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Friday 20 April 2012

Another piece of the jigsaw.

Finding the right people to work with is always a difficult thing for me and has been for the last 5 seasons. In that time I have progressed to being wide eyed and naive to wide eyed and less naive. Anyway, the fact is that I cannot grow this brand to where it needs to be without some very special help. I have been searching for a couple of years now but just couldn't get comfortable.
2012, however has seen the appointment of a PR Agency, Fearnhurst PR owned by one of my favourite people Samantha Fearn. This is the first time any of my collections has had PR support. Maybe thats why I'm still a bit of a secret?!
The second piece of the team is also now in place in the shape of Atelier 36, who are a strategic fashion consultancy whose marketing prowess is the reason there is much anticipation and excitement within the brand.
Only 2 more pieces before the puzzle is complete....


Friday 30 March 2012

Random but important to me things...



So the AW12 season is nearly at a close. For those boutiques who have not confirmed their orders, please do so with haste as we are scheduling our production in the next couple of weeks.
This is, I guess, the most important time for designers. The collections have been presented firstly to press and latterly to the people who lay down money so that our brands can continue towards fulfilling a potential.
Anyway, my mind is always a bit random at this time but I just wanted to express my gratitude to Debra Hepburn and Julian Whitehead at Young British Designers. Debra, especially has been a big advocate of what I have been trying to do and the support she gives me as above and beyond what I thought was possible.
On the face of it an emerging designer/retailer relationship should be quite straightforward. The designer develops designs which they hope that the retailer can sell. The retailer, promotes the designer thinking broadly and laterally. The fashion conscious public buy from the retailer having been sold on the idea of the designers work and all is well. All pieces in this relationship behave with care, understanding and courtesy as they all believe they are in it together. I guess the word for this is symbiosis?
Anyway, having just presented my fifth collection, I can say with all honesty that the only retailer I have had dealings with that have achieved symbiosis is Young British Designers. In a world that is getting tougher by each passing budget you would have thought that co-operation would be adopted as the only strategy.
The long and short of it is that there seems to be a few sites cropping up promoting emerging designers but for me I believe that is actually not going to be good for us as designers. The market is better focused than diluted. Strength allows influence and a valid voice. It is for this and the reasons above that I will always be loyal to YBD and will always be no matter what the future brings.
I just needed to get that out there. Thanks for reading....

Monday 5 March 2012

Creative-Idle: LFW Diary AW12: Yan To

One of my favourite journalists, got a preview of the collection.

Thursday 9 February 2012

The Anatomy of a Design AW12

Those of you who follow my work, know I work extensively with elastics. The elastic pieces are created by weaving elastics onto a dress base and sewing them into position. 

When I started AW12, I was obsessed with the idea that the dress base could be dispensed with altogether and a dress could be made by attaching the elastic strips together. There are of course a number of issues which make this an almost pointless task but sometimes in order to move an idea forward you have to pursue the seemingly pointless.

Anyway. The first issue is shape so I chose to work with my number one mannequin and laid out a rough shape. 


The dress had to be taken off and sewn after positioning a few strips of elastic, in order to maintain integrity of shape and strength.



 The solid ares had to be gridded out.


The design just kind of happened as the dress started to take shape. The original intention was to create a short dress but the elastics were draping so beautifully that it made more sense to carry on.


The chest was especially challenging, to create a 3D structure.

The base of the dress was left with trailing strips of elastic paying homage to the composition of the dress. From laying the first grid to sewing trimming the last thread, the dress took 62 hours to make, or in fashion designer days, 3. 


It is a process which I find absorbing and although time consuming, the results speak for themselves. This design is going to be available to our couture clients only, as it has to be made to fit perfectly. The costs involved are actually a whole lot less than a wedding dress.......now that's a thought......








Yan To - somethings