Shelley Fralic: Rocking a custom-made fashion career

They say that if you can find a job doing what you love, you will never work a day in your life.

A bit of optimistic hyperbole, perhaps, but if you ask Nicole Guzzo, it’s not far off the mark.

Guzzo is 24, and fully immersed in a career that started way back when she was getting dressed for kindergarten.

You see, Guzzo always had a sense of fashion, so much so that she was mixing and matching outfits and coming up with interesting ensembles at the age of three, stubbornly insisting to her bemused parents that her style was hers alone.

And so it was all through school — Guzzo was the girl who showed up for the first day of middle school in combat boots, fishnets and a miniskirt, owning the look.

It’s not hard to imagine though, once you meet her, what with the teased hair dyed in Vampire Red — “people know me for my pouf” — and the tattoos and lip piercing and, yes, the rock ’n’ roll vibe of the leopard shrug and cheeky tank and pleather swing mini skirt she’s wearing on this average work day.

The pieces are from her own line, Nicole Guzzo Designs, which she started after graduating in 2012 from the four-year Kwantlen Fashion Design and Technology program, and which she creates and sews to order in her studio in Coquitlam, the town where she grew up and still lives.

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The course taught her the intricacies not only of graphics and pattern-making but business and sewing (the latter enhancing skills she learned from her grandmother and in Home Ec), all of it solidifying her drive to be an independent fashion designer.

Oh, her instructors tried to talk her out of her rock ‘n’ roll inclinations, she says, insisting there wasn’t much of a market for it in Vancouver, even though the menswear pieces she produced for her graduation show were such a big hit that orders began piling up in her inbox.

“Most grads went into design for Lululemon and other companies,” she says. “I just thought, this is not for me. I just couldn’t imagine losing control. I always said I’m doing my own thing right after school.”

So she set up a website to take online orders, and began showing her designs at shows around town, including at Men’s Fashion Week in Vancouver in 2012 (which featured her snakeskin pants) and soon the orders started coming in.

She bought two used industrial sewing machines — a Toyota and a Juki serger — and became a regular shopper at Fabricana. Designing and sewing became her life, when she wasn’t working part-time at a local bar to pay the bills.

“I just started posting things I had made, on my website and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram — pictures of dresses that I was making, coats and skirts, and people started understanding what I was doing, and started asking me to custom make these things.”

She created a $40 bandeau shaped like a bow — she calls it the Bow Top — and suddenly she could barely keep up with the demand. A faux-fur vest received much the same reaction, and then along came her street line, Rebel Up.

Jimmy Kimmel exposes fake fashion gurus at New York Fashion Week in hilarious video

The fashion world is an elite industry reserved mostly for those who really get what it’s about.
Either that or it’s all just a load of bullocks and everyone involved in it is only pretending to really get it.
Jimmy Kimmel recently exposed a bunch of fake fashion gurus who were attending Fashion Week in New York City.
The TV host sent out his crew and got them to make up fake names for fashion designers to see just how the fashion crowd would react.
Ever heard of the hot new fashion designer, Chandler Bing?

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Teen lauches designs at Fashion Week

Waving to her guests like a pro after her runway show last week, Isabella Rose Taylor at age 13 achieved something most designers never will: She made it to New York Fashion Week.

Oh, and there also was her launch last month of the Isabella Rose Taylor line for juniors, exclusively at Nordstrom.com.

The Austin, Texas, girl in bright red high-tops has soaked in fashion since she was 8, got serious about it at 9 after taking a sewing class and uses her own paintings as inspiration for some of her prints and designs.


“I’m so excited. The adrenaline is pumping,” she said backstage after the show, where she was one of the youngest ever to present. “It was so amazing.”

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Olivia Somerlyn sang her single “Parachute” on the runway before the models walked on wearing light pink baby-doll dresses and blue ones with a touch of fringe.


