Gorgeous, creative and with business sense seems to be a wining combination for a very talented Croatian fashion designer Alex Dojčinović and her fashion brand Lei.Lou.
Alex Dojcinovic is young entrepreneur and fashion designer from Croatia. She participated in 2007 Wella Fashion Week in Zagreb and won the public vote for "Best of Fashion Show Award" for both Spring and Fall collections.
After a couple of independent fashion shows this year was her comeback on a fashion scene and she participated in Fashion.hr fashion event.
Alex opened her own fashion company in 2008 called Lei.Lou. and also worked for the well known companies as P&G, GM, Audi,Honda, Peugeot, Tele2.
After a couple of independent fashion shows this year was her comeback on a fashion scene and she participated in Fashion.hr fashion event.
Alex opened her own fashion company in 2008 called Lei.Lou. and also worked for the well known companies as P&G, GM, Audi,Honda, Peugeot, Tele2.
Her success is based on her ability to adjust to the specific wishes of the various companies in an artistically intelligent and financially successful manner. Her fashion insight and dedication to the business are major reasons for her success. Alex's fashion drawings are also used as examples in the fashion school text books.
What I like the most is the romantic feel, lightness, beautiful color pallet she uses and gorgeous great quality materials which are also wrinkle free and suitable for working women. Many her dresses have the ability to be worn in multiple ways which is highly economical and are not hard to maintain.
One of her major success was the Drake Hotel Fashion Show in Chicago in 2008 and 2009.
A couple of Chicago boutiques recognized her talend and are now selling her designs.
You can see Lei.Lou. multi functional dress which can be worn in 9 different ways. As Alex's customer and a close friends I can personally vouch for the quality of her sawing - her dresses are sown in a way that you can even wear them inside out if needed :)
The above multi-functional garments as above you can purchase on the Private Sale ones a month - its first comes, first served basics, so go and get your fabulous morning to night multi season dress by Lei.Lou.
Lei.Lou. fashion show for S/S 2010. you can see here.
For the F/W 2010. Season Alex also had a successful collection. She incorporated romantic French feel fabricated in silk mixtures, fur and satin all in gentle powder tones, models had minimal natural make up, their hair was pulled back in a tight buns and they had lyrics tattooed on the outside of their lower arms. Jewelry and purses are also designed by Alex and branded with new Lei.Lou. logo.
My top pics are bellow. The show collection is sold out or reserved to be sold. I am planning to buy a pale pink Jumper from Alex and this beautiful skirt bellow left.
What I like the most about Alex is that she understands that although unique, fashion forward and artistic the clothes she creates must be wearable and sellable. She is creating a brand name for herself and understands the industry together with current economic and geographic situation she is in - the keywords of the year are adaptability/flexibility and sensing the needs of the consumers.
Lei.Lou. has the whole team of people supporting the brand: seamstresses, PR person, lawyer, models who favor her, celebrities and a capable business person and a creative designer - it is a power team which guarantees success.
Buyers and boutique owners - here is your chance to support a young star who's designs guarantee sales.
I am looking forward to see Lei.Lou. grow as a brand! Wish you all the best Alex!
Xoxo,
Kat
“We tell young designers that you need to believe in what you've made. You put all your love and passion into it and if you are good your dream will come true.”
~Stefano Gabbana ~
Goodbye to the time of plastic nails, under the chin pushed up boobs, stick-on eyelashes, blond straightened hair, spray tanning and tons of make up - soooo passé!
Hello to the natural wavy hair, pastel color nail polishes, natural make up tones, nipples showing on T-shirts, soft blazers and boyfriends jeans with your favorite Manolo's! Show of your natural beauty and let your personality and your brains shine threw! Geeks are sexy!
How sexy?! So fuckin' sexy they designed they own brand of jeans called - WTFJeans.
Sanja & Peđa are two computer nerds (Serbian born living in France) who really like their iPhone's safe and handy and really wanted a comfy pair of jeans to wear while doing what geeks do.
