The Real Edna Mode

Edith Head

The character Edna Mode from the Pixar movie, The Incredibles, was based off of real live Hollywood costume designer Edith Head. She was born October 28, 1897 and died age 83 October 24, 1981. She designer for many major motion pictures, some 428 movies are listed on IMDb.com. Some of her most famous works were done for the movies Vertigo, Sabrina, Sunset Blvd., and Roman Holiday. She won 8 Oscars and had numerous nominations. 

- kEyLyNne

Question of the Week

One of my favorite movies ever is Pixars, The Incredibles. And one of my favorite characters from this movie is the designer Edna Mode. I hear that she is supposed to represent a real live designer. So, the question is,

Who does Edna Mode represent in real life?

          I'm going to go to my trusty favorite movie guru, imdb.com, and check out if they have anything to say in the matter. If anyone does have an idea of who she is, let me know!:)

Thanks!

- kEyLyNne

Designer #11 - Alberta Ferretti

The Label


       Alberta Ferretti started out her career at 18 opening a small boutique in Cattolica, Italy. After designing her first collection in 1984, she finally created her label in 1980. After only a year, she was showing her RTW line in Milan. Her line is extremely famous and often seen on the red carpet. Her dresses are all very flowy using chiffon and Georgette and other flowery fabrics. Her brother, Massimo Ferretti, joined her and the pair created a slew of other lines including Moschino, Jean Paul Gaultier, Pollini, and Basso & Brook. The collections are RTW and resort.


The Designer


     She was born in 1950 in Cattolica, Italy. Her mother was a dressmaker, a succesful one, which lead her to pursue dressmaking as well. Her boutique was called The Jolly Shop and was filled with clothes from Armani and Versace and eventually her own line. Now her studio, the Aeffe building, is in Cattolica while her showroom is in Milan. She also has some stores in America, her flagship for her line and a store for her younger newer line that's cheaper and meant for younger women called Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti. The best part, she lives in a CASTLE called the Castello di Montegridolfo. It dates back to the middle ages. SWEET.

Alberta Ferretti

Fall 2007 RTW

LOVE all of her jackets. They are very dress-like and feminine. I love the color pallet here, all the black and dark grey. It's powerful, especially with the styling of the hair, and yet cute and girly.

Another beautiful BEAUTIFUL jacket. I love how she uses belts. This silhouette is gorgeous:)

I like this color, and the fabric is REALLY interesting. It's very textured and soft, looks like it was knitted. It's a nice simple dress, beautifully minimalistic. 

Pretty dress:):):) the gloves are a nice touch. 

Pretty purple with interesting sleeves.

Another lovely coat. I love all the deep colors. The construction is very nice, especially the collar.

This fabric is REALLY cool!! It's like a painting of a landscape! It's stunning and used very well in this dress and the jacket below.

Lovely jacket. My favorite part of this collection. 

Usually I'm not very partial to furry skirts.. however this one works well with such a fitted simple top and a very safe color strategy. 

This dress is SO interesting in it's construction. I love meshy, light fabrics like tulle but I've never seen it used in such a trimmed and fitted way. The design is very flattering and elegant and the blend from light grey to dark is lovely. 

Another beautiful dress in grey, this one using more a more satin-like fabric with the tulle detail. This one is a lot more flowy. However, it still remains trimmed and isn't overwhelming. Very interesting ripply construction. 

Spring 2011 RTW

Stunning material, very springy. This fabric, as well as the fabrics throughout, have a more refined take on flowery clothing and keep the whole collection light and airy and fresh. The simplistic designs keep the fabric from becoming overwhelming and well as the muted natural tones.

A lovely use of tan and leafy layered cutouts.

The hats in this collection are also nice. This purple-ish grey is stunning with the light fabric. 

I love the lacey detail in this shorter dress. The underskirt is gorgeous peaking out like that and the top layer is very young and springy.

Nice dress although I miss the faint flowers, not my favorite dress.

Beautiful flower pattern and a very flattering and simply lovely design.

A more vintage take on this muted grey with flowery details.

I love this dress. The design is very interesting with the lines of see-through material and the opaque ones. The colors work well and the overall design of the dress is flattering and cute.

Another beautiful example of the lovely flower patterned fabrics used in simple elegant dresses. I love her use of an almost petticoat-like under layer. 

Pretty white dress:) another lovely use of a sort of lace. Pretty design as well.

This lined dress is more extreme, the metallic quality really bringing out the design. 

A very nice greyish purple dress that brings back the nice sun hats. The fluttery tulle details add to the light and fresh quality of the outfit. 

          I really enjoyed this designer. Alberta Ferretti is my favorite one so far. I admire her ability and courage to start her own shop at such a young age. Her dresses are gorgeous and her collections for spring and fall stay far from the usual. Her clothes are creative but still very elegant and chic. I really enjoyed her work, hence the extremely long post..... haha.


See you next time with the next designer!



- kEyLyNne

Designer #10 - à la disposition

The Label


        This is a husband and wife run show that began in Spring 2005. The designers Lynda Cohen Kinne and Daniel Kinne let the 18th century inspire them to create modern looks. Most of their clothes are centered around the corset. They try to make it fashionable again as a comfortable item of clothing. Pirates are also said to be an inspiration to some collections, which scares me a little.... They are RTW and show in New York.


