When Women Make Fashion with a Future: An A/W 2010 Review

Chauncey Zalkin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:10:46 +0000

*lead picture, Lou Doillon in Anthony Vaccarello on StyleBubble

I haven’t been to fashion week since 2005. And that was after more than ten years of attending the New York shows. The biggest reason for stopping: I was bored. Mostly the fashion press is what really pushed me over the edge. But now I realize, fashion is a little bit like god and religion. I believe. But inundate me with too much proselytizing and I forget the main act. In other words, whimsical and masterful fashion design is something truly beautiful and even more so when everyone sort of shuts up, folds their hands in their lap, and looks on in respectful silence at the mastery of the production.

Here are my picks:

1. The GreenShows in New York. Designers Samantha Pleet, Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart / Vaute Couture, Melissa Kirgan & Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard / Eko-Lab, JoAnn Berman, Lizz Wasserman / Popomomo.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQrkWsSmV4

Tesco (UK grocer) joins with Florence & Fred fashion label to launch line of recycled clothing - (read more on the Guardian)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZ-uhVDfIs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhrkzl88ICk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvIzBTrrFvE

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKu3G0kDHQ … noting Cassette Playa’s ‘enhanced reality’ specifically here and not so much the clothes themselves. push envelope push.

: Louise Goldin’s A/W ’10 geometric shapes.

Dorothee Hagemann & Annalisa Dunn make up Cooperative Designs

< about Cooperative Designs on Grazia.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS93VRMPcpg

Ada Zanditon website

TreeHugger covers all the ecofashion from the week with a salute to designer Ada Zanditon.

and last but not least, the Times Online addressing the feminist issue in Fashion after Miuccia Prada calls herself a ‘former’ feminist.

To see some really funny cool fashion week coverage in London (lets face it, this is mostly London) check out Amelia’s magazine. Reminds me a little bit of vintage Girlonthestreet.

London Design Festival 2009: Women Stand Behind Their Work

Chauncey Zalkin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:14:39 +0000

Review of 100% Design London and Designersblock

Recent design school grad Freya Godwin-Brown clutches one of her resin and fabric sculptures after we chatted for thirty minutes about everything from her upcoming move to Australia to the skies of Shanghai which inspired this body of work.

Eleanor Young, textile designer, shows an exciting juxtaposition with her dainty vintage furniture pieces that she’s upholstered with her bold asymmetric geometric patterns, creating something entirely feminine out of shapes ordinarily associated with masculinity or 80s pop ‘topshop’ style youth wear. What she’s created here feels fresh and sophisticated at the same time. She also tries out digital printing for the first time as seen on the pillow on top of the small bench which worked really well with the embroidery. The way she matched her dress to her collection was also a nice touch.

Camilla Meijer is not a recent grad. I didn’t even get a chance to stop and talk to her – but I love her patterns (see Abigail Borg, a rising star as well).

Eadadin Dempsey sits in her final project after she talked excitedly about her first show. Simple construction, nothing extraneous, inspired by thatched roofs in her native Ireland. She’s a graduate from Dublin Institute of Technology.

Aimee Louise Hartshorn who came from Dublin with Eadadin sits on her twelve-legged rocking stool.

Yura Kim from South Korea made these resin light fixtures by hand but don’t ask her how she did it because she won’t tell you. She said, “sorry, I took a long time to figure out how to do it.” Fair enough and she’s done a beautiful job. They are even more impressive in person. The one behind her in pink looks like a fragile shell or a birds nest.

These three women make up Rooms Design, an interior and product design company from Georgia (the country, not the state). Quite an interesting trio. The woman in the middle is the business side and the two women on the ends are the designers. They also worked in collaboration with a fashion designer who dressed chairs in military uniforms. This collection was a inspired by the recent Russian invasion and communist occupation of Georgia during the cold war. The fear is that ‘things will become drab again if freedom is threatened;. The lamp in metal represents the Soviet Union and the wooden lamp is modeled after an American 50s desk lamp, a bold expression of designs potential to communicate political sentiments, something you might not expect from a commodity.

Holly Palmer creates whimsical furniture that doesn’t overpower. I want that table and the teacup behind her. More Alice in Wonderland charming than boutique hotel showy, these struck me as great for small spaces.

What Women Make » bookcase

When Women Make Fashion with a Future: An A/W 2010 Review

*lead picture, Lou Doillon in Anthony Vaccarello on StyleBubble

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London Design Festival 2009: Women Stand Behind Their Work

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