Being smart, not only they designed a dream jeans for geeks but also managed to create brand for themselves and make money - all with their laptops in their laps & their iPhones in their hands.
Sexy geek essentials:
Short sleeve t-shirt, $420
Day Spring Suit Blazer by Day Birger et Mikkelsen, 200 GBP
Elizabeth and James Mason at Zappos.com, $355
Authentic Chanel Pink Salmon Raw Silk
Double Flap : MALLERIES
Miss Dior Cherie
WTF Jeans 79 EDay Spring Suit Blazer by Day Birger et Mikkelsen, 200 GBP
Elizabeth and James Mason at Zappos.com, $355
Authentic Chanel Pink Salmon Raw Silk
Double Flap : MALLERIES
Miss Dior Cherie
WTF Jeans - is a brand of Jeans completely created virtually. With help of their Twitter friends the pair has decided on the best suited name What The Fuck Jeans. They found a local designer in Serbia, gave her the specific instructions on design and made a simple website.
Limited edition of WTF jeans (100 pieces) to be delivered to the orderer's addresses within a month has virtually vanished due to the buzz that has been created around it in social media: Twitter, Facebook & YouTube alone.
So much so, that they faced numerous technical difficulties due to vast number of orders that arrived within just couple of days from website going live.The whole process from idea about the need for such jeans to the first orders has been recorded and published on above listed social media networks.
What's so special about them?
WTF jeans have a special pocket compatible for iPhone. Within the pocket the designers have inserted microfiber lining so not only your iPhone is safe and easily accessible in your pocket but it also gets cleaned. The other fabulously geeky thing about them is the Twitter blue color of the tread they are sewn with and for the boys there is some extra room and padding to keep their package cozy on the right side - as 90% men do :)
For women, the next best thing would be to make a virtual dressing room - so I can actually see how the WTF's will fit around my bum and decide. Or the sizes could be more elaborate - and explained in details in cm's so I can be sure they will fit perfectly, but I am sure the geek squad will sort that part out as well! Can't wait to order me a pair!
As Peeches Gerdof said in her article in Nylon magazine "In the end, most of us just seem to want someone who can be self-depreciating-someone who knows his shit and isn't hiding behind a cliched macho front. Nerds are the lovable mavericks of an overbearingly masculine society that is driven by old-fashioned ideals. These Dungeon & Dragons-loving, Einstein-quoting, chunky spectacles-wearing guys are the true catches."
Xoxo,
Kat
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CROATIAN CULTURE
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Not being trendy, not wearing a branded clothes for all to see (with brand logos on most visible places - on ones forehead if needed) and not following such events is like not being registered on Facebook - you practically do not exist.
Most mainstream people do not resist being part of this stereotype, peer pressure seems to be way to strong...ahhh...but some do, and they are more fabulous than any New York trendy kids, because they have to be twice as much creative (with financial situation as it is and weak local fashion industry) to show off their full potential.
FASHION EVENTS
Zagreb as the capital of the country hosts three big ones: Dove fashion.hr, Nivea Cro A Porter and Dreft Fashion Week Zagreb. All are sponsored by three leading skin and beauty care/home goods companies: Beiersdorf (Nivea), Unilever (Dove) and Procter & Gamble (Dreft).
While only the last - Dreft Fashion Week is licensed fashion week for Croatia and has the longest tradition of the three, competition and quality between the main three differs year in and year out.
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There are also a few other new and up coming fashion events in other cities : Modni ormar in Zagreb also, Fashion Inkubator in Osijek, Split City fashion in Split and Dubrovnik Fashion Week in Dubrovnik.
The coastal ones seem to be a good tourist attractions, while Modni Ormar and Fashion Incubator are a bit less commercial and more design focused (launching many young designers) - which is great for creativity but not as good for their sale potential and media coverage.FASHION DESIGNERS
CELEBRITIES
So it happens that we continue to see the same faces in front rows over and over again, all to show and self promote - none to buy, we continue to see same designers many of who continue to copy their international counterparts and their recently shown collections. Media seems to look for sensations and yellow press is blooming while not much is written on design and fashion itself.
