Alianna Liu's AW2020 Collection features tailoring along with puzzle game-inspired motifs

Although Paris-based designer Alianna Liu started her eponymous label only in 2018, her Autumn/Winter 2020 collection shows maturity and an understanding of what women want to wear everyday: well-made high quality designs.  She combines creativity with ingenuity with good easy-to-wear style.

Describing that at the heart of her collection is Alianna herself, she draws inspiration from fairy tales, emphasizing “our collective desire to remain children forever, even well into adulthood,” she said.  But the end result is very grown-up indeed.

Alianna’s new collection is very wearable, from school-girl suitings to knit tops, cardigans, blouses and billowing tiered skirts to tailored pant-suits with oversized drop-shoulder jackets and matching trousers, and long coats, as well as flattering cape-like jackets and sweaters.  

Alianna says she looks to the ordinary objects and events in life, seeing the extraordinary in the everyday.  Her new Autumn/Winter 2020 collection has been inspired by the puzzle game Tetris, explains the designer, based on her passion for video games by featuring a mix of cubism and pixel art, she created the prints, composed of tetrominoes and other motifs which were hand-drawn by designer.   Note the puzzle game-inspired embroidered motifs to the Napoleonic era-inspired collars, and highlights of silver thread, beads, and sequins.

The fabrics are from France and Italy.  She uses organdie, silk, satin, and velvet for the empire and mermaid flared dress, extolling the female shape. There is virgin wool for the oversize coat as well as cotton for comfort and ease.

 “Working from the heart is the key to being a designer,” Alianna explains. “Thanks to my world travel experience, I am able to draw beauty from common life. I want my clients to look at what I have done and to feel what I feel.” In all her works, there is a boldness of colour and a uniqueness of thought, all tapered with her undeniable honesty, which is core to her philosophy as a designer.

After traveling the world, Alianna decided to follow her dream of becoming a designer, so she enrolled in the famous ESMOD Paris to study fashion design, patterning, and embroidery.

She presented her first capsule collection in Paris in 2018.

Leading international textile trade fairs affected by Covid-19 ourbreaks report big drop in visitor numbers

The global fashion industry was faced with challenging times even prior to the coronavirus outbreak as “winds of change” are reportedly sweeping across many markets, seeing slower growth and declining consumer confidence, while retailers and brands are under pressure to embrace digital and addressing sustainability.

Premiere Vision Paris - February 2020

With the continual escalation of the outbreak, the multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide is compounded by supply chain issues and weak demand, as many businesses and companies in a wide range of industries currently are dependent on China as both a manufacturing base and for its billion-plus-consumer market.  

Premiere Vision Paris - February 2020

While more and more international trade events for luxury items, fashion and textile industries have now announced their cancellation for this year, those that managed to stage just before the Covid-19 outbreak took hold in Italy have reported big drop in visitor and participation numbers in their February 2020 events.

Leading international trade fairs held in Paris, namely Premiere Vision and Texworld and their co-events, have seen substantial drop in attendance figures.

In the previous week, PV Paris which covers a wide array of textile, fabrics, design, yarns, leather, accessories and garment production, reported that it was visited by 44 414 international buyers and professionals to their February 2020 edition, a drop of more than 20% compared to the February 2019 show, due to travel bans from many countries and areas greatly affected by the Coronavirus, explained the organisers.

Now Messe Frankfurt France has revealed a dramatic drop of 49% in footfall for their group of six major trade fairs covering fabrics and materials, garment production, textile innovation, clothing and accessories, registering 7109 visitors compared with the previous year.  

Texworld - February 2020, Paris

Michael Scherpe, President of Messe Frankfurt France, remarked in a statement that the exceptional circumstances prevented almost 50% of Chinese exhibitors from leaving their country to come to Paris. In some cases, the European agents of these Chinese companies were able to present the Chinese’s collections on the stands.  


The results in terms of the number of discussions and amount of business reported by participants showed that the organisers got things right in staying the course and in continuing with all the events once they had consulted with the French health authorities, said the organisers, and that despite it all, their main Chinese partners have signalled their readiness to renew their confidence in the fair by confirming that they will certainly be back in September.

