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The fashion scene in Oxford doesn’t attract much public attention. We don’t have the established legacy of a fashion show like Cambridge, or any haute couture shops – for obvious reasons. And yet, when we think of Oxonians through the fashion lens, we see three vibrant categories emerge. Through this typology, understanding the strange place that is Oxford, and its even stranger inhabitants, has never been easier.
First category: those who don’t know what looks good or bad and don’t care. They’ll probably be wearing a pink shirt under a dark green tweed jacket just like that girl you met at interview who didn’t get in. Second category: your ‘person-next-door’, those who look like they dressed up as Bob the Builder one day for school when they were five, thought it was cute and haven’t really changed style since. You’ll typically see them wearing a white Zara top under a green Zara shirt. They probably spent their summer holidays across Europe going from one friend’s house to another, networking their way through Goldman Sachs-employed parents. Their style is as bland as their personalities – although they don’t really care because they’re the kind of people who would argue that their bright career prospects are a definite alternative to a personality like yours: flamboyant and anticipating perpetual unemployment as optimistically as you can because, let’s face it, you study English.
Then you have the ones who care, enticingly enigmatic until you realise they’re really quite shallow. These people are conscious of the faux pas which those in the first category are unknowingly guilty of but rather than avoiding these no nos, they reclaim them. It’s sad to think that by competing to see who can look most edgy, they all end up looking the same. It comes to the point where the naked eye can no longer dissociate their pink socks from their yellow tops (which, let’s be honest, could as much have come from Urban Outfitters as from Octavia Foundation): it’s just one huge blob of colour, bum bags and the odd fishnet socking, like a cobweb in an abundant garden. These people go to Cellar every Thursday without exception. They live and die by Bullingdon. They have never been to a single Bridge Thursday.
Still, at the end of the day, we’re all quite jealous of these people. They may all look and sound the same, tied up in a co-dependent network of edginess which culminates in emotionally stunted debauchery at Notting Hill Carnival every year, but deep down we envy their ability to back themselves on even the most headache-inducing outfits and managing to come across as in control. As the icing on the cake the attention their clothes draw means they’re rich in a currency more valuable than the happiness, blissful fashion ignorance and career prospects of others: they get Oxloves.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses | http://www.marieaustralia.com/short-formal-dresses-australia
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SCOTTISH designer and rising star Ryan Cowie creates power clothing designed for the confident woman.
Born and raised in Aberdeen, Cowie started his eponymous label during his third year of university in the city. He began creating clothing in his bedroom – where he continues to produce his designs.
Despite having only been on the scene for three years, his talents have already been recognised by leading experts in the fashion industry.
After graduating in 2015, he was nominated for Scottish Design Graduate of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards. While he didn’t win, he has fond memories of the event – including seeing his favourite fashion designer and fellow Scot Christopher Kane.
For his work, Cowie has spent hours researching history, mythology, sci-fi and religious texts; this allows him to discover lesser-known female characters who may have been shunned for their power and confidence.
Taking his research further, he then focuses his attention on capturing the character and personality of the female powerhouses, with previous inspirations including magic-practicing Japanese Queens.
Reflecting on his approach, Cowie says: “Its become apparent to me that female characters in mythology or religion are always much deeper than simply being saints or sinners.”
To develop his designs, Cowie incorporates finer details associated with selected characters including architecture, plants or colour.
“I love seeing all the different ways I can structure women’s bodies with clothing to enhance or warp their silhouette, and how that affects the first impression they give to other people,” he says.
Cowie’s latest collection is inspired by 1920s German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr Calgari.
The black-and-white abstract film focuses on the idea of letting negative emotions and trauma take over to bring out the darker side of a person.
The collection includes asymmetrical corsets, hamburg-striped bodysuits and jumpers with oversized sleeves. For a bit of villainous glamour, Cowie included a Cruella De Vil-style fur coat.
Moving forward forward to spring/summer 2018, the label’s upcoming collection is set to contrast with the dark-natured autumn/winter 2017 range.
He has hinted that it will feature bright colours and flowers.
Cowie says: “My plans for the future really just involve working as hard as I can and trying to fulfil my dreams of dressing an army of women so that they can take on the world and conquer their goals.
“I’m not at all here to lead women, just support them in the best way I can because that’s what they’ve always done for me!”
Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/bridesmaid-dresses | http://www.marieaustralia.com/short-formal-dresses-australia
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For almost as long as he can remember, entrepreneur and designer Jerome Dahan has had his finger on the pulse of the denim world — initially as a teenager in Montreal when he fashioned his first pair of jeans, then as a game-changing designer for major labels such as Lucky Brand and Guess in the ’80s and ’90s.
