North teenagers showed their talent as fashion designers of the future took to the catwalk.

The show at Newcastle High School for Girls was as much a showcase for the flair of these young designers as a traditional fashion show.

It was the first fashion show of the new amalgamated girls’ school, in Jesmond, and the culmination of months of hard work in the art department.

The girls both design and make their creations, before finally showing them on the catwalk.

QueenieAustralia celebrity red carpet dresses

Over a hundred girls aged between 14 and 18 years old paraded their own designs and collections, as well as modelling the designs of the A level students.

The youngest participants showed off their work - inspired by the ‘Day of the Dead’ festival - to the chart hit “Take me to Church” by Hozier.

Each girl had designed a skull and tee shirt inspired by the Dia de los Muertos celebration, which has taken place for around 3,000 years in Mexico.

The day is devoted to remembering loved ones who have died.

Alison Goldie, head of art at Newcastle High, said: “An event like this is a wonderful opportunity for the girls to experiment, be inventive, take risks and have fun, as well as developing their practical skills to realise their creative ideas, and learning about deadlines to have their outfits ready for the show itself.

“We have some exceptionally talented students, many of whom will go on to study art and design at the highest of levels.

“The outfits the girls make for the fashion show will contribute to the students’ final grades and the show is the culmination of several months’ hard work.”

The A level students chose their own themes, music and choreography for their collections.

Sarah Curran, who is studying A Level textiles, said that she had developed her collection around the theme of Abrahamic religion.

She said: “My collection features hand painted designs inspired by church murals which portray the richness of religion and the garments themselves. It is inspired by the designs of Dolce and Gabbana and Jean Paul Gautier, both of whom I love.”

Sarah has done work experience with British fashion designer, Nigel Cabourn, and is also studying English literature and art. She hopes to do an art foundation course followed by a fashion degree.

Another A level student, Zoe Ballantine, has based her collection around 18th Century France: She said: “When I watched Marie Antoinette, I was inspired by the style of clothes and I combined this with my love of Balmain’s 2012 collection, Dolce and Gabbana and the Baroque style of the French Palace of Versailles.”

Hilary French, head of Newcastle High School for Girls, said: “This is always such an amazing event combining creativity, hard graft, team work, theatrical performance and fun. It’s also good for developing resilience as often the creations don’t turn out as originally planned and there are some challenging moments along the way.”

QueenieAustralia black bridesmaid dresses

Young designers are rarely able to live on the sales of their designs alone. They emerge from fashion and design schools unknown, ready to present their digital portfolios to buyers or store owners. Most often, they are turned away.

But Michelle Aquino defied the odds. She got her first sewing machine from her grandmother, and after a few lessons in simple hemming and patching she fast-tracked her limited knowledge to another level — even without professional training — when in 2009, at age 20, she launched M. Dot Design in San Diego.

Aquino quickly discovered there's strength in numbers — that a united front of artists working together can be stronger than one lone designer whose name no one knows.

cheap formal dresses online australia

Today, besides selling her collection online at mdotdesignstudio, she's built a business curating Shop It events at W Hotels across the country. The events are usually one-evening pop-up shopping parties that feature fashion from her own M. Dot line and other local apparel, accessories and jewelry designers that she handpicks. She has also included architects, artists, local bakeries and Bliss Spas. Average turnout is 150 people for the events, which have taken place in W Hotels in San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and more.

Aquino pioneered the concept at the W in San Diego in 2010 before bringing it to Los Angeles in December 2012, and it spread from there. That's not so surprising since the W hotel brand is no stranger to fashion; W is an official partner of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Fashion Incubator program, which fosters promising designers.

"I met Michelle and absolutely loved her designs and the partners she works with," recalls Lauren Travis, director of marketing at the W Hollywood. "The lines really embrace the L.A. look. We wanted to give guests and locals a taste of L.A., so Michelle and I decided to create an event that brought some of the incredible local emerging designers all under one roof … for the ultimate shopping experience."

The W Hollywood took the concept a step further and had Aquino tailor her collections to incorporate inspiration from the hotel's interior designers and from the vibe of the city.

M. Dot pieces are comfortable, but sleek and versatile, tailor-made for the modern power woman. The 12-piece collection includes a wrap-dress designed with a special pleat and tie to cover any tummy imperfections, a modern take on a traditional suit that has a vest top and a sexy shift that's wearable in more than three different ways.

Leah Vaplon, owner and jewelry designer of frequent collaborator 9luxe, says M. Dot is a brand to watch.

"I have accompanied Michelle on many W events now and have seen firsthand the passion, energy and work she puts into not only building M. Dot, but also into making wonderful events for the W Hotels and supporting other designers in their endeavors," Vaplon says.

