Indian American fashion designer Tina Tandon to expand biodegradable fabric line

WASHINGTON, DC: Fashion designer Tina Tandon, who grew up in many different places around the world, brings a unique perspective in her designs. Born in the US, but having spent early childhood in India (Jammu & Kashmir), and then growing up in North Carolina, before moving to New York for college, exposed her to a broad spectrum and concepts of fashion.

Tandon knew that fashion was her calling at an early age when she accompanied her mother to their family tailor for custom-made outfits during her early childhood spent in India. She thoroughly enjoyed the process, and became well acquainted with various fabrics, cuts, designs and embellishments. She started taking fashion design courses during her high school years in North Carolina, where she won great recognition for her work, and won awards for her designs. Following her dream, she later received a scholarship to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)in New York City.

She graduated Summa Cum Laude from FIT, receiving many awards from the FIT faculty and top industry professionals, including Jay Baker, former President of Kohl’sdepartment stores , who awarded her with a prestigious scholarship that only top ten students were privileged to receive. She was also a recipient of the Presidential Scholars award, and still remains a member of the Presidential Scholars society at FIT.

www.queenieaustralia.com

In an interview with The American Bazaar, Tandon talks about her new bio-degradable fashion line, her charity work, and what it’s been like on her meteoric rise to becoming one of the top Indian American fashion designers in the world.

About 85-90% of your collections are made of natural, bio-degradable fabrics, which is something that really sets your work apart from your contemporaries. Is eco-friendly fashion a big movement, or is it still relatively small-scale? What do you think it’ll take to make it a widespread practice in the fashion world?

Yes, it’s absolutely a big movement. Many major brands and fashion companies are interested in expanding into this realm or at least offer a part of their collection that is eco-friendly. As a society, we are more and more becoming aware of the environmental impact of the carbon footprint we are leaving behind, and more and more people are concerned about the state of the environment and are willing to do something about it or contribute somehow to its betterment. People like to hear that we are doing something about it, and more and more designers and fashion companies are jumping on the opportunity to do so. Donna Karan, Stella McCartney, and Rodarte – are some of the other designers who are emphasizing on and supporting eco-friendlier practices in fashion. It is already on its way to becoming a widespread practice in the fashion world.

You do a lot of charity work with organizations such as SEWA, which provides work opportunities for disadvantaged women and children throughout India. But the exploitation of these cheap labor forces is still prevalent throughout the country, especially in the carpet industry, according to a study released recently. What do you think it’ll take to put an end to these kinds of practices, and can the fashion industry do more to help end these problems?

A lot of good companies have compliance guidelines, before they even start working with a manufacturer for their goods. I think that helps keep things in check and help promote fair labor practices. There are strict requirements the manufacturers and factories must meet before working with many major fashion brands, including fair labor practices, no child labor, and safe and healthy working conditions. I know this from working in the industry for many years, and also conducting these compliance checkups on factories during my sourcing trips abroad. So, more the companies enforce these compliance guidelines on the factories before giving them business, the less there will be abuse or unfair treatment of laborers.

In such a short amount of time, you’ve become one of the leading Indian American fashion designers, doing work for celebrities like Padma Lakshmi and Soha Ali Khan. What do you think is the element in your work that sets you apart from other burgeoning designers, particularly desi ones, and has been the key to your success?

Well, thank you! There is still lot more to be done! First and foremost – focus, hard work and dedication. I guess my refined eye from working with major European and American fashion houses like Escada, Christian Lacroix, Liz Claiborne, and Kenneth Cole, and education from top NYC fashion school – FIT, my internal fashion instinct and design sensibilities - all are factors in setting me apart from other designers.

What does it mean to you to be an Indian-origin fashion designer in America? Do you feel that being Indian adds something different to your work that other designers don’t have? Has your experience within the industry been influenced in any way by being Indian American?

For me, it’s about breaking stereotypes and not being the typical Desi everyone expects you to be – a medical, IT or finance professional. It’s great to see Indian Americans excel in the arts fields as well in America. It makes me extremely proud to see Indian artists like Mindy Kaling, Aasif Mandvi, Russel Peters breaking barriers in the Arts. And I am extremely happy to create a bit of a ripple of my own in the fashion world.

