERT!~ My cousin absolutely LOVES cupcakes!~ She loves sweets period. BUT, she is IN LOVE with cupcakes!~ So to make the ending of the shower a bit more sweet, we arranged to have cupcakes made for her in her favorite color, PINK! She loves everything PINK. So we went with pink frostings with her favorite flavors, red velvet and chocolate cupcakes. They were so delicate and beautiful that all the guests didn't want to bite into them. They all said it was too beautiful to ruin!~ But alas, who can resist the sweet joy of biting into a delicate cupcake!~

What does a bride REALLY want and need?

2010-06-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been questioning what goes into purchasing the perfect dress? What really goes on in the bride's mind? As a bride, what is it that you look for in a dress? What matters the most to you when looking for a dress? If you've been dress shopping, what lacks in the wedding dress department or industry that you can't seem to find? What do you need in a dress? What do you want in a dress? Ultimately, what will win you over to say "YES" to the dress?

something my sister wrote

2010-05-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

I speak, read, write, and understand Korean. But all (well...mostly) my thoughts and dreams are in English. Although I joke about those lazy Americans, fat Americans.....my self proclamation as a Korean- American is very much leaning towards the American side. I am an American. Mostly.

When I come home to visit my parents, we have hour long drives on our way to my parent's grocery store (yes....very very typically korean). One hour in the morning, one hour in the evening. I'm one of those kids that could talk to my parents forever. But my parents get very passionate, and I very exasperated, on one topic. Korean pride. When they start talking about Korea, my asinine brain sifts through images of red communistic flags. NO. We're not North Korean but that's how ardent their nationalistic pride is. They could go for hours on how smart Koreans are, how passionate, how clever, how hard working, how resilient. The only thought in my immature brain, however, is, "well...that's too bad because we live in America."

But this morning, I was told a different story. Let me share this with you:

There was a mother, a grandmother now...and her sons and their families came to visit her for the holidays. They were having chicken and korean bbq. Celebrating something, I suppose. Or perhaps not...Korea is now wealthy enough to enjoy meat if one so pleases. As the dishes were being passed around, the dutiful daughter in law began putting pieces of meat on the grandmother's plate only to be stopped by her husband. "Sweetheart, my mother doesn't like the meat. She always eats the bones."

His mother set her chopsticks down. She looked up at her children and asked, "How many of you don't like the meat and just the bones? Tell me...after all, you are my children. Surely one of you must take after me."

She didn't like eating bones. Have any of you TRIED korean bbq?? I'm not saying this because I'm korean. I'm saying it as someone who loves loves loves food. Korean BBQ is dope. But when she was raising her children, Korea wasn't as affluent as it is now. Whenever she could feed her children, she gave them everything she could. The meat, the juiciest bones, everything with any nutrients. Once her children, husband, and parents in law had been taken care of, she would eat whatever was left over and tell her children, "It's OK. Mommy only likes this stuff."

That was Korea...not 50 years ago...no..not 30. Because that's the Korea my dad remembers. After all, that's why he chose to come to America. He chose to come to a country where he could not speak the language, he could not read its letters, he could not understand the racist comments those in the Bronx would yell at him. That isn't to say, however, that he couldn't feel the hate and belittling. He chose to come because that's how hopeless Korea seemed at the time. Poverty stricken, post- war, and Koreans had far less education at their disposal than they have today.

My dad had a furniture store in the Bronx (right by Fordham where I ended up getting my Bachelor's degree) when I was a little girl. I must have been six or seven. A drunk man came in and tried to buy furniture from my dad and, of course, my dad refused and asked him to leave the store. I was hiding behind my mother's skirt because my dad was raising his voice. The man spit on the floor, called my father a stupid chink, and stormed out. To me, that was a first experience. To my father, that was an everyday occurrence.

And still, they preferred this country. Because Korea was such a despondent place. That grandmother's story was the story of every Korean woman up until the 70s, probably even 80s. Korea was lost. The peninsula's entire existence since its inception was for its survival. It's such a small small country, yet so coveted by all the powers. China, Japan, even the Westerners wanted to infiltrate.

It survived though. Today, in 2010, Korea's GNP has finally surpassed that of Japan's. North Korea's attack on its Southern brother has called for an international investigation because South Korea is now a pivotal part of worldwide affairs. South Korea's technology in just about everything has far surpassed America's, in fact....most of the world's. When my father would tell people, "Oh I'm Korean", no one had any idea what he was talking about. Today, everybody recognizes the country (I personally think mostly because of the bbq but that's not the point).

