Fashion Designer Leveraging Bermuda Exposure

Thomas LaVone — an award-winning fashion designer who will feature in next month’s Bermuda Fashion Festival — is using his exposure in Bermuda to creating a great opportunity for US models.

Known for his fine couture gowns and high fashion, LaVone has recently run a Model Muse contest to scout his next model, and the winner will walk on Bermuda Fashion Festival runway in the International Designer Show on Tuesday July 12.

The winner, soon to be announced, receives air and hotel accommodation to Bermuda, an editorial magazine photoshoot, as well as walking in the Bermuda Fashion Festival runway show.

They will also walk for Thomas LaVone in New York Fashion Week and feature in the Thomas LaVone Look Book. The search extended to all size models as long as they were 5’7” without heels.

Selection criteria included composite card imagery, runway presentation and the ability to be a well-rounded spokesmodel.

The focus of Thomas LaVone’s collection for Bermuda on July 12th is fun, flare, and femininity. He says bright colours and bold, playful prints will feature with soft and tender fabrication for the Thomas LaVone woman on holiday.

The New Jersey designer says “the collection this season is based on essential pieces for holiday travel, chiffon that’s light and airy and summer white essentials and colour that inspires happiness and relaxation.”

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Thomas LaVone boasts a celebrity following and has dressed the likes of actresses Terri J. Vaughn and Malinda Williams, ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, Emmy nominated journalist Kelley L. Carter, TV’s Judge Hatchett and legendary singer and entertainer Melba Moore.

Thomas LaVone’s reputation, after 17 years in the industry, is best recognized by his meticulous attention to detail.

After showing at Bermuda Fashion Festival 2015, the Thomas LaVone brand featured in Vogue UK and ELLE UK magazines for the first time and since then it has featured several times in each.

LaVone says; “It’s simply amazing! We are indeed humbled and feel blessed and encouraged to keep going forward.”

When asked about any challenges he has overcome, he says; “You will indeed face obstacles when you accept the journey of fashion designer. The greatest obstacle is believing in oneself. Believing that you are worthy and capable is not easy.

“I am now able to accept my God-given talent, believing what I feel inside, and push my vision forward. I put the energy into my clothes and try to make magic.”

Bermuda Fashion Festival, produced by the City of Hamilton, is July 10 – 16 and is hosted in various locations in Hamilton as well as designer pop-up shops and a trunk show.

Attracting international designers, models, celebrities and media from the US, Caribbean, UK and Australia, Bermuda Fashion Festival is in its 7th year, and provides unrivalled learning opportunities to local designers who are mentored by international fashion experts to produce world-class collections.

Fashion now much more democratic, say AM:PM designers

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) Ankur and Priyanka Modi's journey in the fashion world along with their brand AM:PM has a history of 12 years. Over the years, they have noticed that fashion nowadays is sought, bought and worn more to express oneself as compared to the days when Indian women were dictated by an "implicit convention".
"Until a few years back, Indian women were dictated by an implicit convention. They were dressing according to society's expectation of them.
"Women today, on the other hand, are out there working, travelling and consuming the newest trends off international runways on their phones. Thanks to the world becoming flatter, fashion is now so much more democratic," Ankur, son of ace designer Anju Modi, told IANS in an email interview.
The biggest change, he said, is the mind-shift.
"The modern Indian woman is dressing her personality. Thus, the fashion industry has become more dynamic, and we as designers have to constantly evolve to keep up with the same," Ankur added.
His wife Priyanka, who is one-half of their widely popular AM:PM brand -- which specialises in luxury pret -- also feels that Indian textile is getting the right attention. However, she feels there is a lot more that needs to be done.
"Designers are always looking to innovate and evolve. Doing that with indigenous textiles or crafts is always a great idea. This drive of modernising Indian handicrafts will surely benefit weavers and craftsmen around the country, though impact on designers who are doing this to attract international attention, according to us, will be minimal.
"This is not to say that it won't peek any interest, but we shouldn't mistake interest with any intent of doing significant business. It's an exotic product for them (foreigners) and hence, will likely only appeal to that very small niche," Priyanka said.
At the same time, she also feels it only makes sense for fashion industry players and leaders to "introspect" why the talent does not translate into promising and encouraging numbers in terms of business.

