Wednesday, August 25, 2010

ACNE-The Pioneer In Fashion Industry


ACNE


Italian born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli loved to shock and surprise, but perhaps it was in the blood. Her great-Uncle, the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, shocked the world in 1877 by announcing he had discovered `canals' on Mars.

Born in Rome in 1890, the young Elsa grew up dancing to her own drummer, and ignoring convention. Her interest in exploring the unusual in fashion surfaced early and caused quite a stir. As a young woman, attending a ball in Paris, she created a dress by winding a strip of fabric around her body. Had it not unraveled, she might have started her first popular trend.

Her early marriage at 18 to theosophist William de Wendt de Kerlor came to a shocking end with the birth of a daughter her husband abandoned her, and Elsa found herself alone in Paris with a child to support. This was shocking enough to polite society in the 1920s, but Elsa didn't sit around feeling sorry for herself. She designed a black knitted sweater with a bow tie embellishment, and was soon selling them as fast as her troupe of Armenian knitters could produce them.

Her next shock was for the world of sport, when she opened her first salon in 1927. Called Stupidir de Sport she gave the tennis world a stunning serve with her divided skirt, worn in 1931 by tennis star Lili de Alvarez. As if that didn't shock the conservative ranks of women's' tennis enough, she later introduced shorts to Wimbledon.

But if that wasn't enough, Elsa turned her attention to high fashion and designed clothes in a new hot pink, which she naturally called `shocking' pink

Her love of color became a signature, and she called on surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design new fabrics and even hats imagine wearing a giant shoe on your head, or even a lamb chop as a team, Elsa and Dali brought fun to high fashion.

But Elsa's less outrageous designs became classics of fashion. She was the first to create a dramatic outline for women's bodies using shoulder pads, the first to give zippered clothes a more elegant finish by dyeing the zippers the same colour as the fabric, and the first to use animal print fabrics. Her style and panache may have been shocking, but it was also irresistible. Like shorts for tennis players, her `outrageous' ideas were warmly embraced by women.

Her wide range of interests and love of design soon saw her branching out into jewelry. She loved to experiment with new materials, and by the 30s, she had become one of the fashion world's great icons. She introduced cute buttons,

with shapes as diverse as bunnies and bullets, and the Egyptian Look, with huge sleeves that owed more to the Orient than Egypt. But Elsa didn't care and neither did her public her eclectic designs delighted her clients, who were drawn from among the very famous and wealthy of the time. They included movie stars like Marlene Dietrich and Mae West, and socialites like Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

One of her most amazing creations was the famous `lobster dress' of Salvador Dali. It looked like an elegant white organize evening gown except for the vibrant red lobster that Dali painted down the front of the skirt.

She continued to shock and delight with a dress that looked as if it had been repeatedly ripped far in

elegant white organize evening gown except for the vibrant red lobster that Dali painted down the front of the skirt.

She continued to shock and delight with a dress that looked as if it had been repeatedly ripped far in advance of today's `distressed' styles a back-to-front suit and coat printed with profiles by artist Jean Cocteau.

When she decided to create perfumes in the 30s, it was almost inevitable that she would create one called Shocking it became her most famous perfume, and her signature.

So legendary is this fragrance that Schiaparelli France recently recreated it in the original shapely bottle modeled on Mae West.

But the inescapable intervention of World War II proved more shocking than anything Elsa could have devised she was forced to close down her salon for the duration, and when it reopened in 1945, it seemed that the fire and passion had gone, swallowed the horror of six years of war. By the 50s, she was no longer designing clothes, but she took the time to write her autobiography My Shocking Life.

Elsa Schiaparelli died in 1973, and true to her great spirit, she was buried in her favorite outfit, a shocking pink Chinese robe. She was 83, and still fashion's grand dame. But her salon languished for a few years until it was reopened to keep her designs and perfumes available to the legions of women that had grown to love them.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Balenciaga-Today!

Balenciaga today

Balanciaga is always in the fashion news.Surely Balenciaga created latest fashion trends as they call Balenciaga as a legendary in fashion industry. The idea of fashion in Balenciaga fetched very high price later. He changed the direction of fashion styles in ladies fashion. He proved himself as an un destroyable fashion designer!Let me tell you about the the current scenario.


