Pretty Little Liars

I have been wanting to do a blog post about the show "Pretty Little Liars" for quite some time. I started watching this show by accident and as a 22 year old I feel a little silly getting caught up in ABC Family tv shows but just don't care. I LOVE this show. The show is based off of a book series by Sara Shepard and is all about the mystery of a group of friends in which, one of the five was mysteriously killed.
This show mostly caught my attention because of the great fashion you see in the show. All of the characters possess their own style but the one that catches my eye the most is that of Lucy Hale's character Aria Montgomery. There are many elements to her syle that i absolutely love, the layering, the dark colors, the silhouettes, the quirky-ness of it all. I just love her and can see so many of the looks in the show popping up on girls everywhere come this fall.

Fall, Come Faster

Anyone that follows, sorry for my lack of updating. I have been extremely busy with things in my life and have recently moved out of East Lansing because of my lack of 'real job' after graduation. On a plus note, I got to move into a lovely little house with one of my long time friends from like, 7th grade and am loving every second of it... even though I am still seriously in need of organizing and finishing unpacking. Anyways,with summer practically over, and my 12 years of school shopping being suppressed now that I have graduated. I can't help but pine over these looks from D&G's Fall RTW collection that seriously have me wanting to find my knitting needles in all of my boxes to re-create some of these looks with my own Jillian Twist!
I am just loving all of the chucky sweaters with the really flirty skirts. The mixing of textures and fabric weights is always a feature that I love to play with myself and I think that these are just so amazing and adorable. I love the resort-chic!

Summer Lovin'

After everything that has been happening so far this summer, I thought I would do a post on things that are currently keeping me happy.

"Glitter In the Air" by Pink



..Lakes..




Bonfires...



People holding hands...

Dear, Sweet Boy

This post is mostly for me, but maybe it can help anyone else who reads it...

Just recently, May 22, 2010; I lost someone very dear to me. Gregory Lankford was my friend and love for the last 6 years of my life and being recently 22 years old, that means so much. Although we were both incredibly stubborn and silly for the last few months I still love him with all of my being and could never forget the wonderful memories that we shared; there was always the hope that our future plans would fall together once more...




For those of you who have ever lost someone so close to you, I am so sorry. I have had many people die in my life but never anyone that I was this close to, no one that made it hurt this badly. This might be because this is the only person who left this life WAY before his time and the fact that his death was a tragic accident that could have been avoided makes it much worse.

Greg was a wonderful constant in my life for so long and we had so many dreams together, we were even engaged. The thought of him no longer being here to randomly call or text KILLS ME and I have been having such a hard time just being alone because the thoughts of him enter my mind every second it is open. The fact is, that Gregory died from improperly handling a gun whilst drinking, something that he used to do alot; but should have been told more how stupid this could be (though, if anyone knows him, they know he wouldn't listen). I saw him, saw his room; I just still can not bring myself to believe that the world is a little emptier, a little less beautiful because he is not in it.





























Greg was the biggest dreamer I knew, he saw beauty in the most common objects and in the most fascinating people. Greg had the heart of an artist. Greg had the most loving personality of anyone I have ever known and the most beautiful blue eyes you couldn't even believe were real. I will miss his "baby blues" as I so fondly called them when asking him to show them to me, and his wonderful smile that was so contagious; everyday of my life.

We went as Designers, Left as Coyotes

Tennessee... what will I do without you? Besides be happy forever?! What ever happened to 'southern hospitality'?? HUH? HUH?

So after the Red Carpet Green Dress adventure that I had (which was so wonderful and I am so not complaining about that in any way!!!) my class was invited to do a fashion show in Nashville. Suzy was so impressed by the submissions from MSU that we were invited to be the opening for Profetik's fashion show at the end of April.
We left MSU at 4am, were on a bus for 10 whole hours and finally arrived and were so excited! Only to be soon disappointed by the whole thing. We soon found out that we were basically there as free help and felt like such a joke.

Us unloading all of our dresses and mannequins into the
venue Note: most of these pics are taken by the wonderful Melissa Viloria Vongpunsawad

So we get there, have to set everything up, and are given absolutely no direction as to what we were supposed to be doing, where our models were(when we only had half the amount of models we needed) and then were treated quite rudely after all of this because it was apparently our fault they weren't telling us anything.

We had a silent auction before the show and that was really fun, the auction was to raise money for Suzy's school Muse (that the RCGD Competition was for as well) Suzy and Jim were there so I got to see them again and that was so wonderful when Suzy saw me and called me from across the room I just felt so cool!!!

Here is them and myself with my dress at the silent auction


Well whatever, we did the show (after no food or drink for 13 hours-they were supposed to supply it for us and did not.)
Our portion of the show went so beautifully and we were so proud of ourselves, especially after seeing the absolute failure that their show was... LETS JUST SAY, A HORSE POO-ED ON THE RUNWAY. THAT BASICALLY SUMS UP THE TRIP.

Here are a few images taken of my model on the runway she was only 16 and I loved her!:



And, Because its HILARIOUS that I had to model because they didn't supply us with enough (for your viewing pleasure):
Modeling for Melissa Viloria Vongpunsawad



My friend Katie Woods and myself, happy to be home, sad that its cold, rainy Michigan.

