Hot Canadian Fashion showdown

The top 10 looks from the TFI new designer showdown

©ourtesy of  Natalia Manzocco & blogTo 

 

The Toronto Fashion Incubator swept four of its most promising young designers onto the runway this week as part of the group’s annual New Labels competition. Toronto-based Christopher Paunil, Laura Siegel (a Fashion Week veteran), Nomad of the Sun and AliceAzur each showed their best, most carefully-honed pieces before a panel of judges and a room of fashion insiders. The prize: $25,000 in cash, an editorial in FLARE Magazine, and a professionally-produced lookbook.
Who came out on top? That would be AliceAzur’s Miriam Baker, a recent Ryerson grad, who was met with a huge hug from her visibly-moved folks at the end of the runway after accepting her prize. (Aww.) But the competition was stiff; prize or no, you’ll be seeing more of the runners-up yet.
Here are my picks for the top 10 looks from TFI New Labels 2014.
ABOVE: Nomad Of The Sun’s Ashley Boutcher focuses on swimwear tailor-made for lounging glamorously by the poolside. Her geometric suits were often layered under flowing chiffon – in this case, black sheer trousers and a plunging-front swimsuit made for ’70s-style glamour.

Street Style Paris F/W 2013 Looks

©ourtesy of HamptonRoads

Paris Fashion Week 2013 brought many unique, interesting, and inspiring looks to the runway. This is how they brought it to the streets!!!  How do you feel about the Fashion Capital of the World sense of street style?

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…….CLICK to View Lots more Photos   > Continue reading →

Coco CHANEL Best Quotes

Endlessly Quotable Chanel

Coco Chanel once said, “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself,” adding, after a beat, “Aloud.” The legendary fashion designer did exactly that for most of her life, which meant that she became not only one of the world’s strongest forces in fashion, but also one of its most quoted citizens. In honor of CHANEL Aug. 19 birthday, here’s a look back at our favorite of Coco’s many declarations.

Source: Corbis Images

History About designer CHANEL from Wikipedia: Gabrielle “Coco” Bonheur Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971) was a French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. She was the only fashion designer to be named on Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century. Along with Paul Poiret, Chanel is credited with liberating women from the constraints of the corseted silhouette and popularizing the acceptance of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the post-World War I era. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel’s influence Continue reading →

Fashion: Paris Fall 2012 Favorites

©ourtesy of Lucire Fashion ::

Allude: Looking back on 2009, one can considerably reminisce upon German designer Andrea Karg’s beautiful looks on the runway during New York Fashion Week collection. Fast forward to 2012, designer Karg takes her aptitude and flair under the luminous fashion spotlight in Paris at the Grand Palais. The brand, founded in 1993, is highly recognized for its beautifully soft materials of cashmere and silks. The main material Allude revolves around is cashmere, used to create her first creation almost twenty years ago: a V-neck pullover designed in 15 different shades. The first piece having gone down in Allude’s history, the same soft material persists two decades later Read more…

Basil Soda: The famous Hôtel Ritz located at the Place Vendôme in Paris was a spectacular place to welcome designer Basil Soda’s chic new collection, in a simple and intimate presentation. The prestigious venue, Salons d’Été, permitted the spectators to walk around the room and dissect details and forms that each piece had to offer. The collection Ensembles were elegantly surrounded by open box-like structures as the luxurious chandeliers’ light gleamed upon each look, highlighting their taste and fragile appearances. From the Lebanese designer haute couture to his ready-to-wear collections, Soda certainly creates feminine designs with completely flawless features, almost reflecting a futuristic woman. His looks are red carpet-worthy, with amazing cuts, shapes and vividly flirtatious colors that accentuate the wearer’s curves. 

Yves Saint Laurent Denver Show

©ourtesy of DenverPost.com

Yves St. Laurent Global Retrospective to be held at Denver Art Museum

LouLou de LaFalaise, Yves St. Laurent & Marina Schiano

Denver Art Museum is the only museum in the United States to host the global retrospective of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s life and work. The exhibit of more than 200 outfits, plus drawings, video and more of the fashion designer works. It opens March 25, 2012. View more photos and styles Here

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F/W: Christian Cota, Rachel Zoe

Day Three New York Fashion Week: Sat., February 11, 2012 ©ourtesy Ann Caruso

Christian Cota went back to his Mexican roots and used Aztec prints, silks, floral embroideries, leather and fur for an incredibly strong presentation that is his best, yet.

Rachel Zoe best known as a celebrity stylist, had her second fashion show this season. She did what she knows best by reinventing the decade of fashion she goes “bananas” over.  She drew inspiration from rock’n'roll glamour of the late ’60s from fashion icons Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful. (See the full collection.) - - Read more…

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Mercedes-Benz F/W Madrid 2012

Spain’s Emerging Fashion Designer: ‘IXONE ELZO’

©ourtesy of heART to explain

 

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2012 fashion show in Madrid introduces Basque young designer Ixone Elzo, inspired by the wardrobes of the aristocracy.