As the co-founder of Seven for All Mankind, Dahan pioneered premium denim with his signature five-pocket jeans in 1999, before delving deeper into the contemporary market with the launch of Citizens of Humanity four years later, perfecting the super-stretch skinny jean along the way. Yet 40 years on, the Paris-born, L.A.-based Dahan still wakes up with a renewed passion for his industry.
“As soon as I get to the office, I start looking at fabrics and call the wash house to work on new washes and new developments,” says Dahan, who’s channeling that energy into his latest denim-driven line, Jean Atelier, in tandem with longtime collaborator and designer Noam Hanoch. “I get excited.”
Featuring elevated denim paired with luxury sportswear pieces, the ready-to-wear label draws from Dahan’s denim background and Hanoch’s designer sensibility in equal measure. Priced from $425 to $1,875, the inaugural fall collection includes such diverse looks as silk bombers with delicate lace insets, embroidered denim dresses and jumpsuits, smartly tailored trousers and the highly popular Flip jean — a chic nod to the ’80s with a high-rise, turned-down waistband.
Carried by Barneys New York, Moda Operandi, Forward by Elyse Walker and other retailers, Jean Atelier’s first collection was quickly snapped up in pre-sale orders.
“It’s not hard to make a five-pocket jean and work with a factory that’s been working with us for the past 20 years — and laundries with good washes,” says Dahan, who championed L.A.’s denim production facilities in the 1990s, when other major labels moved their manufacturing abroad. “To be creative takes much more than that. That’s what Noam and I did with Jean Atelier.”
The two met in 2003 at a trade show in Las Vegas, where Dahan was debuting the first Citizens of Humanity collection and Hanoch was showing his contemporary line, NH Collection, in neighboring booths. “My schooling was a lot of draping, which Jerome wanted to marry into denim. He felt that was missing,” explains Hanoch, who cut his sartorial teeth as an intern at Geoffrey Beene under Alber Elbaz, and restoring dresses for the Costume Institute at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Dahan offered him a job on the spot as the creative director of his fledgling L.A. denim brand, where Hanoch remained for the next 11 years until 2014, when he launched his namesake, ready-to-wear dress line. “I felt like this was my time to do my dresses and the more intricate things I have always had a passion for,” Hanoch says.
In 2016, Dahan approached Hanoch once again, this time with a new denim concept, based on his finely tuned observations of the ever-changing industry. “The denim market was driven by skinny jeans for the last few years,” says Dahan, who saw an opportunity to introduce a new, more fashion-forward spin on the beloved wardrobe staple.
Reunited and working in a studio tucked away in the corner of the Citizens of Humanity’s sprawling production facility in Huntington Park, the duo, along with Dahan’s wife and brand manager, Elsa, envisioned the line.
“I have a more feminine instinct, while there’s a certain relaxed nature to denim that’s very attractive to Jerome,” says Hanoch about their design approach.
In terms of price, they positioned Jean Atelier between the contemporary and designer market. Fast fashion, Hanoch says, is not the brand’s culture.
“We feel strongly that there is this person looking for something really compelling and of high quality,” he says, gesturing toward a beautifully embroidered denim blouse for the spring 2018 collection. “It takes a day to embroider one of these pieces. There is a real space that has been created in this market for something more elevated and special.”Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/white-formal-wear | www.marieaustralia.com/black-formal-dresses
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Fashionistas went for big, outlandish headwear and bold outfits at the New Zealand Trotting Cup Day in Christchurch.
Women from across the country took to the stage over five heats vying for top honours at the coveted Style Stakes fashion competition.
First-time entrant Katie Parish, 39, glided through the heats to take out the title of Best Dressed Lady with an outfit she designed herself.
"I'm a wee bit shocked, I didn't anticipate winning at all, I feel very privileged" the Christchurch mother said of her win.
Parish wasn't afraid to think outside of the box when creating her outfit, utilising recycled material. The dress was made with curtain material and the handbag was a couch cushion.
"I looked at my couch cushion [Monday night] and thought it would work nicely with my dress, so I sewed it into a bag."
The striking orange floral headpiece was a bespoke design by Christchurch's couture milliner Seventh and Figg.
Parish was joined on stage by fellow Cantabrian and Best Dressed Man Gunther Rowe, who has entered the competition for the fourth year in a row.
"I won the first year I entered, then I had a lull, so it's good to be back," Rowe said.
