FASHION DESIGNER TRENDS

Indian brides are now getting their love stories embroidered onto their lehengas In the age of Instagram galleries and professionally shot wedding films, your wedding outfits have no choice but to be extraordinary. Perhaps this is why brides spend hours looking up trends that might help them stand out. The latest trend: getting your couturier to embroider your love story onto your lehenga. Ludhiana-based stylist and designer Astha Arora’s sangeet outfit went viral after it was revealed that the intricate embroidery on the lehenga actually depicted the couple's journey together. Husband Aziz Arora featured extensively in the detailing on her self-designed lehenga, with the original sketches created by the bride's brother. Astha admitted that she was inspired by designer Kresha Bajaj who pioneered the ‘love story on lehenga’ movement a year ago, and set off a wedding trend that has brides all over the country rushing to find craftsmen willing to embroider their ...

Just my type: how Cooper Black became 2017's most fashionable font It started with an Instagram post. When French online-only retailer Sézane launched its T-shirts, featuring the words “l’amant” written in the typeface Cooper Black, a very modern love affair was sparked between high-street fashion and this most goofy of typefaces. It has been a whirlwind: Topshop now sells a T-shirt that reads “Femme forever” across it in Cooper Black, Pull and Bear’s version reads “Babe with power vibes” and Whistles has one that says “Eh oui” in Cooper Black-inspired letters. It has become the most fashionable font of 2017. Fashion’s affairs with typefaces have been many – from the Didone styles of Vogue to the sans serifs favoured by Chanel, Commes des Garçons and Fendi. But Cooper Black, described in the graphic design industry’s Eye Magazine as, “as eye-catching as a charging bull and as expressive as carnival barker”, doesn’t have the sleek lines or sophistication you might expect from a ...

Blending an eye for fashion with a business sense It’s the big challenge facing even the most talented fashion graduates: getting a start in the competitive fashion business and gaining vital industry experience to enhance their years of training in the fundamentals of design. For many it means months or years of unpaid internships, but the experience it gives them is essential for forging a successful career. As recent graduates quickly learn, the practicalities of working as part of a larger design team; introducing a commercial element to their work; or even running their own fashion business are a world away from the cosseted world of art college. For Cork’s Caoimhe Hill — a final year student at the National College of Art and Design — her path into the world of fashion has just been made considerably smoother. Officially ‘One to Watch’, Caoimhe is this year’s winner of the River Island/NCAD Fashion Bursary, having produced a confidently understated collection that fuses i...