LadyUmbrella – the only place for your t-shirts!

LadyUmbrella was first featured by LadyM Presents at the end of January 2010. The brand is fabulous and makes the most of its online presence. LadyUmbrella Ltd is a t-shirt design company owned by Spanish artist Elena Montes Casado and Rob Ryan, website creative genius and social networking wonder.

LadyUmbrella are based in Dublin, Ireland. They launched their online boutique in January this year and have a pop-up stall at The Loft Market in Powerscourt Town House, Dublin every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

LadyUmbrella gets shirty – launching second collection

LadyUmbrella launched in the middle of a recession but their first collection’s success proved that their cyber savviness and stellar designs work.

With so many people talking about and buying the LadyUmbrella brand it was inevitable that there would be another offering and “La Segunda Coleccion” doesn’t disappoint. Elena Montes Casado, the Spanish designer behind the brand, has complimented the existing designs, which are printed on bright and vibrant coloured t-shirts by utilising a white t-shirt as a canvas. Her whimsical two-tone artwork comes to life delightfully on this white backdrop of 100% cotton.

La Segunda Colecccion

Whatever the weather LadyUmbrella t-shirts are available from www.ladyumbrella.com – Click the banner for  your 15% off – quote LADYM15

The artwork designs themselves are surreal, quirky, cute and somehow charming. Commenting on one of the new designs titled “Mona Lady Umbrella” Casado says, “I’ve always been an admirer of surreal art and the Dadaist movement. I wanted to be able to merge the LadyUmbrella world with a very classic image, whilst I tip my hat to the past masters – I want to make wearable art”. Each t-shirt comes with a unique signed, dated and numbered hang tag which tells the story behind the t-shirt.

LadyUmbrella Tote Bag

Social Networking pushes PR to the max

With over 14,000 combined fans and followers on their Facebook and Twitter accounts and customers worldwide, co-owner Rob Ryan remarked “We’re delighted that Elena’s designs are proving so popular and that they are being talked about in such glowing terms. We’re growing at a phenomenal rate and are delighted to launch this second collection which we are sure will be well received by our ever growing customer fan base”.

The new collection is launched on Monday 13th September 2010, get your t-shirt using the LADYM15 15% off code!

London Fashion Week is renowned for showcasing some of the world’s best 
designers. The Catwalk Show Space in the Edward J. Safra Fountain Court houses the catwalk shows, while the rest of Somerset House hosts the designer exhibition.

London Fashion Week 2010, Somerset House

Two exhibitions that extend the fashion showcases into the end of the year, that are really worth visiting are the Matthew Williamson collection of his work and Dior Illustrated exhibition.

Matthew Williamson – 13 Oct 2010 – 30 Jan 2011

Showing at the Courtyard Rooms, Somerset House with free admission

Somerset House will host a display of Matthew Williamson’s work, to coincide with the publication of his new book. The multi-media display will animate aspects of the book and will feature photographs, sketches, key quotes from contributors, videos, and selected garments from Williamson’s archive. The exhibition will offer a unique insight into the life of one of the most original and exciting fashion designers working today.

Matthew Williamson Collection, Somerset House

When I step into one of Matthew’s dresses I feel like I am stepping into his world, which is colourful, ethereal and dreamlike.
– Sienna Miller

Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty

From the 10 Nov 2010 – 9 Jan 2011 the exhibition is showing daily at the Embankment Galleries, Somerset house – book tickets here

A celebration of the renowned illustrator René Gruau (1909-2004), who created some of the most iconic fashion images of the 20th century. This exciting exhibition will showcase groundbreaking artworks including original illustrations for Christian Dior Parfums, vintage perfume bottles, sketches and magazines, as well as a selection of Dior Haute Couture dresses.

Dior Illustrated, at Somerset House

Curated by Christian Dior Parfums in consultation with Somerset House, this new exhibition upholds Somerset House’s continuous commitment to showcasing the world’s most celebrated creative talents across fashion, art and design.

René Gruau’s bold lines and fluid style were perfectly in tune with the spirit of Dior, capturing the energy, elegance and audacity of the brand. His illustrations also tell of a special understanding Gruau had of Christian Dior himself, born of a close friendship between the two men. Gruau influenced the graphic style of a whole generation of fashion illustrators and the exhibition will feature specially commissioned pieces from six UK based illustrators, whose works will draw inspiration from the rich collaboration between Gruau and the House of Dior.

Zoë Boomer

Zoë Boomer created the Zoë Boomer label in April 2006, when a boutique in Ireland requested to see Zoe’s collection for their shop.  Zoë had two weeks to design and make a mini collection to show them and thankfully for her they bought every item.  She then spent the the next year making collections and one off pieces for the boutique and then the label started to progress and expand. Zoë had moved to London in 2002 to pursue her love of Fashion and Design and now creates her collections from her studio in Putney. During her degree course at the London College of Fashion, Zoë represented the UK at the International Student Design Awards 2004.

