itsdesignrelated » Brand

Madonna X LV F/W 09-10

melissa — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:59:47 +0000

photo courtesy of PopCrunch

The September issue is probably the most important issue of the year for fashion magazines since it features everything that is coming up for the Fall. The September issue is packed with great ads & the one ad that I cannot help but stop and pause every time I come across it is Madonna’s Louis Vuitton F/W 2009-10 Ad campaigns.

She looks absolutely gorgeous, probably the best I’ve ever seen her, and absolutely, without a doubt, the people at LV have airbrushed the life out of her. But whatevs, she looks good.

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Mataano interviews with itsdesignrelated.com

courtney — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:40:15 +0000

iDR has had the pleasure to interview Mataano. When I first heard about them is through a friend of mine. Apparently they’ve been on Oprah…Oprah you say? We’re all over it! I had so many questions and honestly I wanted to sit and chat with them, however, they are on the east coast. You can see why they and their brand Mataano was featured on Oprah. Their global mind and vision is inspiring as well as their passion and strive for the fashion industry. Best of all they’re chicks just like us, making it work! Check out their collection online, click here and read on.

First off tell us a bit about how Mataano came about?
While we were growing up in Somalia, we were always aware the fashion of very beautiful women who wore dazzling, colorful dresses. When we moved to Virginia, at 9 years old, we got exposed to a more contemporary style of fashion, especially through the magazines and books our mother gave us to read in order to learn English more quickly. At that point, we didn’t realize that our love for fashion could equate to a career. So, we went to college to earn solid, dependable degrees. And then we moved to New York, for the pursuit of our dream.

I see the two of you have had internships at Jill Stuart and Betsey Johnson. Tell us a bit of what you learned and how you’ve leveraged that into your own company now.
Our internships let to jobs. The best way to learn any craft is to immerse yourself in it. Working in the field of fashion gave us the building blocks to accomplish our goals.

Fall 2009 Collection

How has working in online marketing given you an edge on marketing your own line?
Yes, definitely. E-marketing has given us the opportunity to increase sales and access new markets across the globe.

Working with your sister…good or bad? Annoying or great? I mean after a long day at work, do you guys still hang out after? Has your relationship changed, if so in what way? Give us the dish!
Working together is great. We grew up together. We shared a crib, a room, a car. Now we live and work together. Trust me, when you share a womb with somebody, you learn quickly how to get a long. That being said, we do have the occasional argument and when we do, we give each other space.

Looking at the photos, I see a lot of ethnically diverse women? Is that intentional? If so why?
We hire models that represent the multicultural world we live in.

all photos courtesy of Mataano

What is your creative process like? If we were to step into your studio what would we expect to go through to get the end product?
There are different phases to the design process. There is the design phase, the fabric and color phase and the final phase would be development of samples. So if you were to come to our design studio, you would find fabric, trim, vintage clothes, art, proto samples, a pattern maker, and a sewer. There would also be people coming and going – friends or stylists or our PR rep.

With rich Somali roots and living in NY, does the cultures influence your pieces in a more technical perspective such as relooking at the function of a dress in two different cultures?
We would have to say that color and attitude is derived from our Somali roots, but the cut and silhouette of the dresses are western. We will eventually try and experiment with Somali dress silhouettes.

Your pieces are lovely, how is the line responding to the economy? Do you see repositioning your price point, or changing materials?
The economy is not great. However, we are happy with the response we have gotten. We are positioning ourselves for slow but steady growth. It’s good to remain cautiously optimistic.

Also in the long run, how do you see the fashion industry changing as a whole in response to the financial climate?
It will weed out a lot of mediocre labels. There will be more room for new designers.

What do you love about the Fashion Industry? Is there anything about the industry you cant stand?
We love the fashion industry because we have the opportunity to express ourselves through clothing. Dressing is like decorating your body; we have the privilege to decorate bodies. However, it is important to realize that it’s just clothes. Sometimes people take it too seriously!

What should we expect in the future for Mataano?
Growth, Ecommerce, and an accessory line

Special thanks to Idyll and Ayaan for collaborating with us on this piece. We can’t wait to see more!

Winter Kate A Winter Kate jacket layered over a camisole and vest...

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Imperium’s launch at Invisible Stripes this Sunday in SF

courtney — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:45:06 +0000

With brands hanging on a thread, one new brand emerges. IMPRM a new lifestyle brand built by 5 different individuals with a common goal aligned, success. Our hustle, trials, and struggles, shape our brand and build our account of fashion through each untold story now being interpreted through art and our lifestyles.

