Quiz: Which designer is what?

Which Designer is this?

a. Gucci

b. Miu Miu

c. Dolce and Gabbana

a. Chanel

b. Prada

c. Dolce and Gabbana

 

a. Louis Vuitton

b. Prada

c. Dolce and Gabbana

Answers: 1. Gucci 2. Dolce and Gabbana 3. Prada

Fashinistas QUIZ:

Can you guess the Shoe Designer????

 

a. Stuart Weitzman

b. Dolce Vita

c. Christian Louboutin

d. Giuseppe Zanotti

e. Tony Bianco

 a. Dolce Vita

b. Jeffrey Campbell

c. Sergio Rossi

d. Alice + Olivia

a. Christian Louboutin

b. Jimmy Choo

c. Tony Bianco

d. Manolo Blahnik

a. Christian Louboutin

b. Jimmy Choo

c.Miu Miu

d. Manolo Blahnik

a.  Tony Bianco

b. RED Valentino

c. Christian Louboutin

d. Yves Saint Laurent

 

a.  Miu Miu

b. RED Valentino

c. Christian Louboutin

d. Yves Saint Laurent

Love it Love the Camelia Carlton Boot Bag- Perfect for all your amazing shoes!!!

 Dont cheat!

Answers:  1. c 2. b 3. d 4.b 5. d 6.

Camelia Carlton Presents Our Newest Addition to the Collection

Its a great pleasure to show you our newest addition to the Camelia Carlton Range! Very exciting NEWS! These bags were first introduced to the public at the Young Designer Markets at South Bank, and they were a hit/ show stopper everybody stopping in their tracks to see our amazing new bags! With four different designs and patterns! Get yours today and stand out in Brisbane! Have yourself a very unique and individual bag!

Fashion Designer? How to be one?

The fashion world is ruthless, and one that can take many years of hard work sweat and tears to get any where in it! Like a secret club that has one of those unbelievable entrance rules once your in you are in and on the way to great things.

In an effort to start 2012 off with a bang I have decided to share a little story of where some of the worlds best designers started and what types of jobs and studies they pursued. It is always great to see how other people got the being so great, think about it then take a leap and jump on into making your own story that someone will read one day and be inspired! Lets get to it!

If your like me and weren't born into royalty (as much as we tell ourselves we are a princess), money, fashionistas or lords and ladies, many of our innovative and leading fashion designers were not either. Take for instance probably the most iconic woman within the fashion world, Gabrielle Bonheur otherwise known as Coco Chanel, she started her career within the fashion industry as a clerk in a hosiery store. Manolo Blahnik was a jeans buyer for a local jean factory. Our jobs don't look so bad now do they! Christian Dior wasn't even in the fashion industry being an art dealer. Miuccia Prada was on the path of a science career with a PhD.

Getting back to Coco Chanel, she became a seamstress at age 18 she then met a man whom was quite wealthy and she became his mistress. Enjoy a life filled with diamonds, pearls and all things lavish at the age of 23. While enjoy a comfortable life style Coco began to make hats, all while her relationship was on the rocks she met a man who was willing to buy an apartment and shop for Coco to start her own business making hats. Coco became a licensed hat maker in 1910. Within the few years of opening this little hat shop business was booming with film stars and the who's who of France wanting hats. Coco then made a line of leisure wear that would turn so much into Chanel.

Now a days Chanel is one of the leading fashion icons of all time and with as much hard work and persistence it was due to pay off. So as I finish this blog I am off to design and keep persisting within the fashion world to one day be alike the very best Coco Chanel.

Coco Chanel 1883-1971. An inspiration and icon one to never be forgotten  

The Boot Bag: Australia's Most Efficient

Pictures of the arrival of my boot bags last week. I couldn't help but snap away as box after box was unloaded from the truck and the brand new, spankin' bags were unwrapped from their plastic. They're perfect!

Until next time,

CC xo

The Boot Bag: Australia's Most Efficient

The tote has arrived! After much planning, waiting and a few tears, my first design - the Camelia Carlton Boot Bag has been shipped in from the international manufacturers, and I LOVE it. As you can see above, I had both a male and female design made. This bag is the perfect go-to bag for all the junk that congegrates in your home and car.

Other benefits of the Boot Bag:

• It keeps your life CLUTTER FREE!
• Great for beach towels, toys, sports gear, laundry, dry cleaning, ironing, paperwork, camera equipment, ski gear, travel rugs, yoga mats, drink bottles & groceries
• Family proof, SUPER TOUGH American canvas
• Iphone pocket on outside - no more missed calls!
• Ipad or magazine sized inner wall pocket
• Karabiner for your elusive keys!
• Folds flat, dark colour and washable
• Professional from car to office to home
• Classic Colt and Luxe Chandelier designs

You can purchase the bag here. While you're on my site you'll notice that the webstore is coming along nicely! You can purchase most of my accessories & t-shirts. It should be completed in the next week or so. Can't wait!

