DIY Embellished Skirt - Inspired by NYLON's January Cover

NYLON Magazine, January 2009

I've been a fan of NYLON  for years and years, and was lucky enough to intern there for a year while I attended Parsons, back in 2004. It was the best internship ever, as you may imagine. 

I worked with awesome people, including the multi-talented Ann Talley, and Heather who were my mentors whilst there. They gave me awesome projects to work on, including photo collages for the web version of Beauty Queen, then Face Off, inspired by Jane Fonda and Chloe Sevigny; And I also helped put together their interactive shopping guides for SoHo, NoLITa and the LES. How fun is that? We also attended events like a shopping one at Bloomingdale's, and an after-party for the Raveonettes. Hellss  yeah. Loved it.

One of the designs I made while at my internship at NYLON.

Anyway, back on track... When I received the latest issue of NYLON, with Hillary Duff on the cover, I LOVED the waistband of skirt. I think the blue sequins are a bit too much, but the jeweled waistband, that is right up my alley. The skirt is from Hillary's new Femme line for DKNY, but if you want to be sustainable and save a few bucks I have an easy, no-sewing-required, DIY option: vintage rhinestone brooches!

DIY - No-Sew Embellished Waistband Skirt

I embellished my favorite skirt (a black one from Quail that I got a few years ago, maybe 2005?) and made it party-ready by pinning a few vintage & new brooches to the waistband. A few tips for this:

- Start with a skirt made out of sturdy fabric, preferrably with a wide waistband that has some facing on it.  Lighter-weight fabrics will make the waistband sag, since it can't support the weight of the pins. I suggest a wool twill with facing, taffeta, canvas or denim.

- The waistband should fit you snugly and close to the body, if it's too loose, it will sag.

- Make sure your pins are all around the same size, on average, and that you have about 6 - 8 pins so you can go all the way around (or use 3 - 4 to go just on the front). I chose a mix of vintage and new pins from my collection.

- Place the pins evenly spaced around the waistband. You may want to lay them down first, space them and mark the spots with chalk.

- Pin them in place and voilá - that's it!!

The end result: Quail black skirt embellished with 6 pins on the waistband.

Details on the pins. I used similar sizes and a mix of vintage and new.

 I love the look of mixing, gold, silver and bold colors for maximum embellishment.