Aquino is always on hand at the events to offer what she calls couture ready-to-wear. "I think a woman's clothes should fit her, not have her working to fit in her clothes. Customers choose the fabric they'd like from available swatches of cloth I bring to the events, and they can choose the piece they'd like made for them. I guarantee a two-week delivery time and prices range from $250 to $600," Aquino says.

"I make from $2,000 to $4,000 at every four-hour-long event and offer what I call 'achievable couture in a ready-to-wear style,'" Aquino says.

She is scheduled to debut a new collection June 11 at the W Hotel Los Angeles in Westwood.

Aquino recently took her pop-up collab concept to the real-estate company Keller-Williams to help it sell a $4.5-million mansion in Brentwood. She and her group of local artisans gave the house a "lifestyle." Her team tricked out the kitchen with locally crafted dishware, filled the master-bedroom closet with her clothing collection and brought local artists in to decorate the walls.

Thanks to the W events, M. Dot is fast becoming a name in Hollywood and the alternative music scene. The singer and actress Leighton Meester, best known from the TV show "Gossip Girl," recently contacted Aquino to outfit her for a performance at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

"My next move is to take our Shop It concept to W Hotels worldwide. I'd collaborate with local accessory and handbag designers, and spas in some of the W Hotels from Thailand to India, and Hong Kong. That and buying a condo here in L.A.," Aquino says.

formal dress adelaide

Femininity is getting a rethink in Milan.

Designers are incorporating more masculine tailoring, while giving a contemporary edge to normally girly touches like bows, ruffles, lace and, yes, polka dots. Among the runway trends during Milan Fashion Week, in its fourth day Saturday, are silken blouses tied with an off-skew bow around the neck.

Highlights from Saturday’s shows, including Bottega Veneta, Roberto Cavalli, Jil Sander and Pucci:

Colors popped at Bottega Veneta: Emerald green, teal, yellow, russet, violet and orange, matching in tone and intensity the bold polka-dot patterns that dominated the runway for the first part of the show.

The repetitive dotting in contrasting colors would transpose easily into a Roy Lichtenstein painting — but the women wearing Tomas Maier’s creations show none of the existential distress that the pop artist normally portrayed.

She is confident in polka-dot tunics in teal or emerald green with a contemporary neck line that flips over to reveal contrasting colors. From bold, the looks grew more pretty with overlays of delicate black or rust lace over colorful dresses, and Maier maintained the contemporary edge with transparent panels in overcoat that become a show-window of sorts to the eye-popping color of the daywear underneath. Capes had a trapezoidal shape, offset by streaks of color.

Maier anchored the collection with a pair of black suits set off by a crinkled silk scarf twisted around the neck — a stylistic gesture that conveys what Maier means by a “nonchalant sense of style.”

Jil Sander designer Rodolfo Paglialunga’s first winter womenswear collection for the brand put the coat at front and center — keeping the lines very long.

“Jil Sander represents a little bit of the elegant world for me, and that’s why I wanted to do this long silhouette,” Paglialunga said backstage after the show.

The collection puts its focus on the basics: pants, footwear and coats. Belted overcoats are worn casually over flared trousers. Dresses and tunics were based on the overcoat form, with big pockets and lean lines, adhering to the brand’s minimalist roots. Shorter jackets were worn with cropped trouser-skirts.

And out of nowhere one model carried an aura of knowing worldliness. She stopped and smiled knowingly for the cameras. Ah, that’s super model Eva Herzegova walking for Pucci designer Peter Dundas in a velvet jacket embroidered in gold with zodiac signs over a long ruffley black dress.

Dundas, a Sagittarius, sought to embrace the unknown with the Zodiac-themed show, and some pieces, like long velvet coat over a zodiac printed dress, looked downright wizardly. “In fashion we are so busy managing everything we do. We can’t always control things and sometimes wonderful things happen when you can’t control them,” Dundas said backstage. “Leave it to the stars.”Read more at:bridesmaid dresses | formal dresses melbourne

I caught up with Diane von Furstenberg at the first annual Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women on February 24th. She was the opening keynote and gave an empowering message to all women in attendance about life, careers and success. Diane entered the fashion world in 1972 and two years later introduced her famous wrap dress. Her luxury fashion brand, DVF, is now available in more than fifty-five countries all over the world. Codirector of the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, she is an active philanthropist and supporter of emerging female leaders and social entrepreneurs. She is the author of Diane: A Signature Life and her latest bestseller, The Woman I Wanted to Be.

In the following interview, she talks about how incredibly strong women are, the struggles that women endure at work, her greatest influence growing up in the fashion world, the challenges and opportunities she’s had from growing her business and the skills every professional needs.

www.queenieaustralia.com/red-carpet-celebrity-dresses

Dan Schawbel: What do most men not understand about being a woman in today’s workplace?

