first seen on Elit Alice

Loving the styles this chilly spring in the shopping areas of Milan. This jacket by MaxMara was a really striking piece.

This dress also showed some nice sensitivity to textile pattern design.

The MaxMara line is probably the best known label owned by the Italian Maramotti family based in Reggio Emilia, a city that gave birth to one of the most progressive childhood education methods.

First, a primer: SPARKcon is a festival celebrating and nurturing the local creativity of Raleigh and the Triangle region of NC. It’s 100% volunteer… everyone involved runs entirely on enthusiasm, passion and talent, with a bit of support from some wonderful sponsors! This past weekend was the third year for SPARKcon, and it showcased all sorts of talent communities, including breakdancers, yogis, craftspeople, spoken word artists, hoola hoopers, music of all kinds, art, film, fashion and more.

FashionSPARK is an outdoor runway show which featured 13 local fashion designers’ work, as well as fabulous hair and makeup by local stylists. The show was beautifully directed by Allison Beale.

fabulous hair by Jesse and Carla of Marigold Parlour, makeup also by Marigold, fashion by Domino

woodland nymph fashion by Domino

doggy designs by Montage

fashion by Lllavender, hair by Salon Blu

fashion by Metallic Spiral, styled by Marigold Parlour

fashion by Marie Cordella, styled by Atomic Salon

The SPARKcon website is in a constant state of being updated. Check it for more pictures, designer info and links.

Similar to the BMW fabric car Aly wrote about a few days ago, these Lamp Girls by Marianne Maric combine textiles with product design to give structure to the fabrics. Fortunately in this case, artistry and iconic culture are also added in.

Kind of the sexual inverse of “where the sun don’t shine.”

source: elitalice.com

Following sustainable design, I have been a fan of Nau. It is a great example of how sustainable design can be sexy. Borne of some of the more progressive, corporate minds in outdoor gear, I thought they stood a good chance of fusing a green focus with an innovative business model.

They did have pretty compelling stores, although a bit austere for my taste. Actually they were more like showrooms than stores, and encouraged visitors to receive chosen merchandise via mail rather than taking it with them.

The reasoning was that inventory and fuel costs of maintaining in-store inventory was more expensive than fulfilling from a mail-order model. You got a substantial discount for doing it (10%?) but it was off-putting, too. Clothing is too personal and impulsive of a purchase to receive a week later in a box.

A central theme to Nau’s work was their Partners for Change program where 5% of every sale was donated to a charity on the Nau menu. You could select with reasonable specificity where your 5% would go.

Unfortunately I think this diluted their message of sustainable fabrics, which was really where their innovation trumped the rest of the market. They used organic cottons, recycled polyesters that were super cool looking, and also PLA – a fabric made from corn fibers.

Despite their passing, I’m inspired by their attempts and we’d be fools to not try to learn from Nau. They have exposed an amazing amount of their corporate DNA, and have maybe pointed the way to do things. I think one lesson I draw from Nau is not to rely on huge fundraising stages. Perhaps the way to develop a sustainable business is to not rely on receiving a steroidal $30+ million from over-eager investors, but to grow slow and organically.

The understanding of a drawing verses how it translates to a real 3 dimensional product is something every designer (whether it’s fashion, product, architecture, interior, etc) and every client wrestles with. I love love love fashion illustrations, but it’s often difficult for me to see a true relationship between that gorgeous illo and the actual product. These Manolo Blahnik illustrations are fashion in the extreme, meaning no human foot could accomplish what those drawings can do (sad that real human beings can never live up to the desires of the fashion world). Despite that, I think these illustrations are remarkably similar to the finished product.

Anyway, it seems Pet Couture is not just for rich crazies anymore. I kinda knew this already, but I was in Target the other day and basically freaked out when I got to the pet section. There was a whole fashion display, with ruffley dresses , athletic shirts and hoodies, and even Woolrich button down shirts, all hanging on hangers…I’m surprised there wasn’t a dressing room.

Here is a sampling of nifty (or just weird) gifts you can get to glam out your pet.

T Magazine, aka New York Times Style Magazine, finally has a look that matches its content: fashion and style. It’s full of juicy images against a stark white backdrop. It’s a pretty flashy (no pun intended) site, with left to right navigation as opposed to top to bottom. My eyes start to cross a little bit with the motion though, especially the never ending ticker tape of their new blog “the moment” at the bottom of the page. I end up closing my page down to a small size just to get rid of that.

Check out the site. What do you think? T Magazine
And here’s their new blog: the moment