Introduction
The purpose of this report is to analyse the development of the London based designer, Matthew Williamson. He is a globally famous for his recognisable prints, embellishments and vibrant rich colours. In one of his interviews, he said, "my design philosophy is to make women feel like peacocks” (Teen Vogue, 2009). The luxury fashion house presents six collections of womenswear and accessories annually. Moreover, the assortment of exclusive products includes wallpapers, stationary, fabrics and interior accessories.
History
Matthew Williamson was born in Manchester in 1971 and in age of 18 he moved to study Fashion Design and Printed Textiles at Central Saint Martins College London. He successfully finished his degree in 1994.
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Previously he worked closely on several temporary projects for worldwide-recognized retail companies including Marni and Monsoon. Matthew Williamson’s career growth continues with two sequential nominations for Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, 1999 and 2000. One of the most exciting and important career turning points of the designer was the opening of his first flagship store in London. During his exclusive interview with Glamour Magazine he stated: “Opening my first flagship store on Bruton Street in London was a big career highlight for me, as it allowed me to express my vision to its fullest potential for the first time in a controlled environment.” Shortly after the company starts working with Department store Debenhams and creates its own line named Butterfly by Matthew Williamson. In 2005 Matthew Williamson was selected for the Creative Director of the famous Italian fashion house Emilio Pucci and was working for the brand for three years. However, he returned to live in London for full time to focus on his personal label by returning at London Fashion week. In September 2007 he was invited to celebrate Matthew Williamson brand’s 10 years …show more content…
However, the majority of his core clients are females whose age group is between their mid twenties and mid thirties. However, Matthew Williamson believes that his brand is aiming on younger generation as well. Mini and maxi dresses, coloured denim, unique prints and embellishments alongside the vibrant, rich warm colour pallet with the hint of cooler blues give a sense of youth, energy and summer feeling. Despite his idea of representing youth and summer feeling older women can purchase his garments because of fairly high pricing. “When you put a Matthew Williamson garment, you feel youth, unique and special.” The main purpose of his clothes is to woman “celebrate her body”. “My customer is that person, she has this lifestyle: she is kinda out-there in a big wild
Although Collette Dinnigan’s style varies slightly from season to season the same philosophy “to produce beautiful pieces that are affordable, wearable, versatile and child friendly” remains constant as does her “passionate feeling for what women want” 2. This is especially evident in her Autumn/Winter 2008 collection ‘Midnight in Moscow’ where Dinnigan implements a more ominous theme making it luxury self-indulgence. The collection is dark with an armoured feel combined with silver hues and dark shades in gladiator-style dresses, girly pleated gowns and military-style jackets. The darkness of these designs contrast heavily with her tr...
In the article, “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual” by Hanna Berry, Berry discusses how for decades women have been told to use certain products and that if they used those products they would be beautiful. Women over the years have believed this idea and would purchase items that promised to make them prettier, thinner, smarter and even more loved. However, in reality it was never what they wore on their bodies that helped them be any of those things; but what it did help with was to empower women to become fearless and bold by what they chose to wear on their bodies as a form of expression.
He enjoys, what he calls the “Aha Moment” where the actor can see themselves, and understands their body language when they see their selves transform into their character. If the character is from a time period of the past, he goes as far as putting them in vintage panties or giving them a pocketbook with a handkerchief or a lipstick from that era. He wants his characters to feel as if they are from that time period as well. As far as being a designer he feels that there are certain guidelines he has to do for his work to come to life. Firstly, he said that he hasn’t changed his outfit in over thirty years and does not wear jeans.
... However, it stands to reason that while the existence of such weighty components has reduced greatly, their concepts have set an indisputable model that remains relevant and continues to influence today’s fashion. In conclusion, it is significant to recognize the revolution of the female silhouette throughout history along with women’s roles in today’s society and also, the physical restrictions imposed on them. The silhouette of women’s fashion has changed as the idea of the perfect female figure has reformed. Nevertheless, in the early twentieth century the concept of women leading more active and lively life meant that fashion also needed to become more cooperative to physical action and less limiting.
He says that a man’s clothes portray the character of the man who wears it. Since the man is ultimately the one who is purchasing and choosing the clothes, it serves as an indicator or a sign
Werle, Simone. Fashionista A Century of Style Icons. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977. Print.
Louis Vuitton, a French designer and entrepreneur quickly made a name for himself in the fashion industry by becoming Napoleon’s wife “personal box-maker and packer.” At the age of sixteen, Vuitton and his family started the legendary workshop by creating travel trunks and the famous unpickable locks in 1859 (Louis Vuitton, 2015). As the legendary brand continues to remarkably exceed both sales and expectations, Louis Vuitton as a brand strives for pure distinction and exclusivity.
