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In Their Words: Fashion Designer Eyola Shares Personal Style Secrets

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April 21, 2009

Categories: Fashion

Eyola - I Anima Octave

Simple 5-Step DIY Plan to Personal Style

The success of fashion lies in differentiation and paving a new way forward. Becoming fashion forward involves an individual vision, continuously transforming yourself and transforming people's stereotypical perceptions of fashion.

This recipe has proven successful with the likes of early fashion protagonists Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel and Paul Poiret. Coco Chanel strived to incorporate the power of personality to her designs by inventing her own way of personal expression. Paul Poiret freed women from the corset and opened the twentieth century with the emancipation of women through fashion.

Eyola - III Baniaz Octave

My womenswear brand ˜Eyola' is my way of exploring fashion and taking it to new heights by striving to transform the fashion industry (much like Chanel and Poiret) and also aspiring to inspire women to explore their own individual and personal style.

My designs are bold yet feminine and embody a lot of craftwork but are ultimately wearable providing both amateurs and expert self-stylists with a very distinctive starting point to any outfit. I hope my designs encourage women to mix and match and explore unique colours and shapes and looking at fashion from a different angle.

So, I've put together a simple 5-step plan for you to take a creative and energetic approach to personal styling.

1) Know your body type- Look in the mirror and see what features you like and don't like. Instead of covering up what you don't like, enhance what you like.

2) Create a look book- Compile pictures of different fashion items (from clothing to accessories) from magazines, newspapers and the internet that you really like. Focus more on what you find interesting and don't shy away from anything you might ˜feel' isn't you.

3) Invest in yourself- Whether you want to start exercising, meeting new people or try a new hobby take time to get to know yourself better. Trying new things will open your mind and this will help you become more confident and willing to experiment with your personal style.

Eyola - IV Asum Octave

4) Purge your wardrobe- Stop hanging on to clothes for the sake of it. If it's been in the wardrobe collecting dust and useful storage space for the last few months or even years chances are it will continue to do so. So get rid of it. Other types of clothing that apply to this rule include faded clothes, clothes that are too small or too big and damaged clothing.

5) Invest in your wardrobe- A great way to do this is to buy an "outfit" every month. By this I mean buy one of each item of an outfit- a cardigan, top, skirt, shoes, accessories throughout the month. Each month concentrate on a type of outfit e.g. casual, smart etc. As you start collecting make sure your look book is handy. It can also double up as a reference book where you can keep a record of all items bought so that you can effectively build a wardrobe that is coherent.

One tip is to invest in a wide spectrum of colour from pastels, block to nudes as this gives you the palette to really put together something unique. If you're not so brave that's okay. Try collecting clothes in the same colour family (for example only choose nude colours) as this will slowly help you become confident in matching different shapes and layering and once you master these fundamentals you can build on your experiences and start to diversify your look.

 

Good luck!

Eyola

British fashion designer Eyola set her womenswear brand in 2008 at age 24. She is an alumni of Istituto Europeo di Design (IED Moda Lab) a prestigious Italian design school where she obtained a Masters in Fashion Communication & Styling in 2007, graduating top of her class. Before attending IED Moda Lab she gained an insight into the world of fashion through experience working for highly reputable British designers Alexander McQueen and Wale Adeyemi. London-based Eyola aims to create a new direction in the fashion industry. Based on the hallmarks of Victorian fashion each collection is well versed in the line's blend of historical references from nineteenth century fashion with an innovative and modern twist. Each "collection" consists of eight pieces which form an "Octette". This new term stems from the defining curves of the Victorian corset (a figure eight or hourglass figure) and represents a new unusual fashion system. With only eight pieces in each Octette, the focus is on creating a unique product that combines couture techniques with prêt-a-porter wearability. Each piece in the Octette comes in a bold colour palette with some of the pieces also available in a shadow version of classic colours: black, navy blue, grey, white or cream. Each Octette doesn't stop at taking inspiration from the style manual of the Victorian era. Inspiration for jackets stem from British tailoring with great attention to detail and craftsmanship. Visit Eyola online.

Tags: build wardrobe, designer, eyola, fashion, fashion designer, individual style, limited edition, london styling yourself, personal style, self style, style, wardrobe tips
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