Featured

Fashion Trends SS20

Culture Fashion Trends Spring/Summer 2020

This year collections reverted to a few trends from the past- from disco collars to, hot pants, 60’s wallpaper prints and exaggerated sleeves.  I personally favor the polka dots and purchased a dress from the H&M collection. Fashion trends always seem to return but with new colors and designs. I personally enjoy all the colors for this new season from bold & bright scarlet, neutral shades of white, Saffron, Coral Pinks and dots. Did I mention the return of dots? Well the good news is that if you have items in your wardrobe from last year, then it’s safe to wear it again and add a few new items to your collection. I picked up this cute little dress at H&M a few months ago. Not only is it in season but because it offers classic neutral colors it can always be worn again with different accessories. During my travels over the winter holiday in Europe I was surprised to see the Paris/dot collection at H&M and see my dress in the showroom.

I’ve shared a few seasonal items for budget conscious shoppers. Also, don’t forget to add florals or prints to your collection this season!

H&M Display January 2020

One of my classic looks- Zara

Checkout these resources for the latest spring fashions.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/shop/collections

https://www2.hm.com/en_us/productpage.0855200005.html855200005.html

https://www.zara.com/us/en/flowy-printed-shirt-p03067022.html?v1=39711645&v2=1445787

Advertisement

Classic Handbag Collection

Once again, Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, has dazzled us again with his creativity, adding a classic twist to the 1991 bamboo handle tote House creation. The 90’s version was a favorite holdall bag of Princess Diana. The 2021 version has interchangeable straps and customizable letter and star symbols for a personalized touch. The Gucci Diana Bag is available in three sizes and six colors to suit your needs.

They say fashion always repeats itself well there’s certainly some truth to this in the fashion industry. If you love holdall handbags, then this tote may be just what you need to add to your collection.

Courtesy of Gucci

To discover more about the collection, visit Gucci.com.

Simple Chic Handbag Creation

“ Signature Bag” ~ Prototype 

So here I am with my newly crafted signature bag, a prototype that I call “Simple Chic Handbag.” “What led to this casual crafted bag. In a prior course, I had to experiment with the idea of creating a bag. To do this, I made a personal-style mood board. A mood board can be an actual board or digital version, which captures images based on a story, vision, emotions, or other themes. A creator begins with few items of inspiration to create a theme. My items of inspiration included a pair of flip-flops, a can of illy, an indoor plant, and a recyclable bag/tote. This particular bag displays an image from the mood board, in reality, a plant from my dining table. I selected the fabric because of the color and durability. 

Concept: a casual bag, Illustrated with thematic art – throw in a few items, head to the local coffee shop, park, or take a stroll in the city. 

Goal: Create a collection with a variety of themes. 

Culture# Fashion# Social Media Tools

Culture#  Aggregate Data # Social Media Tools Fashion Assignment

In the fall of 2019, I researched fashion blogs, discovered Wendy’s Look Book, and became inspired. She shares her personal story of being an immigrant from Vietnam as a child and other aspects of her journey. Proceeds from the blog go towards Wendy Nguyen’s foundation in the N.Y.C. area, providing emergency housing, medical, educational, and financial support to young adults impacted by the juvenile justice system. As an educator, this ignited my passion for creating a blog, and Culture F.L.A.C. was created- Fashion, Language, Art & Cuisine.

I created several media platforms to accompany my blog, which include Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. During the process, I discovered several aggregate data tools, which are essential for digital marketing. With WordPress, an author can monitor their traffic and insights. Data includes views and visitors for each calendar day of the month or year. The tools also track visitors’ origins displaying visitor country locations, an essential demographic tool for demographics. For this assignment, I’m using social media data for F.L.A.C. at its foundation stages.

WordPress blog

Audience Data: January 31st 2021

Traffic: Displays views on specific days, likes, comments, authors, clicks, countries and other search terms. 

 5 views 3 Visitors  – location  2 U.S.A, 2 Netherlands, 1 France 

Insights: Displays Information on views: average per year, month & day along with post summaries, follower totals and all time views

Most Popular day- Sunday  / Most popular time- 1:00 pm

Best Views ever- February 11, 2020

All time views – 451  

Facebook Business Suite

The Facebook business suit also provides aggregate tools that show post engagements, reactions, shares, and people reached. You also have the option of boosting posts or ads. To explore digital marketing, I experimented with the Oscar de la Renta Caftan design. I ran ads on social media platforms as an experiment with client demographics for products on the FB page and Instagram to learn about marketing demographics. I chose specific demographics based on the design of the dress.

Insights Activity/Performance for Your Post

Post Interactions

Liked by 386

add Summary NOV 28, 2020 · COMPLETED

$10.00 Spent 3,578 People Reached

Account Activity

3 saves / 2 Website Clicks

Image courtesy of Oscar de la Renta

 Culture #Fashion# Fall 2020 Caftan
@oscardelarenta 

View Post on Instagram

Culture Blogger# Fashion Innovation

Accessories & Coffee Inspiration

Well here I am writing about fashion production and coffee. Why this combination? Let me begin by telling you about illy. In case you are wondering, illycaffé S.p.A was founded in 1933 in Trieste, Italy and has been family owned for three generations. What makes it unique? It has such a smooth velvety taste unlike other brands and perhaps due to its blend of nine types of pure Arabic blends. Aside from the coffee itself what makes it so special for me is the packaging and art at the cafes. Yes, art!  Silver and red pressurized, oxygen-free cans are symbolic for this brand. Years ago, while working in South Korea, the local illy caffé became an occasional weekend treat. I fell in love with the decorated walls, signature coffee cup designs and still possess a limited-edition art coffee can. Illy art began in 1992, a project of turning a white porcelain coffee cup into a design by artists all over the world. This past Spring, I visited a shop not only for the coffee but inspiration which led to a creative design.

