LA FASHION WEEK.COM

More on EMEL Fashion presented at Project Ethos

Story and photography by Stefhan Gordon of SHGfoto.com

The name of EMEL Fashion's collection is Urban Dryad. EMEL's designer Michelle Liu's  inspiration comes from the mythical creatures -- dryads. Tree nymphs living in Urban City trying to bring eco awareness and festivity to the city. Urban Dryad is a collection rich with eco-friendly and body hugging knit fabrics. There is absolutely no reason not to strive for both: optimal aesthetics and comfort. The dresses are sophisticated in design and easy on the skin; the designs seek to captivate the crowd by partnering with the smiles of those ladies who wear them. 

There are also some print fabrics with animal motif to resemble how some plants mimic animals in nature like on these two  pieces (at the top of this column)  worn by Kendall (on left) and Candice (on right)

One can easily tell how many designs are asymmetric to an extreme, but in a natural way because a perfectly genuine human being isn't as perfect as we can see. Dresses are made with cotton based knit fabric like these two immediately below worn by Emily (on left) and Amber (on right).

Of course, what many people can see is the complicated pleating patterns of many of EMEL Fashion's designs and they were probably the most time consuming pieces.The pleating structure is both present in the nature and artificial world. These design brings substance to the person wearing them as well as a prompt and different impression upon people every time like this signature piece worn by Emily (left), and this one worn by Amanda (right)

Structural themed designs were featured as well as a part of the nature vs. wild themes Michelle has in her collection. Also mostly cotton knit as seen in these two pieces immediately below on Amanda (on left) and Ashley (on right).

Finally, the piece that probably will not be in production and is actually a custom design for a singer's album cover. This has a military and heroine feel. The semi reflective metallic knit fabric with fringe are purposely done to stand out when the person is on the stage. Accompanied with a detachable jacket as seen on Amber on the right in the image immediately below with Dina on the right..

Defined structures and frames are emphasized in EMEL Fashion's designs to represent some rigid modern elements. She feels that "sexy", "beautiful", and "hot" no longer can adequately describe the most sophisticated women today, thus Urban Dryad of EMEL demonstrates how women can look great when they feel great.

Designer Runway Feature: Civil Society presented at Gallery LA

Story and photography by Stefhan Gordon of SHGfoto.com

This seasons Civil Society collection presented on the 3rd Day of Gallery LA was really all about texture, style, and intuition. In designer Brad Schwartz's own words, "I didn't want to over think what each look represents. I just wanted to create a line where each piece could not only stand on it's own, but when put together looked effortless." This season Civil Society continued to  trick out traditional looks in a contemporary ways and contemporary looks in a traditional ways, which always gives Civil Society's over all aesthetic a timelessness that makes them truly unique.

Civil Society combined both organic and synthetic fabrics and treatments that really make their collection stand out. Like our Cotton, Nylon, Stainless Steel vests and jackets. According to Schwartz, "This fabric is amazing! it's has 5% metal woven right into the fabric giving it just the right amount of POP."

Schwartz continues, "our polyurethane coated twill crop trench coat and trench blazer are ridiculously lightweight, waterproof, and form fitting, similar to something you would pull out of your grandfathers closet but totally hand crafted and tweeked for todays man."

Styling for the runway presentation was done by model turned wardrobe stylist Lynzi Trang of Lyndzi Styles

Slide Show:

Sunday March 21- Division E @ Gallery LA- day 3

Division E

Sunday March 21- Buffalo by David Britton @ Gallery LA- day 3

Buffalo by David Britton

Day 3, Sunday March 21- Zanerobe @ Gallery LA

Zanerobe

More on Adolfo Sanchez presented at "Hope in the City"

Story and photography by Stefhan Gordon of SHGfoto.com

Adolfo Sanchez's  Fall/Winter 2010 Collection was inspired by the 1920's-1940's.  Sanchez states, "I wanted to take ideas from the past and bring them to life with a new edgy approach." 

Thus he created corset's from leather and denim and then embellished them with crystals, spikes, chains, and hand painted saying's like "How Do I Look" or "Gorgeous" on them (image above and 2 immediately below). The accessories were also quite hard.  These consisted of suede and leather cuffs covered in grommets tied with strips of leather.  There are vintage inspired hats made of crocodile embossed leather and many other fabrics through out the collection.  Some of the looks were paired up with leopard lycra and bleach treated cotton leggings.  Fur was also something new at Adolfo Sanchez, though Sanchez had used it before, this season about 70% of the furs used are recycled Mink or Muskrat.  Sanchez used the furs for scarves, sheared vest, and bracelets.


For the evening part of the show Adolfo Sanchez used silk charmeuse, jersey, corset boning and tulle (below). Sanchez started with a cocktail look where we pleated and draped silk charmeuse over sheer netting in different directions leaving parts of the body still exposed. 

