We are still wearing FW10/11, in stores we can already find the brand new SS11 collections while at the same time designers start presenting their FW11/12 creations! Yeah, that's what fashion is like!
So today I'm really happy to present to you the brand new -and BRAND FIRST- Fall/Winter 2011/12 collection of Greek designer Elena Troulakis! I first met Elena at the Alexis Barrell presentation and back then she had informed me of her anticipated new collection that of course I was interested to see!
What you possibly don't know about Elena is the fact that she has attended fashion design courses at Parsons Paris and the Rhode Island School of Design and also that she has been working in the fashion world since the age of 17, with placements at brands including: Ralph Lauren (New York), John Galliano (Paris), Yves Saint Laurent (Paris), Emanuel Ungaro (Paris) and Matthew Williamson (London).
After such an impressive career she decided to come back to Greece and create her own fashion label here! All the prints of the collection are designed by her and for the new collection she is playing with varying scales, sculpted fabrics and shapes, and layered weights!
Personal favorite, the last dress with the sculpted back detail!
Discover Elena Troulakis and the complete AW11-12 collection here!
Recently I read a very interesting article on eco-site Treehugger about the very first online marketplace solely for recycled handicrafts. To my surprise...it's actually based in Greece! The Yiuco eshop is brand new so don't expect a large collection of objects yet but I personally find the idea amazing and that's why I wanted to learn more about it! Soti (one half of the Yiuco team) was kind enough to answer my questions! Enjoy.
How did the idea of an exclusively eco online market come up?
As we say on our blog, Yiuco popped up in the middle of a crisis….and to be more specific, after a closet clean up (read more here)! A pile of clothes took up a corner waiting for someone to do something with them. Trash them away was not an option….let’s recycle them we thought! After research and brain storming we realise that there were many people, companies, organizations who prefer instead of trashing the world to reconstruct it. So, we thought, let’s get together!
And Yiuco.com was born!
When was Yiuco "born"?
Yiuco is on air since the end of 2010….actually is a newborn!!!!
You are based in Greece. Do you believe that the Greeks have an eco-concious buying attitude?
It is quite surprising the feed back we receive from Greece. Even though the Greeks are not that much into the eco-conscious-buying as an attitude yet, we strongly believe that they will be. And we hope that Yiuco will become a tool, a motive for Greeks to overcome their own closet crisis……
Actually, what we really want to promote through yiuco, is the power of the individual on the environmental issue. We say don’t throw it, yiuco it! to awake people and make them realize that their trashes (of the past maybe) can become their treasure for the future.
How do you check if all products that are traded follow the rules of recycling?
The aim is to motivate people re-usetheir trashes; to make post consuming materials be used again. Yiuco is supporting creative recycling, whatever that means. We are trying convincing people to act using recycling as an attitude. All sellers, after accepting all appropriate terms of use, categorise their products according to the recycling methods they have used. Since Yiuco is a platform, each seller is responsible for whatever declines.
What are your basic goals?
To Yiuco the world!!!!!!!
Who are the people behind Yiuco and what's your lifestyle like?
We are two, we are women and we are related to each other, as we are mother and daughter. Voula, 50, is an environmental scientist and Soti, 32, used to work in advertising! Lifestyle? Yiuco it is!
bags pic source: here and here
It's funny how some trends are pushed from one season to the next up until the fashion crowd is finally accepting (-or not accepting-) to get dressed in the proposed looks. If you are Greek and you're following my articles at Stylista.gr site you must remember my late-July 2010 post dedicated to the turbans trend. For the non-Greeks let me summerize and just say that during the Summer of 2010 around the blogosphere there were obvious signs that the turban trend had returned (Carrie Bradshaw's turban look was one of the most obvious celebrity signs around).
So when I discovered some days ago Italian designer Alessandra Modarelli and her turban collection for SS11 I fell in love with their floral retro aspect all over again! Alessandra started her career as an architect but was always interested in design and fashion. Her love for turbans counts more than 10 years as she designed her first ones back in 2001 because of her need to find new ways of wearing fabrics on her hair. The photoshoot for her new collection makes me instantly grab a piece of fabric and tie it on my hair! A day after my new Italian discovery, I found another really interesting article that can only add to my suspicions that designers are "pushing" the turbans-come-back! As mentioned at the "Coming to America:Prints&Turbans in Contemporary Fashion" article ..."maybe this trend is finally ready to find its way into mainstream fashion as it did in the 1970s with Barbra Streisand’s help, i.e. On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), costumes by Cecil Beaton."pic source: alessandramodarelli.com
Lately Instagram is becoming much of an obsession! I'm too busy with projects and classes during all week but Thank God we do fun things, too like going to the Ferragamo Museum (green pump pic) or paying a visit at the hip Luisa Via Roma boutique (crazy Miss Lanvin ceramic doll pic).
...at least the cafeteria offers the sweetest cappuccino around town between classes and I get to see that amazing Arno view day by day on the way home!
Toi&Moi has found a very clever way to make us anticipate for the upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 collection! Everyday, two or three new lookbook pictures are unveiled at the company's facebook page and as I totally loved today's pictures and clothes, I decided to share them with you!
Don't forget to check Thalia's post about the Toi&Moi 50's skirt that she loved and shared as well as Alecca Rox's post with all the latest info on the SS11 collection and the e-shop!
Finally I found some time this weekend to do "tourist stuff" like visiting Piazzale Michelangelo where you can have a view of the whole city, going for aperitivo or taking pictures of the love padlocks that can be found everywhere near Ponte Vecchio!
The outfits are become more and more lazy so you have to excuse me but as I couldn't bring my entire wardrobe here (obviously!) everyday I'm trying to "invent" a new way of pairing the same clothes! The only new thing I bought while here are these brogues that I got from Zara on sales. I took advantage of the good weather on Saturday and I wore them during the "tourist in my own town" day!
p.s. Florence is also full of funny stickers on traffic signs. Maybe I should dedicate a full post just for them!
Well, I know that many of you expect Florence-inspired posts but the university seems to be a full-time job these days and during weekends I even have more work to do for the week ahead, so basically there's still no time for strolling around the city and finding cool stuff! Thanks the Internet-God though, the past couple of days Greek designers and brands have started presenting their new collections (or even Fall collections like Alexis in the previous post) and I can make a virtual list of what I'll buy when I come back for the Easter holidays!
You won't believe it but as days go by I'm more and more proud of the Fashion that we produce in Greece so please next time you visit Ermou in search of a brand new bag instead of shopping from the usual chains, turn left, head to Plaka and say hello to the new Ippolito collection that Pavlina Papailiopoulou has created for Sping/Summer 2011! The bags above are only some of my favorite and I'm already dreaming of Gina Midi (first bag-first pic)! For more info and the complete collection just click here.
