Essay Instructions: This is an essay about the designer and the dress. Please use information from the interview and Designer's website (if necessary). Do not quote or reference any source.
This is heavily focused on the dress and intertwinging details on the designer. I've put a sample of the essay on the powersuit by Korto. The tone of the essay should be exciting to read and entice the reader to go out and buy the dress.
There should be an accompanying headline for the essay that includes 'Silk Designer'
Headline: 1 sentence summary describing the dress and designer. Include 'Silk Designer'
Essay: 600 words (be consise as possible, there's no opportunity to add on additional pages)
Resources: Interview and designer website: http://www.ekiorleans.com/
Sample essay: use as a guideline (below)
Interview with Eki below
Picture of Dress: included as resources
Essay on Korto's Dress--use this as a guide
File this under “Power Suit 2.0.” Gone are the days of black, grey and navy suits synonymous with professional women. KortoMomolou hails from Liberia and brings us a refreshing new meaning to the power suit. Korto refuses to let her fashion sense be dictated by convention and designs clothes that “express what I want.” Yes, please, and thank you, because I want this, too---this two-piece suit from Korto’sSpring 2013 collection took my breath away!
It’s no surprise that Korto’s firm belief in her own talent led to international acclaim and exposure on Project Runway. Her uniqueness stems from the way she designs her clothes, not only for style, but also for versatility and comfort. The designer confesses she likes curvy things and disdains straight hems. Korto admits she designs clothes she herself would like to wear to work, combining colors and textures to achieve the look she desires. She has found success in a male-dominated industry and purports to be her own muse.
The story of this suit began with Korto asking herself, “What would I wear to work?” What she loves about designing is that she can create something she’d want to buy. Korto likes the form of a power suit; however, in typical Korto fashion, she decided to change it up a bit. What I thought was a pencil dress with peplum flare was actually a two-piece ensemble---a vest and a pencil skirt. Korto says she would wear this suit in a heartbeat because she personally likes to buy things that can be worn in more than just one way. You can wear it for all seasons, mixing and matching the outfit. You can put a blazer over the pencil skirt, or you can wear the vest with some skinny jeans ??"the options are limitless. The fabric is not heavyas the suit is made from a raffia stretch fabric. Raffia is like straw, a natural-like fabric with great texture and sheen that presents a three-dimensional earthy look. The pop of color on the vest with the yellow stripe was an amazing artistic touch that makes this suit all the more interesting.
It’s unbelievable that creating the suit took a mere three-four days, start to finish. However, Korto is one of the few designers who doesn’t start her process with sketching. She drapes first. She goes to different fabric stores and finds things that capture her interest. Then she takes her treasures home and just stares at them for a while. She’ll look through magazines, books and stores, or simply drive around and find certain things that inspire her. Then she starts putting things together, starting with draping and making it happen. Her process is very organic, and there’s no right recipe. Once she gets all of the elements together, she tries to sketch to put it all together, but usually she starts draping because she knows what she wants it to look like. Having to do a pattern and go back and forth just takes too long. She drapes because she sees her creation in her head right away. By the end of the day, she already has that dress, and shewill sketch it on paper afterwards.
I know some of you may be rolling your eyes at the peplum frills, thinking, “Here we go again with peplum.” So, let’s address this ‘trend.’ The truth is that many women who couldn’t wear certain dresses now can because the peplum gives them the confidence and hides what they want to hide. Interestingly, since its debut, the peplum is now in its third season.
Korto and I talked at length about this, and she explained that she’s always done peplums. In fact, the first outfit she made in design school was a peplum dress. Like many cultural things, all African outfits have peplum. There’s no such thing as trends there; that’s just what we do. So, like Korto, I’m naturally attracted to it. When you’re shaped like we are, the peplum helps accentuate our bodies. It covers things we don’t want people to see. The fact that the peplum trend came back was really a coincidence. Peplum is a great addition to fashion, and it’s going to be here for a while.
It’s not always about trends. For Korto, she wants her customers to tell a story when they wear her ready-to-wear. “You really do tell a story about who you are by what you wear. So, my girl is confident…she doesn’t care about what people think. And she wants to celebrate who she is. If she’s curvy, she’s saying ’Ya, I have hips and what? Ya, I like color.’ She still has to go to work. She’s somebody’s mom. She’s somebody’s wife. She can still play that corporate game and tell her own corporate story.”