Texworld - February 2020, Paris

“As always, the players in this dynamic market will demonstrate their resilience and professionalism. Even if buyers decide to put alternative sourcing routes in place on a temporary basis in order to guarantee supplies, they will want to resume their usual routes quickly. For this reason, one can already imagine that the September session will be very good for business" said Mr. Scherpe.
Both fairs were particularly affected by their Chinese customers, as China is the epicentre of the Covid-19 virus, and its status as the key supplier of parts and textile products to the world’s industries has made it a most crucial link in the world’s economy,  But as life in some parts of the country has come to a stand-still due to the outbreak, the world’s reliance on China may now ironically make it the weakest link in the supply chain.

Reported in a recent article in Time magazine in March, Pierre Haren, CEO of fintech start-up Causality Link, believes consumers may soon start to see less variety on store shelves as companies concentrate their available production on products they already know to be best-sellers, and predicts there could be supply shortages as early as mid-March.

Premiere Vision Paris - Feburary 2020

Like many other industries, the fashion world has long embraced China as a source of cheap manufacturing — the country is by far the world’s largest producer of textiles, and it produces many of the other elements that go into clothes, from buttons to zippers to thread. “The vast majority of certain products are only done in China,” says Gary A. Wassner, the CEO of Hildun Corporation and the chairman of Interluxe. “We became very dependent, and we allowed it to happen because it was cost-efficient, but that’s not the only thing to consider.”

The fashion industry and other sectors are also facing big challenges from the other end of the production chain: consumer demand. Pauline Brown, the former chairman of North America at LVMH, says the luxury market is already starting to see a “fairly severe” effect due to the virus, especially as Chinese shoppers stop traveling to make big-ticket purchases in cities like New York and Paris. Brown says that, as consumers become focused on their health, they’re less likely to shop for luxury goods, as reported in Time.

HUMAN TOUCH exhibition at Sotheby's in London

The HUMAN TOUCH exhibition at Sotheby's held in early March showcased the incredible connection between designers and makers.

Framed wall hanging above: Art Makes People Powerful, 2019, is designed by Bob and Roberta Smith

Dimensions: 138 by 138cm

The piece of canvaswork (also known as needlepoint) was stitched in one prison by a single stitcher who used crewel wool to stitch in basketweave tent stite, a diagonal stitch which is used for its strength, evenness and structure.

HUMAN TOUCH was a ground-breaking collaboration between eight international contemporary artists and Fine Cell Work a charity that trains and works with prisoners in Britain, transferring their cells into embroidery workshops.

This unique project joining celebrated artists with stitchers in prison cells resulted in eight unique works of art for the exhibition at Sotheby's 26th February to 3rd March 2020 and sold by Fine Cell  Work.

The contemporary artists involved in this project were Ai Weiwei, Idris Khan, Carolina Mazzolari, Annie Morris, Cornelia Parker, Bob and Roberta Smith, Wolfgang Tillmans and Francis Upritchard.

Francis Upritchard's The Artists, Paravent with upholstered silk panels (176 x 149 cm)

The colour images were screen-printed onto handwoven silk and then hand-embroidered using stranded cotton in a wide selection of shades.  The stitches were imspired by the Bayeux Tapestry (technically an embroidery, not a tapestry) and include laid work, stem stitch, satin stich, couching, back stitch, raised chain band, detached chain stitch, French knots, buttonhole bars and double knot stitch.  The embroidered silk was professionally upholstered into the paravent, which was designed and constructed by Martino Gamper.

British designer Cath Kidston, Chair of Human Touch and Trustee of Fine Cell Work said in the programme introduction that the pieces were started from discussions with each artist with the understanding of the restrictions of stitching in prison.  The artists selected their base cloths and small sections were sent into some of the cell groups in prison to be sampled based on their specifications.  The artists then made recommendations or changes before each work was put into full production in prisons across the country.  As the work returned from prison, the emotional connection between the artists and the stitchers became obvious and can be seen through the craftsmanship.  

Ai Weiwei's piece was a quilt called Odyssey.