 

At Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid Spain, the talented Spanish Designer IXONE ELZO, presented a marvelous and excellently well structured collection, therefore making his mark in the fashion industry. Predominantly green, white and red, she created male clothes that looked like as if they were inspired from another era, but perfectly wearable and contemporary suitable. Formulated for modern and elegant men with high sense of aesthetics with small details that somehow reminded me of a re-interpretation of Harlequin’s clothes at fashion week. The fashion designers … Read more:

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CLAIRE McCARDELL the Designer's Designer

Truly one of the most Inspirational and Talented Fashion Designer of ALL times. Claire McCardell is a name that's synonymous with 'Great American Sportswear'. She was a 'Master' at creating 'Looks' that are still with us Today. McCardell loved, the art of design, construction and the ease of wonderful Style. So important for in American clothes. Her tremendous manipulation of the use of fabric is synonymous with Classic Couture Fashion Designs that surpass that of the French and Italian designers. American Designer's just 'Love' Her! You see her work in many, many 7th Ave. Houses, Today. She was one of a kind and America was Blessed to have Her. Claire McCardell has been called the first truly American designer, originator of the "American Look". American women have always admired her for her freshness and energy.
Born in 1905, Claire McCardell was born in Frederick, Maryland, USA, to a bank-president father. She had 3 younger brothers and grew up with a love of sports. In 1925, after high school and two years college, Claire joined fashion illustration at Parsons School of Design (which was then called the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts). She spent her second year in Paris, at the Parsons branch on Place des Vosges. There she began to blossom, for fashion was all around her. She began to understand the relationship between style and comfort (or rather the lack of it). She returned to New York for her last year at Parsons.

After graduating, she embarked on a frustrating succession of jobs. In 1930 she became an assistant to Robert Turk, a young designer just starting out, His venture failed and so he and Claire afterwards moved to Townley Frocks, an established sportswear house. Turk died in a sailing accident, so Claire took his position and finished the collection. She stayed with Townley Frocks for 7 years until the company disintegrated. While at Townley, she scored her first commercial success, the so called "Monastic Dress", a flowing robe-like design that the wearer shaped to her own waistline with a sash or belt. Best and Co., bought 100 of these dresses and they were soon well-known. In 1939 when Townley folded, she spent a brief time working for Hattie Carnegie, whose house sold Parisian designs. However McCardell's designs were far too simple for Carnegie's tastes.

please Read more about Claire

Han Feng, Costume Designer

Han Feng, costume designer, Talks on how she became involved in

The Bonesetter's Daughter

                                   Watch the full episode. See more The Arts.

 Han Feng grew up during the Cultural Revolution in China, and moved to New York in the 1980's where her career as a fashion designer took off. After designing the costumes for director Anthony Minghella's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, she was approached by Amy Tan, producer Sarina Tang and director Chen Shi-Zheng to design the costumes for The Bonesetter's Daughter.

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A day’s foray in Fanciful Costuming

 By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
 After visiting the School of Drama’s “Costume Design: Background and Practice” course this Wednesday, I learned one crucial lesson: "Costume design and fashion design are two very different things". The crucial difference here is the psychological close reading (getting to know the character who will wear the clothes) and historical research that costume design entails. Costume Design is all about capturing the ethos of the characters and setting.
“Costume design is about creating a world and giving visual support to a character,” said Jane Greenwood, the course’s instructor.
She added, “It lets the audience in on who these people are before they even open their mouths.” The class, which meets once a week for two and a half hours, involves a healthy serving of analysis of the particular work, historical study and creative thinking. When I arrived (slightly late) on Wednesday, the group was looking through the students’ pattern drawings for “The Great Gatsby.”

"After taking a glimpse at the process, I found myself completely on board with Greenwood’s statement that, in comparison to fashion designers, “more of everything is required of costume designers.”

Read more on this Article: Courtesy of YaleDailyNews.com

Visit The Professional's Costume Designers Guild

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Film about Designer, Nary Manivong

By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

In “Dressed ,” David Swajeski’s listless profile of the young clothing designer Nary Manivong, a passion for fashion elbows aside every other emotion. Yet even those viewers who share the film’s conviction that preparing a collection for New York Fashion Week is inherently fascinating may lose interest long before the final frock is fitted. That’s not entirely Mr. Swajeski’s fault, though his filmmaking skills are rudimentary at best. He has chosen a subject who is clearly uncomfortable discussing his heart-tugging life story, preferring to rhapsodize about his stylistic vision. Shy and self-effacing, Mr. Manivong can barely look at the camera when recounting his troubled childhood in Columbus, Ohio. Abandoned at 14 by his Laotian parents in 2000, he lived on the streets, often sleeping in an all-night doughnut shop. The years between then and 2007, when the film picks up, remain stubbornly vague (though Mr. Manivong’s former high school principal becomes a critical source of 11th-hour financing). Instead, we follow this designer in the run-up to his 2008 show at Bryant Park, complete with borrowed accessories and fully owned financial woes. As he chooses models and suffers a last-minute loss of his showroom (homelessness is a recurring theme), fashion industry notables pop up to pontificate and advise.
“Work like a dog,” says the designer Nanette Lepore. On the evidence of this film, I think Mr. Manivong has that part down. 

Read more on this NY Times Story