THE ORGANIZERS
It seems like most of the organizers have the : "take the money and run" mentality.
Not many of these event's websites other than Dove Fashion.hr which has a really well organized fashion portal: fashion.hr are maintained and running throughout the year.
In addition, impression is that organizations are mostly done last minute and collection selection is not done thoroughly enough, which results in overall poor quality.
This is due to the fact that all of the sides are very much polarized, there is a lack of cooperation, fair play and mutual support for well being and development of fashion in Croatia.
THE FASHION EDITORS
The editors of fashion media in Croatia are not attending these events at all due to the quantity over quality ratio, or attending some of the events and reporting on them based on personal friendships and clan separations. Many in fact are rather copying already written reports from the international editions of their respective magazines that putting an effort and helping to develop local talents.
Your readership and sales are skyrocketing downwards! Don't you think its time to step down from your editor's throne, stop writing about super expensive pieces most of which your average reader can't afford to buy or cannot find in local boutiques and start to support local talent and do something to wake up or even create fashion industry locally all while supporting local economy rather than copy pasting international fashions?
Take the idea from US Vogue's Ana Wintour who organized "Fashion's night out" to give a necessary boost to fashion industry, to excite people about fashion and motivate them to shop again.
There is a noticeable lack of direction and long term vision. Collections are created, events are organized, if collections are any good - some pieces are sold within couple of weeks/months and than there is struggle to make it until the next fashion event. Local buyers, showrooms and Croatian designer boutiques are rare to none existent.
So lets revise, shall we?
Objective: to create/strengthen Croatian fashion industry and exploit existing creative potential.
- Who: designers & models/event organizers/fashion editors & celebrities/boutique owners & buyers
- What: Fabulous original fashion pieces! - made in Croatia
- When: A season ahead
- To whome: fashion conscious Croatian people/public!
- The goal: To sell! Sell! Sell!
To summarize all the above, seems like the best thing would be to create one central event and combine the vast creative talent to one place - let the most creative and most competent ones prevail to build the Croatian fashion industry which very much needs a kick in the butt!
The key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes.. the clothes we make for the runway.. aren't concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them.
~Ralph Lauren~
Xoxo,
Kat
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This time I am announcing this event ahead of time, so you can go there sometime tomorrow and get a feel of this unique cafe fashion showroom! I hope you like it! See ya all there!
Next,one of the young and up and coming Croatian designers Igor Galaš won a award for an iD emerging designer in Dunedin, New Zealand. By winning this award Igor got the invite to prestigious Mittelmoda contest in Milan expected to start at the beginning of April.
Igor will also participate at Dove fashion.hr Croatian fashion event where he will present his Fall 2010. Collection.
This was the first time he entered this competition and he won! Igor's collection is full of hand made wollen pieces, it took him a week to knit each of the garments. They are soft and voluminous yet wearable, floaty and impeccably designed.
Bellow you can see the winning collection:
"Galas' range consisted of woollen headgear with long woven dreadlocks hanging almost to the ground, and ruched backs, similar to dinosaur ridges.
Many of the ranges were reminiscent of the 80s, with pipe-leg pants, exaggerated shoulder pads, jodhpur pants, riding boots and lots of black and white.
Neutral colours were also prominent, with the exception of several fluorescent red and pink mini dresses.
There was greater diversity of individual garments and designers showed a lot of creativity, using buttons, can tear-tabs, curtain rings and doilies."
I am excited to see more of Igor's work soon!
"My weakness ... is architecture. I think of my work as ephemeral architecture, dedicated to the beauty of the female body."
~Christian Dior~
Xoxo,
Kat
Yesterday I traveled to Split for a press conference for one of the charity projects my company closed with handing over the purchased donations to different child care institutions. The event was held in local orphanage where we used the donation money to build little playing houses on their playground - this is what kids requested at the start of this campaign.