The monochrome piece consists of 28 embroidered panels, plus plan panels joined together in a variation of a Log cabin style quilt.  The topic is powerful, as it is about refugees, about Human Flow, according to the artist.  The embroidered panels were digitally printed and then stitched in stranded cotton using a variety of different stitches (stem, chain, open chain, detached chain, back and whipped back stitch plus French knots).

Ai Weiwei was so impressed with the results that he wrote personally to each of the 13 stitchers who worked on his piece to thank them for their contribution.

Idris Khan was so impressed with the stitcher's work that he chose to embroider his signature rather than marking with pen.

His design is called Numbers - a hand-sewn photograph presented as a framed wall-hanging of 180 x 180 cm.  The design was digitally printed on heavy linen with embroidered embellishments.

A single stitcher used a combination of darning stitch, Kantha stitch, seeding and irregular running stitch.

He also used black stranded and perle cotton in different weights to convey the subtle variations in shade and line.

All proceeds from the sale of the work were to go directly to the Fine Cell  Work, enabling the charity to provide more creative, paid needlework to the stitchers and enable them to build independent crime-free lives.

Sotheby's is located 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1S 2RT, UK

Photos by Lucia Carpio.

Handwoven fabrics from India's Translate put focus on the age-old art of Ikat

International fashion designers from Zandra Rhodes to John Galliano have often found inspiration from different cultures around the world for their creations. And India, rich in colour and patterns, is often cited as a favourite source for its valuable treasure troves of craft techniques.

Examples of ethnically-inspired fashion by UK designer Zandra Rhodes, who admitted her fascination with Asian handicrafts during Pure London in February this year, are among Rhodes' iconic signature looks.

Photos above  by Lucia Carpio at Zandra Rhodes' slide presentation 
during her keynote speech at Pure London, February 2020.

A special appearance made at UK fashion trade fair Pure London (February 9 – 11 2020) was keynote speaker British designer Zandra Rhodes, well known for her iconic bright pink hair and free-spirited brightly printed patterns, who admitted that she is “most inspired” when she goes on sketching trips, especially to India.

India's Translate focuses on reviving the age-old craft of handwoven Ikat for its apparel and home textile label.

"We aim to transform the trandition handcraft to comfortable, timeless clothing and lifestyle, "

says Translate.

So it was exciting to find exhibiting at Pure London in February Indian company Translate which showcased its array of Ikat craft techniques are transformed into contemporary fashion.

Co-founders, husband and wife Vickas and Vinita Passary explained that they want to create awareness for India's rich heritage in handcrafted textiles. "We celebrate the craft of Ikat by sustaining the exquisite beauty it inherits through our modern re-interpretation of heritage," she said.  "Our premise that 'hands are the value addition', the materials are passed through several hands to create works that are unique.
Translate was established along with textile artist Mr Chandrasekhar.
The company's aim is to give new lease of life to the Ikat craft techniques by empowering and providing consistent employment to the sixth generation artisanal communities.

Skilled artisans, weavers, designers and many more talented hands are involved in the design studio set up at Translate for creating a wide array of Ikat designs.

Ikat is one of the oldest known patterned textiles in the world, with a history that spans across multiple cultures and is known to have existed in India since the 6th Century.

Photos courtesy of TRANSLATE.

Ikat is a resist dyeing technique used to pattern textiles and the word ‘ikat’ comes from the Malay-Indonesian word for ‘tie’. Traditionally, Ikat were symbols of status, wealth, power and prestige because of the time and intricate skill involved in the weaving process.

With its continuous and sustained effort to work with the Ikat weavers, Translate is able to ensure the craft is kept alive and authentic.

Première Vision Paris records drop in visitors due to Coronavirus crisis

In total, 44 414 international visitors for a distinctly particular February 2020 edition.

Understandably visitor numbers to the February 2020 edition of Première Vision Paris, the world’s leading trade show  for upstream global creative fashion industry, dropped by more than 20% compared to the February 2019 show in the face of a travel ban from many countries and areas greatly affected by the Coronavirus, in particularly from China, which has become one of the key markets for European and international fabric and fashion professionals.

