a-z fashion designers

Hello everybody! I hope you are all good! This is part 2 of my A-Z Fashion Guide. I will be making a button which I will pop in the sidebar so you can find all of the A-Z posts, but just so you know, the previous post was about Appliqué and this one, is all about A-Line! Enjoy…

‘A-Line’ is a dress shape which originates from around 1955. The A-Line shape features in dresses and skirts, flaring from the bust or waist in a triangular shape, just like an ‘A’. The A-Line is one of the most flattering shapes for all body types. In 1955, Christian Dior created the a collection based on 3 different letters; H, A and Y. After that Yves Saint Laurent caught onto the idea and started to use the ‘trapeze line’ (flaring from shoulders down). It was only after the 1960s that the idea caught on, in a less extreme manner, and it became a hit trend!

Not only does the A-Line shape appear on skirts and dresses, it also appears in coats and jackets which are tighter in the torso, and shape just like an A in the bottom half. The original shape by Christian Dior was actually more exaggerated than the shape is now-a-days; the main look from the 1955 collection was an A-Line coat covering an A-Line fully pleated skirt which you can see below…

I much prefer the way the A-Line used to be done, as it looks chic and classy, yet I could totally see this look being pulled off in a more edgy way. At the moment the ‘boxy’ sort of trend for clothing is going around, and I love the Yves Saint Laurent ‘boxy’ A-Line dress above. It looks simple but could definitely be worked up or down in these more modern times. As I said the style was more exaggerated which means spotting an A-Line piece in a high street shop might be harder as they are more simple and sometimes just look like normal pieces like a pencil skirt.

For the item of ‘A-Line’ in my wardrobe, I picked out my grey and white coat from John Lewis. It’s very fitting and is the perfect length! With my lovely blouse from Joules* (OOTD to come soon!), it is such a beautiful contrast of colour and is perfect for spring! It’s quite old now and is slowly becoming a little bit too short at the arms, but it was such a brilliant piece when I first bought it. I don’t actually have too many A-Line dresses or skirts, but I would certainly recommend the John Lewis coat range! They last a long time!

I hope you liked this 2nd installment in my A-Z Fashion Guide! I actually really enjoy doing these posts so I will definitely try and post one each week! I’m going to do 3 per letter so that will be 78 blog posts, so it should go through the whole entire year and onto 2015! Pretty cool!

(Collage & Black and White images via Pinterest)

So, um… yeah. Do you remember when I tried to start a series called A-Z Fashion Designers? I started with Adrian Adolph Greenberg… and ended with… Adrian Adolph Greenberg? Yup, well I’m going to attempt to do it again… I cannot promise that I will end on a Z, but I can promise that I will get to a B…. aha. WOW, long intro, let’s just get into it…

Name: Azzedine Alaia (عز الدين عليّة)
Born: Tunis, Tunisia on June 7th 1939 (Age 74)
Education: École des Beaux-Arts
Occupation: Fashion Designer (obviously)
Celebrities seen wearing:  Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Naomi Campbell, Shakira, Miley Cyrus and also, Rihanna.

Alaia or, Alaïa, was born in Tunisia. His twin sister, inspired him to become a designer. Alaïa lied about his age to get into the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied sculpture. After studying at the school in Tunis, he worked as a dressmaker’s assistant, which led to him dressing private clients. In 1957 he moved to Paris to work on fashion design. He worked as a tailor at Christian Dior and then Guy Laroche and soon afterwards, Thierry Mugler, after which he opened his very own atelier in the late 70s. He produced his first ready-to-wear collection in 1980 which awarded him with Best Designer of The Year and Best Collection of the Year at the Oscars de la Mode in 1984.

His career kicked off after Melka Tréanton of Depeche Mode and Nicole Crassat of French Elle, featured his works in their magazines. In 1988 he had opened his own boutiques in New York, Beverly Hills and in Paris. His ‘sexy’, clinging clothes were a great success and the media named him, ‘The King of Cling’. After his sister passed away in the mid-1990s, he came quiet in the fashion world, although he did carry on working for private clients. In 2000, Prada took him under his wing.

Zig Zag Skirt//Bag//Belt//White Strappy Heels//Check Skirt//Dress//Lasercut Heeled Boots

These are some of my favourite pieces available at the moment. The zig zag skirt is right up my street, because it’s scalloped, multi coloured, and just utterly gorgeous. It’s simple yet chic, and I like it. A lot. The bag is actually quite nice too! Not usually something I would normally like, but I think it would be a nice bag for work or travelling to hold everything! This belt is really nice too (I’m gonna’ say that about everything haha), and is perfect for A/W! The heels are not particularly me, but I thought I would include them because I saw some ‘dupes’ by The Whitepepper, and now I love them even more. Gahh. I also love this check skirt because it would be good for all seasons. The red dress just looks like it would be really nice and flattering and the boots are quite interesting, but again not particularly my favourite ever.

I hope you liked the 2nd instalment of this series, and I do promise I will try and at least get to B, but I’m not sure about Z… Have you been watching LFW Live Streams? I’m loving the collections! I can’t wait for Sunday, think, Mulberry, Topshop Unique & Paul Smith. Uh huh. Mulberry shows always make me feel special because of my mum (she used to design for them), even though it was before I was born, even before my sister was born in fact, but yeah it still makes me smile 🙂 I’m a lucky ducky having a talented mumma! #SoppyMoment Hehe, oh well, just letting it all out! Haha…

(Information found via Wikipedia.)