Seven key steps to making a fashion business successful with today's Market.

©ourtesy of theGuardian 

Stella McCartney is the perfect role model for young fashion entrepreneurs, says a report by the British Fashion Council

 

 A model with a Stella McCartney creation at last year's Paris fashion week. Photograph: WireImage

 Young British designers should emulate Silicon Valley and Stella McCartney and view the launch of a fashion brand as an entrepreneurial venture – not solely a creative endeavour – according to a report published today by The British Fashion Council. Titled Commercialising Creativity – Creating a Model for Success for British Fashion Designers, the paper claims that there is a dearth of guidance available to fashion designers starting their own businesses, an anomaly in an industry that employs almost 800,000 people and makes £26bn annually.

"Our ambition is that future generations of designers will understand how to create a business plan and source investment in the same way the tech industry does," said BFC CEO Caroline Rush. Rush added that the findings would help young designers "evaluate the kind of business they want to be and the questions they should be addressing from the start."

LONDON F/W: DAVID KOMA S/S 2014

©ourtesy of haute carter 

As the obvious minimalist I am, I couldn’t help it but fall heedlessly in love with David Koma’s latest collection. Searching up every single piece of clothing he’s ever made, I am now convinced that he may or may not be my current favorite designer.
His creations reminds of less war ready and more sophisticated and pastel-ish ancient Japanese armors.

Read more: LONDON F/W: DAVID KOMA S/S 2014

PARIS: Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer 2014

©ourtesy of vogue.uk & vice.com

What can we say? Well, I’ll just go ahead and say it. FAN-TAB-U-LUST to Mr. Pugh! I simply consider this collection to be one of the most ‘original’ set of looks to date. Day, Evening & Formal wear, all put together. Go Gareth !!

Back in 2005, Gareth Pugh was living in a squat in London when all the important UK fashion magazines attached themselves to him like a Fred Perry-clad tumor. Fresh out of fashion school and an internship with Rick Owens, he was soon a style-page wank fantasy, representative of the type of hijinks English fashion clamors for. It was all justified. Gareth’s first shows featured inflatable outfits and light-strewn garments. Everyone in attendance over the age of 30 offered mealy-mouthed praise—like it was all very well and fun and diverting but ultimately fey and immature. Attendees under the age of 25, however, cheered the models and clothes down the runway, feeling like somebody had finally reinvented fashion for the 21st century and rescued us all from retro regurgitation. Six years on, fashion sites are overflowing with photos of androgynous kids addicted to black who look just like Pugh. His line garners the type of attention and praise usually reserved for the vaunted and dusty old guard. He shows annually in Paris and New York, working and hanging out with all the ritziest fashion people, like Karl Lagerfeld and Mario Testino. We’ve known him for a while, though, so we persuaded him to take a few minutes for the following little chat..Read on : View more Gareth’s Collection 

Interview with Vita Gottlieb

Vita Gottlieb funded her homonym womenswear label in 2011 and she was a finalist at the London Fashion Fringe in 2012. Behind Vita’s creations there are not only hints from different cultures, they also tell a story and create an atmosphere. The designer mixes patterns and fabrics to create clothes that humor the woman’s body and are both fashionable and comfortable.

 

When was the label founded? Vita Gottlieb: The label was founded in early 2012 and launched at London Fashion Week in September.

Your works do not look European, there are details that hint to other cultures. Where do you get them from? - -  Continue reading →

Toronto F/W Spring 2013: Jean-Pierre Braganza

©ourtesy of STYLEbistro

 

Not only do we love Jean-Pierre Braganza’s name (“Brrrraganzaaaaa!”) we love the looks we saw during The Shows, a pre-Toronto Fashion Week runway presentation held at Andrew Richards Design’s venue space in Toronto. His pop-art inspired Spring 2013 collection featured strong-shouldered blazers with hits of teal, black, and cream with bold graphic prints.

Fashion:  Graphic pantsuits and wedge heels in nude, black, and black with silver toe straps.

 

Beauty: Loose-and-intriguing fishtail braids with flattering wisps at the temples for that messy braid look we love.