Nevertheless, organisers welcomed 44,414 international visitors and buyers from 124 countries to the event, held February 11-13, to view the latest on offer from 1,710 exhibitors in yarns and fibres, fabrics, leathers, surface designs, accessories and fashion manufacturing - with 48 countries represented.  
This was a solid showing, reported the organisers, despite 45 Chinese companies initially registered were not able to attend the show nor be represented by their European teams.  
Attendees voiced their approval for an event rich in inspirations, experiences and expert and strategic talks on the sector’s key issues, including eco-responsibility, technologies, societal changes, unique know-hows and more, said the organisers.  

The show also incorporated a full programme driven by eco-responsibility, engaging visitors with a Smart Creation area that welcomed 58 exhibitors who presented their latest eco-responsible innovations and fashion tech, in addition to hosting a full range of conferences in the Innovation Talks Area to explore the fashion of tomorrow, all of which were particularly well attended.
Fashion trend information prepared by the Première Vision fashion team for spring-summer 2021 was also highly acclaimed, with forums and seminars were filled to capacity, notably that dedicated to the dynamic Sport & Tech sector.  The «Mutations» exhibition exploring the link between technology and nature was well received, and the private evening organised at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs for the «Marche et démarche» exhibition dedicated to lace at Maison d’Exceptions added a new dimension to the show in February.


Starting from 2021, Première Vision Paris has announced that it will be changing the calendar of its flagship event, to the end of January/early February for the spring-summer collections, and to the first two weeks of July for the autumn-winter collections.

Première Vision Paris said the change is necessary in order to meet the requirements of a market in which collection creation and delivery timings have by and large multiplied.

Specifically, in 2021, Première Vision Paris will be held from 2 to 4 February for the Spring-Summer 22/23 collections and from 6 to 8 July for the Autumn-Winter 22/23 collections.


Meanwhile Première Vision Group has announced the launch of a new show in China scheduled to take place November 27, 28 and 29 2020 at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Centre, bringing together a creative range of materials  – yarns, fabrics, accessories, leathers, textile designs – from a broad selection of Asian and European producers, according to PV, saying it will enable the PV group to establish a position in China in this market that is expected to become the world’s largest in terms of clothing and luxury goods as of 2025.

This will be a side-by-side show to be held in the heart of Fashion Source, one of the leading textile and fashion trade shows in Asia, which takes place twice a year in Shenzhen, in the South of China, an area which is now fast becoming an international hub for the region’s textile and fashion industry (due to its proximity to Hong Kong and GuangZhou) and technological developments.

London’s V&A hosts exhibition on kimono fashion 29 February – 21 June

Japanese brand Yoshikimono founded by famous rock star Yoshiki, is partnering with London's iconic Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A) in a new exhibition on kimono in London, entitled: KIMONO: Kyoto to Catwalk.

Indeed, the brand Yoshikimono was created 10 years ago by iconic Japanese rock star Yoshiki, the founder of rock band X Japan who sold during their international career more than 30 millions albums.

Within his collections, Yoshiki wants to celebrate the Kimono as a traditional garment but with a fashion contemporary twist.

His aim is to introduce the art of the kimono to the younger generation in order to perpetuate this Japanese tradition.







Stunning 17th-century Japanese garments, international haute couture and costumes from Star Wars come together in the major V&A exhibition on kimono fashion.

The V&A has been collecting Japanese art and design since it was founded in 1852 and now holds one of the world’s most significant collections, including important holdings of Japanese textiles and dress, this new exhibition is billed as one of Europe's first major exhibition on the kimono.

Anna Jackson, curator of Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk at the V&A, said: “From the sophisticated culture of 17^th-century Kyoto to the creativity of the contemporary catwalk, the kimono is unique in its aesthetic importance and cultural impact giving it a fascinating place within the story of fashion.”

While the kimono is widely recognised as the ultimate symbol of Japan, perceived as traditional, timeless and unchanging, the new exhibition - Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk will counter this perception by presenting the garment as a dynamic and constantly evolving icon of fashion.

The exhibition will reveal the sartorial and social significance of the kimono from the 1660s to the present day, both in Japan and in the rest of the world. Rare 17th and 18thcentury kimono will be displayed for the first time in the UK, together with fashions by major designers and iconic film and performance costumes. The kimono’s recent reinvention on the streets of Japan will also be explored through work by an exciting new wave of contemporary designers and stylists.