Balenciaga is in the midst of fashion world   In 1986, Jacques Bogart S.A. acquired the rights to Balenciaga, and opened a new ready-to-wear line, Le Dix. The first collection was designed by Michel Goma in October 1987, who remained at the house for the next five years to mixed reviews. He was replaced in 1992 with Dutch designer Josephus Thimister who began the restoration of Balenciaga to an elite, high-fashion status. During Thimister's term, a young Nicolas Ghesquière would join as a license designer, and eventually promoted to head designer in 1997.
Balenciaga is now owned by the Gucci Group (part of PPR), and its womenswear and menswear is headed by Nicolas Ghesquière. Ghesquière, like Balenciaga, is a self-taught designer, and apprenticed to Jean-Paul Gaultier and Agnes B. The hip, fresh interpretation of Balenciaga classics, such as the semifitted jacket and the sack dress, caught the attention of the media as well as such celebrities as Madonna and Sinéad O'Connor.
There was some conflict within the house of Balenciaga on Nicolas Ghesquiere's designs. The Gucci group said that if Balenciaga didn't become profitable within the year 2007, they would replace him. Ghesquière's F/W 2005 line showed that the house was not only profitable, but also attracted a number of celebrity customers including editor-in-chief at Vogue, Anna Wintour.
The house of Balenciaga designed the dresses worn by Jennifer Connelly and Nicole Kidman to the 2006 Academy Awards, as well as the wedding gown Kidman wore for her recent marriage to Keith Urban. Kylie Minogue also wore a Balenciaga dress for her "Slow" and "Red Blooded Woman" music videos and for her concert tour.
Today the brand is most famous for its line of motorcycle-inspired handbags, especially the famous "Lariat." Balenciaga has four exclusive boutiques in the United States. One Balenciaga store is located on 22nd St in New York, NY. A second store is located in Los Angeles, CA on Melrose Avenue. Recently, a third store opened at the famous shopping center South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, CA. This store is 1,200 square feet (110 m2) and includes coffin-like inset displays. The New York and Los Angeles boutiques carry both men's and women's ready-to-wear, while the South Coast Plaza boutique carries only women's clothing. The most recent store, located in Las Vegas inside Caesers Palace, carries only accessories.
Balenciaga's Fall/Winter 2007 show has wowed Teen Voque editor-in-chief Amy Astley so much that an entire recent spread in the magazine, titled "Global Studies" and shot in Beijing, was influenced by it. The line included skinny jodhpurs, tight, fitted blazers, beaded embellished scarves and other multicultural mixes.
Balenciaga is also very well known for creating avant-garde structural pieces, straddling the edge of fashion and forecasting the future of women's ready-to-wear fashion.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Balenciaga's Designs-A Torch Bearer In Fashion Industry

 Balanciaga's idea of fashion was very novel and revolutionary as well.A legendary of latest fashion trends. Ladies fashion and fashion styles of Balanciaga have set their own standards in fashion apparels.Readers let us have a glimpse of Balanciaga life and idea of fashion.

Customers risked their safety to travel to Europe during World War II to see Balenciaga's clothing. During this period, he was noted for his "square coat," with sleeves cut in a single piece with the yoke, and for his designs with black (or black and brown) lace over bright pink fabric.
However, it was not until the post-war years that the full scale of the inventiveness of this highly original designer became evident. His lines became more linear and sleek, diverging from the hourglass shape popularized by Christian Dior's New Look. The fluidity of his silhouettes enabled him to manipulate the relationship between his clothing and women's bodies. In 1951, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the shoulders and removing the waist.

In 1955, he designed the tunic dress, which later developed into the chemise dress of 1958. Other contributions in the postwar era included the spherical balloon jacket (1953), the high-waisted baby doll dress (1957), the cocoon coat (1957), the balloon skirt (1957), and the sack dress (1957). In 1959, his work culminated in the Empire line, with high-waisted dresses and coats cut like kimonos. His manipulation of the waist, in particular, contributed to "what is considered to be his most important contribution to the world of fashion: a new silhouette for women."

