Last month we invited everyone at City of Craft to sit down and sketch memorable moments that have defined their sartorial selves. The drawings were too charming to keep confined to the office walls, so we felt compelled to share them with you all.

images curated by Jessica Da Silva

From the mid-1990s to early 2000s, there was a sort of moral panic associated with “hackers” and this crazy newfangled thing called the Internet. Movies like Hackers and The Matrix treated their characters like lawless individuals in a new Wild West—no rules, no moral compasses, just a bunch of hooligans speaking a lot of gibberish. And how did they use clothing to let people know they were scary? LEATHER. All leather, all the time. Pale skin from all that time indoors, facial piercings because they weren’t concerned with getting a good job, smudged eyeliner because they just didn’t give a fuck. Paired with some ridiculous sunglasses, outlandish hair, and huge jeans, they were dressed like every parent’s worst nightmare. Of course they all looked amazing.

Today, the stereotypical image of a person who works with computers is more likely to be a young female blogger or a clean shaven man in his mid-30s. But the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, released today, is set in 2002, and Lisbeth Salander is still intended to look as scary as possible. I’m personally finding her look unbelievably cool. Of course her tattoos are amazing, but I’m equally inspired by her bleached eyebrows, severely cut hair, and clothes that aren’t so much “disheveled” as “so torn up that they are actually hanging on by a thread.” I want to look just like her, but I’d probably cross the street if I saw her coming.

The difference today is that I think Lisbeth is supposed to look aspirational—H&M is even selling a line of clothes based on her costumes from the film. In retrospect, I think all the women look pretty amazing: Angelina’s motorcycle jacket from Hackers, Trinity in her head-to-toe skintight leather, even Ms. Calendar (R.I.P.) in her leather jacket. Maybe when we all get sick of the 1990s grunge look we can move on to 90s hackers?

I can’t defend what’s going on with Julia Stiles though. That console cowboy is whack.

text by Haley Mlotek
video by Daniel Reis

Sometime last year, my television went kaput, and my heart was left with a void that I slowly replaced with a YouTube obsession. The beauty gurus and their elaborate tutorials are a particular favourite.

To be honest, I pretty much repel colour. My wardrobe consists of strictly neutrals, as well as my make-up bag. I tend to live vicariously through the tutorials rather than try to mimic them, but it’s an art form to admire.

Dustin Hunter’s youtube channel is full of informative make-up tips and drastic yet wearable tutorials. His looks are always very bold and smokey. I find myself constantly on his channel searching for reviews of beauty products, trusting his opinions over store employees.

Heather is a Vancouver based student for special effects makeup. Although her YouTube channel tends to focus on makeup, she also does hair and nail tutorials. Her look is always changing, and her videos never bore.

Cora’s videos are fun and quirky, and she also happens to be hella funny. Her technique is flawless and her artistic capabilities are seemingly endless. Watch one of her Halloween tutorials, but only if you’re willing to risk having your mind blown.

Leesha’s enthusiasm will make you happy, just by watching her. Her makeup collection is massive, ranging from drugstore to designer products. Bonus: Her mother often makes appearances on her channel, with videos and tips of her own.

Nikkie is a 17 year old girl from the Netherlands. Her channel includes a lot of celebrity inspired looks, done in a wearable way. There is a video for every occasion imaginable—though I’ve yet to find the perfect “spending hours on end watching YouTube videos” look.

text by Jessica da Silva

A handful of years ago, back when I lived in Washington, I picked up a circle skirt at a favourite second-hand store. Even though it was both adorable and affordable, for some reason I hardly ever wore it. But why? When I finally realized what it was—the waistband was too narrow and it sat at an unflattering place on my hips—I knew I had to do something. The discovery of some sturdy, wide, black elastic that looked like it would make an excellent waistband was the only impetus I needed to make my skirt wearable again.

The materials I used for this project (along with the skirt) were a seam ripper, wide black elastic about 6 inches longer than the circumference of the skirt waistband, black thread, red thread, tailor’s chalk, three hook-and-eye closures, and a sewing machine—although you could easily do all the sewing by hand.

I began by using the seam ripper to remove the original waistband from the skirt. Then, I marked a line 1 cm from the edge of the elastic with the tailor’s chalk. I used this to evenly align the raw edge of the skirt waist to the elastic. Now, originally, I thought I would pin the skirt to the elastic, but after my many attempts at this failed miserably and numerous four-letter words were dropped (I wasn’t kidding when I said the elastic was sturdy!) I decided that basting might be a better idea.

The skirt has a side zipper that I wanted to keep, so I had to make the elastic overlap towards the back of the skirt at the zipper. To baste the elastic to the skirt, I aligned the end of the elastic with the side of the zipper on the back of the skirt and the raw edge of the skirt waist to the line I hand drawn along the edge of the elastic with chalk. Then, using the red thread and my sewing machine, I basted the elastic to the skirt leaving a small space between the basting and the edge of the elastic. This left a few inches of elastic extending towards the back—this is a good thing. After trying the skirt on and finding the placement of the new waistband satisfactory, I stitched right along the edge of the elastic using the black thread, and removed the basting with the seam ripper.

Now, back to that overlapping bit of elastic. I folded it in half and stitched by hand along the raw edge. The next step was figuring out where I wanted the “eye” parts of of the hook-and-eye closure and sewing them to the main part of the waistband, on the back of the skirt. Then, I took the “hooks” and stitched them to the elastic loop I had just made, only going through the back so the stitching wouldn’t show on the front. After that, I hand-stitched the sides of the elastic loop together, and it was finished.

Note: This wasn’t written strictly as a tutorial, but rather an explanation of what I did in this specific situation. I highly encourage you to experiment with your own clothing alterations and find a method that works for you.

text and photography by Kat Brightwell