Picking the winning man and woman were stylists Luke Bettesworth, and Jackie O'Fee, along with The Hit's radio DJ Paul Flynn.
Bettesworth was blown away by the competitor's attention to detail, saying he'd never seen a higher standard of dress at the show.
The popular body art contest was won by Design and Arts College student Daisy Tait. She took home the Body Art Overall Winner award with the help of model Zoe Phillips.
Tait's tutor, Angela Pethig, encouraged her to enter. Pethig also competed and won the ZM Blend In, Stand Out Winner body art division.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-2017-online | http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dress-shops-perth
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A few hours before presenting at Lagos Fashion and Design Week last month, Papa Oyeyemi was stopped by a street style photographer. Dressed in a red slogan T-shirt with a fanny pack strapped to his back, the designer could have easily been mistaken for one of the carefree hipster kids milling around outside of the tents on Victoria Island. His deeply furrowed brow and faraway expression, however, belonged to a man with bigger things on his mind. “I always get so anxious before a show,” he said, shifting nervously from foot to foot. “I just wonder, ‘What will people make of my clothes?’ ”
His label Maxivive has a reputation for polarizing the Nigerian fashion community, pushing an idea of minimalism and androgyny that turns traditional menswear tropes upside down and inside out. One item in his new collection—a pair of tailored gray slacks-cum-chaps—ignited a firestorm of negative feedback on Twitter, with hundreds of commenters voicing their outrage at his subversive take on the 9-to-5 dress code. “It made me happy that there was one person who actually noticed the functional aspect of the look,” said Oyeyemi without the slightest hint of irony. “There’s actually a clip in the back that’s designed to hold a button-down in place when a man sits down.”
Practical or not, his clothes are certainly compelling conversation starters. Beyond the flamboyant showpieces in the lineup—sequin trousers, thigh-high sock boots, and sheer drawstring pants decorated with floral embellishments and images of the Virgin Mary, for example—there was suiting reworked in ways both subtle and ingenious. One blazer in his new collection appeared to be layered up like a set of Russian dolls; another came cinched at the waist with a neatly knotted tie. As a psychology major, the designer has a habit of embedding subliminal messages in his collections, and many of the looks were trimmed with his twisted affirmations, including one that read: “I did not wake up like this, this is how I look now.”
“The debate around gender fluidity is just beginning to open up in Nigeria,” said Oyeyemi. “I wanted to explore that with this new collection, but I didn’t want to come off as cliché. It’s not about putting a man in a woman’s wardrobe.” His version of the boundary-breaking aesthetic is arguably more nuanced. Though the opening look—an asymmetrical gray suit with a midi-length skirt—might have read feminine in a Western context, the reference was rooted in traditional Nigerian menswear, namely the baggy trousers worn under the wide-sleeved robe known as an agbada in Yoruba. “I try where I can to break new ground,” he said. “You have to be a disruptor to encourage growth, mess up the structure of things a bit.”
Having founded his label 10 year ago at the tender age of 15, Oyeyemi has been shaking up the West African fashion system for quite some time now. He scrapped the Western notion of seasons four years ago, renaming his Spring 2013 collection Harmattan 2013, after the dry season on the West African subcontinent that occurs between November and March. Fall 2013 then became known as Wet 2013 to align with the region’s rainy months. Lagos fashion insiders scoffed at the idea at first, but eventually many followed suit. And though his collections often receive mixed reviews at home, he’s gained international recognition, showing at South Africa’s Menswear Week earlier this year with an upcoming exhibit at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam in the near future. “People tell me I should move my business to Paris, but I’m happy working out of my studio in Lagos,” he said. “I might be ahead of my time right now, but I can see that there’s a shifting happening. People will catch up in time.”Read more at:www.marieaustralia.com/backless-formal-dresses | www.marieaustralia.com/one-shoulder-formal-dresses
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At a big and ritzy Halloween party in New York two Saturdays ago, a lot of highly famous people dressed up as other highly famous people. Naomi Campbell, however, went as herself. Why deign to masquerade as some lesser being when you are already an internationally acknowledged apogee of fabulousness? In a gold strapless mini dress and a crown bigger than the one Beyoncé wore at the Grammys, the 47-year-old supermodel was approached by more than one party guest who had come in costume as Naomi Campbell.
When we meet, Halloween itself, we are in the restaurant of a downtown Manhattan hotel and one of us has been here a lot longer than the other. It would have been disappointing, bewildering even, if Campbell were punctual. Extreme lateness has become part of her notoriety, her mythos of supreme divadom. One hour and 27 minutes after the scheduled time, she swoops in, the full force of her, in giant sunglasses and on the phone, flanked by an assistant smiling apologies. Does she want anything? Coffee, water? “No. I just want to start,” she says, sitting down and stressing the last word by giving the table a brisk rap with manicured fingertips.