For Mr. Lauren, the starting point is always his concern for quality and attention to detail, while the creative drama comes from his own romantic sense of elegance and reverence for authencity. Always true to his own purely American vision of fashion, his products are nearly as diverse as the country that inspires them. He designs a wide range of products, including menswear, womenswear, boyswear, girlswear, home furnishing, eyewear, scarves, shoes, hosiery, fragrances, handbag, luggage and leather goods. And the stores that carry his products are located across the United States and around the world.
One of the most successful clothing brands in the world, Polo Ralph Lauren has built its success around more than just its line of luxurious designer clothes, but the company is one of the top marketing designers also. It was awarded “ Luxury Brand of the Year” in 2010 by the Luxury Daily. A company that was founded by a man named Ralph Lifchitz, better known as Ralph Lauren of the Bronx, New York in 1968. Since the age of 12, Lauren’s had a strong appeal and taste for looking classy. He would spend the money he earned working with his father after school, purchasing expensive suites. In his latter years, while working for a company called A. Rivetz & Co., Lauren began designing wide ties, the beginning of what latter evolved into the giant clothing empire known as Polo Ralph Lauren. The success of his designer ties caught fire quickly, retail giant Bloomingdales was the first company to endorse Ralph Lauren’s ties, but that ended quickly, when Lauren refused to narrow his ties, and stuck to his product line. Lauren’s success in the designer clothes business was unusual for someone who studied business at City College. In 1968, he founded the company Polo Fashions, a company that would later expand its market, and is among one of the top designer brands in the world today.
Thesis: With the unregulated practices that goes on in the Fashion Industry, change is one notion that this abusive yet glamorous business have yet to see.
Fashion has been around ever since ancient times, since the time of the Romans, it survived the world wars and is yet today a business with rapid changes. Fashion started off as an art form, a way for the rich to show their social status with unique and innovative designs that only they could afford. It was a way to separate the social classes of the society. In this paper I will include the creators of haute couture, and how the following designers developed couture, as well as leading names in today’s ready-to-wear industry. The list is long, but I chose to focus on the three most important designers in the modern fashion industry.
Fashion takes on many different facets and concerns many subsets— a model sashaying down the runway in a gown encrusted in real gems, Lady Gaga’s infamous dress made of cuts of raw beef, a teenage girl obsessing over the season’s latest styles— it is all an expression of our minds and who we are or want to be, made tangible. It is a medium just like any other, for while artists wield brushes and paints, designers use thread and cloth to illustrate their vision. The artistry is none more so apparent than in the exclusive world of haute couture, a world of extravagance that caters to aesthetics, producing one-of-a-kind wearable masterpieces that are made to be admired rather than worn. It is without doubt, high fashion and its design is an art.
The famous Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky and the street. Fashion has nothing to do with ideas, the way we live, or what is happening. “Coco” is in fact a nickname she earned while singing in a café about a girl and her dong Coco. As a young girl, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, was introduced to sewing in her orphanage. From there, she began to have the passion for designing clothes. Chanel thrived to meet women’s desires and changed the way Americans viewed life by showing them they can express themselves through their style. She lived her dream creating her own sense of style, her brand, and the way women would look up to her. Last but not least, Gabrielle Chanel went far and beyond creating a line of perfume, jewelry, handbags, and sunglasses after her embarrassing love scandal.
Yves Saint Laurent is indisputably one of the grand masters of fashion, a true couturier, a pioneer and a rebel. He created more than beautiful, articulated and fine garments; he reinvented the ‘woman’ as an archetype in fashion, he incorporated art in his design in a way that is vague if he was a designer or an artist in heart. He dedicated his whole life to the pursuit of the absolute inspiration, of true beauty and breaking the rules. Throughout his life, Yves Saint Laurent, was torn between the West and the East, prudence and recklessness, conservatism and innovation, but he was never unprogressive. His designs portray this conflict and perhaps this is what gives them an air of mystery, of unprecedented elegance and grit. As Duras says, “Yves Saint Laurent invents a reality and adds it to the other, the one he has not made. And he fuses all of this paradoxical harmony-often revolutionary, always dazzling.” His legacy is beyond of being a designer, a couturier; he is a reformer, a passionate rebel, whose progressive views expanded beyond making beautiful garments for people with expensive taste and status; beyond couture.
From selling purely ladies’ footwear, Charles and Keith expanded their range of products to include ladies’ bags and accessories in order to cater different demands of the customers. Charles and Keith owns a team of designers that come out with new products regularly and the company has their own R&D team frequently travels to fashion cities to get in touch with the latest design and trend (Singapore Press Holdings, 2009).