Diane von Furstenberg: I think that what men don’t understand is how much women can actually do. Women are incredibly strong. I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong – all women are strong. Sometimes they hide it though and there’s this tragedy that happens and then somehow their strength always comes out. What men really must understand above anything else is how good and how strong women are -the rest is details.

Schawbel: What were some of your early career struggles and how did you overcome them?

von Furstenberg: I was always my own boss and in the fashion business so I’ve never suffered from any glass ceiling thing because I was my own business, and a woman in the fashion business. But what I have always found difficult is that women are always trying to accommodate people, which at the end is not good about being an executive.

Schawbel: Who were some of your greatest influences growing up and what did you learn from them?

von Furstenberg: My biggest influence in my career was the first man that I worked with, who was an industrialist in the fashion business in Italy. He taught me everything. At the time, I did not understand that I was actually learning but everything that I learned from that man was the reason for my success. He taught me about textiles and printing and to this day, I use both.

www.queenieaustralia.com/plus-size-formal-dresses

Yes, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez and Elton John were in the front row. But what was on the runway at Tom Ford’s fall-winter 2015 show Friday night in Los Angeles was just as impressive, in that it signaled a new, surefooted direction for Ford’s women’s wear.

Ford showed the kind of rich bohemian collection for which he was known in his heyday at Gucci. “It was actually a Hitchcock heroine if she morphed into a rich bohemian,” he said afterward. “Very controlled, not dirty hippie, because the early 1970s were really very streamlined.”

Ford spent 14 years at Gucci where he defined the look of luxury in the 1990s as creative director of both the Gucci and Saint Laurent brands. It’s been 11 years since he started his own namesake brand, first launching a lucrative cosmetics and fragrance business with Estee Lauder in 2004, followed by menswear in 2006 and women’s in 2010.

formal dress adelaide

His men’s suits are worn by everyone from rock stars to CEOs, Justin Timberlake to Magic Johnson (who owns 50 custom suits, and was invited to the show because he’s a good client, he said). The menswear is characterized by its Savile Row inspiration, and myriad, super-luxurious customizable possibilities.

But Ford’s women's wear collections have been harder to understand, identifiable for a dark and sexy, just-this-side-of-raunchy aesthetic that played well with Rihanna and Miley Cyrus but seemed out of reach for regular women.

The collection Ford showed in L.A., striking the right balance of wearability and flash, and beautifully made, too, should change all that.

For one, there was more denim on the runway than we’ve seen since the designer’s days at Gucci, when he caused a sensation with beaded, fringed and feathered jeans a la Cher that are collector’s items now.

“This collection has more day clothes for sure,” Ford says. “And denim felt right.” There were reconstructed jeans and denim skirts with rainbow velvet patchwork effects, even a denim “fur” coat. Yum.

Black crocheted skirts and tidy-looking peplum peasant blouses in black or denim patchwork were also covetable, as were knee-length dresses swinging fringe. Black knotted and fringed jewelry, including shoulder-dusting earrings, crocheted bags and knee-high suede boots were the boho accents.

More fringe and lacing effects were worked into evening wear, which was seductive without being over-the-top sexy. A black jersey, cowl-back gown with a single velvet ribbon tied across the back, for example, was dramatic and pretty. And the finale gowns, in 1970s swirls of color and sequins, looked ready made for a dinner party at a modernist Hollywood house.

Ford got a standing ovation at the end of the show. With what could be perceived as a misty eye, he said, “It felt like coming home.”

short formal dresses australia

Candice Swanepoel has a gorgeous body. This we know from her various runway struts. But her visage is also pretty angelic. Candice Swanepoel’s face graces Maxim’s cover for March 2015, heralding a new, more women-friendly era for the men’s mag. While your brother, or whichever males in your household subscribe to the publication, will likely miss the sexy, bikini-driven, “OMG! Look at how hot she is!” covers of yore, Maxim is seeking to expand its audience by being less like a PG-13 rated skin mag.

Will it work? Well, that remains to be seen, given Maxim’s past. Besides all of the hawt chicks that filled the pages, a lot of the editorial was crazy funny. I used to read my boyfriend’s copy all the time and I laughed at the quips and also marveled at the female form. There’s no shame in that.

New editor Kate Lanphear actually feels the same about women’s bodies in magazines, but she is making some sweeping changes and is upscaling. Will she bridge the gap? Corral a more discerning female reader?

Again, only time will reveal whether this daring overhaul succeeds or fails.

QueenieAustralia black bridesmaid dresses

But this up close and personal shot of Swanepoel’s face certainly steals your breath with its beauty. Her baby blues, her come hither stare, and the way she gingerly bites on her hair and her finger are all mile-markers of supreme sexiness, proving that being oiled up in a bikini isn’t the sole way to be considered a hottie. It’s one of many!

