TheMumpreneur

ELFS

May 15, 2017 Ctra. de Miramar, 38, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

Refreshing Summer florals.

I got this gorgeous floral dress by Croatian fashion brand Elfs for Anabela's christening last Summer. This is not the kind of dress you would wear on a regular basics as it is super rich and festive, made out of great quality material and bright in color. I wore it to a couple of special events and it was always a conversation piece.

For this post we photographed the dress in a gorgeous Terazza Martinez restaurant located close to Montjuic park, high above Barcelona where you can see spectacular panoramic view of the whole city of Barcelona. Bright red color of Aperol Spritz, breezy and blurry from heat Spring day made a perfect backdrop to bright colorful floral Elfs dress.

Such a rich in color and pattern Summer dress does not need a lot of accessory so I generally avoid wearing jewelry with it. This time I accessorized with Gianluca Soldi sandals and my daily Zac Posen handbag in which I carry my whole life on a daily basics. 😃

All photos by Andrina Peric

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The Best of Croatian Designers Spring 2015. Shows.

All photos by Matea Vrčković for www.fashion.hr

Fashion weeks in Croatia started and although I am far from Croatia this year I am trying to follow how design signature of best Croatian designers continues to develop. First out of three fashion weeks in Croatia kicked off with Spring/Summer 15' shows of some of my favorite designers. Spring is my favorite season of the year as the weather is perfect and nature is in full bloom so it always reflects in people's clothing and designers inspiration for their seasonal collections.

Classic Spring blooms and floral prints are reflected in body hugging silhouettes and flower petals like peplums and waves of fabrics in soft form in Envy Room line and a bit harder in fabrication and more structural in Kralj & Krajina's monochrome collection. Envy Room definitely takes best collection of the season award so far for me! They had it all from red carpet dresses to individual pieces which can be beautifully combined to daily office looks & wedding dresses.

Ivica Skoko mixed gold with peachy blooms for more sensual and festive looks with maxi dresses, maxi and a-line knee length skirts in 70's cuts & shapes. My favorite pieces were definitely floaty red, romantic white polka dot dresses.

Although I have been following Elf's work last couple of years and their genius sense for local Croatian market and it's demand for branded party clothing I could never fully relate to the brand myself. So far I purchased only one black wool cape coat from them.

This year, seems like Elfs expanded their collection and with it, their customer demographics targeting not only young party going, logo crazy girls and boys but also a bit older, working, classic and romantic dressing ladies. This year Elf's collection was inspired with Spanish soap-operas and although I never cared to watch this kind of shows I feel like this collection is absolutely on the point with what I would wear and this is not only this Spring but cross seasons! Gorgeous floral prints on silk and cotton are beautifully cut into sun dresses, tight sexy cocktail pieces and laptop cases! Bravo Elfs! You are all grown up!

Bite My Style by Zoran Aragovic brand added a drama to their collection with gorgeous punkish mohawk helmets adorned with white and metallic color pearls. Similarly to Elfs in previous collection although I admired their work I couldn't find a piece for myself in the brand's collections while this season designer gorgeously combined romantic white lace with Spring appropriate floral details with punkish casual cuts.

My favorite pieces in this collection was this deep V lace adorned and open shoulder white dress, super fun backpack and pearl covered nude high waisted pencil skirt.

Aleksandra Dojcinovic stayed true to her romantic signature while playing with 70's colors and Prada like cuts. My favorite Aleksandra's pieces from this collection are bellow.

On a more structural, less romantic, military and architecture inspired side I enjoyed Marina Design's gorgeous military inspired color combos with asymmetrical cuts and sexy zippers.

Hedra Design brand featured loose fitting pieces with architectural pattern cuts and 70's color pallet which came together beautifully into a smart and clean modern women workwear collection.

Kralj & Krajina stayed true to their style and continued the path from their last (and first) collection playing with Celine-ish color pallet and cuts mixing leather with super soft fabrications to create monochrome and simple but impactful futuristic collection.

Which collection was your favorite so far?

XoXo

Croatian designers shopping nights powered by Dreft in Zagreb - report

Ahh what a fabulous night last night my dears!

Last night we had our first shopping nights out event powered by Dreft in Zagreb. The goal was to motivate people to buy Croatian Fashion designers clothing, to support local production, young talent and the local industry and to realize it is not all that expensive, when you look at its quality, ability for personal contact with the designer, having tailor made piece of clothing made just for you and on top always having an original designer to turn to when it comes to alterations.

I was really pleasantly surprised with craftsmanship and original ideas of the most designers I got to see. The 30% reduced prices are (as I hope participating designers realized yesterday) the realistic market prices for their pieces, as at this point they would not be cosidered unrealistically priced although still on the expensive side a bit.

I would say their business would go at least 20% up in volume instantly if they would keep their prices down permanently. The prices of their clothes are definite barrier to even enter their stores to an average consumer.

Also, I was actually impressed with their pleasant, positive and professional personalities, as well as their 'can do' attitude - here I am talking about Alex Dojčinović - who was most popular designer of the night, Ivica Klarić - already experienced designer and very cute, fun but very business savy although a bit immature duo ELFS. :)

It seems like most designers were happy with how much they sold last night, media and celebs were also very interested in all of the fashion fuss behind the event and for the first time around, I think we could say all in all this was a good start! A good shake or slap on the face/kick in the but this industry needed in Croatia.

Some things which could be better - was the preparation of designers, as some did came unprepared to merchandise and display their pieces, not all know how to talk to media and promote themselves and some still are overpricing their pieces to the point that even with the discount their clothes is unrealistically expensive for its quality and complexity. I hope those will wake up ASAP and realize that right now they are not being price competative at all and are pushing real mass customers away with that approach.

Here is what I got & tried on! :)