Swarovski's new Skull beads rock.

Image courtesy of Swarovski.

The human skull is an intriguing shape.  With the biker’s leather jacket continuing to be a key wardrobe staple, and metal spikes and studs playing very strong roles as embellishments in today’s fashion, the skull motif fits right in place.

One of Swarovski’s latest crystal beads from its Spring/Summer 2015 collection is in the shape of a human skull.  The new Skull bead was inspired by the decorative symbols of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, according to Swarovski, but one can think of other influential figures in the world of fashion and art from where inspiration may be drawn, such as Alexander McQueen naturally, and Damien Hurst.  Both have featured the human skull famously in their work.  

At a recent presentation event hosted by Swarovski Elements in London last week, a demonstration was also made to show how simple elegant bracelets can be made by stringing together two skull-shaped crystal beads and a series of round Crystal Pearls which come in various shades.  Swarovski’s Crystal Pearls are a perfect replica of genuine pearls, explained the Austrian house, as they are similar in weight and behaviour.  Both adjust to the temperature of the skin and are resistant to rubbing, scratching, perfume, perspiration and UV light.  

While you can also go to the Swarovski website (click HERE) for instructions on how to create the Sparkling Skull Bracelet, here below is a step-by-step guide that any beginner can follow.  In addition to the Swarovski beads, you will need glue, a piece of transparent stretchable beading cord ( Ø 0.5 mm, 40 cm), a beading needle, and scissors.  

The version shown here differs slightly from Swarovski’s original shown in their website as it also features an extra bead being inserted between the two skull beads to give the skulls more prominence.  And by doing so, a butterfly motif is also formed.
Step 1:-  Cut a 40 cm length of stretchable beading cord, and string together seven or eight Swarovski Crystal Pearls (here 10 mm Crystal Bordeaux Pearls are used), and two Crystal Skull Beads (13 mm Crystal AB).  Make sure that the skulls face at opposite direction (as shown) and then seven more Swarovski pearls – adjust the number as needed around one’s wrist.

Step 2:-  Take both ends of the elastic cord and loop them over-and-under one time,  as if you're tying shoe laces. Repeat this process, but this time, loop the ends over-and-under-twice.  Finally pull the ends tight to complete the knot.

Step 3:- Place a small amount of glue directly on the knot. Thread the ends together and insert them back through one of the Swarovski Crystal Pearls using a beading needle.  Also place a small amount of glue on the elastic cord directly after the knot (approximately 5 mm) before pulling it tight into the pearl. Cut the excess cord off.

And Presto! 

For other design ideas, go to Swarovski Element's "Creat Your Style" web-page.  Click HERE.

Photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

Heal’s unveils first own-brand fabric collection since 1970s, and coordinating home accessories range.

Zandra Rhodes' Top Brass 2 design features her signature pink colourway for Heal's
newly launched own-label fabric collection. 

This design above is by British designer Zandra Rhodes.  Entitled Top Brass 2, it was originally designed in 1963 for the British furniture and home furnishing store Heal's and was created while Rhodes was still studying at The Royal College of Art London.  The medal motif was inspired by a David Hockney painting and the bold colour palette is representative of the Pop Art period.  Rhodes is one of the designers whose designs are featured in Heal's newly launched own-brand fabric collection.

Cressida Bell’s decorative Trees is richly detailed and heavily influenced by the 1930s and 1940s trends.

While Heal's stocks a number of top designer brands, including the likes of Missoni, Marimekko, Osborne and Little and Ralph Lauren,  now, for the first time since the 1970s, Heal’s has launched its own fabric range, championing design talents both from the UK and the European continent.

Pia Benham, Heal’s Head of Fabric & Design comments: “As part of the relaunch of Heal’s historic fabric department, we wanted to extend our current fabric offering. We hope the new collection will help further strengthen our fabric department’s position as the destination for unique and exciting designs, a place that can inspire our customers and enable them to make their homes a beautiful place to live in. We also wanted to inject fun and excitement into our Heal’s fabric design once again, by working with established as well as emerging designers – in the same way we did in the 1950s and 1960s.”

Lady Jane by Petra Börner is designed to resemble a scattered bouquet of rough cuts from the garden. The idea was derived from horticultural images taken from vintage books. 

