PFW 2021 - UN REVE SUR LA COTE D’AZUR by DARA SENDERS in collaboration with EMILY BRICKEL EDELSON of CHIC SKETCH

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Debuting today, Dara Senders presents her new collection UN REVE SUR LA COTE D’AZUR and digital presentation/ look book in collaboration with Emily Brickel Edelson, co-founder and lead fashion illustrator of Chic Sketch.

A mixture of pastels, muted jewel tones, and gilded metallics sets the color pallet for this collection. Hues reminiscent of a bright sunny day that leads into a magnificent sunset over the Mediterranean Sea and lavender fields. The array of sophisticated ready-to-wear separates such as ruffled floral print organza and textured metallic threaded chiffon statement blouses and kimonos provide the ease and comfort of day to night dressing. Romantic cocktail dresses and flowy evening gowns sit alongside plenty of sequin numbers to make life and dressing more fabulous. Whether you are dressing for a zoom call for business or pleasure, a dinner date, all the way to an intimate outdoor gathering with family and friends Dara Senders’ 2020/2021 collection will have you looking your best.   

All garments are made to order in Paris, France by Dara Senders’ team of couturiers with an incredible attention to detail and craftsmanship. Each garment made is cut with the brand’s innovative pattern making technology that allows each garment to fit with perfection and ease from sizes XS-3XL. The first drop of Un Rêve Sur La Côte D’azur by Dara Senders will launch for pre-sale on October 5th on DaraSenders.com with a scheduled Holiday delivery. The second drop is scheduled to launch on the designer’s website for pre-sale at the end of October. The Pret-a-Porter collection prices under $400.00 USD while the couture collection prices under $700 USD. 

“Designing luxurious well-tailored clothing that can elevate a woman’s style and allows her to feel beautiful from the inside-out and vice-versa, no matter her physique is what I find most fulfilling! I believe all women, no matter their shape and size deserve to feel and look fashion forward, fabulous every day.” - Dara Senders explains.

Given the world’s current climate with COVID-19, Dara knew she had to think outside of the box to create a visually captivating, zero contact, digital presentation to not risk the health and safety of others that a traditional fashion show or editorial photoshoot may have. She loved the idea of two female entrepreneurs joining creative forces to create a unique way of bringing her brands collection to life. This is how the colorful collaboration between Emily Brickel Edelson, co-founder and lead fashion illustrator of Chic Sketch and Dara Senders came into fruition.  Dara explains, “I knew collaborating with Emily Brickel Edelson to artistically and visually showcase the ambiance of  my collection as its presentation would be a perfect fit. Through her art she truly captured my collection’s ambiance and gave a 2D presentation movement, emotion and depth. It is so wonderful when young women entrepreneurs can come together and support each other wholeheartedly!”

Both women have worked closely to tell the captivating story of “Un Rêve Sur La Côte D’azur” by Dara Senders. Through Emily’s art and renowned fashion illustrations in which visually showcases this collection magnificently,  tickles one’s senses of completely emerging into the French Riviera. “On behalf of Chic Sketch, we are thrilled to collaborate with Dara Senders for her new 2020/2021 Collection. Dara's designs are the epitome of what fashion forward women want to wear to feel beautiful at any size. Through the Dara Senders’ collection, in collaboration with my artwork, one thing we have in common is wanting women to always feel and look beautiful and inspiring women globally to live their dream lives. Now more than ever, we all need something to look forward to and something to wear that reminds us of who we are and gives us a reason to glam up everyday with a little sparkle and a lot of chic!" says Emily Brickel.

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DIOR MEN SPRING 2021

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The electric acclaim Kim Jones has brought to Dior Men since he took the reins in 2018 has centered on the buzzy atmosphere of large-scale runway shows—six of them, already, in two years. Needless to say, with runway congregations ruled out, everything’s very different in the summer of 2020, but that didn’t prevent today’s collaboration between Jones and the 36-year-old Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo, whose stunning huge-scale portraits of Black subjects—partly richly finger-painted—have a skyrocketing reputation in the contemporary art world. “It’s a portrait of an artist who I greatly admire,” Jones said. “[The gallerist] Mera Rubell introduced me to Amoako last year in Miami. I really loved his work and wanted to work with him because of my own links to Africa. He lives between Vienna, where he studied, Ghana, and Chicago. So we sat down and discussed.”