Zoe Boomer - Up and Coming Designer

Inspiration & Ethos

It was in art college that Zoë realised she had a flare for designing. Having always loved fashion, she excelled in every fashion project she worked upon and got accepted into London College of Fashion. After graduating Zoë got a job as a stylist assistant, for a top London stylist, styling for London and New York based fashion publications, working at London Fashion Week and styling for Natasha Bedingfield (now a dedicated fan of the Zoë Boomer label).

Zoë’s ethos is clear “I design for women who love fashion, are stylish, who appreciate fabric and quality. The label is known for its simplicity, and stable pieces that don’t date. For me inspiration comes often when I don’t expect it, generally I don’t always have a theme in mind – which probably goes against designers rules but it seems to progress and turn into a theme”.

Zoë designs garments she loves to wear; clothes that combine simplicity, style and luxury and transform effortlessly from daytime urban chic to sassy evening glamour. Sourcing fabrics from Italy and France, picking shades and textures she likes and then playing with them, draping them, to see how they hang which then leads to a design starting point.  Zoë explains that she finds inspiration from everywhere she might be, such as reading a magazine and an image jumps out, or in a shop. “Recently I was in Croatia for a holiday and my husband and I were sitting having a coffee in Dabrovinik old town, watching people walk past us and the buildings really inspired me”.

The Collections

Zoë uses the best silks and silk-chiffons to create collections that bring together romance, opulence and elegance but with unstructured minimalism. Zoë’s work is perfect for those looking to emulate unpretentious glamour but want to feel beautiful in amazing clothing made of luxurious fabrics. Her collections feature chic daywear all the way through to elegant evening attire.

Spring/Summer 2010

Day Dresses

Candy Maxi Dress – hitting the spot for this massive summer trend, the Candy Maxi dress combines hot summer prints with great length to give you an outfit that can take you from the beach to a garden party simply by teaming with great accessories.

Candy Maxi Dress, by Zoe Boomer

Leani Mini Dress – hit the pastels and soft tailoring trend this summer with this sublime double lined length pale blue silk dress. Perfect for summer weddings, cocktail parties or a night in the hip new bar in town.

Leani Mini Dress, by Zoe Boomer

This is one of Zoë’s favourites “they are stunning on and fit so well. I have yet to see it not look good on someone”.

Tops

Snow Drop navy, silk Halter neck – perfect to team with skinny jeans and some pale gold wedges for a structured but flowing, put together look.

Snow Drop Halter, by Zoe Boomer

Leani pearl white silk top – this is a great top to wear with some cigarette trousers or a grey pencil skirt – a sleek look for the office.

Leani White Silk Top, by Zoe Boomer

Evening Dresses

Stun the crowd with these gorgeous, simple but elegant edgy evening dresses

The Lucy Dress with swarovski crystals: Chiffon and swarovski crystal floor length strapless dress. Simply gorgeous, this flowing material will make you feel elegant and sophisticated.

The Lucy Strapless Dress, by Zoe Boomer

Lucy - Strapless silk chiffon dress.  Silk chiffon strapless floor length dress. Beautiful with long hanging necklaces or a Zoë Boomer vintage belt around the waist. It’s a WOW dress!

Lucy Floor length dress, by Zoe Boomer

A select number of pieces from the label can be bought in the boutique at www.zoeboomer.com and a full list of stockists can be found here.

Recently actress Laura Michelle Kelly (Sweeney Todd & Speed of the Plough with Kevin Spacey) donned ZB dresses at press calls and VIP events. The label is working tirelessly to make its mark on the international fashion scene with agents in London, Ireland, Vancouver and LA. The entire collection is hand stitched in Ireland, London & Liverpool and Zoë herself keeps a close eye on all aspects of production personally approving every single garment created.

Lady M Presents discussed with Zoë how she goes about developing a collection;

“Every collection needs a certain amount of tops, dresses, jackets etc. This helps to put the collection together and helps to narrow things down as sometimes I might have lots of ideas for tops, but need more dresses so I will either stop designing the tops or see how I can turn the concept into the dress. Sometime the designs won’t work in production and if I don’t like them when their being made up as a sample, I will cut them. The easiest way to decide what is featured is seeing how it sits with the rest of the collection. If something doesn’t go or you can’t wear it with anything else in the collection, it will be cut.

Predicting trends for me is a natural instinct which I guess as a designer, it is in your nature to think ahead. As we work a year ahead, you get very tired of what is out currently and start to think of something different. What is going on in society, movies, music all shape trends. When the war in Iraq first started there was a lot of military influences in collections. Also a very basic way of predicting is at present Maxi dresses are huge but next year they won’t be, hem lines for next summer will start to rise again.”