2-8p IMPRM Launch
1800 San Jose Ave
San Francisco, CA 94112-2443

LIFE | LIBERTY | WEIGHT | IMPRM.COM

ReCap of the Sundance Channel series, “The Day Before.” launch Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (Proenza Schouler), Nathalie Rykiel (Sonia...
Jake & Dinos Chapman’s £5 notes for AnOther Magazine AnOther Magazine’s new Decade In Style issue is available one...

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Adam Haynes

michael — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:16:40 +0000

One more dope illustrator for you guys today. Adam has done work for a variety of clients including Nike, Adidas and Transworld. Check it out.

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Made Jewelry’s event MADE IN THE BAY ReCap

courtney — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:14:34 +0000

Made Jewelry: Debbie and Abbigail

The crowd

Eko (kodverville) and Justin (Imperium)

What a fun event, iDR was just lucky to help sponsor this event. A lot of people came out and supported Made Jewelry. This party was their 1 year anniversary party..congrats! These girls do an awesome job hand crafting their pieces and doing fun events such as the recent. Shouts out to Fred at Suckafreeze for working so hard! Our pics should be up shortly, thats if I can find my usb cord…blah!

WTFun for Funds event in SF tomorrow night! Come out and shop, eat, and drink for a good...

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Black Scale Pop Up Store Opening ReCap

courtney — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:40:44 +0000

they passed out the mini red velvet cupcakes i made

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The Official Black Scale Opening Day Party

courtney — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:00:32 +0000

If you haven’t heard of the brand BLVK SCVLE you are probably on another planet. Bay Area design duo Mega and Alfred are proud to announce their first pop up store in San Francisco. In years time, they’ve created more than t-shirts. They’ve crafted a brand that has become a lifestyle. It is not your typical t-shirt graphic print in this over saturated industry called “streetwear”. More so, a highly strategic and conceptual story line that is the backbone of the the brand. Think Picasso or Cezanne on a really baaaad day where their thoughts of religion, conformity, and symbols are questioned. Congrats to them, we can’t wait whats in store….literally.

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In the Pressroom Interview: Fermentiattivi, an italian creative duo!

courtney — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:00:23 +0000

Fermentiattivi is an independent label, born, more or less, one year ago. Fermentiattivi’s best describes themselves as: We are an art director and a graphic designer, we’ve known each other for some years and we decided to create something together. We decided to create something completely new and unique, independent from classical advertising, right to express our creativy without limits.

How did your company start out? What was the original concept?
Working for customers in advertising you realize they often don’t use to letting you express completely your ideas.

Fermentiattivi project has been developed during our friendship and our work, always performed with passion and care. So, one day we decided to join our energies and inject them into our whole creativity, making our minimal and straight web site.

We find creativity in everything around us, like things of everyday life (collection Homesweethome), like our organs (exalted from old latin wise men), or like lovely pets (living on your t-shirt). And the collections won’t stop here….

Seeing that you’re in Italy, why would you want to reach consumers in the United States?
We would love to let American people know about our creativity because we think they have a feeling for changes and they could appreciate two European creatives.

American fashion vs. Italian fashion? You’re thoughts?
Not really a “match” but a meeting between two different cultures, two ways of thinking, two life-styles.

What do you think are the differences in attitude in a American girl and Italian girl?
Our target are young people usually curious and interested in new things and changes. It doesn’t matter where they come from, creativity is appreciated everywhere in the same way.

What inspires each collection? How do you know what you’ll be designing next?
Our collections were inspired by our eveyday lives, as we said before. So eveything could inspire us, we just translate it in something different and very creative.

What kind of materials, and fabrics do you use? Where do they come from?
Our t-shirts are in natural cotton 100%, we like to use natural materials (bags in Jute for example). Besides we tend toward to use italian material and to produce everything in our country.

Italian fashion has always been the best…creme de la creme. So what designers do you look to for inspiration?
We feel very italian because of our kind of creativity, always in ferment. Often we have ideas during our coffee break for example. We find inspiration from italian comic strips authors, fashion designers. Of course the inspiration must only give you input to create original things, without emulation.

What defines a collection to you?
A collection is made of a lot or few things strongly tied up with a fil-rouge. Each piece has a big identity, but all the pieces together are stronger!

What colors do you think work well this summer?
This winter, in Italy violet has been on fashion. We are very minimal and we think that black and white will be always on fashion because they represent elegance and simplicity, even on summer.

Designing wallpaper is interesting how did you guys end up designing wallpaper?
We’ve have entertained the idea of drawing wallpapers for many years. As art director and graphic designer often we did very artistic layouts full of textures and decorations. So we thought: “ If we are used to doing for customers why don’t we do it for ourselves?”

