Fun and joy – clothes with personality from Mandalina Rossa

Someone told me once that before you meet a person and find out he or she has a great personality and you want him or her near you, first of all you just put your eyes on that person. For that to happen, that person needs to stand out from the crowd. And how do you do that? With great clothes. For those of you that stay with a smile on all day long or those who want to be like that, you can dress up from Mandalina Rossa. 

„My customers are the ones who like to get dressed colorful and stand out in crowd.They still keep the inner child alive” - Nazlı Çetiner.

Nazlı Çetiner is the person behind Mandalina Rossa. The business idea came up to Nazlı when she was studying fashion design at Fashion Institute of Technology. In her second year she was sure that she wanted to start her own business. „Little by little I began selling my designs first on the street in Soho, then on Etsy”. And the rest is history, like they say. Nazlı told me how she makes her clothes  and little bit of what knitting is all about.

How did you come up with your brand name?
In Turkish Mandalina means clementine which is my favorite fruit and my nickname. Rossa is red in Italian. I'm a redhead and I had many Italian friends who called me rossa. 

How did you start this passion?
I've been making and creating since I was a child.My mom is a crafter.I was always interested in new projects and materials. I learned knitting at an early age and never dropped the needles and yarns from my hands.
After studying fashion design with knitwear specialization I was set up to work on my own business.

 
What goes into making such interesting items?

I work spontenously directly on the material rather than planning and drawing first.I like the feel of the fabrics and yarns. If I know what I'm going to make I make it very quickly.Usually by looking at the fabric or yarn, I can visualize what can be made out of it. 

Nazlı loves to make circle skirts, because ti's practical and looks great. Her best seller is Vintage Sewing Machines T-shirt, but she is currently out of it.  Don’t worry, Nazlı will make more T-shirts soon.

How do people get in touch with you? Where do you sell?

I have a website that runs trough tumblr www.mandalinarossa.com and also a Facebook page and twitter account. In Istanbul I have a shop/studio co-operated with my boyfriend where I sell my designs and give sewing classes.

I see a lot of people starting their handmade business. What do you think makes you stand out from the crowd?
Everyone has their own style and their own crowd who appreciate them. My customers are the ones who like to get dressed colorful and stand out in crowd.They still keep the inner child alive.

Besides Mandalina Rossa, Nazlı is running a studio/shop Zelazo (zelazolab.com) with her boyfriend. They make a monthly workshop schedule with other maker friends. The workshops include soap making, pinhole camera making, linocut printmaking, sewing… Also they have a fabric shop fabriconly.etsy.com, because she loves collecting fabrics.

The future is closer than we thought - Amy Winter interview

Dresses that change color become reality. The imagination of one designer changes the world of fashion forever. London-based designer Amy Winters made revolutionary items of fashion, from the Rainforest dress, to the Thunderstorm. Amy ‘Rainbow’ Winters is a textile and fashion designer working with interactive materials and excited by their use in performance and entertainment. 

But how did Amy get to design such interesting pieces?

How did you and fashion meet?

I trained originally as a set and costume designer at Central Saint Martins and graduated in 2006. I also had a love for Avant garde fashion and fairytale couture opera. After graduation I was able to dabble in fashion working at fashion shows and developing materials and clothes with a college friend. Experiments back in 2008 included holographic leather and LEDs implemented into clothing.

Is there someone artistic in your family?

My whole family is artistic in their own subversive way from writing to story-telling. My grandmother was an artist.

What are your studies?

I trained in theater design and I am currently working on a PhD in future textiles.

Where does your idea come from?

Ideas are inspired by the mechanisms of nature and it’s wild beauty, the energy of thunderstorms to the morning dew, which drips from a bright green leaf. The more playful elements link in to my childhood, fun toys and dressing up in fancy-dress.

How did you start your label?

I set up Rainbow Winters back in 2010 and wanted to develop some of my concept pieces such as the ‘Thunderstorm’ dress into more commercial wearable pieces. The name was apt as it is my middle name ‘Rainbow’ and surname ‘Winters’. I also love the juxtaposition of the two words which are both elemental but together create something beautiful.