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"Of course, with all the positives, also come the negative," Priyanka said, and added: "We feel there is a lot still to be desired in terms of how we approach the business as an industry. Everyday, we see new labels being launched, new designers becoming entrepreneurs, but the total size of the fashion design industry is roughly Rs 1,200 crore.
"We must collectively introspect and understand why it is when we have all the talent, we have no real bearing on the retail market? These are pertinent questions which need to be answered and urgently."
As a dynamic team, Ankur and Priyanka Modi work together in a way that they complement each other's skills and areas of expertise.
Their AM:PM brand has grown steadily, with the headquarters in New Delhi, and retailing out of a total of 25 stores across 15 major cities in India. Internationally, AM:PM can be found at select stores in the US, Britain, Russia, Brazil, and the Middle-East.
Now they're eyeing major expansion as they "realise the expandability quotient of the brand and the fact that it can venture into so many more verticals of fashion and lifestyle".
"Going forward, it would probably be the most crucial asset we possess," said Ankur.
"We are slated to open 20 more exclusive-AM:PM stores within the next three years in India, Dubai, Singapore, US and Britain. Apart from this, we retail from 15 of the most exclusive multi-designer boutiques nationally and internationally and are also available on premium online portals," said Priyanka.
For young aspirants in the fashion world, they have a word of advice.
"It is very important for a designer to believe in creating their own language and remaining true to that."

East Bay Profile: Oakland's Kristine Vejar creates community around sustainable fashion

OAKLAND -- For fiber artist Kristine Vejar, some of the last forms of modern slavery are found in the clothing industry.

Hot, cramped factories. Pesticides and highly toxic chemicals. Child labor. Those are the well-documented realities workers, many in developing countries, endure as they dye, cut and sew garments for large manufacturers in low-paying and sometimes no-paying jobs.

Thousands of miles away in her Oakland studio and fiber shop, Vejar -- a self-described "natural dyer" -- is trying to get people to think about those workers and the impacts of the clothing they buy.

"I feel a responsibility -- or the ability -- to possibly change some of that in some way," Vejar said. "For me, it's trying to teach as many people to knit and sew as possible, and trying to sometimes convey there is someone sitting at a sewing machine sewing. This is not a mechanized process."

The 38-year-old Oakland resident isn't alone in wanting to shift the way people think about their clothing.

For years, adherents of the "slow fashion" movement -- named for its focus on sustainably produced wearables that outlive the constant churn of fast fashion -- have been stitching their own garments, upcycling their wardrobes and finding other creative and less wasteful ways to get dressed.

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But Vejar has carved her own path, transforming her passion for sustainability, fiber and textiles into a vibrant community center that's also a successful business.

At A Verb for Keeping Warm, Vejar's San Pablo Avenue shop, people can take classes, attend workshops or sit in on events such as a recent slow-fashion forum that touched on sustainable clothing production, handmade wardrobes and the politics of affordability in the movement, among other topics.

Customers can also buy locally sourced wool and organic cotton yarn dyed at Verb with leaves, flowers, insects and other natural material. And through Vejar's Seam Allowance project, people can pledge to make at least 25 percent of their own clothing, and get the support they need to do it. Vejar's book, "The Modern Natural Dyer," published last year, also teaches people how to dye yarn and fabric at home.

"Kristine has created a special community for makers, sewers, dyers and artisans to work together and lift one another up," fashion designer Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of the high-end slow-fashion brand Alabama Chanin, wrote in an email.

Community has played a major role in Vejar's passion for fiber and textiles since the beginning.

It was while visiting her grandmother and friends in rural Illinois during summers that the Minnesota native learned to knit and sew.

Later, as an art history major at Mills College in Oakland, Vejar traveled to India and fell under the spell of textile production there, in particular the cloth she saw dyed in huge open-air vats and freshly dyed saris drying on river banks under the sun.

"Textiles just came rushing back to me," Vejar said.