While this image, which touts the model as the most desirable woman in the world, does look a bit standardized, in terms of that which you’d see on the cover of an art mag or of women’s fashion mags, the element of mystery is undeniably there. Why is Swanepoel so desirable? Well, you’ll have to flip through the pages to find out. The answer is not given away in a sultry, full-body cover shot.

I’d say that Swanepoel has a heart of gold, too, since her jeans line helps benefit HIV-positive mothers in her native Africa. And there are also other suggestive and amazing shots of the model in the spread. So there are layers to this new era of Maxim, but readers (of ALL genders) can still gawk at gorgeous women if they so choose.

In her editor’s letter for the issue, Lanphear addressed the changes she had to make, but her specific reference to the Swanepoel cover reveals her intentions in her new role and can be the basis for which subscribers decide to cancel or renew.

She wrote, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it’s also in the eye of the beheld. If you’re not sure what I mean, spend a minute looking at our cover image of the irresistible Ms. Swanepoel, shot by legendary photographer Gilles Bensimon. Sweet, playful, and confident in her own skin — and stripped of excess makeup or retouching — she is a perfect choice to kick off a whole new chapter for Maxim.”

The EIC also noted in her letter that her job is a tough one, given the digital age, and that she is aiming high, writing, “…reimagining the U.S.’s most widely read men’s magazine for an era when glossy pages are increasingly being upstaged by smartphones, and silicone-filled pinups have ceded the limelight to a more authentic, self-possessed — if no less gorgeous — generation of women.”

Lanphear knows she is competing for the attention of men and those who are constantly plugged in, so perhaps that’s why she chose to go so artful with the Swanepoel cover.

It’s certainly a challenge, but I think she’s up for it.

QueenieAustralia long formal dresses

At first glance, the fashion blog “Fabologie” looks no different than masses of other fashion blogs, with surveys of collections by luxury labels like Chanel, Celine and Burberry, a piece on the five best items of the season, a post on the military fashion trend and, of course, photos of women from various fashion shows and red-carpet events. But look just a little closer and you see that this blog is something quite different.

“Meet autumn’s chic-modest go-to: oversized knit + midi skirt,” writes the blogger, inviting readers to a special event at Rebecca Minkoff’s flagship store in Soho, New York, where a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. “What better way to kick-off the Hanukkah season than retail therapy laced with benevolence?,” she asks.

There is also a piece about the modest and fashionable looks worn by various celebrities recently, and another one on the weekly Torah portion in which she urges readers to discover a new appreciation for all the aspects of our lives (including shoes!).

yellow formal dresses for women

Welcome to the blog of Adi Heyman, an Orthodox Jew who has become the avant-garde of modest but lively fashion, and is introducing a new kind of fashion discourse in which the word tzniut (modesty) is a keystone. Heyman’s blog is aimed at modern Orthodox women who want to look fashionable without deviating from the strict rules of tzniut: knees, elbows and clavicles covered. The blog has already become a model for others of its kind, and Heyman herself is sought after by fashion magazines and blogs on street fashion, which photograph her frequently – in maxi dresses or midi skirts, in blouses with sleeves that cover the elbows, and in a blonde wig (with brown roots).

Heyman, 31, lives in New York and works in styling as a personal shopper. She was born Amber Fuller to a Christian family in San Antonio, Texas. When she was a teenager, the whole family, seeking a deeper connection with spirituality, converted to Judaism and moved to Miami to join that city’s Jewish community. In Miami, Amber changed her name.

Later on she moved to New York, where she majored in English in college, got married, began working as an assistant to a fashion and lifestyle editor, and discovered that the fashion world and the Jewish world don’t necessarily connect very easily: She worked in the fashion world but didn’t socialize much with her colleagues. Keeping kosher, she didn’t eat out with them, and on weekends she was home observing Shabbat.

It was practically a no-brainer: Start a blog that would enable her to connect the two worlds more naturally. Fabologie began in 2010 as an anonymous Facebook page on which Heyman posted pictures of fashionable modest clothing, and when that took off, she turned it into a blog. In an online interview, she says she couldn’t understand why no one before her had bridged the gap between high fashion and style, and the Jewish woman. “Fabologie was founded to fill a void, to synthesize the style industry with the Jewish lifestyle. It’s a project of passion based on my own life and experiences being an Orthodox Jew in modern Manhattan. My goal was for Jewish women to have a place to read about runway trends, yom tov [religious festival] menus, and even weekly parsha [Toras portion] through a modest, stylish curation. Fabologie embraces Judaism for all its beauty,” she says.

