Swarovski Maxi

Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Collections

Here are the Spring/Summer 2011 fashion collections by a few new designers..

Croatian born designer Vjera Vilicnik.

Vjera believes in quality over quantity which is displayed through the hand crafted embroidery of her collection. She perfected her skills of hand crafting at Ecole Lesage, the French school of haute couture embroidery.

The inspiration behind the collection is a girl becoming a woman. Dusty pinks are teamed with sophisticated black. Lines are simple allowing the hand stitched embellishments of feathers, beads and Swarovski crystals to transform the garments from ordinary to unique.

A plain white silk t-shirt reveals a cross over pattern of Swarovski crystal beads on organza at the back, whilst a conservative pink and black mini shirt dress shows a more adventurous side of feathers, ribbons and beads across the shoulder blades.

Her aim is to show that embroidery does not mean old fashioned and does not have to be heavy.

 

Central Saint Martin's graduate Haizhen Wang.

Wang's SS11 collection is inspired by his past work at MaxMara, Boudicca and All Saints mixed with his own personal creativity. Hand printed designs are either a combination of deep muted bronze and gold or the lighter mix of pale gold and pearl. His signature fabric of waxed cotton is used for the outerwear. The overall look is soft structured tailoring.

 

 

Anna Paola's beachwear label Paolita. Born in the USA and raised in Greece, Anna studied fashion design at the Instituto Marangoni in Milan. For SS11 Anna has two collections: Voyage and Floreana.

Voyage is inspired by the explorers of the past and shows swimwear in nautical stripes. The stripes are of faded red, fern and blue with a few tiny ruffles here and there to give a vintage undertone. This collection is definitely for the woman who is not afraid to show off her body as even the one piece suits show a lot of middle with their cut away designs.

Floreana is inspired by the Galapagos Islands combining exotic and colourful ethnic prints in modern bright neon colours of fern, yellow, red and blue. Here we see a patchwork of patterns and colours together giving a carnival feel. This collection has a more varied choice for different body shapes: The Odalisque one piece is of a burlesque style with girlie frills at the top of the legs, the Sonnet one piece is more Hollywood glam with its halter neck cord tie, the Minikini is girlie with its little frilled skirt and the Shorti bikini is boyish with its mini short style bottoms.

 

Designer couple Israel and Pierre Imarni showed their fashion label Isy & Peeps – so called after their nicknames. The age market is 18-25 year old so the pieces are fun and flirty. The collection is a series of capsule items each based around a key trend for the season, but designed in colour and style so that they can be mixed together.

The first theme is ‘Tomorrow's World'. Digital prints of birds in flight grace chiffon dresses and tunics.

The second is ‘Postcards from the Country' where a city girl is on a walk through rural America on a hot summer's afternoon. Here are prints of free running horses on sandy coloured chiffon mini dresses and blouses, juxtaposing femininity with the rugged prairie.

The third is ‘Script' where everything is black and white, especially love.  Here we see ‘Isy & Peeps' printed in black script all over white chiffon dresses and tunics.  Knitted maxis, tunics and capes are adorned with love hearts, love birds, ‘Love till the end' and Isy & Peeps' initials. Colours are white on black, black on white and some with a splash of red.

 

Hardcastle, a mid to high end ready to wear label which combines the relaxed Australian easy to wear attitude with the quality of European tailoring. The collection is called ‘As the Llamera Girl dances...' and Louise Hardcastle took her inspiration from the colourful Quechuan women of Peru. She combines femininity with a touch of masculinity by mixing fabrics of suede, silk, chiffon, wool crepe and leather together. Colours are bright acid oranges, blues, pinks and reds. The neon pink dress combines an empire line band of suede on a wool crepe shirt covered with a layer of silk chiffon. A tan leather mini skirt is layered with wide suede looped bands. The digital print used is an aerial shot of Peru.

 

Karen Grace - Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for frumpy to funky.

Call for consultations on 07787 800 390

More details through the website: www.frumpytofunky.com

 

 

 

 

About the Author

frumpy to funky was established by Karen Grace, an affiliate member of the Federation of Image Consultants. Karen has studied Personal Styling at the London College of Fashion and received her professional training in one of the London's leading Image Consultancy training centre. More details can be seen on http://www.frumpytofunky.com