In the 1960s, Balenciaga was an innovator in his use of fabrics: he tended toward heavy fabrics, intricate embroidery, and bold materials. His trademarks included "collars that stood away from the collarbone to give a swanlike appearance" and shortened "bracelet" sleeve His often spare, sculptural creations—including funnel-shape gowns of stiff duchess satin worn to acclaim by clients such as Pauline de Rothschild, Bunny Mellon, Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guinness and Mona von Bismarck—were considered masterworks of haute couture in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1960 he designed the wedding dress for Queen Fabiola of Belgium made of ivory duchess satin trimmed with white mink at the collar and the hips. Jackie Kennedy famously upset John F. Kennedy for buying Balenciaga's expensive creations while he was President because he feared that the American public might think the purchases too lavish. Her haute couture bills were eventually discreetly paid by her father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Balenciaga-The Most Balanced Designer!


Balenciaga

Readers how about knowing the past designers? So i am thinking of bringing a few to you people.These act really an inspiration to all those budding fashion designers.The determination of these was unruffled! That is how they could reach this height!Let's have a look on Balenciaga.He brought a revolution in fashion industry,fashion styles. His fashion apparels were applauded across the world. He started the idea of fashion for the high society.

Spanish dress designer who created elegant ball gowns and other classic designs.
Balenciaga began seriously studying dressmaking at the age of 10, when the death of his father, a sea captain, made it necessary for his mother to support the family by sewing. His first trip to Paris at 15 inspired him to become a couturier, and by age 20 he had his own dressmaking establishment at the fashionable summer resort of San Sebastián in Spain.
In the next 15 years Balenciaga became the leading couturier of Spain. In 1937, when the Spanish Civil War disrupted his business, he moved to Paris. For the next 30 years his collections featured sumptuously elegant dresses and suits. Balenciaga helped popularize the trend toward capes and flowing clothes without waistlines in the late 1950s and the use of plastic for rainwear in the mid-1960s. In 1968 the house of Balenciaga closed, and he retired.

Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique with in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1914, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris.
Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 1937, and his first runway show featured designs heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance. Balenciaga's success in Paris was nearly immediate. Within two years, the French press lauded him as a revolutionary, and his designs were highly sought-after. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar was an early champion of his designs.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Badgley Mischka-Fashion Feast


In July 1991 Vogue 's Dodie Kazanjian looked to six designers (including Bill Blass, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors) for the perfect "little black dress," and found it at Badgley Mischka. Her fashion designs gained name and fame.Her idea of fashion is out of the world.
Frances Lear, writing in Lear's (September 1991), also chose a Badgley Mischka wool jersey as the magazine's "Relevant Dress," calling it "reminiscent of other seminal dresses, yet perfectly contemporary…as comfortable as your own skin." Such is the unerring sense of ease and balance in Badgley Mischka designs—they create something expertly vital without superfluidity or trendiness.Fashion apparelsare just attractive. Fashion catwalks are held.
Lilly Daché, the great stylemaker of the 1950s once said, "real fashion begins with simplicity," and Badgley and Mischka employ this manda te, creating clothing that is not only beautifully made but beautiful to wear. By the end of the 20th century the designing duo dominated the eveningwear market, and had begun to make their mark on the bridalwear. Introduced in 1996, their gowns won raves from critics, stores, and brides-to-be.
In addition to eveningwear and bridal gowns, Badgley Mischka wanted to carve a niche in hip streetwear as well. While critics and celebrities crammed the runway for their opulently beaded gowns, many had little interest for the designers' more casual creations. Yet by 2000 their "tough chic" separates in colorful leather with chunky belts and bikerish cool garnered notice. Women's Wear Daily (20 September 2000) enthused, "Mark Badgley and James Mischka have lightened their touch considerably…. Hemlines rose, shapes got sportier and…though the overall effect was more buoyant, their signature sophistication remained. And it was nowhere more apparent than in the white leather-wrapped miniskirt worn with a gold knit t-shirt…and the flirty gold-accented halter dress—all of which fit to perfection."
Another milestone for the designers was opening their first store, in Beverly Hills, in fall 2000. The stylish Rodeo Drive boutique featured all of their signature creations, including their new footwear collection, launched the year before. The designers had plans for additional stores in New York and Florida, and had been negotiating a licensing agreement for a signature fragrance as well. And as if several starlets wearing their wares for the Academy Awards wasn't enough, Badgley and Mischka were awarded the Marymount Designer of the Year award from Marymount University in May 2001.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Oriens-The Birth Story Of Oriens