All in all, a great experience and the girls and I had a wonderful time the next night we were there... although-I wont be posting pictures as they might be a bit incriminating ;) (hugs and winks!)

xxo Jillian!

Alice, All Grown Up

I recently did a photoshoot with the talented Mason Robinson, who is a fellow MSU student. In the ATD (apparel and textile design) program we try and get with photography students so that they can get fashion photos for their portfolios and we can use the images in ours as well.

My model was my beautiful friend Leann who was also a model in the SADA show (pictures to come soon, HOPEFULLY -UGH-)

This dress was inspired by Alice in Wonderland and was used in a Sustainable Design Fashion Show that my class did in Nashville, TN back in April. (I'll post about that later, hopefully).

Here are a few images from the shoot, I also photo-shopped some images in order to suit my theme.





This is the image that I created, everything is a separate piece that was individually modified by me and then put into the image.

I hope you like it!! And maybe I will post more later!!!

xxo, Jillian

The Beginning of a New Era

It's official, after an extremely busy, hectic and otherwise psychologically damaging last semester, I have graduated. I am an official alum of Michigan State University. The ceremony was wonderful and my family came out to support.

I just can't believe that after four wonderful years of sewing, staying up all night, having fun and making wonderful memories with all of my friends it is coming to an end.

Currently, I am working on my online portfolio and sewing some projects to help broaden my skills. I have some great posts coming soon for you guys and will be updating on projects I am doing and showing some select images of garments that I have made and other projects that I am working super hard on!!

I am so excited for the next chapter of my life, as scary and it is!!! (super scared face!!!)

By the way, the photos above are of my family that came to see me graduate!! Note the awesome tape measure around my neck, all of the Apparel and Textile students wore these as a last little joke to the ceremony, it was sooooo cute! Also, you could tell who we were by just looking at all of our shoes! Clearly the best footwear in the room belonged to us!!!

Day Two of LA

Hey everyone!

I just got back to the hotel after a super long day of activities.
I know everyone is so enthusiastic about my trip so i am trying to update for you as much as i possibly can.

Here is a really great video of me at the fitting yesterday!!

http://bit.ly/a8Brh0
and the MSUToday Blog by Jim Peck:

http://msutoday.msu.edu/blog/

You can also always check out my twitter (jilliangranz) or my facebook for pics etc as all the the amazing people i am with are posting them!

Today i went on a tour of Muse Elementary and that was really great. I had such an awesome time and learned so much about the campus. The school is located in such a beautiful area and i wish that i could go to school and see that everyday! I really think that it is important to mention how amazing the kids at this school really are. They are so smart for their ages and i just can not believe how they are so cultural. The school actually interacts with its sister schools in New Zealand and Thailand and they know so much about the students in the other countries. Also, the way that the students are taught is so interesting because they actually get to interact with materials and see what they are and how they work (for example they were working with rocks ad taking them apart, smashing them, and finding out about them themselves instead of just being shown a picture and being told about it) this is so great to me and i am so amazed at how they are basically educating themselves.
After going to the school i realized how important this competition actually was. I did understand how important it was to raise money for these kids to go there but, now that i have seen the school and have seen what they do there and how inspiring it is i am even happier to be a part of it. I just can't believe all of the care and thought and love that has gone into creating this special place for these kids.

After the school kristen and i went exploring a bit and went down to the beach and to some shops down the street. This was a nice and MUCH NEEDED little break.

We had another dress fitting with Suzy today as well and it is coming along so nicely i can not wait for everyone to see it!

Thanks everyone!
P.s. sorry i can not post any pictures just yet, i am working on this and i hope i will be able to soon. it is just difficult because i am currently using the business center at the hotel to post and dont want to save anything to the computer(pictures of myself, suzy, the school, etc)

Jillian M.

me at deb scott's studio

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31024544&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=2360020&id=1432417306

First (real) Day in LA!

Hello everybody!

Sorry I have not been able to post at all on here since I started the blog but I felt like I should today.
Well Kristen and I arrived in LA yesterday afternoon and did fun touristy things all night. We went out to dinner with Mike, who is the head of our Communications Department for the College of Arts and Letters . After a huge dinner because we were starving we went around the Chinese Theater and looked at all of the stars and found our favorite poeple. Also, we went and were really dorky and put our hands in the celebrity's hands in the cement and of course like any girl I had to look for Marilyn Monroe and OUR HANDS ARE THE SAME SIZE! (very exciting i know).

Anyways, so that was yesterday.

Today we got up had a really niec breakfast at the hotel and went to do a fitting with Suzy. She is so nice, fun and SO down to earth its amazing. The dress is coming along and she looks absolutely beautiful in it, i can not wait until it is finished.

At the fitting Suzy invited me to sit in on a "think tank" where she invited local designers and others that are involved in sustainable fashion design to discuss how to make fashion more sustainable and get the word out to big name designers to try and start focusing on this important topic. The meeting went really well and i am so glad that she invited me. I learned so much and met some really great, inspirational people.

Tomorrow I will be going on a tour of Muse Elementary which is the school that Suzy and her sister, Rebecca founded. I am really excited to go and see what great work they are doing there.
http://museelementary.org/
After that i have another fitting hopefully alot more fun!
Tell you more soon!

Jillian M.