Being of Indian origin surely gives me many advantages as a designer. When I travel to India to work on my new collection and produce my goods, I can understand the language and the way of the culture. I know all the local markets, and how to bargain. I understand very well the many different kinds of embroideries, embellishments and treatments possible, and the local names for them, and how to communicate what I want, clearly to the factory workers. So, it all works in my favor in many ways. Many of my American fellow designers, when going to India to produce their goods, often have to seek help of a middleman.

Fashion design is of growing interest in the Indian American community, as more and more desis get into it these days. What advice would you have for any young girls, Indian or otherwise, who want to get into the fashion industry like you?

Like I always say, know your craft. Hone in your skills. Work, work, work and learn everything you can about the industry, before even thinking of branching out on your own. You have to really have a great passion for it and lots of patience. Fashion is a very difficult and competitive field, but if your designs are different enough and are appealing, wearable, and relatable to people, you will do just fine.

www.queenieaustralia.com/bridesmaid-dresses

Designers Heidi Elnora and Rebecca Taylor highlight Birmingham Fashion Week finale

Birmingham bridal gown designer Heidi Elnora opened the final show of the 2014 Birmingham Fashion Week with a taste of the macabre.

A brief performance by Alabama Ballet dancer Heather Brustolon set the stage for models to walk the runway like reanimated mummy brides wearing Elnora's latest collection of couture wedding dresses. Although known for adding "southern sparkle" to bridal couture, Elnora delved into her dark side to present a haunting and theatrical runway show.

Finalists in the Buffalo Rock Company Rising Design Star 'Rock the Runway' challenge displayed their garmets made of unconventional materials for judges. The designs of the 16 junior high and high school students were narrowed down from more than 120 middle and high school students from around the state. The students also displayed a second outfit made of at least 50 percent Buffalo Rock Company/Pepsi material.

www.queenieaustralia.com

Huntsville teen Sarah Foret claimed first-place in the competition and received a $500 cash prize from Buffalo Rock. Foret found inspiration for her designs from Alexander McQueen's futuristic, structured fashion designs.

Young designers Bradford Billingsley and Rigdon Hendrix placed second and third.

Throughout the show, host Tara Gray brought audience members to to stage to compete for prizes that included items like Badgley Mischka sunglasses, gift cards, hotel stays, and spa treatments.

Emerging Designer finalists showcased their mini-collections on the runway for the last time. Judges selected Auburn senior Lauren Ledford as the winner of the competition. Her winning designs were inspired by what she calls "New Parisian Countryside."

Runway retailers Soca Clothing and Laura Kathryn displayed their take on the latest fashion trends on the catwalk. Both featured looks that included hot pink, ornate geometric prints, or bohemian elements.

Featured Designer Show Me Your Mumu showed the audience playful examples of how they have reinvinvetd the muumuu as well as their pants, shorts, tanks, and dresses. The brand has a loyal following and their clothes are known for their effortless style that can carry from work to evening and beyond.

Headliner Rebecca Taylor closed the runway show with a collection that host Tara Gray called "affordable luxury". Taylor's designs featured muted feminine and modern garments with lots of layers and texture.

The show concluded with Montgomery model Anna Marie Parish taking home the Fresh Faced Model competetion prize.

Birmingham Fashion Week started to as a way to promote and inspire young designers. The event also gives make-up artists, hair stylists and models a runway showcase their talents. All proceeds from the annual event go to Camp Smile-A-Mileand Alabama Forever.

Founder Heidi Elnora can be seen this summer on "Heidi to the Dresscue," her new reality show on TLC.

www.queenieaustralia.com/black-bridesmaid-dresses

Fashion designer Alexander Wang talks style

Internationally renowned fashion designer Alexander Wang has celebrated a handful of “firsts” in his career lately.

After two years of silence on his Instagram account, the designer announced his collaboration with fashion retailer H&M. Wang is the first American designer and the youngest, at age 30, to collaborate with H&M to create an exclusive collection.