She acknowledges the homages with smooth queenliness. “Every Halloween, I’m very honoured and flattered to see many Naomis,” she says in a coy, Cool Britannia voice that floats somewhere between Streatham and Notting Hill, both south-London-gal-at-the-back-of-a-bus and posh-lady-taking-tea. “When I came to New York and went to my first Christopher Street parade, I saw many Naomis.” And, in conclusion: “I embrace them all.”
This is how it begins, then, with Campbell seemingly in character as one of the imperious women she plays on the small screen. She is vampish, predatory Camilla Marks in Lee Daniels’s hip-hop drama series Empire, a character who had a particularly fine coital moment yanking on the gold chains of a besotted, shirtless Hakeem Lyon (23-year-old Bryshere Yazuan Gray) to intone: “Tell me who am I to you.” (“My mama,” he answers, in a whisper.) She was also Claudia Bankson, a shade-throwing Vogue editor on the cult FX show American Horror Story. Finally, she plays Rose Spencer-Crane in the new show Star, the petulant wife of a rock star and a woman who descends upon working-class Atlanta swathed in designer clothes to deliver lines such as: “You have bad roots, you insolent hussy.”
These characters are all delicious to watch, but they are united by cartoonish hauteur. As I ask Campbell about this acting phase of her life, one facet of a highly visible career resurgence, she taps away at a text, peering distractedly at her phone for the response. I seem to be getting an act, all three roles in one. Over the next 40 minutes, however, she turns into a human being. And not just a human being, a likable one.
“Put it this way,” she says, sliding the phone away and launching into a motor-mouthed monologue. “Everything I’ve had, I’ve worked for. And I will never take the easy way to get anything. So I’m grateful to Lee [Daniels] – I’m a grafter and I work hard at something for the long term. I don’t believe in things that happen overnight. I’m grateful not to have gotten it all because I think I would have lost it all. I came into everything so young.” In 1996, a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday, her first ever shoot landed her on the cover of British Elle. “I’m grateful for the way my path has turned out. And I am very spiritual, I do believe in God, and I thank God every day for my blessings because I know I am blessed.”
This is a bit of a surprise. Religion is “not something I share, really,” she smiles. Campbell, who was raised by a single mother, lights a candle every day for the man she calls “grandfather” – Nelson Mandela. She feels herself to be in spiritual communication with him. “Constantly. He may not be here on the physical plane, but he’s here, and I feel him.” She admits that she “never quite understood what Mr Mandela said to me when I was younger. I’m understanding a bit more now: ‘I will “speak up for those who are unable to speak for themselves” if I can.’”
Now, in her 40s, she’s finding “a different richness of life”, which includes being able to heed that advice. “I’m more comfortable in my skin than I’ve ever been, but that’s only come because I know I have to share it. I will always be open to any young model – black, white, yellow, pink – I want to share what I’ve learned in this business. And not just to models, to women. If I can empower them, teach them anything I’ve learned in these 31 years, I will do so. Everyone who knows me knows; you call me, I’m there. Help, advice, anything.”
Campbell has made history since the start of her career. In 1988, she became the first ever black woman to appear on the cover of French Vogue. She, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista formed a supermodel unit nicknamed “the Trinity” and the latter two once chided Dolce & Gabbana: “If you don’t take Naomi, you don’t get us.” Campbell is conscious of the great power she holds within the industry now and takes her responsibility as an advocate seriously. Four years ago she formed the Diversity Coalition with fellow black models Bethann Hardison and Iman. “The three of us said: ‘OK, we’re gonna be the ones to come out at the forefront for the models, we have nothing to lose.’ It’s getting better, but there are still things we have to remind people of. It’s not a fight, it’s not a confrontation; it’s a reminder, a friendly reminder.”
Campbell defined the era of the 90s supermodel, of the untouchable, va-va-voom glamour epitomised by flashy fashion houses such as Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Saint Laurent. But 2017 presents a different fashion paradigm, one in which Instagram is a more important medium than the runway, relatability is privileged over high-handedness, and the term “off duty” has become an aspirational aesthetic. The term does not apply here. In 2007, Campbell wore couture to mop floors in a sanitation department garage as community service for throwing a BlackBerry at her former housekeeper. On the last day, she emerged in a silver-sequined Dolce & Gabbana gown, to the hysterical delight of waiting paparazzi. She has never not known how to work it.
