Changing trends in corporate uniforms

Tags

apparels, business, clients, colors, corporate wear, fabric, fashion, freelance fashion designer, New York fashion week, pattern, Product design

Corporate uniforms are meant to create a lasting impression outside as well as inside. To brand your business with a corporate label it’s important to create an image which works for both the employees and the public. A corporate uniform instills a sense of loyalty among employees and also boosts the public perception of the quality and reliability of the brand. With that kind of influential power corporate uniforms covey the message you want and that too quietly. There has been a paradigm shift in the corporate wears of the earlier times as compared to now.  Now even the corporate wear focuses on style, since people wear them to office daily.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/DSKZrw
Pretty Uniforms of the 1970’s

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/ZqB121
Scarves were a thing in the 1980’s!

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/i0Nkbp
Air Hostess inn 1990s

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/wESdhb
Hats were so hit earlier!

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/1y0UOX
Earlier uniforms consisted of easy fabrics and patterns

The uniforms not only make the employee feel good but also make him feel proud of the organization that he is working with. This year’s New York Fashion Week brought with it waves of inspiration for corporate to develop their brand apparel. There are a number of new trends that have found their place in the brand apparel program for the corporate organizations.

First is the Custom Caps: Caps were always a unique feature and it’s not a surprise that caps are now getting hotter day and day. Nowadays there are more than one ways to customize these caps for service industries.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/gXUcVJ
Caps!

After caps, the next big thing is the performance clothing.  Performance wear is a functional, multi-purpose wear which has useful properties like anti-bacterial or UV protector. Some sports adventure companies are now trying to make performance clothing, a part of their uniform.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/TwHgvC
Performance clothing

Then the next hit item on the list is Jackets which are popular mainly due to their versatility.  From winters to summers these jackets are the coolest gig on the planet.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/n94L3j
Cool Jackets

Nowadays the corporate dresses are also influenced by the recent fashion trends. Check out these new corporate uniforms for women.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/dlTlH7
Sexy new hits with scarves

Image Courtesy http://goo.gl/0zSqQt
Professional Dresses for men

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/7k4237
Uniforms are the best

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/ythpe5
Corporate Uniforms with various gigs

How do you feel about the change of corporate uniforms from earlier times to now? Chirp in the comments section.

---

Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

---

Growing demand for functional wear garments.

Tags

antibacterial garments, apparels, bio-sensing garments, blog, business, clothing, compression garments, fabric, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, functional wear, garments, pattern, performance clothing, pressure garments, protective clothes, sports functional garments, tech pack

Functional clothing is that evolutionary sphere of the textiles market, when the simple merchandise crosses all boundaries of just being the cover for the body. On the contrary, functional clothing has invaded into the zones of medicine, biotechnology, physics, computing etc. A variety of functional clothing includes protective, medical and sports clothing.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/PYQGYN
Title: Functional wears for breast feeding mom

According to the experts, promoting traditional garments, developing functional wears, reducing the use of toxic chemicals and digging deeper into the arena of functional wears are the four major work fronts of any leading designer label today.

Amongst the new trends, one is of the emergence of performance clothing which has been fueled by latest advancements and breakthroughs. Though originally developed for military purpose, performance clothing is now available for everyone and is also incorporated in sports wears.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/ynJ8Ft
Title: to keep cool

Next is environmental hazard protective clothes that protect the skin from heat rays, acid rains, pollution etc. They are critically designed to protect the skin against the extreme elements of the atmosphere.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/TwHgvC
Title: Performance Wears

Then we have biological, chemical and radiation hazard protective. They protect against indigestion, skin contact to hazardous chemicals, toxic gases and other radioactive particulate matter.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/HpFBgV
Title: Performance clothing

Injury protective, therapeutic and rehabilitative functional wear is another useful dimension where the garments protect from slash, cuts etc. These dresses are pressure garments and they help against lymphatic and venal disorders.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/P30yMW
Title: Protective Wears

Apart from healing, there is another branch called bio-sensing. They monitor the body parameters like heart beat, blood oxygenation, body temperature etc.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/MKvmk5
Bio-sensing garments that checks the heart beat of the wearer

Then of course we have sports functional garments which help in enhancing the performance and shape the body for enhanced appearance.