Children prepared a surprise theater play for my company, our client donors and the media - I was surprised how professional and dedicated they were in acting, the message they were trying to send with their performance was that material things are not what they need the most - mothers love, hug, kiss, kind word, human touch and some one-on-one attention is what they were craving for. The play was really emotional for us all, company directors, looking serious in their suits were visibly shaken by kids performance.
The catering was served and kids were shy to eat, they were just kind of walking around checking us all out. While directors were giving statements to media, I sat down to check gazillion messages on my phone received during the play. My pink iPhone cover attracted the little girl -Ana Marija. She asked me to see the phone, she tapped on it couple of times and found the game of dress ups on it. In first couple of minutes she broke my record (and she was 9, which was kind of depressing for me). I could notice the lack of trust towards people in her eyes. I asked her if she would like me to bring her something to eat, she nodded - no.
My motherly instinct kicked in, so I went to get a plate and put together some protein, veggies and carbs - a spoon full of each and offered it to her. She eyed me suspiciously and asked me to restart the game for her - I said I will if she eats something, so she did.
Seconds later a boy - Ivica ( skinny, dark hair, blue eyed 6 grader) approached me and asked me what's my name. I introduced myself. He asked if I am a singer, am I from Zagreb, how old I am and if I have a boyfriend. I said I am not a singer and laughed ( I though to myself - trust me hon, you do not want to hear me sing). I said I was 25 and he smiled and said - OK, thats just 12 years difference :) He said he played basketball and that he would love at least for once in his life visit Zagreb. Ivica sat down couple of chairs away and kept coming back next to me once he though of a new question to ask me.
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In less than an hour I totally fell in love with these kids. When I was leaving Ana Marija was crying, she gave me a hug and shoot me with disappointed look. Ivica played it cool and quietly walked upstairs where their bedrooms are. I walked out to make some final arrangements with the agency and the media. As I was walking towards the car, somebody called my name - I looked up and Ivica was waiving through the window. A foot beneath him Ana Marija sticked her little pink nose from crying and her little two palms to the window glass.
This pushed me over the edge. I was crying during the whole trip home like a baby, as I remembered some recent personal challenges and a painful breakup.
"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller,
home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
As one of my new years resolution was to get reacquainted and reintroduced with my hometown - Zagreb, as a young adult who traveled a lot, lived overseas "got to know the world" and finally came back home - semi-matured. I decided to be proactive and I started working on it. This way I can for once check off something on my new years resolution list (FYI - going to the gym daily is still on, keep your fingers crossed for me to continue and I shall be the tight butt bomb this summer on the beach - unless mum's evilly good cooking prevails).
Once my iPhone "used to think its cool, now annoying" melody rang - Wakeeeee upppppp!!!Why wontttt youuuu waaaaake upppp!!! I jumped out of the bed, opened the window to see that it is super sunny outside and the huge amount of snow that fell during last few days is finally melting.
I called a friend and we decided to hit the Zagreb's Saturday morning "wanna be seen and photographed in my best clothes" rush hour, and explore the city to find a café we haven't been in yet. First I went to get the British Vogue's March edition with fabulous Alexa Chung on the cover wearing all Ralph Lauren Spring 2010 RTW ( notice the fabulous beaded denim jeans bellow).
The most beautiful part you can see bellow my dears....
Thats right darlings...these are not Bergdorf Goodman Christmas edition windows your are looking at, in the NYC. Ouu noooo, these are windows of the Café de Flores - in the tiny street in Zagreb.
Here you can buy the most elite French perfumes or scented candles and have a warm home brewed coffee with cream in a heart shape and soft fresh cookie on a side, served by a cute waiter, all in an artistic and luxurious yet small and intimate environment while you are reading a March edition of British Vogue in a good company. Ahh...splendid Saturday morning....
Whats up New York? You better step it up!
Xoxo,
Kat
So many things happened since past September, yet it feels like it was just yesterday. I still feel the excitment of the fashion buzz surounding the Bryant Park during the last couple of days before the opening night, the adrenalin rush from my fifth cup of 100 cal Caffe Misto, the shooting pain coming from the tip of my toes after wearing the nude color stilettoes all day and the cold autumn breeze on my bear arms and legs.