“Working it”, however, extends far beyond a famous runway walk and turning out impeccably high fashion looks. It also includes an ability to transmute terrible behaviour into a kind of glamorous myth or, as one might say these days, a compelling personal brand. Campbell has been convicted of assault on four occasions and in 2008, she pleaded guilty to attacking two police officers at Heathrow airport.
This side of her – the violence, rage and substance abuse – is usually depicted as her “dark side”, like some fairytale moralistic counterpoint to her beauty, fame, and wealth. The truth is, the bad behaviour seems only to have enhanced her legend. As Daniels recently told the New York Times in a profile of his star: “She showed up to the shoot three hours late. The limousine door opened and she came out like Cruella de Vil. And I was screaming at her at the top of my lungs at the audacity of coming that late to my set, and she was screaming back at me. I fired her on the spot and fell in love with her there and then.”
In 1999, Campbell entered rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction and she says now that she, “took on my shit and learned from it. I try to move on. But there are certain times when people try to use your past to blackmail you, to benefit them. That shit I’m not going to allow.” Her offences are simply fact, but I wonder, too, if past decades subjected her to the ugly stereotype of the ‘angry black woman’, one which even the highest in the land face. (As former first lady Michelle Obama told Oprah Winfrey in an interview last year: “That was just one of those things that you just sort of think, ‘Dang, you don’t even know me.’”) Maybe we are finally approaching a cultural moment in which the figure of a highly assertive, ambitious and phenomenally successful black woman is widely recognised as not just aspirational, but politically vital, too.
In August, Campbell posted a photograph on Instagram of British Vogue’s editorial staff under outgoing editor Alexandra Shulman. All 55 faces in the picture are white. She wrote: “Looking forward to an inclusive and diverse staff now that @edward_enninful is the editor.” Enninful, an old friend of hers, is the first man and the first black person to edit British Vogue. He has lambasted what he calls “the Sloanies’ club” of the magazine’s old guard and his shake-up included the appointment of Campbell as a contributing editor.
“I’ve no disrespect for the past staff at all,” she says. “None. I have gratitude and graciousness to Lucinda Chambers, who was very important in my early career. But let’s support the next generation.” And now, suddenly, she is blazing with fury, her greenish eyes shooting heat across the table. “I’m not pleased at how he [Enninful] has been treated. I’ve been in this business for 31 years, I’ve seen editors come and go, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. I find it racist. And I will not stand by and let people attack him in this way.” (Shulman, appearing to take aim at Enninful, recently wrote that editing was, “certainly not a job for someone … who thinks that the main part of their job is being photographed in a series of designer clothes with a roster of famous friends”.)
“Let the work speak for itself,” says Campbell. “He has worked in this business for many years, that’s why he got the job, fair and square. And to see all this stuff come out is appalling. England should be ashamed. Support your own. And be happy that there’s going to be a new generation, a new Vogue. I’ve been appalled. I’ve been appalled.” She repeats the word two more times, with emphasis. “It’s like a vendetta and it should stop. And I want you to say those words as I say them. I take it as racial abuse. I take it as that. It’s not fair.”
This moment of fury fades as rapidly as it arrived and soon she is chatting happily about frying fish with comedian Dave Chappelle in his down-home Ohio kitchen, or DJing for old friends. “You see me as this girl on the runway with poise, grace and yadda yadda ya, but if I’m having a good time, I want everyone else to have a good time. I’m happy because I’m based in truth, that’s it. I’m being honest to my morals. As I said, I’m loyal: you fuck me and I’m done with you.” She laughs, then rephrases this more delicately: “If I get hurt, I wish them the best, I close the door and I move on.”
She admits that she is reluctant to allow new people into her life, “but when I meet someone and it’s real and special I can see it”. For many years, though, she didn’t always see it. “I was in my drinking, partying days, I wasn’t seeing it clearly. I see it more clearly now. Doing this job now for British Vogue, I get to see what the next generation is doing and [I’m] just hanging out in sneakers and jeans, and having fun.”
Wait, wait. Sneakers and jeans? From the woman who made a couture event out of community service? “Yeah, that’s how I roll,” she laughs. “Kate [Moss] and I used to wear our night dresses out in the 90s and put on our sneakers and go out and I’ve gone back to that.” Right now, she is low-key cosy in a blazer from Supreme, a plaid shirt from a friend, Alaïa leggings and Saint Laurent boots. “I dress how I feel,” she says, shrugging. And today that’s quite straightforward: “Easy. Comfortable. It’s cold!” she laughs.
