Fashion Designer

 

Under-the-Radar Fashion Designers

While we love the single-name design mafia - Oscar, Ralph, Calvin, Donna, Marc, Vera, etc. - taking a detour off the mainstream is where the new, offbeat, and crazy-creative stuff is to be found. Here are a few of our editors' fave indie designers - just scroll down, and click on any of the thumbnails that catch your eye for all the dish:




FIERCE FASHION:

Gorgeous Otherworldliness by Junko Shimada

               After finishing her studies at the Sujino Gajen Dressmaker (!) Institute of Tokyo, Shimada visited Paris in the 60s, and, like many an artist before her, simply never left. She designed childrenswear and, later, menswear for Cacharel before launching her own label in 1981, followed in 1984 by a boutique on rue Etienne Marcel. For her Fall 08 show, the runway was dominated by a series of identical screens (almost as wide as the runway) constructed from opaque matte gold paper and lined up a few feet apart like flat metallic dominoes, each concealing a model.  When the show started, the first few models each punched their way through the screen in front of them, picking their way through the previously ripped screens until they finally emerged onto the front of the runway. Fabulous! Be sure to check out the video at JunkoShimada.com.

French Chic for Fall from former Azzedine Alaia Designer Sophie Theallet

              

A Vivienne Westwood fan since the age of 8 (!), the talented young designer was commissioned to design a line for Printemps straight out of design school, followed by a job with Jean-Paul Gaultier and a 10-year stint as a key designer for Azzedine Alaia. An idyllic vacay on pal Francois Nars's private French Polynesian island near Bora Bora resulted in Motu Tane, a resortwear line the pair decided to name after the exotic hideaway. For the past four seasons, her own eponymous label has sold out at chi chi retailers like Barneys and Colette, and with its particularly French brand of unstudied, enviable chic, it's easy to see why:

Purchasing info at SophieTheallet.com.

FASHION INTERNATIONALE:

Fashion Stars in the Making: the GenArt Styles 2008 Winners  

                                                      

Having debuted notables over the years such as Zac Posen, Philip Lim (Development), and Rodarte, GenArt has a nose for new talent. They recently unveiled the winners of the GenArt Styles 2008 competition at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom. The event was sponsored by Botox and MC'd by Robert Verdi - of Style Networks Fashion Police fame and stylist to Eva Longoria - for a good show, cocktails aplenty, and interesting metaphors (plastic boxes containing Botox-labeled umbrella-wielding girls standing under showerheads?!)  A $5000 prize was awarded to each of the five category winners - Ready to Wear, Menswear, Accessories, Avant Garde, Eveningwear, along with a special Tone Radiance Award for Design:

 READY TO WEAR: Yujin Song Her boldly-printed dresses were beautiful yet reminiscent of the Alexander McQueen's S/S 2008 kimono-inspired...which probably isn't surprising, given she currently interns for the designer. (photo: yahoo.com) AVANT GARDE: Marie Potesta A crowd- (and personal-) favorite of the night, her structured, geometric tops matched with black and white graphic leggings aroused much applause from the crowd. (photo: Susan K - Uber)  MENSWEAR: Timothy Franklin Grey dominated the menswear category, but Franklin upped the ante with striking silhouettes, and my favorite piece in the menswear competition: a huge, soft-knit scarf that went on for miles. (TimothyFranklin.co.uk)  

New Fashion Design Names to Know Hit the Catwalk in Italy

 

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the first bale of Merino wool to Europe from Australia in 1808, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) launched the protégé project early last year, recruiting five established fashion designers and insiders - Karl Lagerfeld, Francisco Costa, Donatella Versace, Paul Smith, Franca Sozzani - to select a protégé. The challenge presented to the young designers was to create a collection of outfits with Australian Merino wool as the main ingredient. The collections were recently unveiled at a runway show held at the Palazzo Corsini, Florence, with influential journalists, stylists and globetrotting fashion A-listers in attendance.

