Fashion X Architecture

 Fashion I would like to say is the perfect mistress that caresses the ego of whoever and whatever she strides with. With that one, she makes a memorable union; whether it be with the captured perfectedness of photography, the vibrant muse in the nature, the ocean waves, the robust lightening in a dark night, the sprouted painting of a passionate artist or three dimentional cemented structures of a calculated STARchitect.She makes them her partner and an irresistible embelishment to the spot light.

Architecture and Fashion are two passions with like minds and mission. Walter Benjamin a German philosophy perfectly captured this unusual relationship when he stated that the two subjects belong,'...in the darkness of the lived moment, to the dream consciousness of the collective.' Architecture has the power to inspire with is delicate yet powerful play on space and lines. Its artistic provocation packages dynamism in ordinary structures

left: Dior's parade of white dresses presented against  a backdrop of endless white orchards with pink centres. right: A porcelain David Wiseman ceiling ornamentation showing a cherry blossom canopy.

Karl Largefield, Rick Owens, Albert Kriemler, Prada and many broad minded designers have actively patronise this alluring muse to create timeless fashion statement pieces. Fashion and Architecture express ideas of personal, social and cultural identity, reflecting the interest of the targeted audience ad the age of ambition. The former does so by dressing bodies and the latter dresses places.

The mosaic of Gaudi's La Sagrade Familia in Barcelona was the inspiration of Fabryan's  colour vibrant scarfs. The mosaic on silk accentuated the colourful irregularly shaped windows and explosive use of hue.

 Kwotow's twelfth century 'The Silent Space' draws inspiration from the works of Tadao Ando, a Japanese architect whose structures emphasise large open spaces to project simplicity in nothingness.

 Kwotow's twelfth century 'The Silent Space'  emphasising the simplicity if broad neutral colours and chunky structures as in the heels of the models.

Architecture and Fashion  have thus created a rare marriage accentuating the uniqueness and dynamism in each other. It has injected life into the supposed simple art of lines, fabric and stitches.

Architecturally inspired dresses by Rihanna Marchesa Fall/Winter collection 2008 paying subtle tribute to Queen

 Elizabeth 1

Every and anything can inspire the outcome of a 6yard fabric. I for one love the diversity of nature and the naked skies. I walked passed a nest of canoes carelessly hitched to pegs with their windbreakers roughly packed and tired to rickety poles. And just then I created mental dresses inspired by the fisher men's boat.  lol. Fashion has more muses than the classic English poets...

Have a dynamic week...... 

sources:www.architecturaldigest.com

www.vouge.com

www.eluxemagazine.com

Stitch and FABRIC thresHOLD...

'Youths obey the clarion call, let us lift out nation high under the sun or in the rain, with dedication and selflessness....' Sounds familiar? well it would to the group of Nigerians that have undergone the compulsory Green, Orange and white Fashion.

I was totally ecstatic about treading this most talked about path, to go and explore new lands and meet people from an un-Ahmadu Bello University environment in the mines of NYSC. I did meet them, crazy and nice alike. Lagos camp was a mad house and a room of budding excellence. The most unforgettable blessing of my service year was my community development group-FASHION DESIGN.

 It created an environment for me to continually breed my passion for fashion. Yeah, the sketches where in place but to actually create the three dimensional dresses was like magical reality to me. My mother always pushed  me to do something more about my passion...then I heard the speaker call out for those that would be interested in fashion design. I did not wait for others to begin the catwalk, I jumped from my seat and ran towards the indicated canopy. That was when I knew more,that wishes can become reality

I rolled the sewing machines as though my life deepened on it. Every stitch I dedicated to my parents, sisters, brothers and friends who always told me, 'no come back Zaria oh, try find something do about this your fashion thing'. I did learn to sew, still rusty, but the foundation is definitely laid. I came up with a few simple samples but they are for me, one of my greatest service achievements

Sleeveless white dress merged with blue lace and embellishes with blue buttons at the base of the dress.

 
Simple dress with a platted skirt and baby puffed hands 
 
Simple knee length skirt with Ankara and lace at the bottom. Strips of the fabric was woven into the hole of the lace to give a little solidity to the plain white lace.
 
Short dress, created with the mixture of the yellow start material and plain cotton. The one-shouldered cape creates a little attitude...no be small stress dis dress give me...lol
 
  Mat weaving created at the knee length and bust region. The long zip at the back added little
embellishment against the simplicity of the back.

A simple long dress with triangular attachments to for a more flare effect, embellished a splash of big coloured buttons from the depth of the back to the ground length. 

You have to admit, the sister tried...lol. Models are no other than my sister Akpa Abojonyene Marylene and her twin sister from another mother, Agoro Damilola. Thanks for the free shots xxoo

'Do not despise the days of small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hands...'Zechariah 4:10

All dreams and wishes can come true. All it take is FAITH

ElégancE

Who would not fall in love with a dress captured in soulful lifelessness . Zuhair Murad is one of the designers I relate with  for his powerful detailing and untamed creativity and most of all, for his themed creations. His creativity merged in photographic essence is nothing but transcendental.