This attitude is evident in the many photographs of Heyman to be found on the Internet: In oversize Valentino knits, midi dresses, leather jumpers, trench coats and maxi skirts, she looks like a total fashionista. The blonde hair, cool accessories and sunglasses complete the picture. “For myself, I largely have two ways of dressing: I adore romantic maxi dresses and vintage sheaths – a bohemian vibe; I also adore a modern minimalism – fuss-free layers, statement leathers, well-tailored pieces,” she says.

On the blog she introduces trends and highlights items that reflect them. And to this end she also attends fashion shows, goes over photos from designer fashion shoots and collects looks that can pass the tzniut test. “I think fashion as a whole has shifted from a ‘skin is in’ mentality to a more thoughtful, discreet way of dressing,” she says. “Modest fashion has secured a trended spot in most clothing collections. Designers offer maxi dresses and midi skirts in the runway mix, supplying a diversified appeal for all shoppers. European designers tend to favor a more distinguished elegance, and I think this has impacted current designers across the globe.

“I love Rosie Assoulin, The Row, Valentino, Proenza Schouler, Celine, Michael Kors. Season after season, these designers have supplied a steady trendsetting for modesty. The Row favors a conservative cut, Celine resurrected the midi length, Valentino has reinvented the maxi dress, Rosie Assoulin supplies fresh, voluminous silhouettes.” Heyman’s blog is not just about clothes. Now it also includes surveys of accessories, a cooking column, sources of inspiration – along with Jewish subject matter, including the weekly Torah portion. Heyman feels there’s something deeper going on here than the connection being made between the fashion world and a religious lifestyle.

“For me, modesty begins on the inside and is reflected on the outside. It is not about season or trend, but rather a mind-set, a belief and a steadfast devotion. In this superficial world, G-d gives us an inspired opportunity to elevate the sartorial to the spiritual – to infuse meaning in the mundane. I see modesty as a gift.”

In addition to the many designers whom Heyman accords a tzniut seal of approval, the list of celebrities she cites as examples of modest fashionable dressing is not short either. One of them is socialite Olivia Palermo, star of MTV’s “The City.” Heyman is also a fan of stylist Rachel Zoe’s vintage layered look, “which speaks to a lot of Orthodox women.” And then, of course, there’s Kate Middleton and her modest royal style.

This combination of fashion, celebrity and Judaism is working quite well, apparently. Heyman says that Fabologie draws tens of thousands of readers each month, and that’s not the only indication of its success. Inspired by Heyman’s blog, lots of other blogs and websites have sprung up seeking to cover fashion and style icons in a similar modest vein. One of these is the magazine Hadar, launched in the fall of 2013.

The first Hebrew blog to deal with modest fashion, Ha’hatzait (“The Skirt”), began three years ago. “The religious public is going through a revolution,” says Miri Ben-David Levy, the woman behind the blog. “Religious women have always been elegant, they were always conscious of their appearance, largely due to the numerous events they’re always attending – family celebrations, synagogue services and more. But in the past three years there’s been a change. Nowadays, the ultra-Orthodox woman is often a working woman, she is often the breadwinner. Because of this new status she is dressing much better, because she has to take part in meetings and so on, and dress for the workplace.”

Flatter Boutique in Jerusalem is also part of the current trend. Lee Ann and Eli Homick, a couple who made aliya from the United States, opened the shop in Rehavia around Passover last year. “Before I was religious, my self-image was based on appearance,” says Lee Ann. “But as soon as I was more covered up, that sense became increasingly tied to the emphasizing the best parts of me. It’s a kind of female empowerment. It’s a matter of education, of empowerment, of showing women that they can achieve their dreams: in academics, in a career and spiritually. And the clothes they wear should serve them in this.”

white formal dress

Hustlers and flowers. Those might seem like disparate starting points for a collection, but for Adam Lippes, they came naturally. For fall, the photography of Philip-Lorca DiCorcia — which Lippes first saw in the form of his 1993 hustler-portrait exhibit "Strangers," while on a trip to MoMA with his parents — was a central inspiration, as was the floral design company Putnam and Putnam, whose blooms inspired the first prints Lippes has ever done for his eight-season-strong line. “I don’t do theme collections,” said the designer, briskly walking visitors through his bouquet-strewn townhouse at yesterday's presentation. “It’s just about things I love, and Philip’s work touches me. When you look at it, it’s sort of banal. When you really look at it, there’s something a bit subversive. You just have to look more.” He pointed out a white cardigan: "You see a shaggy fur from afar, but it’s ten different yarns and gauges, all hand-knitted," he explained. Or a gray shift dress, which appears to be embroidered with pearls but is actually studded. He fingered fabrics: double-faced merino, satin-backed silk.

formal long dresses

Lippes's concept of "looking more" was also pursued by his fellow journeyman designers Chris Gelinas and Dion Lee. All three make clothes that reward close study. In his show notes, Gelinas dedicated his show, the first-ever runway outing for his label,CG, to “the trades that find fulfillment outside flashes of insta-gratification”; namely, the pattern cutters and garment workers who occupy one of the most crucial and least talked-about parts of the industry, or what he phrased as “the countless hours that exist outside these next fifteen minutes.”