Now she has a plane to catch. When she stands up to leave, she gives me a warm hug, then shoots me a contrite and beseeching look, and murmurs: “And excuse me for being late.” And maybe I shouldn’t, but I absolutely do.Read more at:www.marieaustralia.com/purple-formal-dresses | http://www.marieaustralia.com/princess-formal-gowns
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Europe dominates a list of the most elegant cities in the world, with the fashion capital of Paris taking the top spot.
For the list, online fashion retailer Zalando ranked 80 cities based on three wide themes: fashion factor (fashion scene, fashion schools) urban factor (architecture, cleanliness, tourism) and accessibility (affordability).
Surveys were sent to 5,000 fashion and architecture experts around the world to help whittle down the list.
Overall, the top-ranked cities are all world-class destinations and boast a thriving fashion scene, culturally and historically significant architecture, high tourism desirability, and the wow factor, Zalando says.
“It’s not just the people, but the cities themselves, with their unique architecture and cultural landscapes, that make a destination elegant,” reads the report.
“The secret is that elegance can be achieved with a simple flick of a €2 (RM10) scarf, a picnic in a beautiful, clean park, and a glass of good quality red wine,” the report continues. “Elegance is a question of taste, attitude, and always showing your best side.”
The city that best embodies that natural elegance and sophistication?
That honour goes to Paris, followed by London and Vienna.
The only non-European city to crack the top 10 list is New York, which landed seventh, sandwiched between Barcelona and Bordeaux.
The highest-ranked Asian city is Tokyo (19th) and Canada’s strongest performer is Montreal which landed 31st.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/cheap-formal-dresses | www.marieaustralia.com/sexy-formal-dresses
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From the moment we first began wearing clothing -- very roughly between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago -- certain garments became endowed with special meaning. Whether they represented status, provided identification or served as pure ornamentation, fashion has been able to tell a story.
And so it is with the style of Canada's Aboriginal peoples. But being one of the oldest civilisations on the planet, the wealth of tribal stories and tradition interwoven in native costume has been utilised in high street and high end fashion in ways that has often been deemed inappropriate by Canada's Aboriginal communities.
As a response to this cultural appropriation, a few months ago the first ever Indigenous Fashion Week was held in Vancouver -- an effort by the country's First Peoples to kickstart a reclamation of their heritage.
What Is The History Of Indigenous Culture And Style In Canada?
The history of Aboriginal peoples in Canada stretches back some 14,000 years -- long before the arrival of the first Europeans. And the rich tapestry of unique histories, languages, cultural practices and beliefs from the country's First Peoples is still vibrant. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their striking fashions.
Aboriginal style has been part and parcel of mainstream fashion globally for many years -- native patterns and headdresses have been a staple in pop culture and the pages of fashion magazines for close to a century. But what many non-Indigenous people may not realise is that, while the fashion world has an appetite for native designs, by and large it hasn't been expressed tastefully or respectfully.
High street brands across the globe have utilised traditional dress in their collections, though such dress often has a sacred meaning behind it. And this issue is becoming increasingly controversial.
"Cultural Appropriation is a touchy subject," designer and founder of label EMME and exhibitor at VIFW, Korina Emmerich said. "While I don't feel it comes from racism, I do feel it comes from a place of ignorance. So I urge people to do their research.
"We need to keep the conversation going about why it's not ok to wear a headdress, why it's not ok to call something a 'navajo' print. The more actual Indigenous designers that are represented in fashion, film and media, the more it will be respected."
Growing up in the Yukon Territory, Aboriginal designer Sho Sho Esquiro is very aware of the history that is woven into the clothing she makes.
"My tribe has -- for thousands of years -- survived in the harsh temperatures, this meant of course making our clothes with the highest quality," she said. "Being raised around people who sew and hunters I gained an appreciation and love for the craftsmanship of our textiles, so I'm just carrying on our tradition."
It's this authenticity that contemporary Indigenous fashion highlights. The antithesis of mass-produced, fast-fashion, more and more people are discovering and engaging with these handcrafted native designs.
What Is Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week?
Held in July 2017 in Vancouver, the inaugural Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week(VIFW) was created as a response to cultural appropriation and as a way to show consumers who appreciate native style that they can wear it respectfully, by buying from First Nations designers.
Spanning four days, the fashion event profiled both Aboriginal designers and models -- many of whom were formerly in foster care and are participants of the Pacific Association of First Nations Women's youth camps.
Affiliated with the Puyallup tribe, which is based in Washington state, Emmerich was included In Vancouver's Indigenous Fashion Week to represent the inclusion of all coastal Salish tribes, noting that their ancestral land was without borders.
