Spring 2012 Couture

Color blue pallete and wing-shaped sleeves of Chanel collection remind me flight attendants, youthful and yet elegant. Did Karl Lagerfeld keep in mind Emirates stewardesses or I really got hooked on TV show "Pan Am"?!

Love the sporty details and in lust for pleated dress, it's just fab.

Wasn't hard to recognize Amy Winehouse in the story of Jean Paul Gaultier's collection. It was a tribute to the bright individuality and style: somethimes boyish, sometimes gypsy with a touch of messy boudoir.

Christian Dior is staying true to Dior's New Look with voluminous skirts and dresses. I particular like the 2nd look, it reminds me an "anatomy" of the garment, where designer show the way it was constructed with underskirts. The entire collection has the feel of undergarments vs outer attire with sheer and transparent layers of tulle.

I bet these garments look good and inside out!

I get crazy about laser cut in general, and Giambatista Valli has it all. Want you to note that the dress (look 3 here) is a tendency in evening wear in monochome with pop up of another color in unexpected places. Angelina Jolie in Golden Globes 2012 will definetely take the trend further.

Valentino brought ladies-in-waiting to the modern times with plenty of embroidery, lace and organza.

As usual very airy, ephemeral collection, but I think the designers challenge embroiderers more than their own creativity, the same goes to Elie Saab 

Versace, just WOW! Complicated shapes, but fitted like a glove, that's my understanding of Haute Couture

Office wear 2012

Keeping up with trends 2012 the workwear won't be much different: knee length pencil skirts at the natural waist, textured or graphic printed fabrics and subdued peplums for swinging hips.

Most important is to look sharp and professional as always :) 

The favourite colors of the season are deep reds like bodeaux and burgundy. Be careful choosing a right "wine" color that will make you tasty without aging. 

Art Week StyleUz 2011

Year by year one of my classmates from the same institute takes part in Fashion Week in my hometown, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Once I had a chance to see the show and was overwhelmed by the talent and creativity, and there is a catch: all designers present collections made of traditional materials. That's always a challenge to combine folk fabrics and modern trends, make it wearable without looking costumy.
Here are the best looks from the runway, sorry for not knowing which look belongs which designer. But hands up to everyone!

Originally Uzbek fabrics are in vivid color combinations of 4: red, electric blue, green and gold yellow. And as the students we had a hard time imaging designing something out of it. Now when colors got soften and mutted I get inspired by textiles too.

For me the best ikat (traditional print) is ... blue

or even better with a touch of purple

Couldn't imagine even the wedding dress is in the print. Just WOW!

Once again I would say I am very proud of you, guys!

Art Deco trend

Art Deco was widely considered to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism, being influenced by a variety of sources. The ability to travel and archaeological excavations during this time influenced artists and designers, integrating several elements from countries not their own. Among them were historical styles such as Greco-Roman Classicism, as well as the art of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt, Aztec Mexico and Africa.
Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, lacquer, Bakelite, Chrome and inlaid wood. Exotic materials such as sharkskin (shagreen), and zebra skin were also evident.
The structure of Art Deco is based on trapezoidal, zigzagged, geometric, and jumbled shapes.
At its best, Art Deco represented elegance, glamour, functionality and modernity.
Coming back from wiki-history, designer Holly Fulton evoked that trend few years back and made it her signature style. Here some of the looks through out the years:

 Check the stand out jewelry.

Why do you think so many designers like Gucci, Etro, Carolina Herrera presented collections inspired by the fashion movement? Were they influenced by the same designer? I say, no.
I see a tendency of the tribal trend of previous seasons transforming into it's glamorous side.
Elegance of the era:

Etro brought Jazz Age with more colors and easy movements:

Glamorous side of Art Deco:

Character graphics in Carolina Herrera:

 
The trend still excites creative minds of Rachel Roy and Naeem Khan for Pre-fall 2012, the rest of the items we already can purchase in favourite stores.

Pre-fall 2012 trend report

Not all fashion houses present their Pre-Fall collections, so there is a small review of upcoming autumn season trends for the next year. To define what the pre-fall collection is please click here
Major trend is the autumn colors: orange, burnt reds, rustic browns, faded greens, purples - the shades of fallen leaves and sunset. By the way Pantone announced tangerine tango is the color for 2012.

The next trend is achromatic, that characterised by incredible print or texture; or print, that looks like texture.

Another trend of the season is hourglass silhouette with the details defining our waist: belts, peplums (depends on body types) or just perfectly tailored attire to show our girly curves.

The Royal Wedding of the year sparked a new trend of modest and understated elegance.

Dubai fashion arena, 2008

I have decided to share some glorious and not so moments on Dubai fashion arena over the past years.
Year 2008, June as I remember I participated in Hotel Uniform design competition, first ever kind of competition held during The Hotel Show. Our teacher in the Centre for Executive Education announced that, and we had a chance to present sketches and material board on A3. This competition was sponsored by A. Ronai company and an winning design was promised to be made by them. I was the first to deliver my papers to one of the business towers on Sheikh Zayed road.
So few days before the winner announcement (2nd day of exhibition) my teacher really insisted for me to come there, even when I mentioned I had visited the show on 1st day. Probably that was a clue for me. Of course, I went there with my fellow students and... got a prize: flowers, certificate, internship in A. Ronai, dinning voucher for 2 and a lot of pictures.

The wining garment looked different from what I had imagined, since it was more adopted to the daily wear.

I remember when I came back home, called my boyfriend (now husband) and I was literally flying on the wings of happiness, seemed like I could change the world. Good feeling.
Much later I got a week of intership in A. Ronai with designer David Sprakes. For me that was so cool,  he was working with Wacom tablet! One day we went to the warehouse and another day to a hotel that placed the order for uniforms with them, so fittings, discussing designs with Housekeeping Manager and etc.
Wacom tablet was a dream for me for a long time. Thanks to my IT loving husband, one day he surprised me with it (A3 size), since then I was learning Adobe Illustrator CS4 and CS5. which have great features for fashion illustration.

Dubai fashion market niche

Seems like Dubai has it all: haute couture, luxury ready-to-wear, high street and mass market all year long. New styles, new collections hit the stores daily, except SWIMWEAR.
So collections come basically from Europe in April and from Australia in November. If you didn't have time to buy new swimwear in those 2 months, you will end up with leftovers. Unexceptable!
Considering that we got 365 days of sunny weather, beautiful beach resorts, public beaches, 2 collections a year are definetely not enough. You will argue with me that the summer is too hot, I say there are many indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a lot of people has private parties in their villas with own pools or own yachts!
As well Australian market is based on what surfers would wear, it's their lifestyle.
Those who come to Jumeirah Beach Residence beach will see big opportunity for this market: tourists and residents. Mainly tourists visit Dubai for sun and sand bring with them couple of bikinis or hoping to find new here. Five star resort guests will have even more in numbers, obviously they cannot wear the same swimwear entire vacation.
Residents have minimum 2 swimwear (whose who like to go on the beach) and I know some who has more than 6.
Another problem occurs: many of us has the same swimwear, expecially from Debenhams and Topshop- the stores are everywhere worldwide (another problem of globalization)
My point is... where is swimwear from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and etc.- the producers of great swimwear range: girly, colorful. They have got summer all year (same as us) and their are trendsetters in that category.

Here is the message for those who would like to start new business...
I would like to see a department store where I can visit any time and always find new collections from different designers, brands and pricetags.