featured designer Archives

Shop Isabelle Donola Straight Off the NYFW Runway!

September 4, 2014/in Designer Interviews /by Luevo Team

When does the love of fashion begin? For Brazil-born designer Isabelle Donola, that love started when she learned to stitch at the age of three, making Barbie clothes by the time she was six. This early passion sparked a career in fashion for Donola who has been a participant on Project Runway and is showing at this year’s New York Fashion Week.

Growing up, Donola’s creative and imaginative eye allowed her to draw inspiration from many different art forms, ranging form cloths and textiles to metals and recycled materials. For her most recent collection, Donola was inspired by abstract shapes, well-fitted garments and oversized structural pieces.

Even after exploring various other hobbies and career opportunities, including journalism and ballet, Donola knew from a young age she was destined for the world of fashion design. With such a deep passion for every step in the design process, fashion design is more than just a job or interest, for Donola it is a necessity.

Donola was featured as a designer on popular T.V. show Project Runway on the “Under the Gunn” season and has shown at various New York and Los Angeles Fashion Week events. Donola currently has a successful fashion line “ Isabelle Donola NYC”.

Isabelle will be showing her new collection this Monday at New York Fashion Week. She describes the collection as:

“Nude. That was the first word that came to mind when I thought about this collection. The reflection of human nature and how people so often wear a mask. So I created a collection to evoke the naked beauty of the human being, raw in its essence and beautiful just as it is. I want people to embrace their inner beauty and extend that to their second skin. Allowing the garments to fearlessly speak to the world about who they are.”

We are very excited to have Isabelle Donola as our debut designer at New York Fashion Week. You can take a look and shop her collection live from the runway starting Monday September 8^th at 4:00 p.m. EST here.

You Are Never Too Young To Love Fashion

August 22, 2014/in Designer Interviews /by Luevo Team

The fashion industry is not an easy place to succeed; it’s fast-paced, competitive and takes a lot of passion. It is my pleasure to introduce to you an amazing designer who is making her mark in this tough business and she goes by the name of Elda Doamekpo.

Elda’s work has been seen in Omaha and Kansas City Fashion week. Her work is inspired by her West African roots. What Elda enjoys most about being a designer is, “the look that customers give me when I put a figure flattering garment on them, it’s priceless.”

At only age 17, Elda is taking the fashion industry by storm; from jumpsuits to elegant gowns, Elda does it all! She stated that before she starts sketching a look, she does some research on what exactly she is trying to achieve. Like many designers, Elda goes through many designs until she comes up with her desired product. How many 17 year olds do you know that are doing this much homework, willingly? Kudos to Elda being an inspiration for so many at such an early age!

With two Fashion weeks already under her belt, Elda continues to follow her dreams as a designer no matter the hurdles she may face. She believes there is always room to grow and get better. Elda is just beginning to scratch the surface; I know we can continue to expect nothing but great things from her. Our fellow fashion lovers must keep a look out for Elda Doamekpo designs.

Written by fashion writer and beauty consultant Darcel Laurie. You can follow her on twitter @DarcelWorld!

Are you looking for a new writing opportunity? Perhaps you have style tips that you would like to share with the world? We value new fashion trends and are always looking for talented guest bloggers. If you’re a blogger or writer, this is the place for you to get noticed. Can you see yourself as a part of our blogging team? Apply here!

Today’s feature: Created by Fortune

August 12, 2013/in Designer Interviews /by Ana Cara

Melissa Fortune of Created by Fortune in New York discovered an underground and hidden market: edgy-glam. Her time interning with Fila USA and being a fashionista herself, led her to create a feminine and bold hybrid of her own style.

Created by Fortune, has something for everybody. Your prim and proper businesswomen to a rocker musician whose wardrobe has studs from head to toe, there is a piece to add to your style. Based in New York, her pieces have been featured in Vogue, Song of Style blog, Elements Magazine and the New York Post.

Article written by: Bhreigh Gillis

VAWK – Knowing Your Woman by Sunny Fong

June 29, 2013/in Designer Interviews /by Ana Cara

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.

Sitting Down with Lois Laine – Part2

June 15, 2013/in Designer Interviews /by Ana Cara

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

Sitting Down with Lois Laine – Part 1

June 7, 2013/1 Comment/in Designer Interviews /by Ana Cara

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]
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[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

Guest Blogger: Tiffany D’Souza, tiffanydsouza.com

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