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Milan Fashion Week: day 2

©ourtesy of The Fashion Fruit

The first Milan Fashion Week show of Day 2 was Max Mara. The main inspiration of the collection was Africa and safari style, filtered through the iconic style of the maison. The main items were safari jackets, trenches, jumpsuits and tuxedos. The colors passed from the warm shades like tan, beige, camel to more cold shades and deepest black. I really liked the mix of floral colors and military prints and the oversized tortoise sunglasses.

max mara

Read more…

Milan Fashion Week opens with an explosion of colors

©ourtesy of dailymail.co.uk

After New York and London, it’s Milan Fashion Week turn to have a say as to how women will dress for the spring-summer 2013. If the first day of previews was any indication, next summer will feature a lot of bold color and patterns. While the more structured, usually daytime, looks were in heavier fabrics, evening or playtime came in airier, diaphanous materials like chiffon and tulle at Gucci in Milan.  

‘Sophisticated and essential’: Gucci’s Spring and Summer 2013 collection featured bold shades 

 Romantic looks: Some of the delicate prints were reminiscent of Japanese floral wallpaper and the bell sleeves of a simple cocktail sheath (left) underlined the couture feel of the Gucci collection

Milan designers are offering more romantic looks rather than their trademark slinky and sexy. Long and loose pants were paired with ample tunic tops while voluminous long skirts offered a nice sweep. The accessories – high-heels and bags alike – often replicated Read more…

London catwalk Day 2 celebrates Art Deco Modernism

©ourtesy of CBSnews

JOHN ROCHA (Featured)

Voluminous hooped skirts, ruffles and layers of sheer organza dominated the catwalk at Ireland-based John Rocha show, which resembled a beautiful English garden of sculpted flowers.
A red John Rocha strapless dress with an exaggerated tulip shape opened the show, its large organza ruffles imitating the frail petals of a flower. The hooped, textured skirt then appeared layered over trousers and under sheer organza jackets. It was also repeated to great effect in a host of pastel colors: Pale lavender, mint, lemon, before appearing in gun metal, champagne, black and white. Models all wore large matching hats made of folds of organza that sat like tinted clouds on their heads, a John Rocha look here at London Fashion Week.... Read more about other talented UK Designers !

London Fashion Week Opens ....!

Tribal-inspired Art Deco designs 

©ourtesy of Reuters

 

(Picture: Li-mei Hoang and Piya Sinha-Roy)

(Reuters) – Designers turned to nature for inspiration on the opening day of London Fashion Week on Friday, showcasing a collection of sheer silk dresses, delicate embroidery and elegant show pieces all featuring a floral-inspired theme. Britain’s capital took over the baton from New York, which wrapped up its week with sparkly dresses and bold geometric prints, with a pared-down color palette of fresh pastels and faded dip-dyes. London Fashion Week Designers Antoni & Alison opened the day with a series of quirky silk printed dresses, followed by Fyodor Golan, whose show was in..... Read more about the Designers

Ichiro Suzuki, Royal College of Arts Designer in the UK

©ourtesy of THESTYLECOLUMN

Ichiro Suzuki, Graduate – This British fashion collection has a fashion designer with a genius in mind. With graphic prints and beautiful 3-D elements, Ichiro Suzuki created something truly bold and innovative. From pixels and fur to 3-D cubes on blazers, whilst eccentric there is an intelligent design that is admirable. You can be bold and still retain a sense of conservatism Suzuki emphasized. British fashion definitely rocks with the help of Ichiro Suzuki.

Continue reading →

Fashion forward eBay

eBay partners with BFC for Fashion Forward initiative

eBay have announced an exciting new partnership with the British Fashion Council (BFC) in a multi-season sponsorship deal of the Fashion Forward initiative. The fashion arm of the UK’s biggest online marketplace will help to support emerging British design talent through the programme, starting at London Fashion Week SS13 this September. Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council  says, “Fashion Forward is one of the British Fashion Council’s talent support initiatives; designed to help emerging British fashion designers show and develop their businesses here in London. In its sixth year it has grown to encompass both womenswear and menswear british fashion designers and now supports seven designers each year; making this the perfect time to announce eBay as its new sponsor. eBay’s sales statistics are overwhelming and we hope they Read more…

African Fashion Designers Showcase Cool New Styles

©ourtesy of theWorld.org

Fashion Week Poster (Photo: Dakar Fashion Week)

For the Geo Quiz, we are looking for a city that is hosting a major fashion show this week. It is not Paris, Milan, or London.
It is Fashion Week in the West African nation of Senegal and more than 30 top African designers are in town. The city we are looking for is Senegal’s largest city and the westernmost on the African continent. Designers are there to showcase their creations -bold prints and stylish accessories – designs designs that reflect Africa’s many cultures. Dakaris the answer to the Geo Quiz where dozens of top African fashion designers are taking part in the Fashion Week. The BBC’s Thomas Fessy says organizers are hoping the Fashion Week will boost the profile of Africa’s emerging fashion industry.

