Zoe Art

Zoe Peyronnin just finished a fashion design course at Parsons The News School for Design.  One of the pictures she displayed in the class's final show was this self portrait.  While Zoe is a junior at the Spence School, on New York City's upper east side, she has taken three courses at Parsons over the past 18 months.

Zoe Peyronnin

Zoe's Fashion Show

There is nothing more rewarding for a parent than watching your child create something meaningful.  Earlier this month, Zoe Peyronnin participated in a design and fashion exhibit at Parsons The New School of Design, here in New York City.  And Zoe's dress was a big hit.

Parsons offers summer school courses in a variety of design disciplines.  And this year hundreds of students traveled from around the globe to take classes.  Zoe's passion is fashion design.  She has been interested since a very young age, and has consistently shown a creative flair.

But this class was the first chance she had to conceive, design and create a piece of clothing.  The display would also include some sort of compatible visual display.  In preparation, her mother, Susan Zirinsky, bought Zoe a sewing machine, which she brought to school several times.  But Zoe did everything on her own. 

Zoe sensed that leather would make a very timely and elegant look.  She traveled to New York's Garment District and selected the specific leather she would use.  As you can see, the top of the dress is a solid black leather, while the bottom piece of leather has a python like design.  The two pieces complement themselves and together are a most stylish look.  One admirer was heard to say, "Where can I buy it?"

Zoe had a very fulfilling and rewarding experience at Parsons, and she has made many new friends that share her passion for fashion design.  This was the first step in what may become a wonderful career.

Going Blue

A few weeks ago my daughter, Zoe, asked if she could dye her hair blue.  She wanted to try something different, something distinctive, something stylish. 

As you might imagine, this resulted in much discussion between her mother and father.  Working to her benefit was the fact that she actually asked permission, as opposed to attempting it on her own.  The idea of blue hair seems consistent with her passion for fashion.  She spends a lot of time looking at designs, fabrics and colors.  She is taking a summer school class in fashion design at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.  

Like many teenagers, Zoe is trying to discover her identity.  She will be a junior in a prestigious private school, which is very competitive and academically demanding.  Last year was very challenging for her, but she ended the term with a B average.  She also greatly matured and gained in confidence.

While the idea of her having blue hair didn't sit well with me, my reasons for her not to do it seemed trivial.  What would other parents think?  Would she be accepted among her peers?  And I found out that there is no school regulation against it.  So, in the end, we agreed to go along provided that we have it done by a professional.

I am not sure that Zoe had any idea of how complicated and time consuming the dye job would be.  Swaths of her hair were wrapped in foil. 

Bleach was used to remove her natural black hair color.  After two hours of arduous work, performed by a stylist and an assistant, her hair was all white.  She appeared to age thirty years!

Finally, her style team painted each hair with blue dye.  The whole procedure took nearly four hours. (And was very expensive!)

At first, Zoe seemed nervous and tentative about her hair.  And the reactions from her friends, while largely favorable, were mixed.  Nonetheless, she is now very pleased with the way her hair appears. The only drawback so far is that for a few days the blue dye rubbed off on her pillow. 

There are only four weeks remaining before the new school year begins.  It will be interesting to see how the blue hair plays among her classmates.  My guess is it will be will be no big deal.

Zoe is grateful we gave her the opportunity to experiment.  She also knows that her parents treated her with respect, value her opinions and are not unreasonable.  I think the parent-kid bond got a little tighter.