Highlights of the exhibition include a kimono created by Living National Treasure Kunihiko Moriguchi, the dress designed for Björk by Alexander McQueen and worn on the album cover Homogenic, and original Star Wars costumes modelled on kimono by John Mollo and Trisha Biggar. Designs by Yves Saint Laurent, Rei Kawakubo and John Galliano will reveal the kimono’s role as a constant source of inspiration for fashion designers. Paintings, prints, film, dress accessories and other objects will feature throughout the exhibition, providing additional context to the fascinating story of the style, appeal and influence of the kimono.
Over 315 works will be featured, including kimono especially made for the show, half drawn from the V&A’s superlative collections and the rest generously lent by museums and private collections in Britain, Europe, America and Japan.

Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk is a valuable resource for visitors to understand this amazing national costume of Japan, starting from the mid-17th century when a vibrant fashion culture emerged in Japan. The increasingly wealthy merchant classes demanded the latest styles to express their affluence, confidence and taste, while leading actors and famous courtesans were the trend-setters of the day. The simple structure of the kimono focussed attention on the surface, allowing for the creation of sumptuous patterns using sophisticated techniques.
The first section of the exhibition will explore these designs and shine a light on a fashion-conscious society not dissimilar to today’s, in which desire for the latest look was fed by a cult of celebrity and encouraged by makers, sellers and publishers.
Kimono were first exported to Europe in the mid-17th century, where they had an immediate impact on clothing styles. Foreign fabrics were also brought to Japan and incorporated into kimono. Rare survivors from this early period of cultural exchange, including garments made in Japan for the Dutch and kimono tailored from French brocade and Indian chintz, will be displayed to reveal the fluid fashion relationship between East and West that resulted from the global trade network.

The late 19th century saw a world-wide craze for Japanese art and design. Kimono bought from department stores such as Liberty & Co. in London were worn by those wishing to express their artistic flair. Japan responded by making boldly embroidered ‘kimono for foreigners’, while the domestic market was transformed by the use of European textile technology and chemical dyes.

The kimono’s biggest impact on western fashion came in the early 20th century, when designers such as Paul Poiret, Mariano Fortuny and Madeleine Vionnet abandoned tightly-corseted styles in favour of loose layers of fabric that draped the body.

The final section of the exhibition will show how the kimono has continued to inspire fashion designers around the world. The potential of the garment to be translated and transformed is seen in designs by Thom Browne, Duro Olowu and Yohji Yamamoto. The kimono’s timeless, universal quality has also made it the ideal costume for film and performance. The display will include the outfit worn by Toshirō Mifune in Sanjūrō, Oscar-winning costumes from Memoirs of a Geisha, and the Jean Paul Gautier ensemble worn by Madonna in her video Nothing Really Matters. Japan itself is currently witnessing a resurgence of interest in kimono. Jōtarō Saitō designs kimono couture for the catwalk, Hiroko Takahashi seeks to bridge the divide between art and fashion, and more casual styles are created by small, independent studios such as Rumi Rock and Modern Antenna.

The pop sensibility of Tom Dxon’s SWIRL vase collection

Following a successful 24-hour campaign in Paris, the British design supremo Tom Dixon’s new collection of vases by name of SWIRL is now officially launched in store.

Available in a range of shapes and sizes, the SWIRL vases represent a psychedelic update of an Italian post-modernist aesthetic, created from a series of geometric forms stacked upon one another to create multi-dimensional, functional sculptures.
Featured here is a selection of Tom Dixon's guerrilla photoshoot at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

The unique process involves recycling the powdered residue from the marble industry, mixed with pigment and resin to create blocks of material that can then be sawn, sliced and turned on a lathe.

STEM, SMALL and MEDIUM vases are inspired by Ikebana, which is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Anchored with a heavy base, the cylindrical vessels allow branches and flowers to cantilever out.


SWIRL is a series of geometric forms stacked upon one another to create multidimensional, functional sculptures; each piece features a unique pattern due to the pouring process.   The Swirl family includes also coat hooks, bookends, furniture and other decorative designs.