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The vibrant, colorful fabrics of African traditional clothes are gaining new life and growing popularity on the global fashion scene. Times Live reports that at a recent fashion show in

Dress from Fashion Week Hot

London Fashion Week Designer, Roksanda Ilincic’s Hot Pink dress 

©ourtesy of Olivia Bergin

 

 

London Fashion Week  just Last month, featured our very own fashion editor Lisa Armstrong prediction that the hot pink, lantern-sleeved creation by Roksanda Ilincic could well be the new Galaxy Dress. To the uninitiated, she was referring to the utterly feminine curve-enhancing dress by Roland Mouret loved by Victoria Beckham, Carol Vorderman, Dita Von Teese and Continue reading →

Fall 2012 London Fashion Week stand-out couture line

©ourtesy of eclipsemagazine.co.uk

Spijkers en Spijkers womens fall fashion collection looks back at the eccentric but sheltered Edie Bovier Beale. The twin fashion designers chose ‘Birds of Paradise’ as their title and inspiration: a phrase the Dutch use to describe eccentric and colorful people. They used socialite Edie Bovier Beale, a true bird of paradise, as their London muse.

Colorful fall embroidered exotic fashion birds adorned (or should I say perched upon) jackets, fashion dresses and shirts. The color palette featured: Ceylon yellow, Bordeaux, lime green, mulberry purple and burnt orange with flashes of black and night shadow blue.

London fashion style was the early 1940s, haute couture luxurious fabrics of silk dupion, silk satin, crepe de chine, silk wool blends and printed silk wool maple. Although the Read more…

Fashion Week in March / April 2012

International Fashion Week in March and April take their inspiration from the big splashes made in January in New York, Paris and Milan runways. – - ©ourtesy of ahRamonline.com

Miami Fashion Week poster, by Kleuddy Abreu, winner of graphic design contest

March/April Fashion Weeks around the world!

21 – 25 March
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Russia Collections
Moscow
27 March – 1 April
ID Fashion Show
Dunedin, New Zealand
30 April – 4 May
Rosemount Australian Fashion Week collection
Sydney Read more…

Fatima Lopes kicks off Paris Fall 2012 Fashion Week

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press ©Mercury News

 

PARIS fashion designer, Fatima Lopes kicked off Paris 2012 fall-winter ready-to-wear season Tuesday with blood reds, provocative leathers and fox fur at the Hotel des Invalides war museum. The Portuguese designer channeled human morphology with blood-red dress inserts, shredded leather sleeves and prints of the venous system in the iconic monument that was built for generals wounded in French imperial wars. Bucking the current trend for padding, the Lopes woman in geometric sheaths had narrow shoulders a look that would have accentuated the frailty of the tiny-boned models had it not been for the provocative leathers in patent black and nude. “Yes, I make tiny shoulders and waists. But this is not weak. It’s feminine and sexy, therefore strong,” said the designer backstage, wearing one of her figure-hugging creations. And sexy was the overriding mood, with bias-cut sheaths split revealingly up the leg and exposing the shoulders. In another sensual look with a plunging decollete, voluminous brown fox fur sleeves contrasted with tight patent leather lapels and a second-skin micro skirt. When the show ended, the crowd departed sheepishly through the courtyard, with 40 huge canons pointing straight at them. – - see Gallery  : NOTE: International Icons reign supreme at this Paris Read more

'M. Patmos' designs Layers Bright Knits and Textures Fall 2012

M. Patmos can be found at Barneys New York, Kirna Zabete, and Browns of London hosted here by Milk Studios, NYC

 

The presentation took place at New York’s Milk Studios ©E. Grady

New York’s runways are buzzing with New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2012. Find all of our exclusive coverage of the hottest green fashion here. Bright knitwear, multifunctional garments, and textured layering pieces are the sound of the season for M. Patmos who revealed its fall 2012 eco-fashion collection on Thursday.

