How to Be a Fashion Designer

When you are young and keen to explore beyond your limits, all you need is the family support and the right inspiration. Having both of them is a perfect combo for a successful further career, even though you might abandon more than once your childhood dreams. But, at least, you will have the right reasons to do it, not only because no one helped you or because you were in the wrong place and time for finding the proper guidance. 

How to be a Fashion designer by Lesley Ware offers the right ingredients for explaining a glamorous career to any teen - and practically anyone - considering a professional path in this field. Indeed, being a fashion designer and stylist - meaning someone knowledgeable enough to help you put your clothes and accessories together in an inspired way - means a lot of glamour, but it means even more hard work and permanent learning.

Especially for the limited attention-span of teenagers, this book is beautifully illustrated with well placed advices in the page. At the first sight, especially if you are far beyond that difficult age, it might look a very easy read, but in fact, the information is high-quality and rich enough to help you understand the challenges of being a fashion designer while offering a variety of directions for understanding this profession. By being very visual, it doesn't diminish the quality of content. 

You might learn a lot from this book about designing patterns, how the collections are created, how and where to find the right inspiration, create stylish sunglasses or how to take great photos. A guidance about the needed tools and the vocabulary used creates even more familiarity with the domain. 

How to Be a Fashion Designer makes it into a good basis for anyone - age doesn't matter - considering a career in this interesting domain. Also, if you are a fashion blogger you might be interested to have a look for learning some tips about styling and fabrics and what does it mean to be one of those people so often written about. 

The book will be available for purchase the 6th of February.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Fashion in Bamberg: Schneiders Hutmanufaktur

With a cold rainy weather that kept me a bad company during my stay in Bamberg this February, exploring shops and hunting for local products was the best alternative. I spent most of the time in the Grüner Markt area where it was impossible not to discover and visit Schneiders Hutmanufaktur, a cute shop dedicated to hats, one of my fashion hobbies.

As I was entering the shop, a thin little lady kept my door open to enter with the baby pram.She was holding an elegant autumn/spring hat brought for some reparations. A welcoming customer service come in fast and started to discuss about the options. Soon, my attention moved to the impressive number of hats ready to be taken, fit for every occasion. There were hats for a trip in the city, racing, weddings, anniversaries or just for maintaining high your fashion standards.

The materials used are also diverse, including fine coloured furs and feathers. The prices are also matching any budgets.

The creative hand behind the shop is Julia Schneider, who trained with the local milliner Christl Wagner. The shop is open since March 2013. 

The classical hut boxes are given a nice contemporary touch with colourful graphics. The shop is cramped but little design details were not forgotten, such as the cute hat-shaped lamps. I left with the regret of not being able to decide which hat I want. Because, I probably wanted most of them. 

This is not a bag. Baobao new releases by Issey Miyake

These bags make a very special fashion statement. They do not look like the bag next door but you think twice before considering it elegant. For sure, it has nothing to do with the classical shapes and materials. But fashion, like people, should dare to be different and so are these bags, very much inspired by some usual cotton bags very popular in Europe. Each part of the tile is fixed on a black net. The open end stays free, a message of freedom and nonchalance. It goes for the day or for the night, for the office, on the road or as a statement, with sport or elegant shoes or outfit. 

But besides the 3D special impressions of the tiles, the colours are bold. Metallic silver, brown, black or blue, various combinations of colours. The collection has both items for men and women, including bagpacks or caps. The prices vary around 1,000 EUR the piece. The line was launched in 2000, the platinum pouches being the latest products in the collection. 

Some of the bags can be folded further by the owner, creating new shapes. The brand had teamed up in the last year with various designers for creating interesting bags  ideas where the owner is not only a passive user but it is part of the fashion statement too. 

Pattern design: suggestions from masters

Trying to get the best of my Pesach chol hamoed free time, while keeping up with my motto of learning something new every day I tried to day to use the opportunity offered by skillshare to learn for free about surface design and creating patterns. The video classes by Jenna Frye are very easy, illustrative and very useful. The program yo need for the practice is Illustrator, from the Adobe Family. The course is rather an introduction into the topic, with some good examples to practice but if really interested in improving the knowledge, more skills and practice is needed.

As for now, I decided to move on and improve my visual knowledge about the topic, and did some research about some of the masters of patterns used as examples during the class. 

Cath Kidston

Cath Kidson brings into your home, at your table or on your body the charm of the British countryside. Her website offers regularly various discounts and the diversity of her motifs, built around a smooth base of mild colours brings peace to the eyes. Her products can be also ordered online and delivered in specific countries all over the world, including outside Europe.

Joel Dewberry

Joel Dewberry is another example of praising simplicity and classical beauty. His elegant collections cover clothes, interior design, upholstery, wallpapers. 

Flower: Eucalyptus Bazaar

Johannes Itten

We are entering the hall of art, as Itten is an expressionist painter, close to the Bauhaus movement, which developed an elaborated theory of colours. 

M.C.Escher

One of my favourite artists by far, Escher is the master of creating special effects through repetition. He combines architectural elements, with stylish fragments of nature and the inspiration of the Italian art and architecture.

Convexe and concave