"I think Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week is incredibly important to highlight Indigenous designers," Emmerich said. "Many designers today are inspired by Indigenous regalia, but often miss the mark on representing it in an appropriate and respectful way.
"Opportunities like VIFW provide a very much needed spotlight on our culture. I feel very honoured to carry on our traditions and culture in a contemporary way. To continue to sew, quill, bead and honour those traditional ways is a way of life for me," Esquiro said.
"I feel that the more our community engages with mainstream media, the more positive effect it will have by creating awareness about culture appropriation, as well as supporting native fashion. Buying from the source is becoming more accessible -- it's an exciting time to be a Indigenous designer and artist!"
Plans are already shaping up to make VIFW an annual event.
Which Designers Should You Look Out For?
Combining the use of natural materials and traditional handicraft methods with a contemporary aesthetic, many of the collections showed at the inaugural VIFW paid tribute to the designers' heritage and ancestral homeland.
Some of the emerging and established labels that to keep an eye on include Emmerich's, EMME line. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Emmerich is one of the more established artists to have designs featured on the Indigenous Fashion Week catwalk. The New York based designer has competed in the U.S 'Project Runway' and shown at Mercedez Benz Fashion Week In New York.
"My personal work is heavily influenced by modern powwow regalia and the bright colours used," Emmerich said. "Plus, how Indigenous craft has inspired modern art today."
Esquiro creates contemporary designs using traditional techniques with recycled textiles and ethically sourced wool, fur and leather. She's also one of the few Canadian Aboriginal fashion designers getting attention internationally, recently becoming the first native designer to take part in the first ever fashion show on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
"Opportunities like this are things that a girl from a small community, like myself, could never dream of," Esquiro said.
Shannon Kilroy's Earthline Fashions is inspired by the traditions and legends of her tribe, the Nlaka'pamux Nation people from southern British Columbia. Born into a family of artists and seamstresses, the colour palette of her designs reflect the landscape of her birthplace and the embellishment of feathers, fringing and embroidery is also a nod to her heritage.
Meanwhile, in menswear, Curtis Oland is a label to look out for. Named 'top emerging talent' at last year's Toronto Men's Fashion Week, Oland draws inspiration from his Lil'wat First Nation heritage.
Where Can You Buy It?
While many of the designers at VIFW are not yet available in mainstream stores, that doesn't mean you can't support them. Find out more below about where you can buy their designs and how to learn more about these inspiring independent brands.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com | http://www.marieaustralia.com/cocktail-dresses-australia
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Can the next generation change the way the fashion industry operates for the better? We’re thinking yes. The future looks bright. On Tuesday night in Sydney, the UTS Fashion class of 2017 showed their graduate collections, before an audience that included Akira Isogawa, award-winning ex-student Kacey Devlin and fashion business insiders.
Sustainability, redefining gender and challenging the meaning of luxury were all on the menu.
“The students are at the end of their degree,” explains honours year co-ordinator Armando Chant. “They already know how to design a jacket or a pant. What we want them to do is bring added value to the industry in terms of their creativity, voice, and ideas on what fashion can be.”
This year’s theme was disruption. “It’s all about enabling students to think about what they’re producing in a very innovative way, and also to provoke the people who are already out there in the fashion space to think differently.”
Alissar Hammoud did it by totally reinventing denim. Alicia Minter Hunt by giving visual voice to “third culture” kids, or “children who have grown up for the majority of their lives in a different culture to that of their parents or passport country.”
Backstage Gina Snodgrass explained of her stand-out ‘Dandy Boys’ collection: “I don’t feel restricted by traditional masculine or feminine forms of dress. I looked at how those gendered dress codes have been created over time, and how they’ve changed. Historically if you look at court portraiture for example the men are always very elaborately dressed.” So she decked out her boys in smocked and beaded shirting and fine wool tailoring bonded with metallic lace. Today the old codes being dismantled, and Snodgrass, having been sponsored by the Australian Wool Education Trust (AWET), is well placed to build new ones in cloth.
Jessica Guzman also looked to the historical with a fresh eye. Her ‘Moral Panic’ collection was inspired by British class tensions. She was thinking about “status change [and] fashion as a tool of empowerment” - fake it till you make it. It was a smart idea, and she explored it with confidence using strong colour and witty print. There was a real feeling for the Zeitgeist here, especially in the sportswear referencing. “I think she hit the nail on the head of what people are really responding to right now” says Chant.