Here are up-and-comers to watch:

Julian Louie (Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein)

A native of Santa Cruz, Cali, he moved to study architecture at New York's Cooper Union; however, within two short years, he was exploring the relationships between architecture, painting, and fashion. A 2005 internship at Imitation of Christ cemented his decision to obey the fashion muse, as did and entire month spent painting yards and yards of silk chiffon for the Paris Haute Couture. (JulianLouie.com)

Jean-Pierre Braganza (Karl Lagerfeld)

The London-born Braganza was raised in Canada as the child of an Asian father and Irish mother. He later returned to London to attend St. Martin's, where his talent landed him the post-graduation opportunity to cooperate with Cary-Williams and Roland Mouret. (JeanPierreBraganza.com)

Kristian Aadnevik (Donatella Versace)

The 29-year-old Norwegian has had a path marked by prizes and recognition from London's Royal College of Art.  He has collaborated with Harrods International in London and Charles Jourdan in Japan, and his own label, created in 2004, is now into its sixth collection. Both the Crown Princess of Norway, Mette-Marit, and Jamila have rocked Aadnevik. (KristianAadnevik.com)

Sandra Backlund (Franca Sozzani, Editor of L'Uomo Vogue)

Sozzani has a well-acknowledged talent for scouting out new fashion talent, like Sweden's award-winning Backlund. Backlund's amazing knits have already amassed a cult fan following worldwide (including yours truly - we've had her on our radar screen for almost 2 years) because of the way she approaches knits like a sculptor arranging knit shapes on the body in a 3-D puzzle. (SandraBacklund.com)

Ioannis Cholidis (Paul Smith)

Groovy Smith found a like mind in Cholidis, a Greek designer with a degree from London St. Martin’s School and a flair for preppy menswear. He has designed a line of sneakers for Puma that showed during London Fashion week, and freelanced for Stella McCartney, designing the clothes worn by Coldplay. (IoannisCholidis.com)

 SPORTY CHIC: 

Indie Design is Alive & Well, and Hajnalka Mandula is Representing Majorly for Vancouver. FASHIONTRIBES FASHION BLOG

  

 Refined street urchin chic - Mandula.com

Jojo&Malou Dresses Add a Fun Dash of Whimsy

  Eight years after studying at the Kent Institute of Art & Design, Swedish designers Jojo Ericson and Malou Palmqvist combined their collective experience working for Markus Lupfer & Katie Hillier (Malou) and Peter Jensen (Jojo) to create quite the impressive indie fashion resume:A collection for the renowned Fashion Fringe competition in 2005; two British Fashion Council New Generation sponsorships to participate in London Fashion Week; a diffusion line for Topshop; a runway show in Stockholm during the +46 trade show; representing the UK for the British Council in Lithuania; participating in the RED campaign; and even being exhibited at the fabulously eclectic Walter (as in Van Beirendonck) store in Antwerp.    CONCEPTUAL & INTERESTING: 

Film, Fashion & Cool Clothes by Makin Jan Ma

Renaissance man Makin writes stories and scripts, makes clothes for his characters, and then films the entire effort. For Spring/Summer 08 the theme is Wild in Heart. His latest 10 minute short involves a sleepy blonde, a mysterious bathtub, and is entitled Life Sucks but it Tastes Good:

"The drumstick runs along all the walls in the room and then landed on Snow’s bed," explains the description. "Snow is sleeping. Guts sits on her belly and start using the drumstick to touch Snow’s fore head to her nose, her mouth and then her body. The drumstick runs around Snow’s breast and then down her feet, her toes. Snow doesn’t wake up…"

Figure it out for yourself (or find out where to buy the clothes) at MakinJanMa.com.

House of the Very Island's Cerebral Anti-Fashion

  

"At the heart of our work, that lays its formal accents on the bricolage, the deconstruction and reconstruction of given dresscodes," explain the intellectual Austrian foursome - Jakob Lena Knebl, Karin Krapfenbauer, Markus Hausleitner, Martin Sulzbacher - behind the unusual unisex label, house of the very island’s royal club division middlesex klassenkampf, but the question is: where are u, now? (the question mark referring to their desire to constantly change their position within, and outside of, fashion).

"Each of us having a specific approach, we nevertheless share basic ideas and believes like the concern with ecological sustainability, with the social and political discourses surrounding us and the profound need to get rid of the stereotypes created by these discourses...Created through ironic distortions and citational shifts, our clothes are meant to suit all genders and give way to individual expressions."

Purchasing info at HouseOfThe.com.

www.modernfashionworld.co.cc