Whats the most rewarding part of your work? What is your greatest accomplishment so far?

“There are two parts of the job I find very rewarding, firstly when I go into a shop and see my clothes being sold beside some great labels that I love. I always get so excited and have a silent proud moment. The other is seeing my collection on the catwalk or on images after a photo shoot. It is so exciting seeing an idea in you’re head and then become real for everyone to see.

My greatest accomplishment I think this year anyway was being selected for the British Designer Collective Shop in Bicester village. It was such an honour to have my clothes sit beside labels such as Julien McDonald,  Todd Lynn, Emma Cook and my picture making it onto the Vogue website, that might not seem like that exciting but as a student in fashion I used to say one day I will make it into Vogue and to have my picture in it for me was a special moment.”

What’s next for Zoë Boomer?

There a lot of things in the pipeline for this up and coming label, Zoe Boomer will be a lot more accessible for everyone in the UK and will be in a lot more boutiques in London very soon. There are some exciting Zoe Boomer fashion videos that will be released throughout the year. Available to view on the website soon is the latest one, filmed at the Sex and the City 2 premiere.

We await the Zoë Boomer Autumn/Winter 10 Collection with eager anticipation. Zoë herself is very excited about it, “there are two garments I am so excited by and can’t wait to wear them. They are the Lu Lu Jacket and Feather grey cardigan – I know I’m going to wear these ALOT!”.

Zoë Boomer –  combining naked simplicity and purity of form with opulence and style.

KM COUTURE

New labels that find success are rare and hard to come by, and require a lot of design skill. Mounia Khalladi proved that her designs were popular from the offset, and as a result enjoys success with KM COUTURE. Whether you wear D&G, Prada, Vivienne Westwood Anglomania or Jimmy Choo, it’s not hard to see where these labels got their breakthroughs. Mounia’s breakthrough came in the form of KM COUTURE’s line of dresses.

Brand KM COUTURE was created in March 2009 by Mounia Khalladi. “I have always designed dresses for myself and my friends loved them. It made me want to create for others but I was afraid.” It was only when Mounia’s cousin created and launched a beautiful Riad in Morocco, the Fes Riad Alya that she felt brave enough to do something inspirational for herself and created KM COUTURE. “Now my customers come and come back and bring me new customers, which makes me happy”. KM COUTURE is based in Paris and Mounia is originally from Morocco.

KM COUTURE

The Collection

The KM COUTURE Caftan collection stems from the story the Kaftan, dating from the Greco Roman. Originally, only the sultans and their wives had the privilege of obtaining a garment made with expensive materials. The kaftan has appeared in North Africa in the 3rd century AD. Today, the kaftan is found everywhere in the world, in evening dress, tunics and interiors. Mounia “would like continue this process by bringing together the required combination of Eastern and Western cultures and at a reasonable price, so that every woman can have the opportunity to wear this style of dress.” The collection is inspired by moments in Mounia’s life and her travels around the world, “My eyes are always wide open, and a paper and a pencil is always near me”.

Caftan Donna

Is a luxurious link to the pastel trend on the catwalk this summer. Gorgeous pale pinks set off with dusky pink trimming and completed with a sparkling wide belt to match the softness of the outfit.

Caftan Donna, by KM COUTURE

Caftan Ines

A fabulous cocktail caftan dress, in black chiffon with a detailed buster in effervescent silver.

Caftan Ines, by KM COUTURE

Caftan Amel

A high knocked Caftan in turquoise satin with brilliant reflections around the collar and sleeved. Very elegant and superbly styled with a statement waist belt.

Caftan Amel, by KM COUTURE

Caftan Kelia

A superb indian style Caftan in silk tafta. A luxurious red Bustier with gold dealing and a one shoulder 3/4 length puffed sleeve.

Caftan Kelia, by KM COUTURE

The entire collection is available to purchase from the KM COUTURE online shop. The collections contain a vivid array of colours, fabulous silks and beading and some great prints that fit in with the S/S 2010 catwalk trends.

Inspiration

Mounia sites Elie Saab as an inspiration because her dresses are a mix between Western and Eastern cultures. “They are beautiful, elegant, I love her designs”. From her collection The Caftan Yasmine was created for Vanessa Simmons daughter of rapper REV RUN( RUN DMC). “She was my inspiration, I wanted something easy to wear, elegant but with a touch of Moroccan culture.” All pieces are created by a seamstress in Morocco and available four weeks after the original design has been put forward. KM COUTURE’s plans for 2010 are to have a sewing workshop in Morocco to cope with the large orders and by 2012 to have their first shop in Paris.

KM COUTURE intend to broaden the range, creating cocktail dresses, tunics for every day, evening and beach. Finally developing into wedding dresses and possibly into interiors.

Visit www.km-couture.com for inspiration and to view the fabulous collection.