A model walks down the runway in a dress from Isabella’s spring/summer 2015 collection during Fashion Week. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
Isabella put graphic clouds with long fringe swinging freely or cute little raindrops on some of the clothes. She called those designs, and a floral print in lounge pants and a T-shirt, a “little bit of irony, just because fashion can be taken just a little too seriously sometimes.”

Isabella showed maxi dresses, cropped halter tops and tennis skirts, sticking mostly to black, gray and blue.

She also presented comfy sweaters and cardigans, and short baby-doll overalls in a blue check.

So what got her interested in fashion?

“I’ve always loved creating, ever since I was little,” she said.


Isabella graduated from high school at age 11 and now has a seasoned team working with her. A sponsorship by the Dell computer company helped make her appearance at New York Fashion Week possible.

“I’ve been painting as long as I can remember and doing fashion since I was 8,” she added. “I just love being able to share it.”

Inside SJP's NY Townhouse

SARAH JESSICA PARKER's Greenwich Village townhouse is on the market - and, like her fashion choices, the décor is perfectly eclectic. Unlike her most famous character Carrie Bradshaw's notoriously bijoux apartment, the actress's East 10th Street home is impressively expansive and - although Parker and her family don't actually live there - the house gives us an insight into her interiors taste.



Designer Bags Sale Set over five floors, the the 25ft-wide, 6,800sq home has everything you could possibly need - and quite a few things you probably do not. The "garden floor" boasts a brand new kitchen, while the "parlour floor" above has a Juliet balcony off the living and dining rooms providing views over the landscaped garden. The "guest floor" features three bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms, and a separate office area, and the "master floor" houses just one enormous bedroom, complete with a bathroom that holds a "hand-carved stone ovular tub" - as well as another of the property's seven fireplaces. The "family floor" is illuminated by two gigantic skylight windows and holds 50-inch-long bookcases, a separate built-in entertainment system, and a small windowed office with a storage closet.


Designer Sunglasses Fashion But what about that perennial dealbreaker: the wardrobe? It's a walk-in affair, naturally, with windows and shelving space for all those shoes. The house - which is newly "refreshed" - is on the market for $25 million with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, having been bought by Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick in 2011 for just under $19 million.

Ralph Lauren Puts on a Mind Blowing 4D Runway Show

Ralph Lauren has never been shy about innovating—the company just announced the release of a wearable tech line used at the U.S. Open—and its Polo for Women show was a continuation of that spirit. Hosted at Central Park’s Cherry Hill Monday night, the spring line was shown not on a physical runway, but instead displayed on a towering 60-foot tall, 150-foot wide screen of water. And it was that humongous fountain that made up the four-dimensions Polo had everyone so excited about. Holographic models wearing bright clothes walked down a runway where various scenes of New York—from the Brooklyn Bridge to the High Line—acted as the backdrop. Settings transitioned like pages in a storybook, one sinking before another popped up.

No models were actually there in the flesh (except in the crowd, of course, which included Karolína Kurková and Kendall Jenner). The presentation was a high-definition short film created using a combination of live-action footage and CG, which was projected onto the water-screen. “I really wanted to do something big for the new Polo Women’s brand,” Ralph Lauren explained in a press release. “We returned to Central Park, a place I love, and captured the spirit of Polo with a truly innovative mix of fashion Cheap Air Max 2015 and technology.”

And a flawless mix for that matter—filming a fashion show beforehand meant, of course, that there were no wardrobe malfunctions or unexpected tumbles as the models walked the runway. There was, however, a downside to the experience: Some details were sacrificed—notably fabric texture and facial definition—everything appeared a bit more blurry and misty on the screen. Still, it was a small price to pay for one of Fashion Week’s most noteworthy experiences. Just ask the countless people in the audience who had their phones raised throughout the entire show, snapping photos and videos of every magnificent, watery moment.


The event also celebrated the opening of Ralph Lauren’s Fifth Avenue flagship and the company’s charitable park initiatives—it’ll be donating to the Institute for Urban Parks and to the Woodland Campaign, Air Max 90 Engineered Mesh which is refurbishing Central Park’s Ramble by the event’s location.