But it was spending time with the Rabari, a group of desert-dwelling nomadic herders from the Great Rann of Kutch who are famous for their intricate and highly symbolic embroidery, that Vejar began to think deeply about clothing and the large corporations so heavily influencing personal aesthetics back home. "It's interesting to think about our consciousness as to what we're engaging with, what we choose to buy and how we choose to dress," Vejar said. " 'What is it you want to convey with your clothing like the Rabari convey?' That was going on in my head and is probably more alive today than it was then."

After returning to Oakland and receiving a Fulbright grant, Vejar traveled back to India and immersed herself in learning natural dyeing methods. Once home, she worked for a Berkeley organic mattress and bedding manufacturer and then began sewing yarn bags for knitters. Vejar also learned how to dye, spin yarn and knit, slowly building the business that later became Verb, which opened at its current location in 2011.

Today, her work extends beyond the rustic yet airy space that includes a classroom and a demonstration dye garden featuring coreopsis, indigo and other dye plants grown by Vejar's partner, Adrienne.

In 2014, she was tapped to participate in "The Possible," a show at the Berkeley Art Museum that turned the exhibition space into a center for creative production. In addition to helping run the indigo dyeing vats, Vejar brought in other collaborators and "expanded the scope of the whole element of the exhibition," said curator David Wilson.

"She really does have this spirit that's interested in serving the community."

Vejar is also helping create business for farmers, including Capay Valley cotton developer and breeder Sally Fox, who pioneered growing organic naturally colored cotton in the late 1980s. Vejar buys wool from Fox's merino sheep, wool later dyed at Verb in rich, earthy colors before heading to customers.

A longtime proponent of sustainable fashion, Fox thinks Vejar has a keen eye for wearables that are beautiful and practical as well as ethical and sustainable.

"Her method is not a guilt trip thing," Fox said. "Her method is 'Isn't this a wonderful way to get to know textiles and history and to help the world be a healthier place?'"

Kristine Vejar

Age: 38
Hometown: Oakland
Claims to fame: Natural dyer, author of “The Modern Natural Dyer” (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2015), owner of the business A Verb for Keeping Warm
Quote: “How insane and how amazing it is that we are able to feed and clothe the amount of humans on this planet. That the earth provides this is absolutely unbelievable. It’s amazing. Truly amazing.”

Across Art And Fashion

Italy's Renaissance capital, Florence, is reclaiming its centuries-old role as an incubator of the interplay between fashion and art.

The new director of the Uffizi gallery has announced plans to transform the Costume Gallery at Pitti Palace, which is also under his control, into a full-fledged fashion museum, while the Ferragamo Foundation this week opens a city-wide exhibit exploring the links between art and fashion.

Under the banner 'Across Art and Fashion', the exhibits opened at the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum with linked events at four other venues.

The complementary exhibits are the first in Italy to comprehensively explore the relationships between two of the nation's most significant cultural contributions, according to Ferragamo museum director Stefania Ricci, who served as the driving force behind the ambitious exhibition project.

In Florence's Renaissance heyday, the connection between art and fashion was even tighter than it is today.

"In the 15th century, there was no difference between artisan and artist," Ricci said, citing Raphael's designs for hand fans and Pollaiuolo's textile designs. "Then slowly the two worlds separated, because fashion was functional, the reality. Art became always more conceptual. But what is interesting is they always kept an eye one on the other."


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INSPIRED BY THE 1800s
Artists were demonstrably inspired by fashion in the 1800s, as is evident in the linked event at the Modern Art Gallery of Pitti Palace. Ricci said featuring fashion of the day was a way for artists to convey modernity in their works, and curators have paired garments from the Costume Gallery with paintings that feature similar, if not identical, looks.

At the Ferragamo Museum, the connections are even more entwined. The shoemaker modeled his atelier after a Renaissance craftsman's studio, and the shoe molds on display alongside original footwear emphasise their artistic nature.

More than a dozen brands are represented in the museum, including a Schiaparelli skirt suit with buttons made for her by friend Alberto Giacometti and a Vionnet silken tunic dress from 1922 featuring geometric motifs, on a rare loan from the Louvre.

The itinerary continues at the National Central Library and the Marino Marini Museum, both in Florence, and the Textile Museum in nearby Prato.

