Jon Armstrong's Blog

Ironing techniques by professional craftsmen (shirt)

Written on March 9, 2010 at 2:53 pm, by admin

As much as I admire the ironing and the production in this video, don’t you get the sense that guy is a real hard ass? Right after this he headed out to some bar, knocked back six Sopporos while smoking twice as many Seven Stars. No, I’m wrong! This guy drinks what they called misu-wari in Japan — whiskey and water.

Notice how hard he presses. One reason he’s pressing so hard is that he’s not got a steam iron. When I fell in love with industrial ironing, back in the 90’s when I was taking classes at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) it was partly the weight, the masculinity of the equipment, and the power of the steam system that made me think, ironing is cool.

If you’ve read my first novel Grey (and I know almost everyone has by now!) that experience at FIT is where I got the idea for the competitive ironing. This video reaffirms my belief. Someday there will be a CIL.

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Category Yarn | Tags:

Is This a Navigation Device for a SteamPunk Zepplin? Close! It’s an Antique Sock Knitting Machine.

Written on March 6, 2010 at 9:21 am, by admin

inspiration for my novel Yarn

When I saw these images at Old Tyme Stockings it took hundred foot-pounds of willpower not to head over to eBay and start bidding on one of these hand crank-powered antique circular sock-knitting machines. For an idea of how these work and what they sound like, see the video demonstration of a woman using a knitting to make the heel of a sock:

A hundred years ago farm wives purchased these and knit socks for extra money. Now crafters and collectors are buying, refurbing, and using them. I love when previously obsolescent things are rediscovered and given new life and meaning — especially in the world of fashion.

In Grey, I riffed on a similar notion of what was yesterday’s drudgery will be tomorrow’s sport. Influence by the cool industrial steam irons that I used when I was taking classes at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, I wondered what future competitive ironing might be like. The idea was to iron a dress shirt and compete on smoothness and speed. Just like any sport involving technology there were brands, makes and models of steam irons, boards, and endless variation of technique.

The protagonist in Yarn, Tane Cedar, used an imaginary device that was half exercise equipment and half futurological circular knitting machine. Think of it as: Wii Fit meets circular kitter. It’s coming! Just as 3D printers are slowly heading our way, someday we’ll be able to weave and knit anything we want.

Already of course, some manufactures (like Nike) let you customize your sneakers. But I’m talking about being able to design and manufacture our own shoes, jackets, and pants exactly as we wish.

Will an onslaught of DIY manufacturing make all of us islands of our own fashion? I don’t think so. Just as T-shirt printing has created an infinite number of small designers and companies, so we will surely see thousands of small groups or individuals making shirts, jackets, socks, gloves, or underwear.

Listen to an episode of If You’re Just Joining Us where I talked with freelance journalist , Jacob Fenston about Life Death and T-Shirts.

In future posts, I’ll discuss what Tane knits, who he knits for, and how his knitting could get him killed.

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The New Entertainer

Written on March 2, 2010 at 3:48 pm, by admin

I thought I would restart my blog with a video about the remarkable designer and even better showman, Alexander McQueen. (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010).

There has been much written about him and his untimely death by more qualified than I. But more than many fashion designers, his shows represented something that I expect and hope to see more and more. And certainly not just in the world of fashion.

Recently Steve Jobs presented the iPad, and while I think the device is the greatest since the original Mac – strike that – maybe the greatest thing Apple has yet produced, I was disappointed with the show.

What does Apple need? A little more drama. A little more Hollywood. They need some explosions. Yards of sheer silk. Some fake blood.

I’m only partially joking.

In Grey, my first novel, I began to explore the idea of the combination of the entertainer, the inventor, and the CEO. The father of the protagonist thought he was such a man. Truth was, he had more in common with most of today’s CEOs — usually stiff suits who are better with numbers and org charts than people. And keep them away from a guitar or the vocal riffs of popular song!

But my forthcoming Yarn, I have a supporting character who is a great singer and dancer, an astounding fashion designer, an expert politician, and a towering celebrity.

I think this character is partly an expression of the tremendous concentrations of wealth power in this global era. There is little that makes me angrier than reading about some useless CEO floating to earth in his 40 million dollar golden parachute. Or those Wall Street making more money for themselves at the expense of everything else.

At the same time, as a writer and reader, I thirst for disaster. Things suck now. And yet, they’re don’t suck enough!

Grey was an exploration of how might things go awry between a father and son, a company and its promise and customers. It was also about a caustic culture that seemed to the protagonist (and me) to have gone mad.

Yarn explores the same culturepocalypse, but widens the scope. Up for examination is agribusiness, fast food, the idea that 1 out of 32 american is under correctional supervision, terrorism, and my usual suspects of celebrity, fashion, and corporate malfeasance.

In the coming weeks and months, I hope to write about these and other ideas from the books, share some of the inspirations, and the behind the scenes writing and editing, and the promotion of Yarn.

Join me. And please, help out!

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“The September Issue”

Written on July 10, 2009 at 2:40 pm, by admin

“The September Issue” is the anticipated documentary that follows Anna Wintour and her staff at Vogue through the process of creating the magazine’s September issue, AKA the world’s thickest magazine issue.

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Category Uncategorized | Tags: Fashion

Tennis ace Sharapova unveils blinking phone dress

Written on June 18, 2009 at 3:29 pm, by admin

So far the marriage between fashion and technology has brought clothes barely worthy of a headline in the goofball section of the news. Say, like this:

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova presented a prototype dress to reporters that is designed to light up when the wearer’s mobile telephone rings.

What?

I’ve seen other odd offspring like this and it’s discouraging. Is there some designer whose actually doing something useful and interesting. Something some might actually want to use and wear. Will it have to be Apple that leapfrogs over everyone else with the iRGB shirt?

For an uninformative image of the dress see: www.ubergizmo.com/

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Golf Swing of the Future

Written on May 31, 2009 at 3:23 pm, by admin

I got interested in golf in junior high. But at the time, I was short and rather small and was an awful golfer despite lessons and several summers hanging out at the Penn State Blue Course. A few years later, I was given Mindy Blake’s Golf Swing of the Future. I remember heading to a grassy field nearby to give it a try. [And - delete]] I hit the best shot I ever had hit. It was high, straight, and floated back down to earth like the way the pros hit it. I promptly topped the next dozen as [I - add]kept looking up early to see that beautiful sight again.

The next year we moved and my golfing ended, but I never forgot that one wonderful shot.

Many years later, my fiance bought me a set of clubs, and I’ve taken up golf and Mindy’s swing again. After finding this forum, I purchased GTTB, and while I rarely play and barely get to the range, I have enjoyed a little more consistency and distance.

A week ago my dad recorded me at a range, and I’ve posted a few videos on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JonArmstrongAuthor

golfswing_impact

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I’d like to co-opt this for my upcoming novel, Yarn

Written on May 5, 2009 at 10:33 am, by admin

A ball of yarn takes over San Francisco.

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“50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice – ChronicleReview.com”

Written on April 13, 2009 at 8:49 pm, by admin

I’ve never been a huge fan of “The Elements of Style,” which turned 50. If you’re like me and had told to read and study the thing to learn how to write well, only to flip through its narrow pages and wonder what people were raving about.

Geoffery K. Pullum has this to say:

“April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.

I won’t be celebrating.

“The Elements of Style” does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students’ grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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