The Designers


     Both of them used to be teachers at the Parson's School of Design. Both have studied costume making and also are collectors of vintage clothing.

The two on the left are Daniel Kinne and Lynda Cohen Kinne.

Spring 2007 RTW

I really like the colors here. Throughout the collections, the colors get a little too indecisive and mixed for me, but here the washy blouse is nice. You can already clearly see the blend of modern and 18th century in this first outfit.

Already in the second look the color pallet freaks me out. The pumpkin orange tights with that style of shoe screams Halloween witch to me. A strange green tie-die up top doesn't really help things either. The thing I found interesting in this was the lines on the shirt which remind me of the red tape used for pattern making. 

I really hate those two greens.... sick green... 

And this one with the purple and black also says witch. And the stripes. The high neck and longer skirt still stays true to the oldies inspiration. Elements of the corset also seem to be in the top of the skirt. 

This skirt confuses me..... The overall color pallet on this ensemble is better though. 

This is one of my favorite looks. The colors work really well together, I love the pink popping out. I think a huge help for the colors is all the white. It keeps them balanced. This well fitted but fun look is a nice example of their style.

They do some guy looks as well. Here was one of the better ones. It is an interesting color but I think it looks nice in this situation. The line seems to make a lot of use of fabrics that have a sort of false sheen, like tulle over satin. 

They had a couple dresses over shirts. They are interesting statements that I actually rather enjoy. The colors I still really don't like. Green and purple.... ug..

I really love a LOT about this dress. The construction is nice and I like the color and the stripes. The only thing I don't enjoy is the black thing up top...? I'm not even very sure what it is? A ruffle? It looks kind of like a garbage bag.......? The rest of the dress is lovely.

 Overall, this collection was ok. The inspiration is very intriguing. What killed it was the color pallet. The mixture of greens and purples and blues was just too much. It gave it a sort of moldy feel to be honest which is not good when yur trying to make the old look new. Overall, it was interesting, but definitely wasn't my favorite. 

    

- kEyLyNne

Pictures!!!!

These are all of the designers who I forgot to show pictures of:)

Designer #1: Abaete


Laura Poretzky

Designer #2: Academy of Art

Designer #3: ADAM

Adam Lippes

Designer #4: Adeline Andre

Designer #5: A Detacher


Mona Kowalska

Designer #6: Adrienne Vittadini

Designer #7: AF Vandevorst


An Vandervorst and Filip Arickx

Designer #8: agnes b.


Agnés Troublé

- kEyLyNne

Designer #9 - Akris

S'ok, these guys are kind of a big deal..;)


The Label


This is a Swiss Family owned label. It was started in 1922 by Alice Kriemler Schoch. She started it by sewing polka dotted aprons. Now her grandson, Albert Kriemler, runs the show. Their cloths are very clean, tailored, and powerful. They also have a secret polka dotted lining in honor of Alice. The production of each garment is very delicate and custom made. They produce many of their fabrics in mills in Italy. Some take years to complete and many many years of training to create properly. If one is looking for high quality, this is where it can be found. It is the largest clothing production company in Switzerland. This label became successful purely by word of mouth and trunk shows. Albert Kriemler is known for his obsession with perfect quality. It seems that this also applied in how it was introduced to the public. A separate more youthful line was created by Albert Kriemler and is called Akris Punto. It was started in 1992 and is a RTW line. Akris is a RTW and Resort line. I tried to find an image of the original Akris aprons but couldn't find one...:( sorry, here are two collections.


Resort 2011 Womens-wear

Very clean outfits are a staple of this line. What's more clean than white? I love the scarf, my favorite color is blue..:)

More white with some blue tones, paired with a really nice bag. Everything about this line is so clean cut, it's really nice. 

This cut is more creative. Usually I don't really like shirt dresses... but this one is more unique with an interesting neckline and I really like it. 

This one is the most powerful, the pants just make her so much taller!!! I love what Akris does with black, especially in the next collection.

Another fantastic black ensemble and so beautifully tailored. I would love to gain that skill, tailoring. I should be learning draping soon and I've done some fittings, but tailoring is just gorgeous and much more difficult.

Fall 2010 RTW

Already this collection was much different in color pallet and slightly the style.Of course, this one is RTW so that makes some sense. This one still has beautiful tailoring, evident already in this nice tan coat. 

Interesting sleeves, cant't decide if I like them or not.... the rest of the coat I really like and I love the pants. 

I LOVE THIS DRESS!!! So beautifully fitted and great design. I love the color, the material, the high collar and buttons, everything!

Another beautiful tailored seemingly leather item. Same style as the dress just a different color and a coat which is why I love is as well. 

A nice fitted black leather jacket. I really want a black leather jacket now.... hmmm Akris???..;)

They also have some nice dresses that still are very structured and clean. This one had an interesting design and construction...

I like this dress better than the last, partially because it's black and plays with texture, but mostly because of it's design. I love asymmetrical necklines and this one has a beautiful one.  

This dress is nice as well. I love the color, this deep purple that they also used in the coat earlier. Not sure what the fabric is but the texture is very flattering.

I've decided to put up a picture of the current designer with the line:) Seems appropriate, so here is a shot of 

Albert Kriemler

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the clean lines of this collection and was very impressed by the quality. 

See you with the next!

           
- kEyLyNne