Until next time,

CC xo

Behind The Scenes of Pattern Making

I wanted to give you a little snapshot of the behind the scenes goings-on of fashion production. It's a little less than glamorous - scientific programs are used to create graded patterns that are specific to mathematical dimensions.

There are still a few Camelia Carlton products that are in production, like the men's short sleeve t-shirts, the makeup mini dress, the hot bodysuit and more. For now, you can start shopping my range in my webstore which is being updated as we speak!

Until next time,

CC xo

Shopping Cart Dramas

The posters for the Dancesport stall arrived, aren't they amazing! Remember Clint? The super amazing designer? There he is! This was taken right before we did our photo shoot, which also went amazingly well. The clothes are amazing when combined, I can't wait to show you!

In other news, we've had a bit of trouble with getting the shopping cart ready for the long weekend, so have taken drastic measures and will be selling the range via the blog until the week of the 2nd of May when the website will finally be completed. Tonight I begin the momentous task of uploading all the pictures with Add to Cart buttons. Stay tuned!

Until next time,

CC xo

FAMOUS in Glitter!

I don't think I mentioned this as it was happening, but as we were having difficulties sourcing Swarovski, Toni-Maree and I made the decision to experiment with glitter screen printing. We were't sure what the result would look like so we sent off lot's of different tee shirt colours and shapes to see how the FAMOUS glitter text would come up. Well, let's just say WE LOVE IT!

Clint wore the man's famous shirt on Monday to begin pitching the range to retailers and there was so much interest and excitement for the range! Now that we know it's fabulous, we've been playing around with different placements on the tee - FAMOUS on the front, FAMOUS on the back, even a glittered outline of my personalised camelia flower! The t-shirts will retail between $34.95 - $39.95 which is SO affordable! Now Toni-Maree is going to be selling her Swarovski crystals to anyone and everyone. You can contact her if you're interested at tmb@elaundry.com.au

Until next time,

CC xo

Embroider vs. Screenprint

Remember the screenprinted hat? Well we've upped-the-anti a little and are now producing an embroidered hat. It's a lot more striking, don't you think?

Until next time,

CC xo

Spankin' Spandex

I wanted to share with you guys just how fabulous the fabrics I am using are. I've been harping on about how I use the best and all that, but I've got to prove it! The spandex in particular I am so proud of and excited to be using in the range. It's called Combed Cotton Lycra and a natural, luxurious fabric with a premium finish. The combing process gets rid of the impurities and gives the fabric incredible strength and softness, and also reduces pilling. So you can wear my range 'til your heart's content and not worry about pilling! Amazing.

Toni-Maree has been rigorously testing all of the fabrications and embellishments in hot and cold water washing as well as ironing and dry cleaning. I want to make sure everything holds up and will actually last (unlike some labels I know..)

Until next time,

CC xo

Flip Flops

The artwork for the Camelia Carlton FAMOUS flip flops has been approved! Do you love them? They will be black rubber thongs with a translucent strap.

Until next time,
CC xo

Barcoding & Endorsement Dramas

With the range nearly here, my thoughts have turned to sales. Where will I sell my product? Online only? Or will I pitch it stores like David Jones and Myer? Will I own my very own store one day? Of course I'd love to own my own store, but that's years down the track. For now, I'd love to have my clothes & accessories in the big Australian department stores. But how?

Toni-Maree has again been my saviour! After much research, she's found the answer: BARCODING! This is all very new and confusing to me, but Toni-Maree has taken charge and organised the whole thing.

I'll try to explain.. In order to sell to department stores (or any store, for that matter), you need barcodes for your products. You apply online, pay an annual fee and then await qualification. Apparently this process is much the same as applying to use Swarovski - you need to provide the company with a business plan. They won't just give you the barcodes, they need to aware of every single, specific piece. And even once you've paid your membership, you have to get through the red tape before they'll hand them over.

As well as figuring out the barcoding conundrum, Toni-Maree is also pitching to Swarovski to gain qualification to be able to use their name on our products as an indicator of quality. As we've used the absolute best of the best, we want to be able to tell customers this. We want them to know that we've cleaned every fabrication 5 times to test it's durability, that those crystals are genuine Swarovski and will stand the test of time. But of course, nothing is for free. The process of getting the genuine Swarovski stickers is a complicated one. Thank god for Fairy God Mother's!

