Posts from the ‘Design Files’ Category

Another Angle

Another pic from the series of shots showing Bento in a new light…

Photographer: Caitlin Jane McColl
Hair/Makeup: Tanya Guiccione, assisted by Daniel Carbone
Model: Anna Furze at Mark Fitzgerald Management
Bento Factor: Hannah silk blouse from AW11 collection

Bento Welcomes… PRINTS!

Rather deliriously excited at this very moment, as I’ve found a local supplier who can produce custom printed fabrics at a really reasonable price with low minimums via Italy. Hooray!

What this means is that you will now start to see some prints dotted about Bento collections. I say ‘some’ and ‘dotted’ because I fundamentally feel that although prints are a lot of fun and add interest to a garment, they do tend to date it. Generally too, they’re not as versatile as a block colour.

That said, a print that is not ‘on trend’ can be timeless. It can also become a signature piece – not only for the label, but for the wearer too.

Our very first print will actually be appearing as a statement piece in our upcoming Spring/Summer 2011-2012 collection. It incorporates all the colours seen across the entire collection.

I’d love to hear about your favourite prints. Everything from something in your wardrobe to a picture in an old photo to a garment you caught a glimpse of as the wearer ran up the stairs at the train station.

Descriptions, photos… I’ll take anything! What’s your favourite print?

Bento Denim

It was a European summer, which somehow felt hotter than an Australian one… more likely I really just wasn’t expecting it, after it being cold enough to wear a leather jacket in London just days earlier.

I had ditched my warm-weather clothes in Singapore for pickup on the return trip, thinking it’d never get hot enough for jeans to be thermally inappropriate in Europe.

Oh, how wrong I was. By the time we got to Milan, it was 35 degrees (celsius!) and I was decked out in dark blue verrrrrrrry skinny jeans. I was sticky, hot and pretty grumpy.

I searched like the dedicated shopper I can be for a pair of cuffed denim shorts. Now if you’re gorgeous, young, tanned and of European descent, you’d do very well shopping for denim in Italy. It’s a sea of tight short denim shorts. For those of us who prefer something of a slightly less spray-on effect and with a little more length, it’s an arid desert.

With Italy behind us, but France ahead and more warm days forecasted, I got desperate. I came to the retrospectively fairly hilarious conclusion that as a bona-fide “fashion designer” I should be able to DIY something.

So, about the Australian equivalent of $40 AUD later, I had a pair of wide-leg Diesel denim jeans courtesy of TK Maxx, a pair of kitchen scissors, also from the aforementioned bargain mecca, a ped-egg* and a complimentary sewing kit from one of the fancier hotels we’d stayed in.

Back at the hotel and to my husband’s amusement, I proceeded to snip the jeans off in varying amounts until I decided the length was right. I then embarked on a journey to the “ironing room” where I permanent-pressed the cuffs of the shorts to the right finish. I then busted out the sewing kit and secured the cuffs. Finally, in the safety of the bathroom, I ped-egged* the cuffs and the waistband to achieve a worn-in effect.

The result… a custom-pair of cuffed denim shorts with the right fit and length I’d wanted.

The Customised Shorts In Action...

Spring-Summer 2011/12 will see these actually launched as part of the Bento collection! So, when you see the final result, now you know where the inspiration came from…

*a ped-egg is like a very fine hand-held grater. It’s meant for your feet, but mine was new so, feet, shorts, whatever…

How Do You Know What To Do?

One of the cool things about leaving a job is that you get to make friends. All these rad people who you used to work with who were once colleagues become friends. Oh, and you don’t have to see the annoying weirdos anymore.

Anyway, a former colleague and now friend sent me a note this week, commenting on how when she first launched her label, Victoria Beckham was criticised by the media for not being a “real” designer because she hadn’t had the proper training. My friend was wondering if I’d been to design school of some sort and how I knew what to do.

Well, here’s the thing. I think designing clothes is like being an artist. You either have talent for it or you don’t. (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I’m in the least bit talented when it comes to fashion design!) Bottom line though is that studying at school may refine your talent and teach you new ways to express it, but it won’t create talent where there was none to begin with. If this were nuclear science or medicine or something, then yes – formal qualifications are essential. But it’s not.

I have studied a little (specifically, a few CAE crash courses and a Diploma in Professional Styling), but I also grew up in a family where making clothes and indeed ‘things’ was the norm. I also harbour a healthy fetish for fashion magazines and have a very specific idea about what I like and don’t. For me, designing a collection is about translating a wisp of a concept a thought or a mood into a tangible, wearable range. They change themselves as they come to life, as fabrics are selected and the patterns are fleshed out.

I see things, people, places and so forth as I travel around and they morph themselves into garments. For example, in the Spring/Summer collection for 2011 – 2012, I’ve designed a maxi wrap dress. The cut of it was inspired by seeing Madame Butterfly at the coliseum in Verona.  

So… for those of you who were interested, now you know. And I do apologise to anyone who thinks I’m not a real designer because of my lack of formal education on the matter. I won’t hold it against you when I’m crazy successful and you want to interview me…

Oh… and to my aforementioned friend Alice – thanks for inspiring a post!

Current No Project tally = 4