Everyday luxury, the term is synonymous with one of the most comfortable, high quality and easy to wear fabrics: cashmere. There is nothing quiet as refined, modern and versatile as cashmere and Paychi Karen Guh capitalizes on the fabric’s qualities beautifully.
Paychi Karen Guh is a Seattle based knitwear designer who found her true passion for making beautiful sweaters after spending time traveling the country sourcing fabrics as the Design Director with Nordstrom. Inspired by architecture and modern art, the garments she makes are a daily indulgence.
Paychi Guh will soon feature unique and limited edition products on Luevo. Register here to be the first to know when her next collections will be available.
KhuKhuz Fashion owned Beryl Phala is a Manchester, UK based fashion designer who specializes in both bespoke and ready-to-wear ladies clothing. Beryl’s designs are versatile, feminine and classic, yet contemporary.
Beryl’s vision is simple – she designs pieces to make women feel special, unique, chic and confident. To execute her vision takes time, hand stitching each garment and using the highest quality silk, tulle, chiffon and wool jersey. Beryl’s designs are versatile, designed to empower women at the beach, home or office party.
To see more from this designer, sign-up on our homepage.
Article by Bhreigh Gillis
https://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/khuzkhuz.jpg544771Ana Carahttp://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/luevo-logo-2x.pngAna Cara2013-08-07 16:13:002014-12-12 14:15:25Designer of the day, KhuKhuz Fashion
Julianah Rotimi Jewellery – bold and edgy jewellery with a subtle touch of sophistication. This is a unique combination that looks good as a statement street style piece or on the red carpet stealing the show.
This London, U.K. based formally educated Goldsmith, Silversmith and Fashion Jeweller does not sacrifice quality for design, making pieces that are uniquely shaped as well as durable. The bends, sharp spikes, dainty chains and other beautiful elements that are part of her latest collections are inspired from horror movies and medieval torture techniques. Julianah focuses on drawing inspiration from “everything, anything” as there is an art form to be captures in everything, especially what we take for granted.
On July 3rd, FAJO Magazine, hosted a “Fashion, Business and Beyond” event in Toronto. The intention of the seminar was to educate emerging fashion designers to understand the importance of the business side of being a designer.
Sunny Fong, a familiar name if you’ve watched Project Runway season two, successfully won the contest with his label VAWK. Although he doesn’t need to use his television fame assist in creating opportunities anymore, he does acknowledge how many doors it opened for him along the way. The underlying theme throughout his lecture was getting to know the woman (or man) you’re designing for. Not just how exactly who is wearing your designs, but her disposable income, fashion preferences and where to save or spend.
It’s common for designers imagine a confident twenty-something woman wearing their designs, it’s supposed to be the best time of your life and can only be strengthened if surrounded by beautiful clothing. As this ideal vision unfolds, there is an unfortunate and often forgotten about disconnect. The twenty-something age group doesn’t usually have a disposable income for clothing in the hundreds or even thousands per piece. This is one of the key reasons why fashion designers fail. Sunny knows his woman and understands she what she needs in a garment and doesn’t tailor to an age group that isn’t purchasing his designs.
The next thing to know about your woman is her preference for fast versus sustainable luxurious fashion. For Sunny, it’s the woman who craves a deeper sense of luxury. The pieces he designs are expensive, made with quality fabrics and an intricate design, often by hand. This kind of detailing and design cannot be replicated by fast fashion.
Finally, knowing when to spend and save on your business is vital. While it’s lovely to spend money on silk linings for sample pieces as an example, it isn’t practical. Silk doesn’t look any nicer than polyester as far as a sample piece goes. Spend money on your customer, not your sample pieces. Also, if you can achieve the same look and feel with two similar products, one less expensive, choose the less expensive option.
Clearly, these principles are what Sunny built VAWK on and is the reason why he is a success. A little planning, dedication and projecting business sense into the future will help bring your label to the top.
To learn more about VAWK please click here. Guest Blogger: Bhreigh Gillis, Community Manager at Luevo and blogger.
https://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Header-VAWK-Credit.png243995Ana Carahttp://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/luevo-logo-2x.pngAna Cara2013-06-29 19:43:422014-12-11 10:36:16VAWK – Knowing Your Woman by Sunny Fong
Clearly emerging fashion designer Bishme Cromartie of Baltimore, MD was born with the fashion bug; as a little boy he used socks and scraps of fabric to make clothes for his toys. At the age of eight he began putting his creative visions on paper sketching designs for women’s clothing. I would love to see the early designs of a young and uninhibited Bishme with his own imaginings of what the female should look like.
[two_third]February 9, 2007 was a defining moment for the 16 year old Bishme; destiny knocked on his door and he showcased his work at his first solo fashion show. His designs were remarkably chic and very well made for someone of his age. Word spread quickly about this wiz kid designer on the rise. Today Bishme’s architectural-looking creations are modish, vibrant and over dramatic; and have been featured in Elle Vietnam and on Vogue Italia’s website. R&B singer Ashanti wore his design on a “Good Morning America” appearance. Who says dreams don’t come true, in the “Emerging Designer” category? Bishme showed his exhilarating pieces at New York’s Fashion Week 2013!