My parents' pride....makes so much more sense to me now. I always recognized how much they suffered in raising us. No. I recognized how much they suffered because they raised us in this foreign, strange country in which they were aliens for so long and we were simply born into with automatic privilege. But the Korea that I've known and heard about, in my 24 years of living, was always a forward moving country. Colleges were being set up, cars were being produced, phones were being engineered. I can only imagine what's going through my parents' minds today. 30 years in this strange country. 30 years away from the country they used to call home. As their children, we only see half of the sacrifice they've made for us. Their talking to us about Korea and their seemingly overt pride...we dismiss it so easily with a simple roll of our eyes...

But we're not listening. This peninsula with its petite mountains, lushly green hills, and the ever expansive sea...is now a country they don't recognize. The mountains are overrun with highways and skyline buildings. Overpopulated cities with each citizen carrying 4G network smartphones. So...essentially...they really no longer have a home. Where in this world do they belong? Their home is in the children they gave up everything for. They absolutely need for us to understand where it is they come from. Where it is we come from. Because they too, have now lost it. Yes, we are Americans. But we were also raised by these people who will never really ever be Americans. We owe it to them to at least try to understand their pride in their country. We may be Americans. But we still look Korean.

My mother made it a point to take prom pictures with my brother and my sister when they were in high school. It kills her pride that she cannot communicate easily with the rest of the parents. It hurts her heart even more to see those parents speak with herchildren as though they are best friends. She sits quietly in a corner or stands off to the side. My mother is quite beautiful, you know. So you see this beautiful Asian woman looking at her almost grown up child so at ease in this American world. A world she's clearly not at ease with. No one else can see the years of pain and sacrifice, humiliation and desperation. And the loss. Her world and her children's world....are..for lack of a better word, worlds apart.

Now I understand why my parents love to speak about Korea. They want us to remember.

Bridesmaids CAN have style too!~~

2009-10-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

So it seems the bridesmaids these days are given more options and choices as to silhouette and color choices for their bridesmaids dresses. From my personal experience I loved that we were given the option of what length we wanted, and thankfully the bride opted for a classic silhouette. A strapless 50's inspired dress. The bridesmaids were of all heights and sizes, but the simple classic silhouette flattered all our different figures. And the design itself was a play on the bride's dress so all the bridesmaids dresses complimented the bride rather than take away. In short, it was a very cohesively designed bridal party.

Now if all brides were to give their bridesmaids options on what suited their figure best we'd have a happier bridal party. I mean, I know that this day is about the bride, but is it so wrong to give the bridesmaids options? They have their personal style, and I'm sure they know what suits their figure best. I find it visually appealing when all bridesmaids are in the same color (bride's choice of course), but each bridesmaid has a different silhouette that suits their figure.

Cheap w/poor quality? or Spend slightly over budget with couture quality?

2009-10-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

So, my first question to all my clients is always, "What is your budget for your wedding dress?" It seems that everyone, including myself, is always looking for a great deal!~ And who can blame them? I'm always trying to look for a bargain!~ But the truth of the matter is, making a custom designed wedding dress that is catered to your taste level and fitted and re-fitted to fit your body mold, it can get pricey. But the difference b/t store bought and custom made is quite significant. Store bought is generic, and can fit but not perfectly, therefore having to pay extra (at some places) to have it taken in. Where as custom made, all the fittings, your choice of fabrication, little details only you can decide on are all included. So my question i guess is, as a bride, what would you rather have? Would you be willing to pay slightly over budget to get that wedding dress of your dreams?

change.....

2009-10-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

Does every little girl dream of their wedding day? I assume that most, if not all, little girls dream of what their wedding day would be like, and that would include what kind of dress they would be wearing walking down the aisle holding their father's hand. I myself, as a little girl, always dreamed of walking down the aisle wearing some form of a fabulous dress. A ball gown indeed was what I had dreamed of, but who knew I wouldn't grow tall enough to pull off a ball gown?!~ But as I got older and began to explore my personal style and started to realize what my dreams were in life, my belief of what a wedding dress should look like changed. In high school, as my heart drew closer to coming to the decision of becoming a bridal designer, I thought to myself "why are wedding dresses white." I had nothing against it, just curious. So I did a little research.