This vivid memory evokes two completely different emotions in me. The rush and the energy the streets of the City give you which just make you want to continuously move and never stop - which I loved. Other is the emptiness and hopeless feeling of never working hard enough and the question of purpose of it all - this feeling came after I realized that even the rush giving New York in all of its fabulousness cannot cure the broken heart.
This year I am able to still be in the center of it all while still on safe emotional distance and no fear of getting hurt. Many of the shows will be broadcasted live through livestraming so go on ladies prepare some fat free cupcakes, invite your girlfriends and give yourself a nice recession friendly gift of luxury and watch NY Fashion Week shows from the best seat possible - your comfy chair at home. Check out the complete schedule of shows live straming here.
This year is the last time New York Fashion Week (2/11 -02/18) is organized in Bryant Parks tent, from next season its new home is going to be Lincoln Center. Due to the way designers are following new technologies (Ex.Alex McQueen started last season) and utilizing new ways of showing their collections, Lincoln Centar is indeed more suitable location.
I am really looking forward to see all of the shows. For fabulous minute to minute coverage be in the front row daily.
At the end I leave you with words of mama Fashion herself:
"Bryant Park became the beacon of what New York fashion stands for - an industry that's fearless, tireless, and always moving forward."
~Anna Wintour~
xoxo,
Kat
Last couple of days I have been hungrier than usual and due to lack of time, lack of culinary talent and some other excuses I can make on spot, I have started to eat out more and used this opportunity to socialize more with my friends who I have neglected much since I joined the new company.
Since I moved back to Croatia I have been slowly but surely nesting in Zagreb and I tried to find ways to enjoy my city as a different person I am now versus a little girl I was when I left.
When I left to study and to live in US I have grown and matured a lot, my interests changed and while I was away Zagreb has grown and matured as well. He changed. Currently we are trying to develop a brand new relationship, more serious one than before. I think I have started to fall for him all over again, this time I think it might be for life.
Last week my friends Tomislav and Matija and his girlfriend went for a dinner at the city center to fancy Italian restaurant called Stefano located in the historic palace from the beginning of 20ct. the atmosphere was warm and intimate and the service was helpful but discreet.
Other than amazing wine and buffalo stake my male friends loved, I enjoyed a smoked octopus salad with parmesan cheese and ricola and home made bread, I also loved panna cotta with berries I had for dessert. I definitely recommend it for first dates, to all the guys who want to impress the girls with amazing food and still would like to get to know her better and chat in this intimate environment.
Couple of days earlier when I went for a girls night out of dancing with two of my very close friends and before which I stopped by for a huge nutella, coconut and cherries crape they make on the street corners in a cute little window service restaurants.
We went for a late night sandwich at the very well known sandwich bar called Pingvin, it is located at one of the theatre's entrances and after a great night of dancing in clubs everybody rushes their for an amazing sandwich, they are all made fresh on the spot. My favorite one was a grilled vegetable sandwich in a pocket like bread which the fill with grilled veggies, tartar sauce and fresh salad.
A week before that when planning this fashion project I am working on, the organizer took me to great Japanese restaurant called Takenoko. As I am very familiar with Japanese food having Japanese roommates during college, I think I can freely say their Misoshiro soup and tofu wok were great. I definitely recommend it for business lunches/dinners.
Another great place I was absolutely delighted with was Hellas. A friend took me there to cheer me up and he definitely did, we had so much fun as this place as people who work in Hellas are full of positive energy and very pleasant, we ate a lot and stayed there talking for hours.
Hellas is an authentic Greek restaurant located close to the old church, where there is always a lot of people, atmosphere is fantastic and the food is amazing, the place is decorated to look very authentic and it takes you straight to Greece, there is an open fireplace in the wine basement and two more floors of the restaurant area. I absolutely adore their Kokino soup, an amazing home made bread with olives, Roca Tiri salad and of course their Baklava.
I leave you with the picture of some dishes:
Bon appetit! :)xoxo,
Kat
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