Until next time,
CC xo

Camelia Carlton PJs

We have so much FAMOUS elastic that we're thinking of all new ways to use it in the range. Next up: Camelia Carlton PJs! We already had the oversized camelia flower print t-shirt, so are now creating a pair of silky pajama shorts in my custom fabric with a FAMOUS elastic waistband.

Now that the range is expanding, Toni-Maree advised me to create a new colourway in my custom fabric to add flair and dimension to the entire range. I've been playing around on Illustrator, and played around with different combinations in black, white and magenta. I tried a black background with magenta outlined flowers and then the opposite but finally settled on an all-magenta background and outline with white flowers. It's my key colour throughout the collection, and is bright, bold and funky for sleepwear!

The matching t-shirt will be an oversized fit with a giant pink camelia flower printed on the front, and FAMOUS Swarovski crystals adorning the flower. This is EXACTLY what I want to be wearing to bed!

Until next time,

CC xo

FAMOUS Elastic & New Product Inspiration!

So the FAMOUS elastic I ordered arrived last Friday so was just short of arriving before the range was sent to production. I was really disappointed at first, but have since had a new wave of enthusiasm for the range as Clint has gotten creative and thought of all new products!

Let me present to you the Camelia Carlton Men's Dance shirt - thanks to Clint's amazing creative streak (that's him pictured above - say cheese!) he has designed a tuxedo shirt with built in underwear for male dancers who face the problem of tucked in shirts coming loose during performances. The FAMOUS elastic will be an amazing feature on the shirt. Clint is such a genius, I honestly couldn't have though of this by myself! This new product will be going to production very soon.

Until next time,
CC xo

Going to Production

As soon as the swing tags arrived, Clint bundled up the samples and prepared them to be sent to production. I didn't realise it was so involved! Everything - from care label, swing tag, spec sheet and pattern (a.k.a "block" in industry terms) is put into a bag, with a production sketch stapled to the outside. If there are any errors on the block or production sketch, the actual garments manufactured will also have errors, so Clint has been meticulously going over each and every piece to make sure it is spot on.

We are having 20 pieces made in each style in Small and Medium. This is based on the dancer's physique, but Large sizing is available on request as it's a simple matter of angling the block. We also decided to go with S M over 8-12 to keep costs down. Most of the garments in the range are elasticised, so simply pull on over the head, hence fitting a range of sizes.

A few garments we are having made are:

• Sequined Hoodie - my first & favourite design!
• Black Bodysuit - thick black boyleg body with exposed zip at back
• Pole Pants - knee-length tracksuit pants in grey marle
• Dance Pants - long tracksuit pants
• Dance Tube top & skirt in high quality spandex
• Make up mini & maxi dresses - a personal favourite - simple spandex tube-style dress with elastic and frill around bust for those competitors who are having their make up and fake tan done in front of 300+ other dancers. Will be in washable black so make up stains are no problem

I'm also having a scarf made up in my custom fabric. Looks stunning, and elaundry has already had interest from a local business to manufacture as an accessory to their uniform!

Another new addition is the sequined hobo bag pictured above. It's a gorgeous slouch bag that you can wear across your body with silver sequined outer and custom Camelia lining on the inside. The inside of the strap is lined so there's no snagging to delicate fabrics, and a magnet clasp allows easy access. We've put an iPhone pocket on the inside and pleated the seam on the inside of the bag so the contents don't roll around. It wraps beautifully around your hips when you wear it!

You may notice that the black robe spoken of earlier has been culled from the range. Although I had faith in this piece, it was just too complicated to go to production, and would have been a much more expensive item than we had originally opted for. And when you took off all the trimmings and embellishments, it was just too basic and that's totally not my style!

So in a month from now, I will have my range ripe and ready to sell to Dancesport! I hope you all have your fingers crossed for me!

Until next time,
CC xo

Look What Arrived!

The mailman has been busy delivering things this week! My order from VistaPrint, which included my swing tags, hats, t-shirts and stationery arrived! Although I love the look of the hot pink camelia flower on the simple white background, we had a bit of a hiccup with the final cost of postage as each individual item was manufactured in a different country. Hence the cost was considerably more - so consider this a word of warning if you're thinking of using VistaPrint.

What else arrived is the FAMOUS and Camelia Carlton blings in Swarovski crystal! If you look closely at the FAMOUS bling you can see there's different sized crystals in the "F", whereas the Camelia Carlton bling is all one size. I got a bit creative and stuck the bling on the white hat. I've already worn it out today and gotten heaps of compliments! Just gives me a big boost that this range is going to be a huge success!

Until next time,
CC xo

My Custom Fabric!

My custom fabric arrived! Look how fabulous it is! And trust me, it looks EVEN BETTER in real life (if that's possible!)