No one picked the idea sooner. How do you think that happened?

Oh lots of people have! It’s a great ‘zeitgeist’ movement of people coming together to start innovating. When I first started back in 2007 there were only a few but now there are so many exciting, interactive developments.  

How do your dresses function?

The Thunderstorm dress (sound-reactive): is made with bespoke holographic leather and sound-reactive, animated electroluminescent panels, as the volume rises, the dress illuminates to create ‘visual music’.

The ‘Rainforest’ showpiece changes colour on reaction to sunlight and water, morphing from a black and white world into living colour and is hand-printed with water-reactive ink.

 

Petal Dress (sun-reactive) is  screen- printed with sun-reactive ink. The print transforms from clear to blue or purple under sunlight. 

Do you collaborate with different specialists from other domains such as technology for creating the outfits?

I collaborate with many different laboratories creating new materials. 

What is people’s reaction so far? Is it how you expected to be?

People are intrigued which is great so I am receiving interest. 

Is there a huge demand in buying the dresses?

My business has developed in the last couple of years and we now work heavily on the research side developing new materials and experimental prototypes rather than ready-to-wear.

Is there a piece that attracts people more?

The sunlight reactive petal dress was a definite best seller. The Thunderstorm dress and Picasso Explosion pieces receive the most attention.

How do people buy the outfits?

Some classics can be bought online through our online store: http://www.rainbowwinters.bigcartel.com

What other projects do you have for the future?

I just released at CES Vegas new fibre-optic prototypes. I am working on a secret new material and other projects, which will be released throughout 2014. 

To see all the Rainbow Winter dresses take a peek on the official site www.rainbowwinters.com.

100 years of fashion in 10 seconds

British Mall presents 100 years of East London Fashion in 100 seconds. The Viral Factory produced this short film celebrating 100 years of fashion in East London in 100 seconds. In the spot, a guy and a gal start dancing like it's 1911, and by the time they reach 2011, they've tiptoed their way through 100 years' worth of costume changes.

This video features a century of style icons that shaped couture and alluring amazons to the ladies of today. Each timeless trend and modern movement is elegantly shown through movements that define those trends, because fashion is not just wearing clothes....it merging textures and shapes with gestures. Thus a human being is a mix of fashion clothes, gestures, ideas, dancing movements that define his or her era.

  

Handcrafting: From religious views to just fashion

Handicraft trend is not actually new. It has its roots in the rural crafts—the material-goods necessities—of ancient civilizations. Many specific crafts have been practiced for centuries, while others are modern inventions, or popularizations of crafts which were originally practiced in a limited geographic area.

 Nowadays, the handmade trend is growing. The market supports over a million craft shops and a community of more than 20 million buyers and creative businesses. Annual sales have skyrocketed from $US170,000 in 2005 to more than $750 million in 2012.

If you want to know more about the handicraft history, in a short story read this article on Ezebee: http://magazine.ezebee.com/2013/12/handcrafting-from-religious-views-to-just-fashion/

Futurotextiles – clothes from the future

A sweater that checks your mood, lace made of strawberry roots or a dress that uses wood as textiles: the third edition of the Futurotextiles exhibition presents the intriguing alliance of textile innovation, high fashion and art.

Sesigners wish to bring nature closer to fashion by using amazing fibers such as the spider silk from Madagascar, five times stronger than steel and two times more elastic than nylon, or the Japanese ancestral fabric fujifu made from the fiber lying under the bark of the branch of the wisteria, which was notably used in designing kimonos.

             

   Another exhibit SF cloth is the red wine dress, made by allowing microbes to ferment and "grow" into fabric that on the surface, has an aesthetic very similar to the meat dress famously worn by Lady Gaga.

                You can also see an anti-bacterian night gown, the dress that purifies the air, or the one that shows you feelings through light.

                The exhibit travels around the world since 2009.

                For program or other details enter the site http://www.futurotextiles.com/