Wang also made his first trip to Savannah to attend Savannah College of Art and Design’s SCAD Style event where he participated in a lecture with fashion industry icon Domenico De Sole, chairman of Tom Ford International, Tuesday evening at Trustees Theater.

The lecture began at 6 p.m., but anxious fans began lining up at 11:30 a.m. By the time the doors opened at 5:30, the line was wrapped around the corner and heading down Congress Street.

Troy Allen, a junior at Savannah Arts, was one of the fashion students standing on the sidewalk in the rain waiting to see Wang.

 

www.queenieaustralia.com

“I’m obsessed with him,” Allen said. “I think I’m going to cry when I see him. I love his street style sportswear — I mean, everyone wants it.”

Wang was born and raised in San Francisco and moved to New York City after high school to attend Parsons The New School For Design. He left in 2005 after two years of school to launch his own label.

Two years later, his women’s ready-to-wear collection debuted on the runway and the fashion industry embraced his urban, street style-meets-couture designs and consumers around the world began to take notice.

He opened his first store in New York City in 2011 and today has more than 15 stores around the world. His men’s and women’s ready-wear collections, handbags, footwear and lifestyle items are carried by more than 700 retailers worldwide.

In 2012, Wang was named creative director of Balenciaga.

Before his lecture, Wang sat down with the Savannah Morning News to discuss his reluctance to embrace social media, the payoff of taking risks and why he decided not to embrace the elitist attitude of some of his fashion counterparts.

Staying grounded

“I should thank my family for that,” he said. “My family has always been supportive in what I pursue.

“I come from a Chinese/American background, but in a certain sense they were very untraditionally Chinese. I started working in seventh or eighth grade.

“I continued that throughout high school and college and when I moved to New York and started my internships and working in the industry.

“I noticed there is this air of pretentiousness and a stereotype of working in a fashion environment.

“I didn’t quite understand it. I guess some people go through a more traditional background and become instilled with being treated a certain way and feel they need to impose that.

“In our company and our environment, it’s very non-political. It’s not about egos, and it’s not about yelling at people.

“It’s a family owned business and it’s an environment where we are connected and it’s not so much about what you do but enjoying it.”

Embracing social media

“When we started social media, it took a little time for me personally to decide what I wanted to do with it and how much I personally wanted to be involved with it because the brand is my name so everything we do links directly back to me,” Wang said.

He began with Facebook and kept to a classic approach.

“As I became more intrigued with it … I’ve had a lot more fun with it.”

While he said it took him two years to figure out what to do with his Instagram account, he said he wanted each social media outlet to be unique rather than repeating himself.

Taking risks

“It’s fun to do something that’s not expected. I’ve always had this outlook about fashion that it’s not to be taken too seriously. It’s not something that is so precious.

“It’s something that I respect and I feel passionate about, but it also has other aspects that I want to explore.

“With the different lines I do, it gives me a chance to explore different things.”

For Wang, he said it’s “all about taking risks.”

“When I left school, it was taking a risk. …

“A big part of our brand is having fun. I think it’s interesting to try new things and play in new fields.

“It’s an industry and it’s a craft and it’s a part of everyone’s life, whether it’s intentional or not.”

Balancing art with business

Wang said he started the company with his sister-in-law, and his mother has played a large role in the company’s success.

“In the beginning, I was involved in picking the stores, shipping, costing, production, everything.

“I always say if you want to be a fashion designer, you have to sell clothes.

“Fashion is something that involves commerce. There has to be a balance of things that people connect to and can access and that are worn.

“As I have grown as a designer and a name behind a company and in having new opportunities that come my way with Balenciaga and H & M, I’ve learned so much about … how things are executed and how they operate.”

Seizing the moment

Now that Wang has settled into his role as designer and business man, he just has to figure out what he wants to do next.

“I’ve always had goals and been very ambitious, but it’s always hard to explain what they are.

With each accomplishment, each collection, I’m never really thinking about next season until it happens or until I have to and then I think, okay, we have to be better. And it just happens.

