Fashion Design on a shoestring X Reality Check!

Soooo… back in Feb, I set out to start sewing and teach myself how to construct garments, in order for me to release my first collection by the summer. Well, as you can see, we are now well into Summer and I have no collection. Why? Well, whilst AMBITION is admired UNREALISTIC GOALS isn’t!

It was very naive of me to have thought that releasing my first ever collection within a few months of learning how to sew, was an achieveable goal. Dont get me wrong, I’m all about having a vision and taking strategic steps to achieving your goals and dreams, but my plan was flawed from the very beginning, as I had NO MONEY! Yup, as I’m a stay at home single mum, my income is tiny and my outgoing are humongous!!

Staying focused and POSITIVE…

I wanted to write this post to keep all my friends, family and Twitter fam in the loop, and shed some light on the delay of the launch of my line Fly&Fuchsia and my online boutique FashionCrazy.net. Launch dates have been pushed back but NOT disregarded. Having studied Business Management at uni, I thoroughly understand the importance of GETTING IT RIGHT FIRST TIME. I have high aspirations for my line and boutique, so it would be wrong of me to rush and launch them both, on a tiny budget, and possibly hindering the high quality and luxury positioning I strive for.

So what am I doing now?

Well, apart from being a fantastic and dedicated mother to my 2 year old daughter, I have been inspired to relaunch a business that I created then “quit” last year. This business is SaveYourMoneyMummy.com and I was inspired by the fab marketing benefits of Twitter to start it back up and give it a chance. After all, it IS a fantastic concept, and I AM set to make a wod of cash from it, which I can then put towards launching FashionCrazy.net.

Thank you for your understanding, love and support thus far, and I am most certainly sure that the wait will absolutely be worth it!

ps I will be designing a few ladies tees, alongside working my butt off with my other businesses, so look out for them @FashionCrazy_. And if you’d like to stay up to date with all my projects, please visit ElectricEllay.com – my “parent company/website”

Love, The World’s Most Ambitious Woman, Elsina xx

Two empowering quotes that keep me going…

“Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way”. Barack Obama

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”. – Winston Churchill

Two quotes that mean so much to me – a hungry entrepreneur that has set up business after business, in the pursuit of becoming her own boss. FINALLY, I am doing something that I am immensely passionate about, FASHION.

http://fashioncrazy.net

http://flyandfuchsia.com

I Am… an OVERACHIEVER!

Wow, when I read this excerpt from OverAchieverCoach.blogspot.com, I was stunned at how precise this was in describing me as an individual…

Overachievers are ambitious, driven, and motivated to do (and be) the best. They have a unique mindset that keeps their brain on overdrive and a work ethic that keeps them one step ahead. High expectations and focused intensity are definite characteristics of overachievers. They are always pushing themselves, for more, – whether it’s professionally, academically, personally, or in a sport or hobby.

Being an overachiever is more of a mindset and the manifestation of that mindset in the form of results and accomplishments. They naturally do well in what they choose to do; they put in the necessary effort and hold themselves to a high standard of performance. Overachievers typically work hard, squeeze in as many activities as possible, and try to do be a rockstar in everything they do. Oddly, they don’t see it that way – it’s just the way they are and they push themselves to that level.

Overachievers have high aspirations and like to dream big. There’s always a lot on their plate – their To-Do Lists are full and they have an abundance of ideas for future books, businesses, projects, and improvements. They see every moment as a valuable opportunity to invest in a worthwhile endeavor.

Overachievers also have an overwhelming sense of urgency. While this is part of their recipe for success, it can also backfire when they are unfocused or try to do everything at once. Anxiety strikes when they see their time slipping away and not accomplishing as much as they had hoped.

Despite doing 2-3 things at the same time and using tools/systems to be more effective, overachievers often feel guilty for not doing enough. They feel like they should always be doing more and this creates an ever-present pressure that can, oddly enough, get in the way of their path to achievement. To counteract this overarching need to do more, it’s helpful to create a plan of action around their priorities and set realistic and clear goals for the future.

Fashion Update X iTunes Joy!

Its been over a month since I wrote a post, so here I am, with an update on what Ive been up to.

Well, as Im known for waking up each morning, unintentionally with a new business idea, it should be no surprise that since designing the site for my clothing line Fly&Fuchsia, I decided to develop an online boutique as a platform to sell my designs. Weeks on, I have two independent designers on board, and 1000+ followers on my new Twitter account!

Ive had fantastic feedback on the look of the boutique, and Im very proud that yet again, Ive managed to design a gorgeous website in the space of a few weeks! Technically, FashionCrazy.net should be the last site I develop/design, but hey, I’m not making any promises :/ At least this “2nd” website is still within Fashion, and I havent completely thrown a spanner in the works like in the past [eg from a Design Agency to a Paint Your Own Pottery business!!!]

Back in March, I contacted Printing.com to print some business cards for Fly&Fuchsia, but when I randomly decided to start FashionCrazy.net, I thought it’d be wiser to print promotional cards for the online boutique. Then I went against this idea [I know, I'm a headcase of indecisiveness] and thought it would be an even better idea to print garment tags for my garments. Lo and behold, I actually decided to go ahead with this decision, typically on the very last day of a special BOGOF offer Printing.com were running. Picked them up on April 9th from their Ealing branch – they look absolutely gorgeous!