Tea Time design by the late Diana Bloomfield reflects the 1950s period in which it was first designed. 

Cloud by Emily Patrick, based on one of the designer’s own paintings, a sky study, features her strong brushwork creating a tranquil painted effect

In addition to fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, the line-up includes textile artist Cressida Bell, figurative painter Emily Patrick, textile expert Paul Vogel, silk weaver Ottilie Stevenson, from the archive of the late Diana Bloomfield (with the help of her daughter Julia and her graddaughter-in-law Linda), as well as French illustrator Malika Favre, Swedish textiles designer Petra Borner, and Danish designers Hvass & Hannibal.

Hvass & Hannibal’s Herbarium uses the forest as its main theme for a distinctively Scandinavian feel.

Malika Favre’s exotic Peacock Flower is a bold, geometric interpretation of a floral theme. 

While the designers ingeniously use colour and patterns to highlight their individual style, some have been inspired by Heal’s heritage for this exclusive collection, others have taken ideas from vintage sources, drawing inspiration from fabric archives, or take inspiration from decorative arts, nature and even jewellery.   Geometrics and nature are popular themes. 

To design this Zig Zag pattern, Ottilie Stevenson looked to Art Deco jewellery  in particular the shapes and lines created by the gold chain links of 1940s necklaces. 

A design from Paul Vogel’s Stripe series, inspired by Heal’s own archives but uses Spring 2014’s colour trends to give it a modern twist. 

Some of the designs are in 100% cotton hopsack, such as those by  Zandra Rhodes’ Top Brass 2, Hvass & Hannibal’s Herbarium, and Malika Favre’s Peacock flower, others are in a cotton/linen/nylon mix.

Many people probably do not know that Heal’s has been going for more than two centuries.  Presently with six stores in the chain selling a wide range of furniture, lighting, interior furnishing, homewares and garden products, Heal’s started out as a feather-dressing business.   Its flagship has been at the Tottenham Court Road location in London since the mid 1800’s , and today it also sells its products on-line.
To coincide with the launch of their own-brand fabric collection, Heal’s has introduced a coordinating home accessory line, Heal’s 1810, to complement the new offering.  Named after the year in which the company was established, Heal’s 1810 includes kitchen textiles, trays, cushions and stationery, all of which feature selected patterns from the new fabric range.
Pia Benham adds, “It’s been a wonderful journey working with all the designers on our new fabrics, and we loved their designs so much that we decided to go further with some of the patterns and apply them to home accessories. As such, we have produced a whole new collection around those patterns, and that’s exactly how Heal’s 1810 came about.
“We wanted to give our customers different options to incorporate those patterns into their design schemes, whether it be using our new fabrics for soft furnishings and light upholstery, or introducing Heal’s 1810 accessories to their homes for a simple style update.”

Butterflies are all the rage for Spring.

Oversize clutch in soft supple leather with laser-cut butterflies from British brand Sampson & Christie.
Other designs from the new range also available on the website.

Flora and fauna, and the garden theme are much-favoured for fashion inspiration this Spring, but it's the butterflies that are causing all the rage.  

A Clipper - blue subspecies (Parthenos Sylvia Violacea) as seen in Butterfly in the Glasshouse,
at the RHS Wisley, Surrey, UK.

The fashion store Fenwick (on Bond Street in London) is launching a Beauty in Wonderland promotion on Monday March 17 until 30, with a garden setting of blooms, butterflies and bees to showcase their event, but setting my heart aflutter recently was the Butterfly in the Glasshouse event at RHS Wisley Garden  in Surrey recently where visitors could experience exotic butterflies flitting and floating among tropical plants.

A Malachite (Siproeta Stelenes) as seen in Butterfly in the Glasshouse, at the RHS Wisley, Surrey, UK.

At Swarovski, the Austrian house for producing crystals for fashion and accessories, crystal beads in the shape of a butterfly are among the newly launched shapes for Spring Summer 2015.

Here are a few examples of how with the use of the butterfly-shaped crystals with other shapes, a designer at Swarovski has created geometric decorations to add a new dimension of luxe to denim shirts and everyday T-shirts.

Wildlife and Swarovski photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

Modern Thai Silk debuted at Expofil in Paris.