What is your creative process like between the two of you? If I was to walk into your studio, what would i expect?
Caterina and I often we have individual ideas that we want to melt together and sometimes we prefer let them as they are, pure and absolute. Often we find us doing brainstorming on the underground, at the cafe, going for a walk in Trastevere..If you were to walk into our studio you will find two I-Mac, a creative caos and many cats…

Thanks Fermentiattivi for taking the time out to interview with us!

For further info on Fermentiattivi and their products, please click here

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Goodbye to Henri Bendel, since 1895

courtney — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:00:38 +0000

The 114-year-old luxury department store, Henri Bendel, announced that it will stop selling clothing and focus instead on its accessories and cosmetics. For all of their existing items will be on sale at Gabay’s Outlet in East Village, New York. Gabay’s items are usually priced at 50% to 80% off retail! Who saw this coming? 114 years in the retail business, it is so sad to see the store go. Henri Bendel’s had a nice layout. The place was never too crowded and their interior felt upscale but friendly. I’ll miss their wrought iron accents, marble flooring and most of all their signature brown stripe awning.

All of Henri Bendels items such as Chanel, Manolo, and Jimmy Choos shoes, in addition to YSL and and Oscar de la Renta clothing will be there. *sigh*

Gabay’s Outlet
225 First Avenue (between 13th and 14th)
212-254-3180
contactus@gabaysoutlet.com

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Clae Spring 2009 Lookbook

courtney — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:24:49 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More dummy tag 1

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Loomstate for Target and Barneys

courtney — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:22:50 +0000

We’ve been talking green for a minute. We’ve posted tips, given resources and links. Now Earth Day was yesterday, you basically can say Earth week is this week with Disneys release of Earth movie on the 22nd. With all this talk we wanted to shed some light on a clothing line has been accessible to all kinds of women by placing their sustainable clothing in Target and Barneys.

Loomstate launched in New York City in 2004 by designer Rogan Gregory and Scott Hahn, Loomstate was founded as a casual brand dedicated to creating demand for certified organic cotton using socially and environmentally responsible methods of production. Click here to check their site for further information.

Loomstate for Barneys

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Alexander Wang Fall ‘09 Trunk Show

courtney — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:18:36 +0000

Today I got a chance to attend the Alexander Wang Fall 2009 trunk show. It was AHHHmazing! So after chatting with the Global Director of Sales this is what I’ve learnd and want to share with you. His fall collection is based off of a film. According to WWD, the film noted as Batman Returns. The Global Director told me it was based of a flim named Mad Maddox in which I did research for and found nothing. Was this film an indie film or perhaps not out for release? Anyhow you can see his concept and direction.

For fall his colors were mainly black, bronze, and dark greys. Some of his clothing resembled metal such as a tunic dress that looked like what knights wore underneath their armor in the renaissance era, however, when you touch it and its soft. A sweather that had increduble sheen to it looked like a sleek patent leather textile, however, it is a woven material that is luxuriously comfortable. Furnishing across the board were hard, even barbaric. You can see silver metal cubes along sleeves and on his shoes. Vertical cuts and rips give a sense of rawness to his clothing. Thick black fur was of course a part of the collection. The Global Director had discussed with me his concept with this season on shoes. She said that whatever you are wearing your shoes grounds you and that is why they appear to look heavy. Indeed they did look heavy and impossibly too high to walk in. To assure me she said the sample was for runway and the real shoes will be lighter with a shorter heel. Would you implement these style notes in your wardrobe for fall?

photos courtesy of style.com

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Burger King’s controversial commercial

courtney — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:00:22 +0000

Burger King’s controversial commercial produced by Crispin Porter + Bogusky is at the center of a controversial complaint from the Mexican ambassador to Spain, who claims it denigrates Mexico’s image. This Texican Whopper commercial bites of Nacho Libre, ok a little bit. See it for yourself and you determine if it is worth all the press. Burger King on the other hand is taking action to revisit the commercial and make edits. What BK’s official press states “Burger King has this time issued a statement saying that the creative in the Texican Whopper spot will be revised, with a new version on air “as soon as commercially possible”. And oh by the way CP+B has also produced the “bk virgins” commercial. Yup, thats right the commercial that is currently running on TV for Burger Shots, lets put two and two together shall we?

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Ad Week’s Agency Report Cards, 2008

courtney — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:03:48 +0000

Ad Week conducts report cards on America’s top agencies. No, No its not another reality show, its an overview and grading system of the most influential agencies. Why is it so important? Well if you’re in the creative industry its a pulse on how the industry is progressing and in what direction.

You would be surprised by the grading system. I’ve admired for a long time the work and creativity Saatchi & Saatchi produces, however, they got a C+! Wondering how Ad Week comes up with their grading system? Don’t worry that info is included below.

