- - - A Little Bit of Introduction - - - (Who Am I)

      Hey there! Since it's the first blog post, as usual, just like the first week of college (what i'm experiencing now) we are going to have an (/ ' u ')/ -INTRODUCTION SESSION- \(' u '\) .
Hope it gets interesting, but I don't guarantee that it'll be, cause i'm kind of a boring person (/ . \) but i'll try my best! Yeah!

Photo Source

      Alright so first of all, hi! My name is Cheah Wan Hui, Melanie (Yes, I have that comma in my nameeee). You can call me Melanie but I do have a bunch of nicknames like Mel, Miaolani, Miao, Melon, Melani, and sooo many more! I'm a Scorpio and officially turning 18 this year on 12th November (I love birthday celebrations because I loveee cakes, especially creams, yum-yumm).

I personally thinks that personality traits based on horoscopes are quite true sometimes but not all of them, everyone is unique and have their own characteristic, strength and weaknesses. Next, I'm a Malaysian (#KitaAnakMalaysia) and I love Malaysia, but there's been so many things going on and i'm concern of our country's future. Alright back to the topic! So I have two siblings, an elder sister and elder brother so i'm the youngest the family (peace ^-^v). My favourite colour is white but I also love pastel colours (which gives you that soft, sweet and cuddly feeling). In addition, I prefer vegetables over meat, hwee!

     One of my hobby is to watch dramas. They just bring you out of the cruel and realistic world. Almost everything in the story line of the drama is perfect, even if they don't they would still have a happy ending (Yayyyy <3).

I loveeee making things by hand. The reason that I love handicraft or making things by myself is that I like the way where things are customized and it's the one and only in the world. Customizing brings out your own style because you get to choose what you like. The process might take a lot of time and you might just get upset during the process when unfavorable things happen and as beginners you don't always get perfect results in one try. But it's worth it when you get to see the final product and tell the world you made them! It also feels good when someone loves what you made specially customized for them too.

I found my interest in making handmade items when it all started with making gifts and presents for special occasions like birthdays, mothers' day, fathers' day and other celebrations. I made cards(like every other kids) at first then moving on to origami and making 3D gifts out of papers, straws and anything that I could get as a kid. I remember once when I was young and I use to like anime, I made paper accessories based on the anime characters that i liked.

After that, I started playing with ribbons and started to hand sew a little, and made hand accessories and also hairbands. Later, I started hand sew key chains using felt. Months later, I attended a sewing workshop, and my mum bought me a home sewing machine on my 16th birthday! (Thankyou so much mummy) After that I attended more and different handicraft workshops which includes book binding and crochet. 

Recently, I just started sewing clothes (skirts actually) and i made a lot of mistakes and spent most of the time watching tutorials, looking up  for answers on the internet when something goes wrong, trying out different stitches or technique, and also taking out stitches(the most frequent, time consuming, painful and tiring of the whole garment making process). Now, I'm getting to college and start my journey to be a fashion designer, which I'm still slightly unclear of the distinctive path that I might be going in the future but I'm clear that it'll be tough. However, I will preserve and not give up! (Go Mel !)

A summary of my long and blabber texts about my interest in handicraft/ making handmade items. 

     Why Fashion Design? Being a pure-science student, I get asked a lot about why did I choose fashion when I have other profession to choose which might be better in certain aspects. I was exposed to arts in a formal way at the age of six where I was sent to attend art classes at an art learning centre. Actually my parents sent me to both art and mental arithmetic classes but I chose to stay on to art only when i got older as I found myself having more interest in arts. Since then I was given a lot of opportunity to participate in art competitions and getting placings in competitions gave me a lot of confidences and it motivates me to continue in arts. Motivations that i receive from people around me also played an important role in shaping my interest towards art. So I was sure that I wanted to pursue my dream in art and design. 

Furthermore, the main reason that I decided to go for fashion design is, firstly, it's my interest making things by hand as mentioned in the previous paragraph. (you can refer to my Handmade Journey a.k.a Pre-Fashion Design Journey which states how did my interest in handicraft eventually developed into having the thought of going for fashion design) I really enjoy the feeling when I get to wear/use something I made besides seeing people receiving my handmade gifts with a beautiful smile on their face. So, I would really like to get close to clients or customers to help them design or look for outfits and give consultation on outfits that are suitable for their body shape, proportions, size and height while still keeping their own style. I have another goal which is to design outfits that are suitable for petite and small size people(because I understand the struggle to find clothes that fit us)! One day, I hope I could showcase my designs on the runway and see people wearing clothes that I've designed on the streets.

Photo Source

Secondly, I would like to offer affordable/reasonable fashion. I came from a average income family and I was educated to save as much as you can. So I understand people who are not very wealthy and hope that they could afford something trendy and something that fits them well with affordable/reasonable price and reasonable quality (especially teenage girls and college students! Right girls? $$) . However, I'm not sure whether I'm able to practice this in the future when I enter the industry and survive at the same time. In addition, while offering affordable fashion doesn't mean that I have to exploit other people to cut down cost. Everyone in the world are as valuable as you are (Here's a link of a video that is related to this global issue and we should let more people be aware about it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxpDfoz_wpY  ) But I still have a long way to go to learn about the marketing, and how it all works in the industry.

On the other side, I'm also interested in textiles and would like to learn more about fabrics and textiles. I'm also very curious and excited about learning the whole process of making a garment so that, by having the basic skills, I could explore more and generate something new. There is so much to learn in fashion that you can never stop learning.

Unlike most of the people, that are inspired by a particular designer and eventually wanted to be in fashion, I haven't found a designer that I really look up to yet, because I'm still very new to fashion, trends and I don't really know brands and names of fashion designers. But I'm sure one day, as I learn more about other brands and designers around the world, and finally got inspired by someone. Right now, the motivation that keep things moving is basically, my dream.

Photo Source

Sometimes, I visualize myself, having my own brand, my own boutique, talking to customers that loves my designs, gaining support from them and everyone could afford to wear my designs.

Alright that's all for the first post! I know it's lots of words but I hope you enjoyed reading! I also learnt a lot about myself while writing this, it made me think a little and asking myself repeatedly "when it all started ?". 

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!