Bishme’s collections are strong and beautifully sleek sultry works of art. They are eye catching with exaggerated shoulders and hips. His collections absolutely tell a story of strength and are not for the faint of heart. Women who wear his clothing must not be shy or afraid of having all eyes on her.[/two_third][one_third_last] [/one_third_last]
[one_half]Bishme is never afraid to go against the wind with his line, so he is inspired by designers that are the same. One of his favorite designers is Giambattista Valii, who is known for being dramatic and paying the upmost attention to detail. When asked what was so special about this designer, Bishme told the team at Greedmont: “[he] is never afraid to go against the norm and it is a very pleasing thing to see such creative work from [him]”. [/one_half] [one_half_last] [/one_half_last]
You can view Bishme Cromartie’s full collections on his personal website.
This is part 2 of a two part interview with Toronto based independent fashion designer Lois Laine. Lois designs eco-friendly clothing with fabrics and labour sourced in Canada. If you haven’t already, check out part one of this interview here.
What do you hope your consumers see when they are attracted to your brand? I want them to see that it’s unique, but not showy. It’s unique and subtle, just something that they want to grab on to every day.
What are some of your fashion goals? You know I really know that I should have it more defined, but my main goal is to be able to keep doing what I do. I have envisioned a couple of different scenarios: I think generally people have to get bigger to sustain their job in this industry, for me that’s not the most important thing; if I need to get bigger I’m happy to do that. But if I can keep going like this where I have been up till now designing for the upcoming season, and I really enjoy doing that and I can take advantage of doing those limited yardages and I can be more on the season because its coming right up. But if I go into the wholesome market, which is generally how you get bigger then I need to be able to order a 100 meters of something and so I won’t be able to do some of these other nice little treaty things. So my plan is to do two fall/winters this year, so that I can get into the wholesome market and see how that goes. I’ve been in contact with Ana Caracaleanu from Luevo and I am very excited about their idea, the platform would allow me to keep going with the fabrics that I can just grab onto and do small scale or big. That is just very exciting to me. I’m still doing some artisan sales like: the Wearable Arts Show in October from the 24th-26th at 918 Bathurst St. Also, I’ve been invited into the Fresh Collective in the fall (August/September).
For more information on Lois Laine collections please go to the designer’s website: loislaine.com Guest Blogger: Tiffany D’Souza,tiffanydsouza.com
https://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Headerpt2.jpg6821024Ana Carahttp://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/luevo-logo-2x.pngAna Cara2013-06-15 19:40:362014-12-11 15:02:57Sitting Down with Lois Laine – Part2
When it comes to local talent, Toronto does not fall shy of exciting and diverse artists, and Lois Laine, independent fashion designer is no exception. Possessing a precision for architectural elements coupled with feminine subtlety, she began her self-titled eco-friendly line in 2011. Her journey began after having earned a degree in interior designing and spending years studying pattern drafting. Thereafter, she concluded her education in Costume Studies and worked as a freelance designer. With a brief and inspirational trip to India in 2010, Lois’ calling was finally put to rest when she decided to set up shop. Today she is working passionately within her studio walls listening to spiritual music and drinking tea.
[two_third]Where do you draw your inspiration?
Nature and life for sure. You know there is that architectural element and there’s the subtlety. I really love the subtlety of nature and I aim to try to put the scale, like there’s the bigger scale of the sculpture and then there’s the small detail within it. I just love that and the hard with the soft and the shiny with the matte. The first collection is really very light and airy, that was like my first one, so it was like an upward spiral and it was spring and everything had to have this feeling of exalted. That’s how I wanted to feel when I finished it, that there was this sort of delicacy and wonder. There was a woman who had a drawing and I had remembered her stuff, and she did these whimsical drawings and I was like yeah, yeah this is it, this is the whimsy and the lightness and so I actually had her painting up on the wall for most of the collection. With other fashion, I love Annie Thompson, but I also really love minimalist designers as well. I guess I am in between. [/two_third] [one_third_last][/one_third_last]
[two_third]What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion for me is being aligned with the energy of the time, it’s not my strongest strength. My strength is more in the abstract part of design. I try to blend the two; I research the trends, go to trend forecasting and be watchful. Then I’ll marry them with the more timeless sense of proportion and sculptural shapes. My collections are outside of the trends but they have current elements, which makes them wearable for longer. [/two_third]
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For more information on Lois Laine collections please go to the designer’s website: loislaine.com
https://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Image-1-Lois-Lane.jpg6821024Ana Carahttp://www.luevo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/luevo-logo-2x.pngAna Cara2013-06-07 22:06:082014-12-11 15:03:15Sitting Down with Lois Laine - Part 1
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