The story on each photography characterizes the protagonist that inspired creation. Every man in an artist whether in threads and stitches or in lights and camera..Creators of any kind must find their voice... the tone, style, tenor, pitch, personality we use to express ourselves. Our voice is our essence, writ plain for the world to see'. (Leo Babauta). Be creative...make a statement...tell a tale as have not been told.

Another stunning story by Abraham Gutierrez (art director) and Antonio Cordero (photographer) for Lucia Se Casa Magazine featuring the beautiful Elena Fernandes in 5 ZUHAIR MURAD COUTURE dresses from the Spring 2014 Collection.Make up artist: pablo robled.Hair dresser: Crisanto blanco 

THESpians IGNITE...JUBILEE GAMANIEL

I know this is far from the theme of fashion, but after an adorned appraisal of photography what better way to  pay allegiance  to other schools of creative arts.

Jubilee Gamaniel...this should be a pride buster and motivation for the great Thespians of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Kaduna. She graduated in 2010 and forged on to the States to pursue Film making in 2011, leading to the successful production of eight short movies and the production of one music video. She has also dabbled into modelling and consequently represented Nigerian in 2013 in the Miss Universe pageant in Los Angeles, California. Jubilee is currently the CEO and founder Paradigm Pictures international inc.

 The successor of Katunga is one of her productions that has attracted numerous awards and shines as a magnet to more. Film critics and other actors present for the screening of The Successor of Katunga at the Pan African Film Festival said,' it was a night of heightened emotions as Jubilee took us through an emotional journey'. Predicting her award they said,' she has to get an award this year for that role'. 

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Best of luck ,wishes and more grace to our proud Thespian

Visit www.katungathemovie for more information on the inspirational epic story

PhoTOGRaphic esseNCE

 JAton Couture

Some one once asked me why I thought it necessary to deep my hands into the thick depthless wells of fashion. Why I would read till I snap on the fields of literature and then derail to the tracks of an unimpressive and sinful world of fashion. 'My story is yet to be told', that was what and all I had to say. Fashion and photography are more than semis twins. Fashion is the bride and photography is the silent chief bridesmaid walking the bride down the aisle towards the man that is MAN. She is the silent indispensable magnet that creams the Cinderella story.

The dress in this picture is a story that has lived long in time and still sustains a voice. But the graphical representation by the warm touch of Photography tells the fairy tale as though it never existed. “When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”
― Ted Grant

Her bold prideful spine, careless arms and lustrous ruffles likened to the mysterious layers of the purple onions...the Bride of the moving clouds. She would be inappropriately dressed for the holy altar but that would be because she will wed no ordinary man. She is strong and bold, a delicate princess with a metallic heart that loves and wars, a protagonist of the mythical lands beyond thread and stitches. Her hairs falls in  powerful adornment of her beauty,early authority and deep romance. Her hair, a wave of cascading waters of colourless majesty. She is a bride like no other, a woman of aged youth and fruitful territories. "A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.”
― Diane Arbus

You know the truth about her and yet you don't...lol I sound serious right? Well this is how I like to see the lifeless yet living soul of the creation of  any rounded lens. PS, this is my story, every picture and dress does. What do you see? Tell your tale.

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”
― Susan Sontag

have a photographic week ahead..lol

 

 

INCEPTION

So apparently I have began a Blog Spot. Didn't know what to put up, just created a name I know I have always wanted to have as my fashion pseudonym 'Reina de las Fabricas '. And then a voice said, make it a page centered  on fashion criticisms. lol;it was my sister, Estrella Gada. This might seem as a grand irony to the multitude of people, scrap that, the people that know me. She once said I should be charged to a fashion court and found guilty of fashion suicide. lol. Well if the were a fashion court I would be there and given the life sentence. But then, another female,(Ps, the sisters are plenty) Abojonyene said, ' your own fashion na for your mind. You sabi am but you kuku no dey do am'. Yep I did laughed but it was WORD.
So I would be your Joan Rivers(RIP) but more like a polite fashion police officer. Fashion school, Fashion house...all that's on the way. I intent for this to be a Christmas package popping up even in lent.  But till then...

"Dresses are more than pieces of fabric woven together to attain warmth, pleasure and self-esteem. They are intrinsic architectural pieces of the human make-up. Dresses tell stories that only the designer can interpret to the lay man. Fashion is an art that births art works in a spectrum. I see it as a tale of fabrics, a wonder like the chronicles where fabric, needles and thread, merge together to crystalize the words and strokes of the architect.  

The woman of fashion lingers in garment to have a story whispered into her ears, to become the protagonist of the dresses’ tale. 

 It’s more than a dress; its pages of unread stories, unlocked by the one that dares to wear. 

My choice of women fashion is not out of a need to join the league of dress makers constantly pouring norms and customs into vast societies. I aim to marry my art with the few that are waiting to hear and become walking stories and strokes. To be able to crystalize the bulging tale of mystique art that breeds with the lifeless designs of my sketch book. 

To see my stories told in a way that it has yet to be interpreted is my dream. To be an architect of modern fashion and create a new story in the world of fabrics..."