As soon as the fabric arrived Clint moved quickly to start putting the garments together. Here is the black robe at the moment - Short sleeved robe with front pockets and waist tie in absorbent & washable fabric (so you can throw it on after the shower). The new fabric looks amazing as a trim on the pockets and tie, and in the hood. Of course my logo is embroidered on the front. Love it!

We also played around with creating hangers to display the range when it's completed. It's all about ATTENTION TO DETAIL! We've made a few so far but aim for 50 or so. I'm also thinking of getting a gorgeous Swarovski crystal star to hang from it too. What do you think?

The range is slowly but surely coming together. Clint has to make up a sample of each garment to send to the manufacturer. He has a great industry contact who is local to elaundry. We made the decision to have our production line in Australia, rather than outsourcing. I want to support my community! Because Clint knows the manufacturer, we have a 3 week turnaround on production. So I will have my range in my hot little hands faster than I imagined!

The QLD Dancesport Championships are at Jupiter's Casino on the Gold Coast on the 23rd & 24th of April this year, so we're aiming to have the range completed by then.

Until next time, 

CC xo

Ordering, ordering, ordering

Ok, apart from being Valentine's Day today (Happy V day to all you lovebirds!), it's CRUNCH TIME! My fabric is days away from arriving, Clint has created patterns for my garments, so now it's time to order swing tags, care labels and trims.

I found out about VistaPrint through a friend, so decided to order my swing tag through them. I've ordered a postcard sized swing tag with the Camelia Carlton FAMOUS logo on one side and Toni-Maree's elaundry business on the other (because it's a joint venture and all!)

And while I was on VistaPrint I couldn't help but order a few things for work - like keyrings, notepads, mousepads, post it notes and mug - just to brighten up my office! I will give them out to my friends and such, I hope they love my camelia logo as much as I do! I also had to order a few more t-shirts with the giant pink camelia flower, just because I haven't got any of them yet. I got one slim fit t-shirt with a small flower, and one oversized fit t-shirt with a large flower.

Now that I've ordered my swing tags and got that expense out of the way, I thought about what trims and embellishments I needed to order.

First up, my Swarovski crystals! I ordered both "FAMOUS" and "Camelia Carlton", one in different sized large crystals, and one in same size small crystals. I hope they look fab! I'm thinking of sticking them on top of the camelia flower.. We'll see how it looks though!

I've also ordered elastic for the waistbands of my garments. I didn't want to go with basic black or white, so found a manufacturer and have ordered custom elastic with FAMOUS written on it. I am BEYOND excited to see what this looks like IRL! I could start designing underwear.. The opportunities are endless!

And in BIG, BIG NEWS... I've ordered the minimum required order (MOQ in industry terms) of my FINISHED & FABULOUS BOOT BAG! They will take a few weeks to arrive, but I can't wait to start selling them. I've told anyone and everyone who will listen (even strangers at the supermarket struggling by with their groceries) about the boot bag!

Until next time,
CC xo

Dancesport Design - BE FAMOUS

After a few months of uninterrupted planning, I've finally got my head around my dancesport range.

Although I love my Ralph Lauren & Chanel, sometimes branded items can be a bit tacky. I want my customers to know that Camelia Carlton is the label of the clothes, but that doesn't mean that I need my name written all over the garments. 

I thought about what I wanted from the range. I want it to be fabulous and feminine. I want to use only the most expensive and most luxurious fabrications and embellishments, because I truly believe in quality and care. I want my customers to feel amazing when they put my clothes and accessories on. I want them to feel empowered, to feel like they can conquer the world one sequin at a time. I want them to look, feel and be FAMOUS. 

FAMOUS - this is the Camelia Carlton catchy cry that represents my brand, my audience, and most importantly, me. I want FAMOUS emblazoned on my clothes, like a boxer's robe has their name in big lettering across the back. The FAMOUS logo has to be BIG, BOLD and BLINGY. I've started designing a robe just like a boxer's one (but a feminine one), with my custom fabric lined on the inside. Do you know how hard it is to find a black silky robe? I do!

Toni-Maree and I have looked into Swarovski crystals and are totally impressed. We can get the FAMOUS logo in different sizes and fonts, even have graduating crystal sizes. Amazing! I've also found decal paper that you can buy online to do mockups. You print your design on it and stick it on to your shirt, pants or bag (whatever you want to test the design out on). Then you can wear it around and see if you like the design/size/colour. I've done this for all of my FAMOUS catch cry sizing and placements on my clothes so they are tried and tested when they reach you.

So this is the catch cry that represented my brand, audience and more importantly, represents me - FAMOUS.