London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2021 Highlights

Hi everyone,

How has February been treating you? We hope you are keeping yourself warm, working toward your goals and enjoying life as it comes. As London fashion week came to an end, we are happy to offer you a brief distraction from your daily life and a glimpse into the highlights of Fall/Winter 2021 collections.

Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection is a play between the soft and edgy, a coexistence of the feminine and masculine. Black leather biker jackets over frilly skirts, jackets and dresses with tactile satin roses, Edwardian balloon sleeves, tailored black leather jackets to emphasize waistline, ivory flowers cascading over pink tulle ballet skirts, are all elements fabricating this fantasy of a rebellious ballerina character. This season’s collection retains the soft femininity that characterizes Rocha’s work, with an additional dose of resiliency and sense of experimentation, all ornated with faux natural pearls, porcelain earrings and hand-painted roses.

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"Embroidered tulles, Hand-painted flowers on pearls. Porcelain cameos, encased in gold. The Three Graces. Satin, leather, tulle."

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Erdem

Erdem’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection is constructed to represent several stages of a dancer’s wardrobe, from rehearsal to performance. The conception of this idea originates from Erdem Moralioglu’s memorable experience of designing costumes in 2018 at the Royal Opera House, translating the excitement of observing ballerinas practicing in their transitional outfits from rehearsals to performance. Illustrating the ballerina’s everyday practice clothing and interlacing it with their embellished stage costumes, the lineup served a variety of feminine skirts, opera gowns, tailored jackets thrown over embellished, feathered skirts. Tops encrusted with jewels and ribbed knitwear, ballet slippers transforming into stilted platforms, and Swan Lake headpieces, made for an interesting fusion of in-between stages of undressing.

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Art School

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Eden Loweth’s Fall/ Winter collection carries a strong message of resistance, hope and strength to London’s queer communities. Through his work, Loweth aims to give a voice to marginalized communities, offer a safe space for LGBTQ+ identities to be seen, free of prejudice. This season’s collection was unique and completely focused on inclusivity, presenting garments easy to wear for all bodies and genders. The show featured two nonbinary contestants from Season 2 of RuPaul's Drag Race UK : Bimini Bon-Boulash and A'Whora, Loweth’s close friends, and members of London Trans + Pride. The prevailing theme in this collection stands that of Inclusion and Unity, all reflected in the coats and leather pieces, linen smock dresses and bias cut pieces, designed for different body types.

Matty Bovan

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Matty Bovan’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection is an explosion of color, paint, exaggerated shapes, volume, interpreted through psychedelic effects of intentional blurring and smearing. With every outfit encrusted in crystals, splashes of color and light, to say that this collection is experimenting with the nontraditional of ready to wear would be an understatement. This season, Bovan labelled this collection Odyssey, referencing the theme and source of inspiration. All this, revealed in the backdrop of this presentation and the sound effects throughout the video, unfolds in the visuals and sounds of struggle through heavy waves out in the sea, shipwreck and survival.

Bovan confesses that this is a personal theme: “I’ve always been afraid of the sea. I suppose it’s that fear of isolation”

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Vivienne Westwood

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Vivienne Westwood Fall/Winter 2021 line-up was mostly made of recycled, previously used materials as a statement to reduce the impact fabric waste does to the environment. Fabrics used encompass a variety of wool, tartans, forest positive viscose, organic silk, along with a newly sourced recycled denim.

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The collection featured a print of Daphnis and Chloe, a 1743 painting by by French Rococo painter François Boucher, becoming the main print for this season. The collection brought a pastoral mood, in a combination of clashing colors, herringbones, stripes, ginghams and King of Wales Check throughout various items of denim, suits, shirts, corsets and dresses. As always, the lineup carried over Westwood’s signature style of unruled draping and balanced chaos.

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The focus of this season stays in the constantly improving efforts to become sustainable, as stated on Westwood’s social media posts on this collection:

We continually challenge ourselves to make our collections with greater care and contribute to a more sustainable fashion industry. We are proud to announce that for Autumn-Winter 2021/22 over 90% of our main-line collection is made from materials that have a reduced impact on our environment.⁠

Molly Goddard

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Goddard’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection brings back tulle skirts and voluminous shapes, in a clash of textures, bright colors, metallics and patterns. Strategically large layered skirts reveal a sense of movement. While much of the designs are overly playful, many garments remain wearable and casual, including Fair Isle sweaters for men and women, tartan coats, tailored suits and taffeta dresses layered with casual denim. A joyful color palette of warm red, pink and bright orange, is balanced by charcoal grey, mint, and uplifting blue.