Everything else has been running smoothly BUT at the pace of an old tortoise! And by everything I mean, receiving samples from SupaDupa Vintage, styling them on my new mannequin; designing and creating [or not creating] garments for Fly&Fuchsia, organising a time for my model to create a lookbook and so on and so forth. I suppose the only hickup Ive faced was when I placed an order of garment labels with a company in Turkey, only to find that they had limited their payment options to just one; one that I could not meet. Big shame; not sure why they dont just embrace the simplicity of Paypal… like the million of other companies out there! Ugh.

So at present, I have garment labels to create myself, garments to be designed and created, and finishing off both the Fly&Fuchsia and FashionCrazy sites! As of yesterday, I have a new, solidated focus on the route I plan on taking in terms of my line and its target market. Ive been up, down, left and right for the past few months, but finally, I am SUPER confident with my latest decisions. These decisions are as follows:

To create 1 garment per design, as opposed to trying to produce the same number of garments as a small factory!

To create striking designs that my ultimate customer, celebs like Rihanna, Kim Kardashian etc, would love and get excited about!

To price these designs according to its target market, for example, dresses will range from around £100-300! Resulting in less garments having to be made as I’m no longer trying to go mainstream with low prices!

To create a gorgeous lookbook with slected pieces and put these images on the Fly&Fuchsia site.

Aside from fashion, Ive been having fun with my iTouch [no.2] and sadly enough, one whole decade late, I downloaded my first few iTunes! I currently have 10 songs on my iPod, and thought it’d be cool to note what my first ten songs were…

Beyonce Ego, Beyonce Sweet Dreams, Usher OMG, Lil Wayne ft Bobby V Officer, T-Pain ft Chris Brown Freeze, Jay-Z On To The Next One, Trey Songz ft Fabolous Say Ahh, Rihanna Rude Boy, Ke$ha Blah Blah Blah, Jamie Foxx Blame It

How to sew a bias binding to a raw edge…

So as you may know, I’m a self-taught fashion designer, learning techniques as I go along; and whilst I thought the rotary cutter would be my best ever tool, I just learnt that you can get a special sewing machine foot, called a binder foot, that assists you in sewing binding onto your garments.

I have been so anxious as to how I was would sew binding PERFECTLY onto my garments, so I was over the moon to learn that such a tool existed . Best of all, it’s not expensive either, only £12!! If you have a Brother machine like mine, you can purchase a binder foot from the Brother Sewing Shop.

Here’s a useful video I found on Youtube about using the binder foot and how to sew binding without one…

Rihanna in a green figure-hugging catsuit!!

When I first saw this pic, I began to recall scenes from those X-Men movies, lol! But after a few minutes, I came to appreciate the art of this shoulders strong, green ensemble. What do you think? Are you loving or hating the look?

I guess when you have a figure like RiRi’s, you’re gonna want to show it off! Here’s another shot…

FYI, the designer is Alexandre Vauthier.

How to shred a tshirt…

Shredded T Shirts are fast becoming the must have item for grungy, edgy fashionistas around the world, so I thought I’d post this useful video of how to shred your own shirt…

There are loads more videos on YouTube, but if you don’t have the hours it takes to DIY, you could always buy a lush one from SupaDupa Vintage – a new clothing line that specialises in the shredded tees department. Click here to visit their blog.

I stumbled across their blog a few days ago, and was inspired by their “story”. Very similar to my own, a small scale clothing line with big aspirations; and I’m definately all for showing support to fashion houses about to launch. [Just so long as they're not doing anything remotely similar to my designs, lol!]

Image via Zimbio

Leather look leggings…

… everyone seems to be wearing a pair, so I’m happy I’ve finally picked up some leather look fabric! Well, it’s more pvc-like than matt leather, as it has a great shine to it… very much like these ones Kate Moss was snapped wearing [years ago]…

Very sexy and edgy, with a slice of rock chick!! My SS collection entirely!! Can’t wait to sew them and see what they look like on, lol.

Inspiration for my shoot…

My draped tops and dresses, along with my line of leggings, will go very well with this sort of “Tik Tok” theme. Very edgy, rock chick, rebellious… absolutely love the whole Ke$ha movement so…

According to Style.com fashion trends…

… Fly&Fuchsia will encompass the following Trends [overall]:

Brights. Minimal. Body Conscious. [With some Draping.] All trends that I absolutely adore!

I have been busy fine-tuning the Fly&Fuchsia brand over the last few days, trying to ensure that I know what my brand positioning is and my unique design style. I think it’s important to be able to describe my design style in as little words as possible, and in a eureka moment earlier today, I came up with the concept of “Simplistically Loud”.

I don’t favour complex, over-worked designs that have alot going on, so my designs will definately NOT look like a Lady GaGa red carpet outfit, but more of a minimal, clean approach. My designs will definately not be boring, a word often associated with “simple”, but will be bold and very sexy, empowering the audacious woman of today.