SCAD Style wraps up today with the SCAD jewelry trunk show from noon-8 p.m. at SCAD Museum of Art and a lecture titled “Why Rice Cookers are Exciting” by Don Norman, design thought leader and cofounder for Nielsen Norman Group at 6 p.m. at SCAD Museum of Art.

www.queenieaustralia.com/bridesmaid-dresses

computer simulated design is tailoring the future fashion industry

Scissors, needles and mannequins may now be relegated to the dustbin of the clothing industry. Fashion designers are increasingly designing their new collections digitally - with simulation software.

"[Clothing] is a complex material - different to steel or other solid materials," says Jörn Kohlhammer at the Fraunhofer Institute's Computer Graphics Research Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

"Textiles have their own structure. Depending on how the fibers are processed, and their elasticity, the material will fall differently or pull differently when it's moved."

From threads to textiles

www.queenieaustralia.com

The computer scientist is presenting the new software, which he and his colleagues developed, at the IGD stand at the 2014 Hanover Trade Fair.

It's already in use by large clothing companies.

To ensure things are as lifelike as possible, the simulation of the individual textiles begins with the fibers woven into them.

"Whether I've got denim or silk naturally makes a world of difference," Kohlhammer says, tugging at the top of an onscreen, digital dress. He tosses the garment back and forth with the cursor. It twists and folds, and moves as it would in the real world.

Silk, not linen

"In motion, you see a very soft material here. We immediately have a sense of the fabric - in this case it's a velvety type of material," says the computer scientist. "If it were denim, it would be a much flatter image. The folds here, with the shadows, for example, are extremely important for the designer to be able decide whether they're going to get the draping effect they want or not."

Kohlhammer can also change the color map of the individual fibers.

"That gives a very realistic picture of certain textiles," he says.

When he renders the "behavior" of an entire garment, the computer model is simplified. Rather than calculate every single fiber, the software calculates the material behavior as a whole.

"If we didn't do that, we wouldn't be able to pull up quick and fluid real-life simulations."

Just like a tailor

A designer's draft begins as it would at a classic tailor's - with a pattern.

Based on the cuts of that pattern, the computer renders the swatches so that they appear as they would on a real person.

Kohlhammer directs the cursor to the individual seams, which he "sews" together virtually.

"The designer changes individual lines at the borders, pulls them together and defines the seams. It is important information for the simulator, so it knows how individual parts have to be sewn," he says.

On the monitor, fabric placed piece by piece on a torso becomes an entire dress.

"That's a very important step in 3D, real-time simulation. When the simulator pulls the seams together, I get a real-time, moveable textile."

Next step: Fiber-reinforced components

But Kohlhammer and his colleagues don't plan to stop at simulating textiles.

His goal is to transfer the company's "know-how" into completely different product areas, albeit those related to fiber behavior.

For instance, it could be used to make industrial components with fiber-reinforced plastics, such as carbon, glass fiber or viscose.

The software could also come into play in engineering projects for the modeling of aircraft and ships, says Kohlhammer, or even in the development of car tires.

www.queenieaustralia.com/orange-formal-dresses

Young designers make their mark on Australia's fashion industry

Fierce competition from international retailers, online sales and general financial woes have forced many top local designers to close down their stores.

But some have managed to survive.

Those include Yeojin Bae and Lui Hon who have found a home, and a market, for their designs in Australia.

Taking on the clothing giants

Yeojin Bae was born in Seoul and spent a lot of time around her grandfather, who was a fashion designer.

www.queenieaustralia.com/plus-size-formal-dresses

"Literally from the moment I could start talking, I told my parents I wanted to be a fashion designer," she said.

"I was born to the most amazing parents who told me I was going to be a spectacular designer."

When Yeojin Bae was five, her parents brought her to live in Australia.

She never lost sight of wanting to become a fashion designer and her dream has well and truly come true.

Bae counts actor, Sarah Jessica Parker, as a client and her collections can be found in the department store, Myer.

Recognising how difficult it is to build a successful fashion business alone, she has followed the trend for independent designers to go into partnership with bigger retailers.