As For the last look (below) Sanchez really wanted to show the work that usually goes underneath a gown.  So he began by building the structure entirely out of boning to almost make it look like a shell or skeleton of a dress. Sanchez then layered tulle and sheer netting underneath the structure so that you would still be able to see all the work.  He made it so the back had a corseted finish and last added hand stitched ruffled tulle around the gown to add a more three dimensional look to it. The final gown was about 80% hand stitched. 

More on Shekhar Rahate at Hope in the City

Wedding dress embroidered organza with flowers and crystals.

Story and photography by Stefhan Gordoan of SHGfoto.com

Shekhar Rahate's Fall / Winter 2010 collection is inspired by "COLORS" ... The collection hopes to find new and interesting ways of putting colors and prints together. Since he was making a collection for FALL , he had to choose materials and colors that were fitting to that time of year. When thinking about the colors he should use, he wanted to go with darker shades instead of lighter ones that may be more appropriate for a spring or summer collection. The color palette, also called a "color lookup table," "lookup table," "index map," "color table" or "color map,"is a commonly used method for saving file space when creating 8-bit color images and is very important when you are trying to represent a season. Fortunately the palette worked & he has received many assignments for this collection ...

Shekhar's fall / winter 2010 collection consists of chiffon / silk & satin with intricate hand beadwork & crystals. Exotic fabric, intricate detail, ornate colors are the elements of a haute couture gown, and his collection of high-class evening dresses more than encompass the beauty and elegance of a high-fashion frock creation. Applying more than 15 years of experience in the fashion industry, Shekhar has created a haute couture line that is both culturally inspired and inspiring. While browsing through his collection of posh evening gowns, it is evident that each dress is a mode masterpiece all its own. And with the variety in styles and fabrics – from form fitting, glistening satin evening gowns that accentuate a woman’s silhouette to flowy multi-pattern fabrics that allow a woman to move with comfort and grace – Shekhar’s gowns not only epitomize couture perfection but are worthy of red carpet attention.

(Above) Fully embroidered NET fabric dress with heavy bead work and sequins.

(Above)Green embroidered long dress with delicate flowers

(Above) Long dress made of metallic bronze silk. Draped chest with long slit in front

(Above)Long strapless dress with organza and crystal embroidery

(Above)One shouldered chiffon long dress

(Above)Strapless asymmetrical draped silk dress with embroidery

John Sakalis's Runway Presentation at Concept LA

Story and Photography by Stefhan Gordon of SHGfoto.com

This past Tuesday, upstairs at ConceptLA, at the historical Spring Arts Tower in Downtown LA John Sakalis present 16 looks from his most recent collection

The whole idea for John Sakalis's collection came after reading a book on Zelda Fitzgerald (Zelda by Nancy Milford); F Scott Fitzgerald's wife; and how she would dress and carry herself if she were alive today. She was a dancer, a poet, a flapper, quite beautiful, liked to drink, always wanted to be the star, but instead ended up living in her husband's shadow. Sakalis stated, " I ended up calling the collection, "The Legend of Zelda", I wanted to give her the spotlight and create a fictional story about her life. I wanted it to look heavy but exceedingly comfortable. Seamless but extremely constructed and provocative but not overtly sexual.  I found an amazing brown wool boucle and used it as the main focus of the entire collection."

The first look(below), the cowl neck lace top with the high waisted wool boucle skirt, and satin gloves with boucle trim, set the mood and the story for the collection.

Next came the brown lace with bronze metallic tinsel. Sakalis noted, " I kept it sheer but layered and draped it in a way so you got an ethereal feel but still had hints of skin tone underneath, as in the halter dress with draped hem."

From there the other pieces just started to fill in, like the nude silk jersey top and dress, the lilac angora and cashmere sweaters; both colors drawn from the degrade yarns in the boucle; started to make the collection completely cohesive to me and the story unfolded.

The short dress with the high collar and the folded and draped rosettes at the shoulder and back neck chain, was done to give a quiet unkempt, but delicate and strong feel. The lace leggings were to hint at a demure and strong woman not afraid of anything.

Sakalis said, "the finale dress [see below]was my favorite though. It had to be a strong standalone piece that made a statement, so I used the wool to construct a narrow body conscious silhouette that echoed the strength I tried to convey throughout. It was a fun collection to do and definitely one of my favorites I have ever done."

Slide Show

Images from Concept LA's fashion shows

ConceptLA, at the historical Spring Arts Tower in Downtown LA hosted a series of runway presentations and installations this past Monday and Tuesday night for designers showcasing their Fall/Winter Collecttions. The following images by Tim Regas of Photomezzo highlight looks from all three shows on Monday night and the first two (of the three shows) on Tuesday night.

Chelsea Rebelle  on Monday Night

B Scott (below) on Monday Night

Fremont (below) on Monday Night

Jen Awad (below) on Tuesday Night

martinMARTIN

The Battalion (not shown)

Kersh Thatcher presented at First.LA

Kersh Thatcher presented at First.LA by leading fashion merchandising and trend forecasting consulting firm Directives West at the Cooper Design Space in Downtown LA on Friday, March 19, 2010