Most people would probably conjure up images of smiling faces when the country Thailand is mentioned, a much-favoured holiday destination that is often referred to as the land of smiles, but do we think of Thai Silk when we think about modern fabrics?

Acknowledging that its national fabric may have lost much of its lustre, so to speak, the Thailand Textile Institute took to participating in the Expofil yarn fair, held during the prestigious Premiere Vision Pluriel in Paris (last held February 17-20) to promote its debut collection of Modern Thai Silk.

Presented for the first time to the global fashion textiles industry, the new silk collection  featured  some 50 prototypes, including knitted and woven qualities, some are in melange yarns blended with cotton or linen to create hybrid qualities, as well as dyed in a myriad of hues, may have a high-twist yarn or light as chiffon, in a wide range of colours.

Read MORE ...

Photo by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect

Design Shanghai reports over 47,000 visitors to its first edition.

As China is rapidly developing as a market for affluent designs, the recent launch of a new exhibition had given the organisers much optimism to the event's future prospects.

Organisers at Design Shanghai has reported that its inaugural event held in Shanghai February 27 to March 2 was an overnight success recording more than  47,000 visitors to the four-day show, 65% of which were architects, interior designers, developers, dealers and affluent design-conscious consumers.   

Design Shanghai was co-organised by Media 10 (organisers of UK fairs:-100% Design, Grand Designs Live, Clerkenwell Design Week and Ideal Home Show), and Shanghai Art Fair Ltd.

Design Shanghai featured some of the UK’s most prestigious design brands exhibiting at the newly renovated Shanghai Exhibition Centre for the first time. The show included more than 50 UK and over 100 international design brands, most of which have never been showcased before in China.

Furthermore, over 600 media representatives from across South East Asia attended the opening day, resulting in 104 television reports on Design Shanghai.

Referring to  Design Shanghai 2014 as the leading trade platform for design professionals in China, with greater numbers of trade visitors than any other design event, Lee Newton, CEO of Media 10 said: “We're absolutely thrilled by the success of Design Shanghai; in particular, by the overall number of visitors.

"We, as Media 10, always wanted to stage a high-end design event in main land China, and when the opportunity arose, we seized it with both hands. China, especially Shanghai, is developing rapidly, but until now, no one has taken major Western design brands to the country.

"We're so pleased with the overall response to Design Shanghai, and we believe that this event is going to grow and become a key global platform for design. We would like to give a special thanks to all the exhibitors who have supported us in achieving this goal, and we look forward to seeing them again in China in 2015.”

Leading design brands including Magis, Flos, Fritz Hansen, Alessi, Boss Design, HAY, Cole & Son and Design Republic (Moooi, Tom Dixon and BD Barcelona Design) were among some of the exhibitors at the show.

Lenzing's top executive demonstrates benefits of shirts in TENCEL®/Cotton blends.

At a recent press conference in Paris organised by the Austrian company - Lenzing - to promote its TENCEL® fibre, the company's Head of the Performance Apparel Segment Andreas Gürtler demonstrated that he's just as good in domestic chores as in his day job.  
His mission was to demonstrate to all present that when Tencel® is blended with cotton it would enhance the quality of the fabric.  He used two shirts to demonstrate that when a dress shirt is made of a  Tencel®/Cotton blended fabric, the shirt would benefit from better easy-care properties; with lower tendency to crease when washed, and thus it becomes easy-to-iron too. 

Mr. Gürtler also conducted a washing test with the use of a small tank of water to compare two pieces of fabrics - one in pure cotton, and one blended with Tencel® to show the crease effect between both fabrics.

Mr. Gürtler explained that while the Tencel® fibre's origin is botanic (which means it comes from nature, similar to cotton ), the Tencel®  fibre has excellent skin-sensory properties and ensures moisture management, and with good temperature control.  Since the fibre swells in a wet state, the formation of creases is minimised during the washing procedure, and when hung up to dry, the creases on shirts with Tencel® will disappear more quickly. 
All photos above by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

"Even a small blending ratio with Tencel® gives cotton shirts a new definition," said Mr. Gürtler.  The addition of Tencel® improves the crease recovery after washing, which leads to a better ironing behaviour."  He added that Lenzing now sees the shirting sector to be a growth segment for the Tencel® fibre. "Particularly fabrics of long-staple cotton (high quality cotton used in formal shirts) and Tencel® are unbeatable in terms of the quality and look."  At the moment, on the market, some 60% of Tencel® fabrics (certified according to Lenzing's quality criteria) are used for shirts and blouses.  Of this, one-third is blended with cotton.  Lenzing's goal now is to further increase the share with cotton blends.

