Post blues

After spending the last six months of my life running around for the St. Lorient Beyond Fabric-ation show it is now over and the show was a huge success. There were a few minor little glitches the day of the show, but nothing that we could not handle. I am sure that no show or event has ever gone down without kinks that needed fixing on the day.

Just to remind all our readers of what the show was about:  it was a collaborative fashion show between ten fine artists, five textile designers and the second year Fashion Design students from the Tshwane University of Technology. The aim of the show was to design and create a garment, its fabric and accessories based on one of the ten artists’ work.  This show formed part of the 2014 Cool Capital initiative that I wrote about earlier in the year.

For the students and designers working on the show was almost a full-time job along with all the stress of our regular jobs and studies. The process was not without tears, fights and breakdowns, but for the most part it was a very positive experience and atmosphere. The most challenging part was the fact that for most of the participants, including the artists, it was a huge learning curve as most of us have never done a collaboration of this nature before.

At the show each model walked out in her garment, along with the artist whose work inspired the dress, the textile designer and a representative of the fashion group that worked on the garment. The crowd’s response was overwhelming when each group walked out and seeing the whole outfit come alive was breathtaking.

Will I do it again? The answer is: YES!!! So what is the problem? The problem is that I miss the excitement and pressure of helping with the show. The explosive creative energy has come to a standstill all of a sudden. Let us hope the next challenge is right around the corner…

Peace and love

Clara

PS: All the garments and artworks will be on display until 31 December 2014 at the St. Lorient Fashion and Art Gallery.

Busy (fashion) week

My apologies for being so quiet the past week, but it was one of those weeks that had me running up and down every single day. Not that I am complaining, it was a great week. Some of the interesting events included a meeting with the SABS on craft standards, finally visiting Karoo Café, Fashion Week Pop Up shop, meetings with the designers for our fashion show and the Spar Women’s race.

So here I sit with my stiff legs from the race and think back on what I saw at Fashion Week Designer Pop Up shops at Brooklyn mall. What struck me most is that most of the designers that were showcasing and selling their work have been in business for eight years or less and the amount of talent in such a small space was astounding. Some of the more seasoned designers at the event were Clive Rundle, Albertus Swanepoel and Black Coffee. Some of my favourites, however, included YOUMEWE, Hannah and Jane Sews. If only my shopaholic budget allowed buying an item from every label, luckily I did not walk away empty handed.

Now I have a good idea of what to expect this coming summer in terms of trends. The most obvious of the new trends is the new colour palette; pastel colours. Not my favourite, but black, grey and white featured enough to not make me lose hope.

The second trend in terms of fabric was that prints are making a comeback and the popular dyed effects are taking the backseat.  The popularity of digital fabric printing is on the increase. What is so spectacular with digital printing is that it breaks away from the flat colours that one is used to with printed fabrics and gives a more realistic and dimensional look. The reason for this is that with digital printing there is no limitation on the amount of colours that can be used. Another print that was very popular was bold African inspired prints in bright colours, a contrast to the pastels that made their appearance.

Thirdly; high waist skirts are very popular. The prints and colours are varied and the lengths are from knee-length to long and come in many different types of fabric. The thing that really awoke my inner-child was that I saw Tule used for skirts in more than one collection. Now I cannot wait to buy myself another tutu, but this one will be fashionable and not just me running around looking like a fairy.

Today is officially the first day of spring and I will be wearing flowers in my hair and stocking piling anti-histamines. Let’s hope the rain will be here soon.

Wishing all our readers a wonderful week.

Peace and love

Clara

Ode to the little black dress

We all know the Iconic little black dress, most of us have at least one in our closet for a night out or a special event. Little Black Dress and purples or little black dress with Doc Martens, depending on your look, we love it and you in it.

Dress from YouMeWe

So one of my best friends (I have 5 of them), is getting married and wants the bridesmaids to wear black dresses, this caused the great, oh wow I don't have a black dress anymore that fits moment. This week is the pop up shop of SAFashion week, Clara will tell you more about it. We went and walked around just to see the dresses and whats new and hot. I found myself obsessed with their dresses and the prices are really good for what you get. Best part, they do custom tailor dresses to any body shape and size, no diets needed.

What I am happy about is their two main deigns for dresses are multi purpose, the way you tie it or the way you wrap it changes them from tops, skirts to dresses, the one has 12 ways to tie it and the one in the picture has 8. So basically you have a black or any amazing print you want, item of clothing that fills a huge gap in your cupboard without taking a lot of space.

If you want, you can contact the girls behind YouMeWe and go to a wonderful day in their studio trying on dresses and giggling while figuring an outfit out.
Hopefully we will be posting a lot more about them in the near future.

How to contact them:
Facebook
Twitter
Website

Please note this was not a Sponsored Post.

Happy dress shopping,
Chandré