The first results—a collection fusing Boafo’s art with Dior artisanship, a look book, and a documentary film shot at the artist’s studio in Accra and at Jones’ home in London—are launched in a more intimate, in-depth, and, dare we say, intelligent way than could possibly have come across in front of the usual roar of the crowd and show hustle of the Paris collections. One of the unexpected upsides of the enforced break from fashion-as-usual is watching how communication is suddenly transitioning from image to information—from silent screen to talkies. That’s a breakthrough.

So, here we were at 2:30 p.m. for the worldwide laptop Dior Men premiere, watching and hearing Boafo in his studio in Ghana as he paints and describes how he captures friends and family, “and people who create spaces for others to exist.” He speaks about the flat colors he uses to silhouette his figures, and, he explains, “how fashion inspires my work. I tend to look at characters who have that sense of style.” Friends hanging at Boafo’s place are wearing pieces from the collection, and the artist is working in a faded-wallpaper print Dior Men shirt, whose pattern has bounced back in a creative arc from portrait to garment.

The collection is smaller and more edited than it would have been. Jones was working out of his Notting Hill house with a small team and long distance with Dior ateliers in France to get it done over the past months. The result: clothes saturated with uplifting color and print, which pinpoint Boafo’s signatures within the language the designer has established for Dior Men. Later in the video Jones is interviewed on camera in his home studio, speaking about how a visual connection gelled when he saw Boafo’s portrait of a boy in a green beret and a ivy-print shirt: “Ivy was one of Monsieur Dior’s symbols.”

Celebrating and platforming Boafo’s work for a luxury fashion market meant, among other things, transferring the tactile energy of his finger-painted heads into two intensely embroidered sweaters. The pattern from a semi-sheer fil coupé jacquard shirt sprang from a close-up Jones had taken of Boafo’s brush work. He also lifted subtle inspiration from haute couture—the gray taffeta blouson being a renewed, more youthful and summery iteration of the opera coat which opened his last show.

Still, even without the Black Lives Matter uprising which is fundamentally changing the way all institutions are being interrogated now, a collaboration like this was always going to demand detailed explanation. This one is tooled differently from the usual artist-brand collab. Behind it is an exchange with Dior which was stipulated by Boafo. “He said he didn’t want a royalty [for himself], but help to build a foundation for young artists in Accra,” Jones said. A donation made by Christian Dior (the sum was not specified) backs up Boafo’s activism. In using the leverage of his market power to lift up African art and artists, he is one of the new generation of Black artists (Virgil Abloh and Stormzy being two others) who believe in the transformative empowerment of cultural education. In May, Boafo raised $190,000 (three times the estimate) with an online auction of his painting, Aurore Iradukunda, to benefit the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

The initiative will consist of a building that will host Boafo’s studio, a residence, and an artist-run gallery, supporting young artists in Ghana and their studio practice. “The change needed right now is to support young people through college and training to give everyone equal opportunities,” Jones said. The focus of this project is close to his heart, and, he says, to part of his own upbringing as the son of a hydrogeologist who worked throughout the continent. “We moved to Ethiopia when I was around three years old, spent time living there, and then moved around east Africa and then Botswana. I’ve kept going back for the rest of my life.”

Underlying his motivation—using Dior’s fashion broadcasting capabilities to enlighten a broad audience about the vitality of contemporary African art, as well as facilitating a project with cash—is a quieter salute to Jones’s father, who recently passed away. “The fact that we are working with Amoako Boafo, from Ghana, which was one of my father’s favorite African countries is,” he said, “a fitting tribute to the man who introduced me to Africa and the world.”

Source: VogueRunway

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VIKTOR & ROLF HAUTE COUTURE A/W 2020

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Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture, Autumn/Winter 2020 titled “Change” features three wardrobes for three mindsets in extraordinary times of change. Viktor & Rolf subvert the traditional catwalk by showcasing this collection in a special haute couture presentation. The collection consists of three different mini-wardrobes, each symbolizing a different state of mind. Each wardrobe has three outfits: a nightgown, a dressing gown and a coat.

The first wardrobe embodies a somber mood. The satin nightgown sports intricate lace incrustations with a raincloud motif. The grey chenille dressing gown has an intricate bow and extra long sleeves. The look is completed with a majestic coat in animal-friendly faux-leather. Its volume and cone motif does impress and emanates a safe feeling. The look is finished with a face mask accessory.