Then lastly we have apparels for special needs like for elderly, infants and disabled. They are specially made for people with special needs. These innovations in the recent era have changed the role of garments and have made them to be more than just clothes to cover the body.

What do you think about these intelligent innovations? Sound off in the comments section.

All that you need to know about Digital Printing.

Tags

apparels, blog, business, colors, creative, digital printing, dyes, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, garments, print screen, printing techniques, Supriya Ghurye, technology, trends

This era has been the witness of some of the greatest innovation and digital printing is one of them. Also Christina Binkley acknowledged, in the Wall Street Journal by saying that it is allowing designers to innovate while “beefing up their brands”. According to many, digital printing is not just another brand new innovation of the century rather it’s becoming more and more recognizable and indispensable for the fashion world.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/1P0CYG
Title: Digital printing

Director of Operations of the New York and Los Angeles based digital printer First2Print, Danielle Locastro says that the digital printing is enabling creative  young people to get their ideas on the canvas.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/eLUxIZ
Title: Digital Printing

Even today designers are relying on the digital printing technology tools like adobe Photoshop and illustrator. Earlier if an average designer wanted to put any idea on the fabric, then he’d have to go through the large yardage of fabrics and he’d have to meet them up for rotary or flatbed screen painting. But now with the advent of digital printing there is no minimum requisite for yardage of cloth nor do we need flatbed rollers. In contrast digital printing specializes in small runs like three to 300 yard runs.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/4JMgR4
Title: Saves resources too

There are actually two types of people who are interested in the new and advanced digital printing and who will actually be benefit from it, first being the major design company who needs to produce a prototypes and second being the average designer for the economic and other obvious reasons. Since digital printing works in a whoosh so it is really less tedious and lesser time consuming to produce merchandise in any required quantities.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/I8Tzsq
Title: Flattering looks

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/I6GQ1n
Title: Flashy and attractive prints

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/q0cciL
Title: Couture printing

The other major benefactor from this novel painting technique is the new or high-end couture designers and companies mainly because digital fabric printing is possible for short production run . So the products that fit into this category are posh and high end and that’s where a major explosion in the fashion world can be seen, says Locastro.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/Vw4c8f
Title: Colorful vests

What do you think about the rising status of digital printing? Is it a yay or nay for you? Do tell me in the comments section.

Little Black Dress (LBD)

Tags

apparels, business, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, LBD, little black dress

The duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson had once expressed her love for the little black dress saying ”When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place”.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/ijCTHP
Some trends never fade

The first image that flashes in our minds when we think of the term Little Black Dress is a cute knee length dress or maybe shorter of this sultry color.  If is this what you are thinking, then I can assure you that your imagination is not far off. LBD is a staple dress worn on the occasion of cocktail parties or small informal gatherings. These small and simple cut dresses are known to carry the grace even in the 1920’s by the designs of Coco Chanel and Jean Pator.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/bPyT1R
Wallis Simpson in LBD

This trend was so ubiquitous that it even got referred by its initials LBD.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/h973tE
Chanel’s dress in the early times

Always considered a wardrobe essential by women, fashion experts also say if a woman owns a simple back dress then almost 60 percent of her dressing needs are met. If you want to dress sober for some occasion then match your black dress with elegant black heels or maybe boots. Open your hair and use a natural lipstick. And if you want to dress-up very sexy then wear the same dress but this time put your hair in a bun, wear red or golden pumps, matching earring and  the most important, a cherry red lipstick and you are all set to set the floor on fire.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/nmMizR
LDB In trend, always