Notes from Eki's Interview
Notes from Eki Orleans Interview: Silk Designer
“this dress quietly demands center of attention.
Mom is from Germany
Dad is from Nigeria
She’s an only child, raised in Germany, fluent in German
She never wanted to be a designer at first. She was in Banking, marketing,
She had a passion about travel and art
She has an eye for color.
She didn’t study fashion
But she always had an eye about existing African patterns, so she wanted to tweak them
She studied European studies and Spanish
In 2007 she realized she wanted to do something she really enjoyed. She loved modern prints and silk, so she wanted to combine that somehow
She had a 9-5 job in Banking
So, from there she’s going to tell her story and her interpretation on her journey
She designs prints ‘African wares’, reminiscent of her times at the beach in Lagos, Nigeria
1-Prints were her interpretation of butterflies from her time spent in Mauritius
Silk print. She wanted something that was her and something that stood out. She’s seen Ankara and that’s the only print in Africa. She loves the feel of silk, so she came up with that. She felt it was time to use something different, a different fabric. Silk.
She uses chiffon silk and satin silk. She’s know as the ‘Silk Designer’
She knew she must have something that’s YOU. Something that she’s about. Her story.
In 2007, she started with designing silk scarves then 2009 she began designing prints then 2012, it was using those materials she made into dresses. She knew was she was about by then
She put in a lot of time for research. Designing what she thought looked nice.
The first 2-3 seasons she was finding herself, figuring out what she personally liked
Then in 2012, she found her unique style
The prints tell the story! And it filters all throughout the dress she designs.
Her butterfly collection is more her signature style.
Advantage/disadvantage??"she came from business background. She wanted to design to sell. Not just, oh, this is the wow factor.
It took her a while to learn what works and what doesn’t work. She started with silk scarves, then dresses, she trialed her prints on scarves first.
Then she eveolved to a theme in terms of creating prints.
Her signature color is orange (and mine too!). She said the color orange is part of her.
Eki means “center of attraction”
Orleans??"part of her surname
So, her label, “Eki Orleans”??"when you wear the dress, you are the center of attraction
She’s been in business since 2010
She’s all about “accentuating the femine”
push ideas to use colors throughout the year. Bold colors with every woman. Brining color no matter the season
Butterfly, Brings out the sexiness with slits. Bold colors of the butterfly. Flowiness. It’s sentual, a touch of orange??"anyone who wears this dress will get noticed
She sketched the dress first
Started off with that first and you can liken it to how the butterfly develops. Especially the top of the dress where there’s layers. It’s like the butterfly is shedding itself. Or morphing from the cacoon into the butterfly.
The bottom part of the dress is more revealing. The slits between the legs---kind of like how the butterflies, fly. The high slits.
You notice the orange as a background color. And the silk print material on top.
The slit was there for drama. There’s no lining at all
For this dress, this quietly demands the center of attention. This is for someone who KNOWS what she is doing. She’s not screaming, hey look at me. She let’s her dress do the talking. Quietly, she gets everyone’s full attention.
The person who can pull this off is well traveled, well cultured, appreciates the print designs and the fabric. The top of the dress is actually butterflies.
There are two distinct prints on the top and the bottom.
From start to finish, it took atbout 2-3 months, which includes design, printing, sewing.
It does to a studio she works with to sew up her design from her sketches
Production is done in the UK (she lives in London), so it’s easier for her to monitor
Print designs come first. Usually from her memories from Lagos or holidays from traveling in Africa. She always loves to travel there.
Butterfly came from Mauritius. There’s beauty in butterflies.
Her most recent accomplishment was her participation at Selfridges pop-up for 2 months. The whole idea was to have designers present their work at Selfridges, a well known store in the UK
It was a huge moment, part of history. 1st time to have African designers come together and show their work. She was given a lot of respect as a designer. She was then invited to have her work covered by OK! Nigeria.
She’s all about the very feminie, very sexy.
She’s married with 2 kids.
In the future, she hopes to have a joint venture or collaborate with other designers or possibly do a houseware collection for IKEA on just using her prints. She wants to someday move beyond just prints for dresses and scarves.
She’s also doing a new campaign (not out yet) for bridesmaids. More about bespoke prints for weddings.
There are faxes for this order.