The second group of outfits signals the conflicting emotions we all experience these days. The nightgown is manically decorated with a polka dot motif of contradictory emojis, each symbolizing a state of mind. Its accompanying dressing gown has asymmetric sashes and bows down the left sleeve. A maximalist asymmetric coat in pink and yellow 'pleather' with glittery accents completes this manic mini wardrobe. Its generous A-line volume guarantees you will remain in your own safe zone while venturing out into the world. The abstract decoration of holes and tunnels is at the same time unapproachable as well as attractive, an effect that is emphasized by the color clash of pinks and yellows.

The last three ensembles radiate love for Autumn/Winter 2020. Red, black and white lace incrustations in a white satin nightgown are used to the opposite effect as before: melancholy becomes serenity. The dressing gown has a snug bodice and an important skirt, featuring two heart shaped pockets in quilted red satin. The finale coat in white faux leather features the heart symbol that shows unity. Illustrating that we all deserve to be loved, regardless of age, color, gender, race, religion or sexuality, it is adorned with dozens of glittering hearts.

The film is directed by Marijke Aerden, narrated by MIKA and shot on location in the Waldorf Astoria in Amsterdam. The 'Change' animation is realised by Studio Maan Bijster. Concept and text by Viktor & Rolf.

“The world around us is changing rapidly. Whether apocalypse or new spiritual era, you will continue to be able to step into the singular universe of spectacular beauty, unexpected elegance and spiritual glamour of Viktor & Rolf.”

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Christian Dior Fall 2020 Couture

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There was no traffic jam on the rue de Varenne, no walk through the Rodin Museum, no scrum of street style photographers waiting in its Garden of Orpheus, and certainly no giant tent behind it. Le confinement made the staging of a Christian Dior haute couture show and the experiencing of its grand rituals impossible. Instead, last Friday, Maria Grazia Chiuri was booked solid with Zoom calls. “It’s our first couture presentation online, so it’s something very unusual,” she said.

Chiuri enlisted her friend Matteo Garrone, the Italian filmmaker who directed last year’s Pinocchio, to create a short surrealist movie titled Le Mythe Dior. With no runway to design for, Chiuri’s concept for the season was Théâtre de la Mode. In 1945, amid the devastation of World War II and with materials in short supply, Paris designers created clothes for doll forms one-third the size of their human female counterparts. Miniature dresses and tailleurs by 60 French couturiers and their mannequins were displayed at the Louvre and the exhibition was such a marvel—the clothes and accessories were made with such exacting care, with functioning buttons and handbags filled with tiny wallets and powder compacts—it went on to tour the world, raising funds for French war survivors in the process.

During the Zoom preview, Chiuri’s creations were displayed in a prodigious trunk on mannequins, which is how Dior couture clients around the globe will engage with them. Like the “Théâtre de la Mode” wonders of 75 years ago, Chiuri’s scaled-down day looks and gowns were painstakingly made. They truly give the term petite mains new meaning, but she reported that the task this season brought her team and the Dior studio workers—all working from home and all connecting via phone call or video conference during the shutdown—a lot of joy. “The project was very positive,” she said. “Seeing the first prototype, there was a strong spirit of community.” Doll-size clothes are fairly irresistible, as Garrone’s fantasia aims to demonstrate—even a statue can’t resist their allure. But the rewards of satisfying work can’t be underestimated and the movie’s scenes of Dior artisans and seamstresses lovingly filmed working behind the scenes are equally compelling. Amidst the crushing unemployment of COVID-19 time, even more so.

Chiuri’s “muses” this season seem chosen with that notion in mind. On the call she name-checked the likes of Lee Miller, Dora Maar, and Jacqueline Lamba—20th-century women who are often remembered by history for their beauty or for their famous lovers and husbands, but in fact did important work of their own as artists. Chiuri’s own work for Dior is unmistakable, even at one-third size: The diaphanous gowns—in embroidered tulle, in pleated chiffon, in meticulously patch-worked pastel lace—are fairy tales come to life.

In Le Mythe Dior, couriers bring a trunk of shrunken clothes to the woods. In this fairy tale, the magic that transforms them into real garments is the couture atelier, and the nymphlike protagonists get to keep the dresses. Reality intrudes, though. The narrowness of the film’s cast illustrates that when it comes to fashion and the inclusiveness of intersectional feminism, there’s work yet to be done.