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Duro Olowu

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Duro Olowu’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection is comprised of various exhilarating prints and evokes an inspired outlook of a happier time. Garments manifest a union and blend of reinvented colorful florals, geometrical patterns, python prints in green, fuchsia, orange, turquoise. As stated on Olowu’s Instagram posts of these spectacularly cheerful silk chiffon dresses and swing coats:  

Inspired by the work of the African American painter Barkley L. Hendricks and the French painter Édouard Vuillard. The collection is a homage to the wonderful palettes and pattern laden compositions in the paintings of these two amazing artists from different eras and continents.

It is also an ode to the power of style as an inspiring and uplifting weapon of optimism in these uncertain times.

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Emilia Wickstead

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Emilia Wickstead’s Fall/Winter 2021 collection, represents the idea of looking into a woman’s life. The concept was inspired by three films: Teorema (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini, I Am Love (2009) by Luca Guadagnino, and Rear Window (1954) by Alfred Hitchcock. Walking further away from casual ready to wear, and into a reinvention of Eveningwear, this collection featured tailored suiting in wool gabardine, pencil skirted dress, off-the shoulder charcoal wool dress, soft tailored flanella, and draped fabrics that serve as outerwear to offer comfort and a soft edge against the structured garments underneath.

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What do you think of our Highlighted moments from London’s Ready-To-Wear Fall/Winter 2021? At Design Land NYC, we are loving the rush of creativity, the progress made towards sustainability in fashion, the bright uplifting colors and prints in place and all the amazing work that designer’s are doing in response to the challenges encountered in the past year. We are following the next fashion shows closely and cannot wait to report the next recap!

Sending joy,

Lori / Design Land NYC

Artist Inspo: Yayoi Kusama

In today’s Artist Inspo we will talk about Yayoi Kusama, one of our favorite contemporary artists! Her art installations make for some of the most magical and captivating experiences and her other multi-media visual art is otherworldly. 

Kusama Yayoi - Louis Vuitton Window Display - Image Via Louis Vuitton

Kusama Yayoi - Louis Vuitton Window Display - Image Via Louis Vuitton

Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary Japanese artist whose work encompasses a wide range of mediums namely; sculpture, painting, film and installation. Kusama is especially well-recognized for her creative use of dots as the basis of all her artwork, and there is a story behind that. 

Yayoi Kusama in Yellow Tree furniture room at Aich triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2010. - Image via Whitney Museum

Yayoi Kusama in Yellow Tree furniture room at Aich triennale, Nagoya, Japan, 2010. - Image via Whitney Museum

How did Kusama start? 

Born in Matsumoto City in Japan, Kusama showed early signs of creative talent, specifically in visual arts. She studied painting in Kyoto and in 1958 moved to New York City, aiming to become a part of the contemporary art movement in the city. Kusama curated many exhibitions, where she showed to be a unique character in the midst of other talented contemporary artists like Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell and Claes Oldenburg. Her artwork soon became distinguished within the artistic circles, and her installations of “Infinity Rooms” very popular with the crowds, making her a significant artist in the Pop-art and Minimalist movements and marking her as one of the first artists to engage in performance art.

Starting from Right - Yayoi Kusama Self Portrait, 1972, Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, Phosphoresce in the Daytime, c. 1950

Starting from Right - Yayoi Kusama Self Portrait, 1972, Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, Phosphoresce in the Daytime, c. 1950

Performances and Happenings

Kusama’s performances often took the shape of “Happenings”, which were unplanned, impromptu events that required audience participation. Many of the Happenings in the 1960s were meant to protest the Vietnam War, and involved naked participants (including the artist), during which Kusama would paint colorful dots on the performers. 

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One of the most memorable performances of Yayoi Kusama, was the unauthorized 1969 Happening, Grand Orgy to Awaken the Dead at MoMA. Naked performers were to embrace each other and engage with the statues around them, who were figures made by deceased artists. By staging this performance, Kusama communicated the point of “dead” art in need of more living artists’ animation.

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Narcissus Garden was another memorable performance, installed for the 1966 Venice Biennale and included a “kinetic carpet” of mirrored spheres placed outdoors. During the performance, Kusama wore a golden kimono and sold each sphere to the public. Narcissus Garden served as a critique to the mechanization of the art market, as well as promotional opportunity for the artist. 

Having made such an impact in the art world, Kusama returned to Japan in the 1970s to take care of her mental health and only made a comeback in 1993, when she represented her country in the Venice Biennale. 

Why Dots? 

Yayoi Kusama in Tokyo, 2016. Photo by Tomoaki Makino.

Yayoi Kusama in Tokyo, 2016. Photo by Tomoaki Makino.