"It gives me exposure in my marketplace here in Australia and it helps drive volume, which is key to a successful fashion business," she said.

She's not worried about the big international brands hitting Australian shores.

"For me, I don't feel it's any sort of competition to what I do," Bae said.

"I think having unique designs is always going to attract the consumer."

As well as her partnership with Myer, Bae also collaborates with other brands.

"I don't think it's about trying to be so independent that you're sort of hanging there by yourself," she said.

"You actually need support and people alongside you."

An early instinct for fashion

When Lui Hon was just one year old in Kuala Lumpur, his mother put three objects in front of him, as part of a Chinese tradition to test the instincts of a child.

"On the ground she laid out a pen, a chicken drumstick and scissors," he said.

"I picked the scissors."

Forty years later, Lui Hon lives in Melbourne and has his own fashion label.

He studied fashion design at RMIT and received a big career boost in 2008, when he appeared on the Australian version of the reality TV show, Project Runway.

Lui uses wools, silks and leathers to create versatile garments with an Asian influence.

His inspiration comes from the everyday.

"The people I meet, the stories I'm told, the music I hear, the movies I see and the books I read," he said.

"I try to transform the feelings I get from those things onto my garments."

Surviving in such a tough industry isn't easy, especially with the influx of international brands like Zara and H&M on the market.

"They can come in with the latest trends at a lot cheaper prices than any other companies and designers," Lui said.

To combat the competition from overseas, he has recognised the need to offer unique designs to attract the interest of local and international buyers.

"The way that you alter your business and listen to your customer is really important," Lui said.

Lui has just introduced his latest collection to New York and he points out that collaborations with other designers are vital.

"Just look on the bright side - where there's a will there's a way," he said.

www.queenieaustralia.com/vintage-formal-dresses

USJ art students make garments for fashion show

University School of Jackson art studentsshowed off outfits made from recycled materials during “ARTS@theU: The Kids for Kids Fashion and Talent Show” on Thursday night.

Libby Lynch, visual arts department chairwoman, has been using fashion in her artclasses to teach design for eight years, and each year USJ has held a fashion show to highlight the students’ work.

“I had a student who went to Savannah College of Art for a fashion design summer camp, and she came back and showed me what she’d done and she said, ‘Can we do a fashion show here at school?’ and I said, ‘Well yeah, y’all get it together and we’ll do it,” Lynch said.

www.queenieaustralia.com

Lynch designed the fashion unit for her art classes and the students put the fashion show together.

“That was about eight years ago, and it just kind of took on a life of its own after that,” she said.

Every year Lynch looks for new ideas for ways the students can design their garments.

“The year I started doing the recycling thing, the kids kept saying, ‘Let’s do that again,’” she said. “They enjoyed it, and it’s something that can be different even though it’s sort of the same.”

At the beginning of the project, students choose a recyclable material and a designer to inspire their garment.

Hannah Adams, Ty Buckley and Lauren Nicola are ninth-graders in one of Lynch’s art classes.

“In class one day there were two buckets, and we pulled out a designer or an artist and we pulled out a material to use that’s recycled,” Ty said.

After choosing the material and designer, the students began putting together ideas for their outfits and working on how to turn the materials into a workable outfit.

“I got Andy Warhol and playing cards on the first shot, so I decided to choose Marilyn Monroe’s dress because he did a version of Marilyn’s face,” Hannah said. “I painted Marilyn’s face and his (Warhol’s) Campbell’s Soup cans on the back.”

Students were allowed to create an outfit entirely from the recycled material, or use a single garment and attach the recycled material on the outside.

“A lot of people actually bought dresses and put their material on it,” Lauren said. “With mine, I started from scratch and got fabric and actually stapled the cards to the fabric.”

This year’s fashion show was sponsored by All Fiber & Scrap Recycling in Jackson.

“They (AFS Recycling) sought me out to work with us, and I’m hoping he’s going to work with us again next year,” Lynch said. “I’m hoping next year I can actually make packets for the kids to do their recycled projects.”

This year’s fashion show raised over $1,400 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

www.queenieaustralia.com/bridesmaid-dresses