Source: Vogue

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Viktor & Rolf FW20 Mister Mister Collection

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With Mister Mister, Viktor & Rolf introduce a new creative expression to their brand universe. Conveying the designer’s complementary bond, Viktor & Rolf Mister Mister is an extension of fashion artists' Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren's personal style - an intimate reflection, understated yet cleverly detailed with a myriad of textured patchworks and prints.

The collection embraces the modern dandy as a form of self-expression. Through a mingling of impeccable tailoring with casual wear, Viktor & Rolf Mister Mister crafts a playful take on formal wear. Homage is paid to an underlying sense of humor and irony through quirky conversational prints inspired by dandy narratives. Various top hats, either blown up or in micro patterns, executed in jacquards and trompe-l’oeil techniques, create a visual background that inspire dialogue amongst themselves.

Classic suits are crafted in playful patterns and casual garments feature formal detailing. Prints and patchworks give way to standout details, with several patchworks throughout the collection crafted with leftover materials hinting to the brand's recent Haute Couture collections that have placed an emphasis on the designer's notion of conscious design. This season’s vibrant color pallet is infused with classic masculine tones, highlighting the fresh accent ‘Winter blue’. Classic dandy pieces are defined by unexpected twists in detail such as tuxedo jackets that are finished with raw edges or men’s shirts that are adorned with asymmetric patchworks. The collection consists of around 130 pieces - from shirts and knits to formalwear, outerwear and accessories.

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Tomo Koizumi NYFW SPRING 2020 READY-TO-WEAR

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“I want to make something that is not commercial,” said Tomo Koizumi before his Spring 2020 show. The designer, who caught the eye of Katie Grand on Instagram six months ago and subsequently flew to New York one week later for his debut, felt no inhibitions about so boldly bucking the trends of the American fashion landscape. He has set up shop in Marc Jacobs’s atelier and uses Jacobs’s Madison Avenue store for his shows, and in this, he has become a spiritual successor to Jacobs’s fashion for fashion’s sake mantra of late. Koizumi’s clothes are more costume than ready-to-wear, intended to provoke and inspire. To make the point, he cast model Ariel Nicholson in a one-woman show in which she dressed and undressed in seven garments, twirling and gasping to the ambient tunes that echoed throughout the store.

As a display of fashion, it was breathtaking. Nicholson, the 18-year-old trans model and Raf Simons muse, projected well beyond a full painted face of glitter and a conehead ’do. As attendants dressed and undressed her in Koizumi’s ombré ensembles, she oohed and aahed, trying to keep the audience enthralled. No disrespect to her performance, but the structure and fabrications of the garments were enough.

All seven are made of hundreds of meters of ruffled Japanese polyester organza and utilize only one zipper. The construction is fascinating, with the ruffles backed by a cloth lining, suspended above each other like cascades of cake frosting. The silhouettes were pushed far beyond those of Koizumi’s debut, with jumpsuits, bodysuits, and ballooning sleeves layered under scarves of ruffles and bows. The designer said he chose the bow motif because he wanted the collection to represent his gift back to the people who made him. “I just want to bring joy,” he said simply. Mission achieved.

Source: VogueRunway

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Opening Reception: BEYOND THE CATWALK

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You’re invited to the opening reception of Beyond The Catwalk on Friday April 12th 7-9PM at the Art Institute of Atlanta. Beyond The Catwalk is an editorial photo essay of fashion and dogs - a creative collaboration between Art Institute students and alumni and industry professionals. The project came to fruition through a series of beautifully staged, styled and created images.

Beyond The Catwalk is a product of Doggies on the Catwalk [DotC], a 501 c3 that supports pet-based organizations. The exhibit runs April 7-May 13th with proceeds from the sales of the images benefitting DotC. The exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public.

This project and exhibit was made possible through the efforts and support of great partners: photographers Taylor Bareford, Kris Burris and Andrew Segovia, Jenni Lubo Click Models, Nyssa Green The GreenRoom Agency, Atlanta Pet Life Magazine, Brugal 1888, Emerald Hare, The Goat Farm, Tula Arts Center AND a very special thank you to ALL the Art Institute of Atlanta designers, models from Click and all the doggies and their parents!

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