Here is a few notable agencies to look at

DEUTSCH: B
GOODBY: B+
OGILVY: C-
PUBLICIS USA: B+
SAATCHI & SAATCHI: C+
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY: B

‘08 FINAL GRADES:

ARNOLD: C+
BBDO: B
BBH: C+
LEO BURNETT: C
C-K: B-

CRISPIN: B+
DDB: C+
DEUTSCH: B
DRAFTFCB: C-
EURO RSCG: B-

GOODBY: B+
GREY: B-
HILL, HOLLIDAY: B
JWT: B
LOWE: B-

MARTIN AGENCY: B+
MCCANN: B
MERKLEY: B-
MULLEN: C+
OGILVY: C-

PUBLICIS USA: B+
SAATCHI & SAATCHI: C+
TBWA\CHIAT\DAY: B
WIEDEN: B+
Y&R: C

HOW THE REPORT CARDS WORK

NUMBERS
Many 2008 revenue results were provided
by the agencies; some were not. We also gathered information from our own reporting, syndicated data and other sources. Revenue represents the actual top-line income of each agency; revenue was prorated to credit an agency for an account win only for the time it worked on the business. (An agency that won a $100 million account midyear, for instance, would only receive six months of revenue. Same goes for losses.) But agencies receive full credit for billings upon winning an account, no matter the time of year. Staff counts are as of year-end 2008. Agencies were ranked on three criteria: revenue growth, revenue per employee and growth in revenue per employee. Then a composite rank was calculated, weighting revenue growth the most, staff efficiency somewhat less and the growth in revenue per employee the least. Adjustment was also made for growth relative to size. Letter grades correspond to the composite ranks. Client spending estimates are based on Nielsen data.

CREATIVE
Consideration is given to quality, range of products worked on, clarity of message, production values and consistency of execution. Each shop submitted seven TV spots and seven print ads, along with digital, integrated and nontraditional efforts, that appeared during 2008.

MANAGEMENT
Grades reflect how well executives handled client and management issues, agency developments, finances, merger and acquisition activity and other strategic matters.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
For national agencies, we break out significant activity in regional offices.

GLOBAL HIGHLIGHTS
For global shops, we outline key events in offices around the world.

THE FINAL GRADE
The average of numbers, creative and management grades.

HOLDING COMPANIES

Headquarters … ‘08 revenue … % change in thousands

1. WPP Group, London: $13,598 (9.7%)
2. Omnicom Group, New York: 13,360 (5.2%)
3. Interpublic Group, New York: 6,963 (6.2%)
4. Publicis Groupe, Paris: 6,100 (0.7%)
5. Dentsu, Tokyo: 2,750 (-9.0%)
6. Havas, Paris: 2,280 (2.3%)
7. Hakuhodo, Tokyo: 1,550 (-7.0%)

AGENCY BENCHMARKS

Agency … Staff … Billings … Revenue … Revenue per staffer

(*billings in thousands)

1. Ogilvy: 3,100 212/ 850 (24.8%)

2. DDB: 3,050 228/1,331 (17.1%)

3. Euro RSCG: 2,776 259/1,873 (13.8%)

4. Draftfcb: 2,773 218/2,200 (9.9%)

5. JWT: 2,000 349/1,975 (17.7%)

6. BBDO: 1,800 451/3,250 (13.9%)

7. Leo Burnett: 1,720 230/2,209 (10.4%)

8. McCann: 1,700 372/3,353 (11.1%)

9. Y&R: 1,560 239/2,481 (9.6%)

10. Saatchi: 1,150 288/3,470 (8.3%)

11. TBWA\C\D: 922 382/3,113 (12.3%)

12. Crispin: 900 153/1,478 (10.4%)

13. Deutsch: 878 274/3,098 (8.9%)

14. Hill, Holliday: 835 311/2,084 (14.9%)

15. Grey: 828 813/5,435 (15.0%)

16. Publicis: 822 668/5,718 (11.7%)

17. Arnold: 725 359/4,034 (8.9%)

18. Mullen: 645 240/1,814 (13.2%)

19. Lowe: 625 262/2,512 (10.4%)

21. Goodby: 533 253/4,878 (5.2%)

22. Wieden: 514 214/2,121 (10.1%)

23. C-K: 511 284/1,888 (15.0%)

23. Martin: 499 240/2,645 (9.1%)

24. Merkley: 257 319/2,658 (12.0%)

25. BBH: 178 242/2,893 (8.3%)

Averages: 1,252 314/2,774 (12.1%)

all information courtesy of Ad Week

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