 

©Emma Grady says: “I think everything in the collection is something you can wear right now,” Patmos told TreeHugger. “That’s the goal really, to find something new that you just want to buy because you don’t have that exact thing but want a new, unique version of it.” Read more…

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Korean Design into New York FW

Photos: Concept Korea IV – Spring 2012
all photos by Kwai Chan

Korean fashion design has slowly made an inroad into New York, and it all started with the Concept Korea designer collectives that began four seasons ago.  Some designers from past seasons, such as Son Jung Wan and Parkchoonmoo, now have solo shows as part of the official Fall 2012 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week schedule.  Others are veterans of other Fashion Weeks around the world, such as the duo of Steve J. and Yoni P. who showed at the London Spring 2010 collections. For its fourth edition, Concept Korea featured the following designers in a presentation style: Son Jung Wan (who also held her second New York solo runway show later in the week), Lie Sang Bong, Steve J. and Yoni P., Doho, and Resurrection by Juyoung.  Although an understandably mixed bag in terms of aesthetics and styling with five very different design sensibilities, the collective represented South Korea’s continuing evolution in the world of fashion.  Lie Sang Bong used psychedelic shimmering neon space age cuts inspired by traditional Korean fashion, with killer matching fan clutches.  Doho chose a more ethereal route, with asymmetrical layered piles of tulle and other fabrics dominating.  Juyoung presented the only men’s collection of the five, combining color with semi-formal dress shirts.  Son Jung Wan chose to exhibit some additional looks that were not a part of her solo runway show; her commercially appealing womenswear is much better suited to this presentation format than on the catwalk.  Finally, Steve J. and Yoni P. channeled the ‘70s with their capsule collection, with flower power prints and tie-dyed dresses. – - © Story By Yuan-Kwan Chan

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Miss Piggy ‘stylin’ for Premiere

Miss Piggy: A style icon for 2012

For last night’s UK premiere of the Muppets Movie, Miss Piggy stepped out in a silver leather dress made especially for her by British designer Giles Deacon

 

Miss Piggy is fast becoming the style icon du jour – obviously, she never looks less than the true embodiment of perfection, but recently she has raised her fashion game to a whole new stratosphere. Out on the red carpet to promote her latest starring role in the Muppets Movie [Kermit: Hey, the rest of us are in it too!] the best-dressed pig in town wore a bespoke creation by Giles Deacon. It’s a fitting match: Miss Piggy is obviously the shiniest, most dazzling [Kermit: Keep going with the compliments, you’re going to have to lay it on a bit thicker than that…] most effervescent star on the planet, and Giles Deacon is an incendiary talent in the London design scene. One of the leading lights of London Fashion Week, Giles’ Spring/Summer 2012 collection featured silver laser-cut leather dresses, which served as the basic inspiration for Miss Piggy’s red carpet look. Of course, her dress was far superior to his standard catwalk designs – her shimmering silver fringed frock was the talk of the city [handbag.com: Do you reckon that’s enough? Kermit: Yup, that should just about do it.] Don’t know if Jim Henson expected his muppets to be such icons. But. We ALL know and love Miss Piggy for many reasons. My favorite is her fashion doll looks. – - ©Handbag.com |

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Sandy Powell Oscar Contender

This is Powell’s 10th Oscar nomination. She has won the costume design award three times, including for Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic,“The Aviator.” The opportunity to work again with the director, a frequent collaborator, was a major motivation for her to sign on to the lavish 3-D family movie, but so was its source material, the illustrated children’s novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” The Oscar nominations were announced early Tuesday morning, but the day was heading into night in England, where costume designer Sandy Powell ended up learning the news of her Academy Award nod for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” while she was stuck in traffic. “I was in a car being driven by a friend in a traffic jam on a rainy London afternoon,” Powell said. “David [Davenport], my [costume] supervisor, sent me a message saying, ‘You better start looking for a dress!’” - – more
Highlights: Oscar nominations doesn’t necessarily mean an Award but it’s close. Sandy Powell a seasoned Costume Designer has brought the art of Costume Design to a level of greatness. Other nominees for films like War Horse Steven Spielberg’s epic, The Descendants with George Clooney, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hugo directed by Martin Scorsesse, are all a shoe for the Academy Awards. Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre has been playing host for the presentations in the past few years where winners like SOCIAL NETWORK, THE KING’S SPEECH and BABLE enjoyed being honored. Just think, back when it all started the Hollywood Roosevelt was host. Now it’s a great part of Oscar History. Don’t forget the many other categories: Art Direction, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress Oscar and so on. Film Schools in LA are now very prevalent and talent from all over the globe go there waiting for their day in the sun. French actors, British actors and of course our American actors all await being an Oscar Winner whether they admit or not. Period costumes for The Silent Film “The Artist” inspired great artistry and performance by a great assortment of Talent from various parts of the World. Wow…good Old Hollywood!

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