Diana's Thirtieth Birthday Present To Harry

PRINCE HARRY and his brother William will inherit the wedding dress worn by their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, on Harry's thirtieth birthday, it has been revealed. Several other personal items, bequeathed by the late Princess of Wales to her sons in her will, will also be passed over on the day that Harry turns 30 - September 15.

Personal photos, letters, and jewels belonging to their mother will also become property of the princes - as will the score and lyrics to Elton John's adapted version of Candle in the Wind, which was performed at Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral.

Although no formal announcement has been made about where the dress will be stored or displayed, there is a suggestion that it may be put on display at Kensington Palace following several world tours.

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ame Vivienne Westwood On Dancing, Grandchildren And Making The Scottish Hall Of Fame

What’s your best ever dinner party story? Ours comes courtesy of last night’s Scottish Fashion Awards, where everyone’s favourite flame-haired fashion maverick, Vivienne Westwood, was honoured for her tireless commitment to a tartan check.

Receiving the night’s top award and being inducted into the Scottish Hall Of Fame, Dame Vivienne thanked two men - her former love Malcolm McLaren and her husband of 20+ years, Andreas Kronthale, who, by the way, is an amazing dancer (more of that later, though).

Of course, no Westwood speech would be complete without a quick condemnation of fracking and a few very subtle views on the impending referendum - she’s a yes voter, in case you were wondering.

When all the ceremonies were over, we did dessert with the woman of the night, putting the world to rights over a couple of vodka shots and decent dollop of raspberry coulis…

Dame Vivienne, congratulations, how does it feel to be in the Scottish Hall Of Fame Wholesale Designer Bags?
‘I didn’t know I was - is that what this prize means? Why do I accept this award… I do it because I think I should. Sometimes I don’t accept honorary this and that because I’m not going to be there, or I’m just not sure [about the cause]. But I do remember the special ones. I was teaching in Berlin for 13 years and I went for about four days every two months. When I left they gave me the keys to the city. So that was something quite special, I liked that. I do remember some of the things.’

What are some of your career highlights?
‘Honestly, looking back, I’m very impressed by what we’ve done sometimes. While we’re doing a collection, I love it, but as soon as you love it you’re already working on the next one. It is good to sometimes stop and think wow that’s just amazing. But what is a highlight? I don’t know. Probably the clothes that I wear myself. I have great clothes - I just borrow them from the collection then put them back and get another thing the next season, it’s brilliant.’

Do you think fashion moves too fast?
‘I think we have got far too much product and what I’m trying to do is insist upon quality rather than quantity. We absolutely have to like everything. That’s very difficult because there’s all this spin off from your central collection that follows it.'Cheap Air Max 87 Shoes Women

We saw your granddaughter, Cora Corre, make her modeling debut at your last runway show, how proud are you that the next generation of your family is making their mark in fashion?
‘My granddaughter used to be an amazing reader. Now she’s a teenager, she kind of stopped. She’s quite clever about what’s going on in the world, she’s interested in that, but I just hope she’ll start reading again.’

Are you teaching her lots about your work?
‘No it’s a waste of time! She’s not using me, she’s too busy with her friends. We should see each other more often, I would like that, I saw her the other day and I told her exactly that. Meanwhile they’re all about their exams and everything, they take that so seriously – they shouldn’t. It’s not about what you know when you’re ticking boxes.’

What song would get you dancing tonight?
‘Maybe Andreas will Cheap Air Max 2015– because he’s the best dancer in the world. He is amazing. I used to live for dancing. When I was a kid I lived for skipping. It’s amazing, kids have lost that, it was wonderful. In and out those ropes - so brilliant. But now I can’t be bothered, I’m too busy. I’ve given over, more or less. I do yoga, which is really important – you’ll live much longer if you do yoga. It makes you strong and flexible your body is really working with you it’s absolutely brilliant. I do a class and solo - I love it.’