Photos @F.L.A.C

Creative Design# “The Sparkle Collection” – Fashion Production

“The sparkle Collection” – Earrings and bracelets

Vision- A night on the town in a black dress, a cocktail party during the Christmas season or a special occasion. In the photo below, a model wears handcrafted sparkle earrings.

Photo by Diego Passadori on Unsplash

I used my illy coffee can as a centerpiece for a collection design ignited by red and silver, a sparkle creation against a black backdrop.

 

My creative collection taught me the basics of fashion production and the business side of fashion. To figure out how much it costs to produce that trendy handbag, skirt, or accessories, in my case, first you need to estimate how much the materials will cost. Next, multiply the time it takes to create the item by the number of salary expectations at a local retailer or minimum wage.

Next, you should figure out what sort of profit you would like to make. Let’s keep it real. So, in my case, I used 20%. Multiply production cost by .2 to determine the profit amount and add the production cost. This number reflects the minimum amount of profit for each item. Thus, if I sold each pair of earrings individually, I would make a $6 profit.

Several steps need to occur to mass-produce items like belts, handbags, etc. and have items sold in a local retailer. Therefore, things will need lower production amounts. So, a designer would need to find a source for cheaper materials and construction processes to sell them at “manufacturer’s suggested retail price” In my scenario, I have reduced the materials amount and labor cost.

Accessories – “Sparkle Collection” #1
Materials $10
.45 hours @ $12$5.40
Total Production Cost $15.40
20% profit $3.08
Total Cost Plus Profit $18.48
Estimated Retail Price $25
Accessories- “Sparkle Collection” #2 
Materials $7
.33 hours @123.96
Total Production Cost$10.96
20% profit $2.19
Total Cost Plus Profit $13.15
Estimated Retail Price $20

Looking forward to my next fashion concept creation!

~Culture Fanatic

Rochelle

Pandemic Blues or Creative Inspiration

It’s been a while since my last blog post. It has been too long in my opinion. Why? That is a question I ask myself. I’ve wanted to post on several cultural topics but never seemed to transfer my thoughts to the keyboard. In retroflect for several reasons thus, I’ve decided to provide a series of mini blogs. My goal was to remove the word COVID-19 from any postings regarding the fashion industry so I paused, waited, read, planned, hoped, and cried as I read emotional stories in my news feed. I became disheartened as I read about leading retailers filing bankruptcy. So I took a break from contributing to the blog and decided to focus on self-care which consisted of self-development. This meant taking time away from distractions, negative energy, social media, and even negative people in my life.

As I scanned my inbox each day, I noticed a plethora of adverts for self-care, free online viewings of art galleries, and free short courses to possibly occupy oneself during the quarantine. What I considered time to learn a new hobby, skill, craft, or meditation strategies. It was also during this time I began to lose hope, and doubt that the economy would improve. Saddened by these events I began to speculate the future of Fashion Week, the cosmetic industry, and the retail sector. My worries led to a social media break, at one-point deactivation of all personal accounts, leaving my only attention to fashion-related articles on my homepage. I eventually returned to my accounts and the news to remain informed regarding current events. As economies shifted, and governments slowly eased quarantine restrictions and many become content with working from home remotely. Consequently, the COVID-19 effect increased online shopping, learning, and social distancing all of which won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve listed a few links at the end of my blog for your muse. 

Fashion Trends

How we shop for cosmetics and fashion will be different for at least another year and during these changes, creative director Alessandro Michele, of Gucci has decided to scale down to just two fashion shows a year and produce two seasonless lines a year. I wonder if other lines will follow this trend? Reducing the number of shows for fashion week 2020 is a good idea and perhaps into early 2021, in my opinion.  Online sales definitely increased this spring however, some chose to put their shopping on hold until the lockdown ended, or quarantine restrictions began to lift. It will be interesting to see how designers and retailers operate later in the third and fourth quarters.

Free Resources / virtual tours/ Online Courses

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-university-art-classes-free-online

https://www.timeout.com/travel/virtual-museum-tours

https://www.coursera.org/coronavirus

hthttps://www.udemy.com/courses/free/

Culture | Valentines Day

Valentines Day!

It’s that time of year again. This winter holiday has become a part of culture. It’s a day of love, romance and gift giving. It’s my favorite holiday of the year. As a kid I remember trying to decide which pack of Valentine cards to make for my classmates in elementary school. We always had a party with cupcakes, punch and exchanged cards, perhaps the root of my love for notecards.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Remember show appreciation to those that you care for: a parent, teacher, a friend, sibling or any family member, not just significant others!

February 14th