Brigitte Rediscovered

A few old film shots of model Brigitte Zozula behind the scenes of our fashion film shoot at Milstein Hall at Cornell University. Check out the fashion film here. Clothes from Petrune. 

Images © Mathea Millman 2012. 

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Shoot with David

The day after I got home from NYC my friend David and I went over to Cornell to hang out and do some shooting. Here are a few pictures from the day.

I call this last one 'Afternoon With a Faun' ;-)

All images copyright Mathea Millman.

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New Shoot With David

Inspiration for my next shoot with my friend David. The preppy look is inspired by living on the upper east side for these past two months and I think Cornell will be the perfect location:

Above image is David. Copyright Mathea Millman.

Above 5 images Nico Krull photographed by William Lords.

Images taken from thefashionisto.com

Above three images model Gordon Bothe for Corneliani Fall 2010 Lookbook

Images taken from thefashioniso.com

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Post Secret & Cornell

Post Secret according to Wikipedia is:

"an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits."

The blog site is updated every Sunday with new postcards and new secrets and serves as a suicide prevention and awareness site as well. At the bottom of the secrets for this Sunday there was an interesting exchange between a reader and Frank about the suicides at Cornell. I went to see Frank speak two years ago at Cornell and I vaguely remember what the woman was talking about in her comment.

This is the exchange posted by Frank on the post secret website:

Dear Frank

I thought about sending a postcard but wanted to share a story without anonymity. I'm a senior at Cornell University and at your PostSecret Event here two years ago, I shared the following secret: "My main motivation for applying to the PhD program in Clinical Psychology was to honor the memory of my three cousins who took their lives by acquiring the training to help alleviate the despair of others."

Recently I received an offer of admission to the USUHS in Bethesda, Maryland where I will be joining the Suicide Behavior and Prevention Laboratory. As soon as I received that offer, I remembered the secret I shared with the audience that night and how deeply meaningful it will be to follow through.

It makes me smile to know I'll be moving so close to where all the secrets are sent and being only a few miles away from someone breaking down barriers in the mental health field in a way science has yet to discover.

-Jen Bakalar



-----Response-----

I still have good memories of the Cornell PostSecret Event in 2008. And being a basketball fan I enjoyed watching Cornell's team go deep in the NCAAs last week. But I've also been distressed to see the lopsided media coverage of student basketball compared to the half dozen student suicides at Cornell this year.

According to Yahoo, 7,573 news stories were written about Cornell Basketball in the past 30 days. During that same period, only 275 stories were written about the six Cornell students who took their own lives.

Suicide is a secret that we collectively keep from ourselves. But if we can find the courage to tell the painful stories, together, we can take the actions that will bring help and hope to those of us who suffer in silence.

This year over 1,000 college students will kill themselves. March is the month with the highest rate of suicides. Here are five ways you can fight back today.

Take a look at the secrets on the blog and you will find this exchange at the end of the secrets for this week.

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Collaboration with Cornell

A little while ago I was approached by a grad student in the Fiber Science and Apparel Design department at Cornell University to help photograph garments and collaborate on a movie for her thesis. We met once to talk about what she wanted to accomplish for her thesis and the second time we met I went to Cornell to see where she works and what equipment she works with.

I have never really been interested in apparel design and that aspect of the fashion industry. Aside from watching Project Runway reruns and making a pair of pj pants (when I was in 5th grade), I had never even thought about it. What was great about going to Cornell was that it opened my eyes to aspects of design that I had never heard of.

My friend at Cornell is interested in the technical aspect of apparel design. I had always thought that designers sketched preliminary designs for their garments by hand; that is the only part that is shown on TV. I was able to see the design spaces at Cornell which were more or less like I expected them to be. There were big tables to lay out fabric, mannequins and body form stands (I'm pretty sure this is what they were called. They were like mannequins but just a cloth bust used for tailoring). There were collections of old fashion magazines all over the tables of the rooms and thrown on chairs, shelves, and stuck in corners. It was definitely a place I would want to hang out.

From there I was shown into a special room that was home to the 3-D body scanner. This is one of the most interesting things that I was able to see and learn about. Technology is becoming an important part of the fashion design industry. Designers still sketch by hand but there are many aspects of the process that make more sense to do on a computer. The body scanner is being incorporated into the design and the construction of the garments. The scanner consists of four poles that make a square. On each pole is a different scanner or camera that takes an image of the subjects body. The scanners overlap so that all 360 degrees of the person's body are recorded. The end result of the scan is a 360 degree view of the body. This scan is then imported into a special design software that can specifically and accurately measure the body dimensions. Pattern and different designs can be manipulated in this software so that the designers can predict what a specific garment would look like before they invest their time and craft into producing the garment.

My friend helped me out and showed me what the machine did by using me as an example. Usually when designers use this machine they make their models wear skin tight clothes so that no part of the body is concealed. This makes some people uncomfortable but I would have gladly done that if someone wanted to make a garment that would fit me. You can check out my scan below. I didn't get all fancy with it (it was just a test to show me what it is like) so I was scanned with the clothes I was wearing that day.

If you are interested in any more information I would recommend checking out the department website:

http://www.human.cornell.edu/fsad/

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Shoot Two

Sophie, Ryan, Gabe:

Start by lake & Sophie's house/dock. Photograph on dock as 3 friends. Sophie in bigger more masculine clothing to "fit in" with the guys. Playful and friendly. Part 2. Cornell. Action shots around Cornell focusing on linear architecture and solidity and contrast with loose and flowing action and movement poses.

By lake: S-hood? Masculine

C/U of parts of clothes, hemlines, accessories

Loose teased hair as if S doesn't care. Just playing with the boys.

S- teased hair and masculine/beautiful pose
Rain boots
G & R - @ Cornell playing, jumping, climbing all over steps & buildings

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Cornell Shoot Film Stills

My friend Julie is helping me out with my final film project and of course I couldn't do a film shoot without taking stills as well. Here are some stills from the shoot:

Listening to: Hometown Glory by Adele

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