Hummmm……….There is a fashion news !Readers once you get used to this Oriens then you don’t look for any other perfume! The classy the aromatic and above all very feminine! It speaks the language of sensitivity. Oriens is considered as an ethnographic objects as it a blend of opulence and lightness as it belongs to the latest trends.Oriens offers fruity and floral blend, it is hard to miss. The perfume is highly elegant and meant for the class.Oriens feels surprisingly pleasant to wear. The perfume manages to create a mantle of security and semi-warmth cut through by a cool green anisic nuance running in the dark velvet material of the perfume which smells more and more of Hades-dark pomegranate with time. It is well known in fashion industry.
. The name Oriens makes sense also in this context as Venice was such a meeting point of cultures between Europe and the Orient.

Oriens smells to my nose like a black diamond more than a watermelon tourmaline. It is abstractly rendered as an oriental-chypre, a hybrid yet classic genre in perfumery which attempts to combine both the warmth and depth of the satisfying and a bit fleeting in the end. It succeeds well at hinting at and even making you live oriental opulence and the dark-lit charm of a chypre scent burning softly in a byzantine church like a lamp oil casting shadows on the wall. It is secretly comforting without being too obvious a gourmand or regressive fragrance. Bernard Ellena seems to excell at indirect, oblique perfumery references that are hard to place. But I also have to accept the fact that Oriens is not meant to be with me for the days ahead.Oriens starts like a classic perfume with a will to live and then vaporizes like it knows in its bones it can only pretend to be a fad and does not want to outstay its welcome.Oriens in this regard is an interesting social object or perhaps better said - ethnographic object - as it brings out the existence of contradictions instead of squashing them into a non-perfume, playing with opposite ideals - opulence and lightness - and resolving them in the end as a perfume of its time.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Badgley Mischka-Brand Created By Passion!


* Established: New York, in 1988, by Mark Badgley and James Mischka. Badgley born in East Saint Louis, Illinois, 12 January 1961; raised in Oregon; studied business, University of Southern California, to 1982; graduated from Parsons School of Design, New York, 1985. Mischka born in Burlington, Wisconsin, 23 December 1960; studied management and art history, Rice University, Houston, Texas, to 1982; graduated from Parsons School of Design, 1985. Before forming own company, Badgley designed for Jackie Rogers and Donna Karan, New York, 1985-88; Mischka designed for Willi Smith, New York, 1985-88.
* Company History: Acquired by Escada USA, 1992; introduced bridalwear, 1996; launched footwear line, 1999; opened first store, Beverly Hills, 2000.
* Awards: Mouton Cadet Young Designer award, 1989; Dallas International Apparel Mart Rising Star award, 1992; Marymount Designer[s] of the Year, 2001.
* Company Address: 525 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10018, U.S.A.

Designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka have said of their clothing, "one zip and you're glamorous." Their clothing radiates youthful confidence; fanciful but realistic, their designs recall the elegance of an age when one dressed for evening. The two young designers, who introduced their first collection in 1988 under the label Badgley Mischka in New York, have made glamour attainable by demystifying and simplifying it.

Uptown diners and downtown executives alike find something appropriate and pleasing in Badgley Mischka designs. Evening suits and dresses are refined and uncontrived—form-fitting wool jersey, cotton brocade, faille, embroidered lace, silk, and baby bouclé are used to create suits with long fitted jackets and pencil-thin or swingy full short skirts. One versatile wool jersey dress, perfect for career dressing, looks like two pieces, with a rib knit turtleneck and either a permanently pleated or straight wrap skirt, in gray or pale yellow.

The combination of fine crisp and softly draping fabrics (bouclé and silk, velvet trimmed wool, organza and silk chiffon) adds dimension and drama. Fitted, empire, or lowered, waistlines are superbly shaped. Expertly mixed cocktail dresses—with evocative cocktail names such as the Tom Collins, the Delmonico, the Bacardi— are off-the-shoulder, décolleté, bowed, lacy, or beaded and above the knee. All are subtly provocative, feminine, and flirtatious. Their bridal gowns cause women to swoon, such as the V-backed ivory lace and silk-crêpe dress, or the off-white silk brocade coatdress, with front wrap and jeweled buttons. Badgley Mischka bridal dresses are for the grown-up sweet tooth, confections allowing the beauty of the wearer to shine through the frills.