British designers today are creating fashions that incorporate romance and unusual items, ethnicity with 3-dimensional fabrics, and classic colours juxtaposed with city neon bright colours. Victoria Rangayah has made a name for herself creating romantic clothing with a softness that reflects her Lithuanian ethnicity. Her label, z-modem is considered a “contemporary ladies wear fashion label” (youngbritishdesigner.com). Photograph 1depicts her beautifully romantic classic navy blue dress. From the waist up the dress uses sheer fabric in three dimensions with curves of sheer material held together with a brooch. Perhaps the brooch is a piece of antique Lithuanian jewellery because the look of the brooch and the sheer layers of fabric is a vintage look. But the skirt is thoroughly modern, tight fitting from the waist to the knees and then falling softly to the ankles. The shoes that are worn with the dress are clunky in the front with thick soles but they have a tall slender heel. So the look is a mix of romantic, modern, and vintage with practical looking shoes (at least from the front view.) Photograph 2 shows another practical streak in Rangayah that her fans appreciate. The simple, soft plain empire dressed is decorated with shoe strings. The shoe strings decorate the empire bodice and hang down the front of the dress where some of them have been braided together in the middle.
Nova Chiu is famous for her mixture of all kinds of fabrics like brightly coloured embroidery, fringes, fur and felt. Photograph 3 depicts the type of ethnicity for which her fashions are known. The outfit in the photograph is an ensemble of a vest, belt, skirt, gloves
and shoes. The colours are bright and cheerful. The look of the clothing is also 3-dimensional not at all flat. The fabric is the interesting part of the design because the vest and the skirt are simple shapes. The belt is the only solid colour, a lime green. The gloves are bright neon red. The details on the gloves are yellow fringe balls. The look of Nova Chiu’s design is all about colour, layers and an urban ethnic look. Even the tights the model is wearing are designed with coloured nondescript flowers. The shoes are hot pink clogs. Photograph 4 depicts a close up of the tights worn with a shorter skirt (or pair of shorts). I like the tights very much but the other items that Nova Chiu has styled I would not wear. The shoes the model is wearing with the skirt are a deep midnight blue coloured fur. They look like very soft slippers. The model is wearing ankle high bright yellow socks with the slippers. The colours in the skirt are mainly shades of pink, a dark green and lime green. Those colours can be found in the tights but the match is not obvious. So the fashion colours from the hem of the skirt down to the shoes/slippers do not coordinate very well.
The last photograph (Photograph 5) is a borne design from Elise Berger. At first I did not find this outfit attractive until I started noticing how Elise Berger had used elements from Nova Chiu except Berher made them comfortable for anyone to wear. A Willi jumber is knit in horizontal stripes of greys, pinks and lavenders that compliment each other. The knitting is loose and varied and there is some patterned knitting, too, but it all fits together and loks very cozy and comfortable as well as stylish. Under the jumper a pretty skirt peeks out. The skirt has an uneven hem and is white with drips of lavenders and blues. This ensemble is completed very practically with dark coloured knee socks and dark tied ankle boots.
The first four photographs depict some lovely clothes, colours and creative designs. The outfit I like the best though is Photograph 5, the design by Elise Berger because it looks so easy and comfortable to wear. It has the feel of the traditonal a knit Willi jumper but the colors, styling and design are modern. The dress in Photograph 1 is absolutely gorgeous but the skirt is so tight fitting around the hips and thighs I do not think many women would feel comfortable wearing it. Nova Chiu’s designs seem like wearable art rather than clothes to wear out on a date or to a concert.
References
Cheshire Life. Z-Modes Victoria Rangayah – Wilmslow’s well travelled fashion designer. cheshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk, 7 2010 December 7. Web. 12 October 2012. http://cheshire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/z-modes-victoria-rangayah-wilmslows-
Young British Designers. youngbritishdesigners.com. (n.d.) Web. 12 October 2012. <http://youngbritishdesigners.com/designers/arising/borne-by-elise-berger/> <http://youngbritishdesigners.com/designers/vauxhall-fashion-scout/nova-> <chiu/http://youngbritishdesigners.com/designers/arising/z~mode/>