The western tradition of wearing white on your wedding day started in the Victorian era, and the trend was started by Queen Victoria. Traditionally, before Queen Victoria decided to wear white to her wedding, most brides wore the brightest color or what they thought to be their most expensive dress. Pretty much what we would think today, in our time, to be our best out-fits to make that one and only first great impression, that is what they wore. There was no real "special" dress to wear for that day per se. Just something better than what they had in their closet that can be worn again later on.

So after doing much research I decided to make a wedding dress for my fashion show in high school. But in color. Of course I had to add a white one but I decided to opt for a green as well with a hand painted hem (hideous if you ask me now, but my mother still keeps it for memory's sake). And now, as a designer, my thoughts of bringing old tradition back constantly roams my head, and of course in the most stylish of ways. I can't help but wonder, what if a modern bride today wore something that can be worn again? Say.. to a cocktail party or dinner party or just a girl's night out.

The idea of using color on a wedding dress can be daunting, I can't say i'm the biggest fan of that tradition yet as I love the soft creamy white that a bride wears on her special day. But the idea of bringing back the tradition of wearing it again even after the wedding day, just makes sense in my head.

Just like how tradition has changed over the many centuries, my thoughts of what I had wanted as my wedding dress and the kind of wedding dresses I wanted to design has changed. Not only from a designer's point of view, but also from a point of view as a girl who is looking for that perfect dress.

simplicity. is that a NO NO for a bride?

2009-10-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

I often wonder, as a designer, what it would be like to transfer runway looks to the bride walking down the aisle. I've been thinking a lot lately about how chic and edgy it would be for a bride to wear a sleek ivory sheath dress with maybe a touch of lace and a simple veil. How about a well fitting white pencil skirt with a soft flowy top with a touch of feathers and a short lace veil? Or a soft flirty chiffon skirt with a cute lace button down top? Or for a beach summer wedding what about a pair of crepe de chine ivory shorts with an embroidered silk charmeuse scoop neck tank top? Does this sound all too casual? It just seems more practical, especially in this economy, and of course extremely stylish. Every woman has a certain style that no other person can imitate, and on your wedding day that style that only you can carry shouldn't be eliminated, it should be highlighted. I realize that every bride wants to feel like a princess on their wedding day and rightfully so. But I think the younger generation of brides can still pull this off without wearing the traditional ball gown. Our generation has been given the freedom to dare to be ourselves. The new 'tradition' is now within our hands. We create our own definitions of tradition. In other words, those ivory shorts with the embroidered silk charmeuse scoop neck tank top? If I so choose it to be my 'wedding gown', I have created my own wedding tradition. I care not what generations past have worn or planned or envisioned....Since this wedding is all about me, every little detail will be catered to however I imagine it.

Of course, this is just MY point of view as a designer. My most important contribution is to create a bride's dream into a reality - be it a ball gown or a runway wedding.

wedding dresses

2009-10-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Why is it that most (not all), but most brides feel the need to wear a really big ball gown that is sooo unflattering on them? The wrong silhouette on the wrong body type. Must you wear a long gown that swallows you up and wraps itself around you so you can't walk? Must it be a ball gown that's wearing you instead of vice versa? Must it be 10 miles long? I understand the bride wants to stand out and look beautiful and wear a dress that you probably won't ever get to wear, but honestly, in this day in age you can stand out and look great without sacrificing your personal style! If you're short, that marshmallow ball gown ain't gonna look so hot on you~ Case in point, know your body type, know what silhouette suits you best and stick with it. I find that the best way to get to know your body and find the best silhouette is to shop around first. 1) Go to all the wedding boutiques you can and try on as many different silhouettes as possible. Don't feel guilty trying on soo many dresses because most of the time the sales people are more than willing to help you. 2) Once you find that perfect silhouette, stick with it. Then the second round of trying on dresses is for the design elements. Since you have a silhouette in mind it'll be soo much easier to try on dresses. Now the focus this time is on fabrication and design. 3) With that in mind think of necklines, sleeves or no sleeves, straps or strapless, flowy or fitted, soft or structured. The detailed design elements is where you start to make it your own. Once you've figured out those minor but crucial details you'll be that much closer to finding your dream dress!~ Good luck ladies!~