As such, he flew the flag for American commerce (he even had a muted Star-Spangled Banner as the backdrop to the show) with a collection primarily made in New York and heavy on classic sportswear and workwear fabrics: cotton shirtdresses, classic coats and trousers, with many of the looks styled with simple moccasins. Delicately printed fabrics, like a silk windowpane print or a gray checkered wool, helped reinforce the celebration-of-craft angle. Backstage, the designer said, “Sometimes things get very glossed-over, and I think it’s nice to just remember the behind-the-scenes part as well. I’m in factories all day long, and I feel so much more at home there than I do in other elements of the industry.” One imagined he might be referring, here, to the glitzy parties and Kimye Insta-bait moments that have come to dominate this ten-day week.

The Sydney-based Lee relocated his show to New York a few seasons ago, after having shown in London and his home city. His work still feels extremely Aussie, though — marine colors and recurring maritime themes (evident, this season, in netting that draped over his fluid gowns). His work is always body-conscious, and intended for bodies that are taut and Bondi Beach–tanned. For this season, he said, he was “looking at eveningwear silhouettes in a kind of street way.” In particular, he was excited about “taking a fabric like satin, that’s generally quite mature, and doing something kind of cool with it.” In this case, “something kind of cool” meant cutting it on the bias and slashing it, for a deconstructed shredded-to-ribbons effect. From far away, it might look like an ordinary evening gown, but watch it go by up close, and it’s something to behold.

red formal dresses australia

On a slushy Monday afternoon, I took the 6 train downtown to talk to Jade Lai, the founder and designer of Creatures of Comfort, about how the preparations for her runway show were coming along. There were 10 days to go. When I arrived, Lai was standing in front of a mirror barely two paces from the elevator doors, using herself as a fit model and issuing directions to a sewer who was pinning her into a long, brown dress.

Welcome to fashion week!

After a few minutes spent adjusting the waist — it needed to come in slightly — she changed into an oversized men's shirt and trousers to sit down and chat. Lai is not only tall and thin with great taste, but she is also exceptionally chill, even at one of the busiest times of her year.

So, do you usually fit the clothes on yourself?

We have mannequins. A few of us are very tall here with slightly different body shapes. I have broad shoulders and someone else has big hips, so we all kind of try it on to make sure that it kind of would fit.

semi formal dresses online

You've been doing shows for a few years now. Does preparing get easier with each season?

My team has gotten used to putting the show together, so we [got things done] a lot earlier as far as prepping goes. This season we very successfully found a location early, so that was a big relief for us. Now we’re trying to get samples ready. If you were here on Friday we only had five or six things, and then over the weekend we got a lot more. Today we got a huge shipment of sweaters. We’re sewing in the back and doing final fittings.

What’s the concept for this collection?

The concept is the getaway. The idea is kind of a bank robbery/Hawaiian getaway. So there’s the getaway from the robbery, and then there’s the getaway that’s a vacation. It's a lot of menswear, Hawaiian prints, "Bonnie and Clyde."

Talk me through a season. You come up with the concept for the show, and then what?

There’s a lot of research once I come up with an idea. I research old photographs and images and costumes and how things were made, how these stories can all come together. Then there’s a lot of looking at fabrics. I spend at least two weeks every day looking at fabrics. You have to figure out what you’re making, how they fit together. Then you find colors and order fabrics. While you wait for the sample fabric, which takes around two months to come, I start designing silhouettes and working with my pattern maker and sewer making muslin pieces. And then once the real fabric comes — you don’t actually see the fabric [in advance] and it might be a lot thicker — you have to make a lot of corrections. And then you have to piece all of those together, figure out details, lengths and certain elements.

I also work with a sweater designer that comes in at the beginning of the season after I pick out the yarns. We do sketches. We work with a lot of overseas manufacturers that way. It seems like it’s easier with overseas because you do a sketch, send then a tech pack and three weeks later they send a complete product.

Do you drape it yourself, or sketch the designs and hand it off?

I recently hired a designer, so I sketch them, and then I tell her everything I want to do and she re-sketches that and then it goes to the pattern maker. But I still work with the fitting maker.

Because you operate two stores and retail your own products, in addition to other designers', do you feel like you're merchandising in advance when designing a collection?

Yeah. There’s not a lot of time to premeditate what will be produced when we’re putting the show together, but I definitely try to merchandise it so that we know it will be sellable. Because for other buyers, they tend to really buy off the runway, so I try to always figure out what’s sellable. Some pieces we make will never go into the shop because we use very expensive fabrics for big silhouettes. Once I mark it up for wholesale it would be too expensive.