Yayoi Kusama talks about her reason behind dots as her main design element, stemming from a semi-traumatic experience when she was a little girl. During a bizarre moment of hallucination, Kusama found herself in a field of flowers with these flowers coming to life and in an Alice-in-Wonderland-like moment began speaking to her. The blossoms appeared in the shape of dots, and laid out into the horizon. While the dots extended in front of her, she felt herself merge with the hallucination into what she calls “self-obliterating” into the field of dots. Keeping this memory in mind, Kusama continues to “self-obliterate” and merge into the infinity of dots in all of her artwork and installations. 

Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room  -  Image Via The Weekend Edition

Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room - Image Via The Weekend Edition

‘Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment’.

Infinity Mirrored Room - Image Via Artnews

Infinity Mirrored Room - Image Via Artnews

Infinity Rooms 

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room - Image Via CNN

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room - Image Via CNN

Kusama’s most impressive and creative installations remain her “Infinity Rooms”. These installations are always unique in character, often incorporating mirrors, circular objects, dots and a multitude of lights to replicate the idea of an infinite space. Very often, these installations are created by placing hundreds of flashing colorful LED lights into dark mirrored rooms, and fabricate a conceptual environment of a galaxy-like infinity. The inspiration continues to stem from Kusama’s childhood experience and moment of hallucination, something that she is always seeking to mimic into her artwork. 

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Where to Find Her Artwork

Some of her most well-established exhibitions include “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors” at the Hirshhorn Museum, and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., “Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of Rainbow” at the National Gallery Singapore, and the exhibitions “Yayoi Kusama: Festival of Life” and “Yayoi Kusama Infinity Nets” at David Zwirner in New York. Some of Kusama’s artwork can now be observed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, as well as her own museum in Tokyo which was first inaugurated in 2017. 

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room - Image Via Tate Modern

Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room - Image Via Tate Modern

 At Design Land we see the artwork of Yayoi Kusama as a major source of inspiration to make our designs as dynamic and experiential! We especially love the art installations that offer a phenomenal experience. We recommend that if you travel to any of the mentioned locations do not miss out on a visit to these astonishing Infinity Rooms! They make for great pictures and enchanting memories!

XOXO Lori / Design Land NYC

Special Announcement

Hi everyone,

How are you feeling this Fall? We hope you are recharging and taking care of yourself this season. Most importantly, we hope you are doing OK and your dear ones are healthy and safe! We are experiencing a once-in-a-century pandemic blues and we miss the human connection and those big hugs we used to give one another. Praying for this to end soon so we can go back to our happy selves.

Well, we want to share some information with you:

New Office Location in Soho, Hudson Square

Much has changed since our last post and we will utilize this space for a quick work update. Design Land NYC is now located in a new happy sun-drenched location in Soho, have taken up many more interesting design projects, have acquired new clients in the graphic design scope and fashion industry. What’s more, we have pushed boundaries and done something entirely different! Which brings us to our special news: 

Selling Apparel on Our Online Store | Shop here!

We are excited to announce the official opening of our Design Land online store and we want to celebrate the birth of our clothing line! After 1 year of founding Design Land NYC, we have created our first line of Soft Plush Hoodies that are currently available in 3 color ways: Bubblegum Pink, Unisex Purple and Black Heather, as well as personalized orders. Feel free to contact us for any image or idea that you would like printed on your order and we will make it happen. Our hoodies can be ordered online via our shop. Alternatively, you can pick your order up in our Soho location: 101 Avenue of the Americas, 9th floor, New York, NY 10013. Our line will be available for purchase on Instagram shop for your convenience, so stay tuned for updates on our Instagram and Facebook and make sure to follow us to learn more! 

WE ARE SO GRATEFUL! THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT! IT HAS NOT BEEN EASY IN THE DESIGN INDUSTRY BUT WE ARE MAKING IT!

While 2020 has been a challenging year, we are grateful for all the support, numerous creative projects, our new inspiring office space and the people that envelope us with their positivity. As Design Land NYC grows to be 1 year old, we reflect on the exciting journey we have embarked on and remain thankful and driven with new ideas for more. In the light of Design Land’s One Year Anniversary we are planning to host a small celebratory get together, in the safest and healthiest way that the situation allows us, including our close friends, featuring many bubble gum pink balloons! Until then, we cannot wait to share our progress and upcoming designs with you.

FIRST THANKSGIVING IN DESING LAND NYC

Among so many firsts, today marks our first Thanksgiving together at Design Land NYC, doubling on these emotions and motivating air in an industry where we are constantly improving our work and service offering, we are thankful and amazed by your trust in us.

As always, feel free to contact us for any services, customized products or consultation sessions, as well as orders of customized products and we will be in touch with you.

What about you dear reader and friend, what are you thankful for in the brink of this year’s end?  Write it in the comments below.

We hope you are all safe and healthy and we send lots of joy your way!

Xoxo Lori / Design Land NYC

November 2020 - Picture at the new location!!

November 2020 - Picture at the new location!!