In Their Words: Fashion Designer Eyola opens her heart about her new collection

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In Their Words: Fashion Designer Eyola opens her heart about her new collection

My fascination with the Victorian era continues with the new Octette in the Eyola family ‘Tarcotsira Octette’ inspired by Victorian Aristocrats’ dress and lifestyle.

I’ve written about the new octette from my heart!

My fascination with the Victorian era continues with the new Octette in the Eyola family ‘Tarcotsira Octette‘ inspired by Victorian Aristocrats’ dress and lifestyle.

Aristocratic women of this period were big on details especially when it came to accessorizing and one item that saw no boundaries was the bonnet. Bonnets were lavishly trimmed decorated with feather trimmings and flowers both of which feature in this Octette in the form of floral embroidery and a pheasant feather belt.

Other influences of aristocrats fashion of the time includes the illusion of a narrower waist emphasized with corset belts and bell-like shapes of jackets. I also dipped my toes into the home decor that graced Victorian household furniture focusing on the upholstery details on lampshades and curtains which is particularly evident in the lampshade and curtain-inspired Merassuq Octave blue skirt suit and some dresses including the heavily trimmed Aronbess Octave dress.

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This new Octette for me is beyond clothes alone as I have aimed to combine both clothing and accessories into each garment from the bangle dress to the heavily detailed pieces that make a statement even when worn without jewelry or accessories.

I continued with the Victorian aristocrat theme for the styling of the shoot from the choice of location (the beautiful Beach Blanket Babylon restaurant in Notting Hill, London) to the flamboyant hairstyles of the period. The concept of Tarcotsira is to recreate, with a modern twist, the lavish lifestyles of aristocrats of the Victorian period. –Eyola

_{Shoot Location: Beach Blanket Babylon Restaurant (Notting Hill, London)}
_{Photographer: Linda Cooper}

Published on October 20, 2009

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 pret-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.