You said you found your venue earlier than usual. When did you lock it in?

End of November. It worked out. Last season we found the perfect venue for our last show. It was so beautiful, and it didn’t work out. I booked it four months ahead, and I was like, "This is it, I know this is it." [But] last minute I had to go to a venue that was boring to me. I wasn’t so happy with last season’s. It’s a whole experience, and if I’m paying so much money and doing a show, I want everything to be perfect.

Location-wise, do you feel an obligation to show where everyone else does?

In the past, especially when I started showing, I tried to stay in the area that I knew all the editors will be in, like Chelsea by Milk [Studios]. But as I’m doing more and more and have been doing this for longer, I think maybe it’s okay for me to find something special. The people that care will come. It’s not like I want the whole village to come. I want the special people who really care about the collection to feel like it’s a special, unique experience.

What's your show budget?

I have an idea as far as how much I pay for the venue, casting, models, stylists, but sometimes I don’t even know so much. I have some sort of budget in mind. It’s a lot. That’s why sponsorship is important. Because it’s a Hawaiian bank robber theme [this season], we looked into surveillance companies and Hawaiian airlines and macadamia nuts. We try to find companies that make sense to pair up with and help with promoting.

[The budget] is not, like, $100,000. We’re still a small company. When we do a production run we have to front all this money to produce then we have to wait for it to sell in the store. It’s stressful. The designers we work with always need to get paid at the same time and we’re paying for that.

What's a producer's role in all of this?

She basically deals with location. Basically what she does is make sure the show happens. She communicates with the location people, the lighting, once I have music figured out she comes up with a schedule, the seating, making sure everybody has everything they need for the show like monitors and headphones. Working with my team as far as how many dressers we need, backstage coordinator, craft service.

Right, all the stuff that needs to be there. Then what does your PR team do?

They distribute invites and make sure editors and VIPs get invited. Seating charts. Check-ins at front of house.

When are you casting it?

My casting this season is Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so a few days before the show. You can’t cast too early because the girls aren’t in town. Then we have to do looks — so Thursday and Friday it’s me and my stylist putting our looks together. Then we cast the girls, and then do fittings two days before the show.

Are you doing sales yourself at this point, too, or are you working on the collection entirely?

I don’t really do the day-to-day anymore. I have an operations manager, so she oversees it. I have meetings with every department all the time, but my focus is really on design now. I have a meeting with [the sales team], so they brief me on what’s going on.

When did you separate the two?

Pretty recently. I was still very on top of things until the past two or three seasons when we seriously started showing the collection. I kind of am easing out of buying for the store as well.

What changed that made you make that transition?

It’s a lot of work. And I get more excited making the collection than I do looking at others'. There are still designers I’m still very excited to see, especially European ones and some New York designers, like Mona [Kowalska, of A Détacher] for example, who is still very fresh and interesting. But after a while I think a lot of things sort of start looking the same.

For your own brand, what's the sales breakdown between wholesale and what you sell in your own store?

I think it fluctuates. We have two stores and an online store, and we’ll potentially be opening a new store this year. We’re not in any department stores, but we’re hoping to get bigger accounts because they can support our production. But we're our own biggest buyer of our brand. I’d say that 30 to 40 percent is from other stores, and then the rest is ours.

When you were buying, did you let your own line dictate how you bought from other brands?

Not so much at the beginning, but now that the collection is bigger, yeah. There are definitely designers I love whom I work with, but I’m trying to find things that won’t compete so much with our own line. I’m afraid that once we’re mostly Creatures of Comfort people won't want to come to the store.

What are your thoughts on doing resort and pre-fall?

We haven’t started doing those seasons, but we are thinking about maybe doing resort. I don’t really believe in pre-fall because as a retailer I know pre-fall is really... it’s still really hot and people are still buying for summer. People really ship in June/July, so it doesn’t make sense; it’s really early, but then people still want to [buy] summer and bathing suits.

I don’t think that’s a very important collection, but I could see how resort makes sense because resort drops around November, so people are getting ready for vacation or a lot of people are doing 'buy now, wear now,' so maybe it’s colder stuff. It can sit in the store for longer. It comes in store at the end of November and then you don’t have to put it on sale until the end of May, so I think for buyers it’s a lot for their buck. They break for summer sale in May, and because resort is lighter stuff they can keep it on the floor for longer.

To what extent do you design toward what's going to sell really well?

I feel like everybody designs that way. You’re not in art school anymore. Even before doing the collection, we know what our customer wants and who our women are. I do definitely design certain things, like a bestselling dress — something that can look good on every body type. It doesn't have to be anything that’s trite, but we think about all the different kinds of woman that can wear it. Usually something simple is the right thing.

What have you learned sells best for you?