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/EaFPGs
Look 2

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/duJx5e
Sober looks-look1

Earlier LBD’s were reserved only for funeral purpose but now there are some immensely popular LBD’s worn by equally popular women like the black Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn, the cartoon character Betty Boop which though due to Technicolor became red.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/TLbjH1 Betty Boop in LBD

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/dF6vwN Miley Cyrus in LBD

Image Courtesy http://goo.gl/kmuH6y
Girl Next Door look

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/vkGSlD
LBDs in display

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/0PcU66
Raunchy Look 2

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/eNiIP9
Audrey Hepburn in LBD

What are your thoughts on the cute black dress? Tell me in the comments section.

Innovation in fashion industry processes : Smart Tailoring

Tags

apparels, blog, business, colors, consumption, creative, fabric, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, leadtime, pattern, patterns, Siddhartha Upadhyaya, Smart, Supriya Ghurye, tailoring

For a very long time designers are trying to add new and green innovative elements to lure the customers. They are  also looking  to join the organic revolution taken up so fanatically by the fashion industry in large scale. Recently we were introduced with a concept which recycled milk and coffee beans and dairy products to produce fabrics. Now this new trend known as Direct Panel on Loom technology or smart tailoring is gaining its ground.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/0ocraf
Smart Tailoring-Eco friendly way to look good

Smart Tailoring to look fabulous as well
Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/JEd56a

Although Smart Tailoring is a not a new trend to the world as it was created earlier by an Indian designer Siddhartha Upadhyaya to increase the efficiency of fabric by as much as 15%.  Also the lead-time, which is the time taken to manufacture an article including queue time, set-up, time run time etc is reduced by at least 50%. This factor has considerably increased the allure of this newly innovated technology as more garments can be produced which equals to profit for the producers.

Saving time, Saving money
Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/KoFPzl

It’s for this reason that this technique has become so popular that it out shined every other brain-stormed technique on the ramp of the recent held London Fashion Week.

Smart Tailoring on the runways
Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/Nq8gZx

Smart Tailoring attracting everyone
Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/JhFTss

When a loom is attached to a computer then the data such as its color, pattern or size gets registered into the computer on its own. After entering the information the loom does the math and estimates the exact number of pieces needed. Then rest of the work like weaving, fabric cutting and pattering can be done in a considerably lesser time. Not only does this method save energy by as much as 70-80 percent but it also reduces immense amount of waste.

That’s the reason the fashion world is so much in love with this new trend. What is your opinion? Will this be hot or not? Sound off in the comments section.

---

Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

---

 

My favorite fashion designer : Manish Arora

Tags

Amrapali, apparels, blog, business, colors, concepts, creative, fabric, fashion designers, Fish Fry, freelance fashion designer, Indian fashion, London Fashion Week, Manish Arora, Paco Rabanne, Paris Fashion Week, PFW, trends

Manish Arora, is not someone who needs introduction in Indian or international ramp. He is cherished for his colorful and sparkling designs. Often called the Man with a mission to bring out the traditional Indian prints into the mainstream fashion Industry. Sometimes he impresses his viewers with kaleidoscopic patterns, sometime with beads but the one thing that is common in all his designs is that he does not like to restrain himself to the ordeal. Manish Arora grew to fame in 1997 when he launched his signature label with his name. He slowly started unraveling the true India at the ramp where his intelligent use of colors and traditional prints created his own personal identity.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/k473jW
Manish Arora Signature style

Later he showcased his collection at the first India Fashion week and Hong Kong Fashion Week and showed his athletic appeal of colors and hues to the world. I personally love him for his wild portrayal of haute couture which along with the make-up gives an overall dramatic effect. He has his ways with colors and patterns and uses them to his advantage.

Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/TRQKEl
Haute Couture for everyone

Later he started his another label with Reebok, MAC and Swatch called “Fish Fry” which, like its name cashed the authentic Indian colors.  Manish Arora being known for his unrestraint paintbrush, this time with “Fish Fry” became more colorful and gave confirmation to his style. He gave more loud and raunchy collection which carries his statement of classy with sassy.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/pzZuZU
“Fish Fry”

His playful attitude with colors and his keen vision of experimenting has made him not only my favorite but also of Spanish fashion house Paco Rabanne’ who hired him as its creative head. But after leaving it, Arora was kidnapped by Amrapali in 2012 to launch their jewelry line called India Enchanted. In August 2013 Manish Arora trotted into the coveted line of Indian bridal dresses.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/LcHgol
Manish Arora Bridal Collection

Check out few looks from Manish Arora’s Spring Summer 2014 collection.

Look from Manish Arora’s SS’14 collection.
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/vPQDVJ

Look from Manish Arora’s SS’14 collection.
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/oR1tmQ

Look from Manish Arora’s SS’14 collection.
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/uXsGCt

Look from Manish Arora’s SS’14 collection.
Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/WPDB8c

What is your most favorite element of Manish Arora’s style? Tell me in the comments section.

The upcoming fashion destination – North America

Tags

apparels, blog, business, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, Milan, new fashion destination, New York, north America, Paris, pattern, tech pack, upcoming fashion, victoria's secret

Fashion had always seen its morning in Paris and evening in Milan. Between these two fashion centrals “The New fashion Destinations – North America has emerged. North America might sounds new today among Paris, Milan and New York but it has not been a newbie always. North America was introduced to fashion when English settlers came to settle in there. At the same time the ‘new people’ adopted many Native American dresses and since then innovations continued with the dressing sense. And with the changing times, nineteenth century saw revolutions in apparel designs. With the change in attitude, the designers started digging inside the native traditions of America, Africa, and India etc to blaze the ramp.

Beautiful dresses by the natives of North America
Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/q8Igrr

The native patterns of the North American are now very wisely used by the fashion designers all over the world. Vibrancy and colors are always welcomed on the ramp and so were these new designs.

Beautiful dress designed with the native patterns and prints.
Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/AwtFT8

Innovation bloomed and people started experimenting with the patterns. In this process while some got criticized others were widely appreciated due to the smell of freshness in these designs. Through renovations we have come across many new designers who have created a mark due to the change in the typical type set designs

Mixing both ends of fashion
Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/Y0Zirr

Earlier designers were digging with creativity to search for new designs but now native North America is the new Mecca. From controversy to style, there is nothing that is stopping the designers to bring in more native trends to their palette.

Victoria’s secret model
Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/LQgMqr

Little creativity can do wonders!
Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/iXOCwZ

 What do you think about this dough of North and South America?

A new beginning…

Tags

active sportswear, business, clients, concepts, creative, freelance fashion designer, style, Supriya Ghurye, trends

Welcome fashion aspirants and industry watchers to the Fuel4Fashion blog. Fuel4Fashion as an entity is nearly four years old, but my fashion industry journey began over a decade ago. In the period, the experiences and opportunities that came my way have helped shape Fuel4Fashion into the independent fashion design entity that it is today. The journey ahead is in many ways more exciting and challenging, and this blog will help me document the way Fuel4Fashion evolves within the international fashion design ecology.

Starting with a single client in November 2009, Fuel4Fashion today caters to an increasing number of clients looking for a freelance fashion designer and fashion industry consulting and advice. Clients span a number of segments from mainstream casualwear for men and women to active sportswear, maternity clothing and even ethnic designs with contemporary flavours from across the world. All these inputs have helped shape design thinking and the design process at Fuel4Fashion. In the coming posts, I will try to document the journey of fashion from the past unto the future and how it evolves as time goes by.

It is my ardent wish that the thoughts and ideas that guide my fashion thinking be of use to all of you in expanding your knowledge of this uniquely creative world. We begin with a brief history of fashion starting from the 1920s and going forward into the future. So do keep an eye out for the next post. Cheers!