Texworld and ApparelSourcing Paris fairs enjoyed growth and satisfactory comments.

Organisers at Messe Frankfurt France have reported that the Texworld and ApparelSourcing trade fairs – both events held in Paris in February 17 – 20 (coinciding with the Premiere Vision Pluriel fairs) - reported a growth of 11% in terms of visitors’ numbers (when compared to the February 2013 event ), prompting its president Michael Sherpe to comment that the textiles industry is emerging from the economic crisis.

Mr Sherpe said the positioning of Texworld and ApparelSourcing Paris (for fashion fabrics, accessories and finished garments respectively), as pre-eminent platforms, where you can find the whole spectrum of qualities at fair prices, had been firmly established and contributed to these positive results.  Some 85% of the visitors came from outside France.

The key fabrics for Spring Summer 2015 according to the fairs’ artistic directors, Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, were sumptuous colours with flair.

For the report on this February's fair, click HERE.

The next Texworld and ApparelSourcing events will take place September 15 – 18 at Le Bourget, Paris.

All photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

Sitting for Paolo Galetto, the Italian illustrator and artist at Premiere Vision in Paris.

On the invitation of GB network and Miroglio Textile, during the prestigious Premiere Vision trade fair in Paris in February 18-20, My Fashion Connect was able to preview the new fabric designs that form part of Miroglio's ‘Metri d’Arte’ project, featuring an iconic set of three figurative designs by Italian artist Paolo Galetto. 
  

As explained by Elena Miroglio, vice-president of the Miroglio Group, (on the right in this picture with Paolo Galetto) this was an initiative to show off the company's state-of-the-art digital printing technology, combined with the talent of the artist, bringing  together industrial production and artistic creativity,  

The project is proof of the high regard Miroglio Textiles holds for art and creativity. 

  

Paolo is well known for his fashion water colour images and illustrations, and was enthusaistic in showing his portfolio of portraits of famous faces and personalities. Among his commission works have been female portraits created for Vogue Italia magazine.

Thus it was a great honour that Paolo, when out of the blue, he offered to do a portrait of Lucia Carpio, editor of My Fashion Connect. This was indeed a proposition one can't refuse. 

So here's the finished work after the sitting for half an hour.  
Bravo indeed!

Italian illustrator and artist Paolo Galetto, who lives between Turin and Paris, has worked for many years as a visual artist, creating hundreds of storyboards for some of the most renowned film studios of the world, as well as portraits of Italy's influential writers and intellectuals.

Knitwear Solutions and Heritage installation focus on unique Creativity

Knitwear Solutions 

Knitwear Solutions presented - in this 4^th edition at Premiere Vision Pluriel in February - a range of knitters from Europe, notably, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as knitters from Asia - Japan, China and Hong Kong. 

The Europeans proposed collections to demonstrate creativity, quality and finishings for the high-end and luxury markets, Asian companies displayed the traditional know-how in varied technical and fancy developments that the region is famous for.

While European spinners - particularly Bulgaria and Italy - offered cutting-edge developments in noble, natural or artificial fibres, whether single or blended, Asian exhibitors shone as an important source of noble fibres such as cashmere and wools.

A key focus this season at Premiere Vision in the Knitwear Solutions area was the Futuristic Heritage
installation of specially-selected unique knitwear designs to showcase the ingenuity and innovative designs by some of Europe's great designers - provided much prove that notions of heritage shape our past while redefine the DNA of design ideas.  This demonstrated that Heritage continues to be an important word in the world of fashion and design.

This installation showcasing some 20 works was a major focus at the Knitwear Solutions area during the Premiere Vision trade fair in Paris in February this year.  It was organised by Federico Poletti in collaboration with the international centre for Italian fashion documentation, Archivio Modateca Deanna, and Ffrancesca Fornasari.
To see a selection of the unique heritage designer knitwear at the show, click here.

Photos by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.