Backstage Lisa Liu explained that she began by looking at “the strong masculine culture of military uniforms and how I could subvert that.” She did so through pop colour and exuberant volume. Think sugar pink! In a tiered puffer coat with emerald green lining cinched with a neon orange tactical vest.
Subtler on a runway but no less interesting was the work of Mikala Tavener Hanks, who embedded one garment inside another to create a trompe l’oeil effect. Samantha Diorio also pushed her fabric treatment to great effect, working with Think Positive to digitally print ribbed knitwear. Her menswear collection begs a resee.
Yael Frischling’s pieces (pictured top) were less obviously wearable, but who cares when the ideas are this strong? These over-sized woven structures were created using zero waste techniques inspired by architectural interlocking forms - no sewing required!
Many students were inspired by sustainability and the need for the fashion of tomorrow to makes its peace with Planet Earth.
Valeria Sanchez’s dreamy textiles were a response to hyper consumerism and our increasing disconnect with the natural environment. Lily Xu, another student sponsored AWET, repurposed factory waste yarn to create her poetic knits.
Others looked to the return of handcraft. I loved Rachael O’Brien’s beautiful orange blouse, each coloured thread woven through the netting by hand. Amrita Benepal played with traditional Punjabi ‘Phulkari’ embroidery technique. Kassandra Giotopoulos Moore made magic with old-fashioned pin-tucks and hand-gathering. Stephanie Baynie’s pieces were just gorgeous, and totally wearable. I’d buy her red coat in a heart-beat.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com | http://www.marieaustralia.com/bridesmaid-dresses
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When 21-year-old management consultant Michaela Turancova decided to launch into the start-up world as an online fashion entrepreneur, she resolved that it must be about more than trying to make her fortune.
Having read Richard Branson's book Screw Business as Usual, Turancova decided online fashion subscription service Wingal, would fund the creation of a side venture aimed at helping women in the developing world escape poverty and become fashion designers.
With Wingal, customers subscribe to monthly personally-shopped clothing packages containing a complete outfit under a selected style of casual, corporate, beachy or cocktail.
"The premise was that the traditional way of doing business, making profits at any cost, was so unsustainable," Turancova says.
"The book was full of examples of social enterprises killing every aspect of business. The idea just came to me."
Each box of clothes costs $65 and includes three clothing pieces and an accessory. The clothes are predominantly vintage and brands range from Kookai and Review to designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Tommy Hilfiger.
All of the profits from Wingal will go towards starting Wingal Seeds, a for-profit business which will help women in developing nations design and manufacture underwear.
Turancova, who is originally from Slovakia and comes from five generations of tailors and seamstresses, says Wingal will pay the women a commission, sell the products and then pass back 50 per cent of the profits from every sale to the designer.
"Something like this has so much potential ... it could quadruple the income of these women and when someone is empowered to be an entrepreneur, it has flow-on effects in their communities," she says.
"It will be a lot harder to start and could need some investment, but the next trip I take will be to India or Nepal to find some people and get some samples made for a proof-of-concept."
The concept of Wingal is similar to successful US start-ups Birchbox, which provides beauty products, FabFitFun, which provides monthly subscription lifestyle boxes, and local start-up Bellabox, which delivers boxes of cosmetic samples.
Despite the good intentions the business is launching in a sector which is tough to crack. Earlier this year men's online subscription retailer Kent and Lime shut its doors after four years in business, attributing its closure to a lack of in-house marketing smarts.
Turancova says she is spending 16 hours a day and most of her weekends balancing full-time work as a management consultant for a boutique global consultancy, while starting up Wingal.
As a social entrepreneur she follows in the footsteps of renowned founders such as Thankyou Group's Daniel Flynn, Who Gives a Crap founder Simon Griffiths and KeepCup creator Abigail Forsyth.
Turancova says she was inspired to take the leap into the fashion sector after a conversation with a colleague one night who said she liked her style.
"I was complaining about work and she suggested I could volunteer somewhere as a stylist to get some experience. She also suggested reading Sophia Amoruso's Girlboss. After reading this I decided that rather than volunteering, I'd start my own thing," Turancova says.
"It's been something my dad has always drilled into me from when I was young. He would say: 'You want to be the owner, not someone working for the owner'."
In her first year Turancova, who taught herself how to build a website to get Wingal off the ground, has set herself the goal of $100,000 in sales.
"In Australia there's no other women's subscription clothing box I'm aware of. What that means though is people don't fully trust it yet, so you have to break through that mindset," she says.Read more at:http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dresses-2017-online | http://www.marieaustralia.com/formal-dress-shops-adelaide