The art and fashion exhibits, more than a year in the making, highlight a budding synergy in Florence. The city's role as the genius loci of modern fashion also caught the attention of Uffizi director Eike Schmidt, a German who last year became the first foreigner to run the highly prized state museum system in Florence including the Pitti Palace collections.

Schmidt is quietly expanding the costume collection, and intends to make it a fashion museum in its own right, focusing on fashion from anywhere on the globe, not just Italy. At the moment, the collection is strongest in the 19th and early 20th Century, with a smattering of 1960s and 1970s pieces. The last big collection is a donation from Gianfranco Ferre in 2000.

The transformation already is under way with an exhibit of Karl Lagerfeld photographs opening at Pitti Palace in June, while Schmidt is on the lookout for new collections on the market. Behind the scenes, he is constructing a new storage area to house all the acquisitions he is planning.

"It's the right place but it is also the right moment to do this now," said Schmidt. "Because there is so much interest in fashion right now."

'I'm the first to admit that the term "plus-size" is pretty silly': Brisbane model Bree Warren criticises fashion industry term for 'any model over a size 10'

Bree Warren is the latest high-profile model to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size'.
The Brisbane native, who is now based in New York, criticised the widely-used label in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph's Body & Soul on Sunday.
'I’m the first to admit that the term "plus size" is pretty silly,' she said. 'Unfortunately, it’s an industry term for any model over a size 10.'
Speaking out: Brisbane model Bree Warren (pictured) is the latest high-profile figure to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size', telling Body & Soul on Sunday that the label for models over size 10 is 'pretty silly'


Speaking out: Brisbane model Bree Warren (pictured) is the latest high-profile figure to enter the debate on the fashion term 'plus-size', telling Body & Soul on Sunday that the label for models over size 10 is 'pretty silly'
The 28-year-old also claimed fans are surprised that she is considered 'plus-size' because of the photographs on her Instagram account.

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She explained: I’m tall, I’m in proportion, I have wide hips, and I’m bigger than the average model but it doesn’t always translate in photos because I’m healthy and in shape.'

Bree, who has modelled for major brands Forever 21 and Lorna Jane, is a size 12 - which is below the average Australian dress size of 14 to 16.

+4

Plus-size? Bree said fans are surprised she is considered 'plus-size' because of her Instagram snaps, adding: 'I’m bigger than the average model but it doesn’t always translate in photos because I’m healthy and in shape'

According to her profile on NYC agency JAG Models, Bree is 5ft 11in tall and her measurements are 36C/D-29-43.

She continued: 'A few years ago, my job didn’t exist. There just wasn’t a space for this middle range of model. It was either one extreme or the other.'

Bree also suggested the attitudes of the fashion industry were changing as brands are starting to book models for campaigns 'regardless of size'.

+4

Progress: The 28-year-old also suggested the attitudes of the fashion industry were changing as brands are starting to book models for campaigns 'regardless of size'

Bree previously spoke to Elle Magazine about the emergence of 'plus-size' models in fashion, saying: 'I wish it wasn't about size. I just wish that there was a broad range represented.

'It is so dated to label models based on size, but I don't believe dropping the tag "plus-size" will eliminate the problem. Women need to support each other and stop comparing and criticizing.

'That's what I'm really all about; I don't think it should be one versus the other. It is so important for the next generation to see a variety of body types, looks, and sizes represented in fashion.'

+4

Representation: Bree previously spoke to Elle Magazine about the emergence of 'plus-size' models in fashion, saying: 'I wish it wasn't about size. I just wish that there was a broad range represented'

Man injured in shooting outside Fashion Show mall garage

A man was injured after a shooting outside of the Fashion Show mall Saturday morning, according to Las Vegas police.

The man was being followed in the mall around 11:30 a.m., and when he got outside near the parking garage, he got into a fight with someone inside of a parked vehicle, Metro Lt. Kendall Bell said.

Details surrounding the actual shooting are unclear, but the man was seen running away, and the vehicle had driven away. The man was taken to University Medical Center in unknown condition, Bell said.

