studio africa and designer laurenceairline

While doing some trendresearch, I came across this really cool African designer. I actually stumbled upon it thanks to a great Diesel+Edun initiative called Studio Africa. It is a platform celebrating and promoting creativity in Africa. Studio Africa was born out of the Spring 2013 collaboration: a denim collection born in Africa and entirely sourced an manufactured in Africa, using the finest cotton from Uganda. The collaboration goes beyond fashion to discover and be inspired by a cast of creatives fueling innovation across Africa. If you want to know more about this online platform please visit their tumblr page.

One of the Studio Africa creatives is Laurence Chauvin-Buthaud of the brand Laurenceairline. She is a rising menswear designer from Cote d'Ivoire. All her collections are produced by locals at the Laurence Airline workshop which serves as a pole of creation and a centre for teaching couture sewing techniques. The concept behind her brand is based on how fashion and ethnic cultures can successfully collaborate to create possibilities for the future.
As a designer she is inspired by people living in their clothes rather than a constructed fashion influence. She says: "It is the attitude and spirit that an individual gives a garment through the way that they wear it."
Her spring/summer 2013 collection is a fusion of local fabrics in carefree masculine silhouettes. I am especially keen on video that represents this collection. Starting very soft and playful, but gradually becoming more mysterious and clashy: a good representation for Laurenceairline's SS13 collection.

SS13

SS13

SS13

AW12

AW12

For more info about Laurence Airline or Studio Africa check:
www.laurenceairline.com
http://studioafrica.tumblr.com/
http://www.diesel.com/diesel+edun/

amsterdam fashion week - jacob kok paradise

jacob kok - paradise

Jacob Kok is a dutch designer (and winner of the dutch version of tv show: project runway). This flamboyant designer is well know for it's creative, out-of-the-box, egdy designs. Jacob presented his new collection 'paradise' at the Amterdam Fashionweek, which is in full swing. The collection is inspired by the popular game 'The Sims' because of his fascination with the digital revolution. To him this is a true paradise with unlimited options, yet to be discovered.



For more info about Jacob Kok:
http://cargocollective.com/jacobkok

inspirational footage part five

Disney for Barneys New York

Disney and Barneys have come together and unveiled their "electric holiday" campaign. For this campaign Disney designed a special cartoon featuring some of Disney's biggest characters like Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Daisy Duck. Disney's sweethearts are accompanied by big names in the fashion world, whom are transformed into cartoon stars as well.

The video shows Minnie dreaming of the life as a high-end fashion model in Paris, strutting the runway with her best friends. In this wonderful daydream Minnie is rocking Lanvin, Mickey Mouse shows a Balenciaga outfit and Goofy is getting his groove on in Balmain.

I think it's a really original, creative and fun way of marketing, what do you think?

fashion designer Chichi luo

Chichi luo 

Chichi luo is a China based fashion designer, blogger, photographer, illustrater and buddist. She is extremely versatile to say the very least. Chichi attended College of Fashion in London where she studied Fashion Design Technology Womenswear. 


Her graduation collection was inspired by artisanal traditions.She says: 'This Spring/Summer collection is inspired by my trip to Tibet in China last summer. The colour palette is based on photographs, which have taken by myself during the trip. The selected colours are bright, vivid, and energetic, which represent Tibetan people's kindness, boldness, faith and passion to their religion. I bravely play with these colours, and get lots of unique results by using different hand dye techniques. 

 The silhouette of this collection is based on what Tibetan people are wearing, which inspires me to do lots of draping through this collection by using flexible fabric, such as silk chiffon and silk jersey. I then draped and layered them up, to create a new look for Tibetan people. 

I was inspired by Tibetan women's braided hair. I transferred this idea on to part of my clothes by developing to complicated handcraft techniques such as macramé and knotting. That is why you can see lots of amazing macramé pieces in this collection. Also there are many colourful wooden beads at the end of each rope on macramé, which symbolized the beautiful Buddha prayer beads.'
 Photography for this graduation collection was done by Tina Zhang

Autumn Winter 2012 collection
For the upcoming autumn/winter season Chichi developed a collection inspired by a previous visit to the Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. 
After this inspiring visiting, she fell in love with the atmosphere of modern people come across this historical country house, discover the beauty of polish which left from years passing of time. She took these inspirations for her collection by focusing on the interior elements at Wimpole including antiques from different periods, curtains in amazing textiles, paintings and vintage crystal lamps, and combine them to modern clean silhouettes. Crystal glass, tassels, furniture fabrics and mohair are frequently used in the whole collection.
For her Autumn/Winter 2012 collection she did the photography and styling all by herself. 

more info: http://chichiluo.com/
http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/chichiluo

cool stuff: we are hairy people

we are hairy people

We are hairy people make hand painted apparel. WAHP is run by Sarah Caulfield, a 23 year old youth worker and painter. She started the company in the spring of 2012, having no fashion or business education and with no money. Since then she has come a long way already, her items are now sold at Asos marketplace and some other exciting things are coming as well.

more info: http://wearehairypeople.tumblr.com/about
https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/we-are-hairy-people

a compilation of New York Fashion Week

Even though Milan Fashion Week is already in full swing, I didn't want to make you miss out on some of New York Fashion Week's (MBFW) SS13 highlights.

For me it was all about silhouettes, colors, fabrics and of course: forecasting. What is their outlook on 2013? What will the future have in store for us?
Please take a look on (for me) very interesting and exciting things that went down in New York City. 

Angel Sanchez

Arise Magazine

Arise Magazine

Alexander Wang SS2013 - Watcha waitin' for, put your back in it, put, put your back in it
Although many designers used a lot of vibrant colors in their SS collection, Wang really stood out because of his sober (well in fact: non-excisting) use of colors. A part from a glow-in-the-dark range, the collection was completely in black, white, greys and beige.

For Wang it started out with the urban uniform: the t-shirt, the board shirt, the parka and creating a tension between structure and fluidity. To whole collection is based on embracing strength. Strong and graphic are keywords in this collection.
This resulted in the use of sharp silhouettes and rigid fabrics like leather and neoprene (rubber), while maintaining a fluidity by adding a lot of cut outs. What I especially liked about the show is that it all came together so well: the designs, the location and of course the music. Wang gave a very clear vision on the future during this tough times "Watcha waitin' for, put your back in it"


The full Alexander Wang SS13 show

Arise Magazine

Badgley Mischka

Bcbgmaxazria

Bibhu Mohapatra

J. Mendel

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Maison Martin Margiela

Maison Martin Margiela

Naeem Khan

Naeem Khan

Naeem Khan

Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller

Rebecca Minkoff

Richard Chai

Supima

Supima

textiles & textiles three

Here it is: trends & textiles part three. 

I truly believe that when it comes to trendforecasting, colors and textiles are so very important. Ever since i was a little girl, i seem to be drawn to them. You would not believe the amount of textiles and colorcards you will find under my bed. 

So in this part of trends and textiles, I am showing you my latest treasures i found while visiting a lot of vintageshops, markets, museums and well a whole lot more. To play with different textures I even added some interesting beading to the different fabrics.

If you have any questions/remarks please do not hesitate to contact me or leave a message down below. 

Enjoy!