Big, baggy things. Pants have been starting to sell really well. We do a lot of high-waisted things, so it flatters a lot of bodies.

When do the stress points fall in your year?

The stress points are now-ish and January, February, because that’s when everyone wants to ship their new season, then also August.

Do you get social at all during fashion week?

I don’t know. I feel like I need to train myself to be more social. But I’m old, you know? I just want to read and take naps. I do get more social, I guess, because a lot of my friends are in town and I have to see them — a lot of my L.A. friends especially.

formal dress shops in sydney

When Ayse Ildeniz looks at the world, she sees all the ways technology could make it better.

She envisions wearable devices that keep elderly women in close touch with their doctors and families, that track what kids eat or watch on TV while their mom is away at work, that help women in rural India make sure their children arrive safely at school.

“I can think of about 50 different uses for wearables that would be fantastic for women,” she says, “but we haven’t done it yet as an industry. My humble view is that we women have been ignored. It’s my sense that now everybody’s pretty much waking up to that, which is very, very exciting.”

As the vice president of Intel’s INTC New Devices Group and general manager of business and development strategy, Ildeniz—who defines her job as “exploring uncharted territories and trying to create things that don’t exist”—is one of several leaders who are tackling the women-and-wearables challenge wrist-first.

long red formal dress

In the last few months, she’s guided Intel’s efforts to release a jewelry communications device (MICA), to develop a wearables chip for fashion designers (Curie), and to forge partnerships with prominent fashion brands. “For me, wearables is a wonderful opportunity to learn about women’s needs,” she says, “and to make sure technology companies are producing things that are defined and designed for women.”

Part of the reason women haven’t embraced wearables sooner, according to Ildeniz, stems from visual appeal—or, more specifically, a lack of it. In late 2013 and throughout 2014, she says two kinds of wearables ruled the category: those devoted to sports and fitness but with limited aesthetic value, and those with multiple uses (“I call them the Swiss army knife approach”) with, again, limited aesthetic value.

When Intel surveyed men and women in early 2014, the company discovered something interesting. People said they wanted their wearables not only to perform technical acrobatics, but also to look great. “It was probably the biggest surprise in our research,” Ildeniz says, “but it’s so no-brainer.”

That’s when Ildeniz’s group, led by former Apple APPL vice president Mike Bell, got to work on MICA. They teamed up with fashion designers from Opening Ceremony to create My Intelligent Communication Accessory, which hit Barneys stores in December. It sells for $495 and looks like an upscale bracelet, but it also sends notifications, loads calendar entries and trades text messages.

Ildeniz says collaborations between fashionistas and engineers are the key to developing wearable tech that women actually want to wear. On MICA, for instance, she recalls that Intel’s engineers thought the display should sit on top, like a watch face. But their fashion counterparts argued for a hidden underside screen, insisting that their customers wanted camouflaged functionality—a wearable no one would recognize as such.

“That was shocking for our technologists,” she adds. “Our engineers were like, ‘Well, are you sure?’ But it was fantastic feedback.”

That’s why Ildeniz thinks designer-engineer teams are so important: they can fill in each other’s knowledge gaps. But Intel’s also working on closing that gap, at least on the fashion side. They have a Curie chip in the works, named after the famous scientist and due out later this year. It’s a button-sized hardware module, small enough to fit in rings or purses or pendants, and Ildeniz says it will encourage fashion designers, entrepreneurs and the accessory industry writ large to design wearables without needing their own engineers.

The New Devices Group is also working on collaborations with Fossil—reportedly a smartwatch—and Luxottica, including a smart glasses project for the Oakley brand. Beyond aesthetics, Ildeniz says her team is focused on the particular uses women have for their devices—things like communication with friends and family—with each project. “If you’re into sports, it’s wonderful to know how many steps you’ve done during the day,” she adds. “But if you’re not, what is the purpose of this thing?”

Ildeniz believes wearables can truly help women in ways they actually need: checking on their children, taking medication, managing their schedule and workloads. “There are so many opportunities out there, and part of my job is deciding which ones to bet on,” she says. “That’s a lot of responsibility, and we have a lot of open dialogue to ensure we’re making the right decisions.”

But at this point, Ildeniz is used to making big choices and working at the cutting edge of technology. Before she joined the New Devices Group in 2013, she was the regional director of Intel’s Middle East, Turkey and Africa region for 10 years. Working with Bell, Ildeniz helped create devices—including Yolo, a smartphone for Africa—“designed for the people, particularly for their needs,” she says. “Over there, the technology really doesn’t matter if it doesn’t enrich people’s lives.”

“There is no category defined yet, or existing for that matter,” Ildeniz adds, referring to her current role with the New Devices Group. “It’s very exciting to be a maverick.”

vintage inspired bridesmaid dresses