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Changes at Calvin Klein Could Redefine American Fashion

Calvin Klein has announced that Italo Zucchelli, left, its men’s creative director, and Francisco Costa, its women’s creative director, are leaving the fashion house. The photograph was taken in 2011 at a benefit event in New York. Credit Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg News

American fashion may be about to experience its biggest redefinition in decades.

On Tuesday, in yet another example of the upheaval in the fashion world (Hedi out at YSL! Dior still without a designer! Men’s wear in turmoil!) Calvin Klein announced that its men’s and women’s wear creative directors of more than a decade, Italo Zucchelli and Francisco Costa, were leaving the company, to facilitate a “new global creative strategy.”

Both lines, as well as all the other categories of the business — presumably including jeans, underwear, fragrance and others — would be united under one “vision,” with said visionary to be named “in due course.”

The company declined to say what that course would be, though it did say that the men’s collection in June and the women’s in September would be done by the in-house creative team, and that they would not be shown on the runway.

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The Calvin reorganization had been rumored since the end of last year, along with the now-much-repeated-as-fact speculation that Raf Simons, the former artistic director of Dior, was in line for the job.

Mr. Simons, not surprisingly, did not return emails for comment. He was traveling, and, in any case, he has a noncompete with Dior that extends through the summer.

Whether or not he gets the job, however, the news creates the potential for Calvin Klein, a brand that has largely stepped back from the fashion conversation since its founder sold the company to the current owner PVH in 2003 and retired, to start shaping the industry again. Indeed, it’s not exaggerating to say that if the fashion house picks the right person for the job (and Mr. Simons is a good idea) and supports that person, it could radically redesign New York fashion.

Someone needs to.

After all, since the 1980s advent of the Big Three (Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan), the designers that burst onto the international stage

and made sportswear a global phenomenon, American fashion has stayed pretty much the same.





Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli Are Out at Calvin KleinCreditHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
As those brands have matured and gradually lost their stranglehold on the national aesthetic, however, whether through retirement (Ms. Karan) or simple repetition, other names have not risen to take their place. The next generation — Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Michael Kors — got distracted by jobs in Europe, and then globalization. The group after that (Proenza Schouler, Rodarte, Altuzarra), though artistically adventurous, is still too small to have much global impact.

But with sales of $8.2 billion in 2015, Calvin Klein could.

That it has not thus far is a function largely of the fact that PVH, which also owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Izod, Warner’s and Speedo, has clearly been more focused on the broad appeal and financial possibilities of the accessible end of the market. Even though Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli were generally applauded for their collections, with Mr. Costa twice winning the CFDA women’s wear designer of the year award and Mr. Zucchelli’s winning men’s wear once, they were siloed and had little impact on the broader Calvin business.

There was the sense that the clothes appeared on the catwalk and were rarely seen again. The red-carpet business — and Mr. Costa usually snagged one to two big names per awards show, the most recent being Saoirse Ronan at the Oscars in a bottle-green sequined slip dress — seemed to have little relation to the more intriguing runway.

Indeed, sales of men’s and women’s collections combined accounted for less than 5 percent of the label’s total business. Three years ago, I did a video interview with Tom Murry, then chief executive, for The Financial Times, and he told me, on camera, that the collection lines were classified as a “marketing expense” on the balance sheet. The better to sell perfume, you know.

Ask anyone what Calvin Klein ads they remembered and odds are they would name the Justin Bieber/Kendall Jenner jeans campaign. Collection? Huh? What’s that?

Opportunity: To fill the hole in New York fashion and make an aesthetic statement strong enough, coherent enough and loud enough to echo not only through the city but also beyond.

If Calvin Klein does so, it will signal a real break not only from the last 12 years, but from anything PVH has done.

It’s probably not an accident that this decision to change the creative structure of the company coincided with the advent of a new chief executive. In 2014, Steve Shiffman, the former president of the brand, took the helm from Mr. Murry. New leadership is a chance for new beginnings, especially if Mr. Shiffman finds a design partner whose ambitions go beyond simply the stated desire to increase global retail sales to $10 billion to making a broader aesthetic statement about how we live now.

For all of our sakes, I hope he does.

In the meantime, the talented Mr. Costa and Mr. Zucchelli are back on the job market. Someone should snap them up soon.