FEATURE // HOLLY DOWNES - ACTIVEWEAR DESIGNER

Our feature today is a skilled Activewear Designer,  Holly Downes, who has had over 14 years expert experience designing for the activewear and lifestyle apparel industry.  Her specialty is fusing fashion and fitness.  She has designed for and collaborated with top brands including: Adidas, Splits 59, Off Duty by Joes Jeans, Quiksilver, Love Surf, Asics, Element, and Nike Swim to name a few.  She has also launched several active collections including: Roxy Athletic, O'Neill 365, and a celebrity wellness line that is set to launch in Spring 2016.

She loves the design process from the moment the thought of a new season arises, to the development process and beyond.  She finds it refreshing knowing her creative process evolves along with the seasonal trends.  She also loves building creative direction and telling the story through visual and tangible elements.  

Because she is emerged in the active industry, she also loves to stay active herself.  She practices yoga, loves a great sculpting class and enjoy outdoor runs.  While staying active she also loves wear testing her own designs to ensure performance, comfort, and functionality.  She works out of her home office in Orange County CA.  She has found her creativity to blossom as she balances her active lifestyle with piscina creative society.  She also dedicates time to volunteer at the local animal shelter weekly.  

You can view her work on her website http://www.piscinacreativesociety.com. 

© Holly Downes - all rights reserved

FEATURE // AIAIÉ - Zsanett Hegedűs . FASHION DESIGNER

Our feature today is the SS15 collection of AIAIÉ, by their head designer Zsanett Hegedűs. The European Bauhaus movement inspired the pieces showing the double shadows of the silver age of the 30s, saluting the work of Kertész, Moholy-Nagy and Munkácsi.

The Hungarian eye – does this idea exist in European culture at all? Presumably not, but specifically Central-European careers do unequivocally exist. Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi. Irreplaceable, exquisite, creative eyes. The sensuous imprint of reality through a unique optic. Light created by darkness, shadows defining bodies, the reorganization of our known world in the pay of an ideal. The learning from opportunities of a lifetime, lost forever. Shadowgraph.

The 30s was the silver age. We move together with Europe, fit among the puzzle pieces of intellectual life. What we create is world-class level with a double shadow behind it. A specific Central-European start, however, the melancholic relationship with roots always overshadows the recognition of excellence. Born as extraordinary, fighting for your success, but never forgetting where you come from.


The SHADOWGRAPH collection is an exhortative imprint of this double shadow. The architectural, photographic and sartorial sophistication gives a precise description of the era. It is not narrative but disturbing, it does not quote correctly but makes you give answers.

"The starting point for the inspiration was a fantastically organized exhibition in Balatonfüred, in the Vaszary Villa. It introduced André Kerétsz’s career path, thematically, with original photos. It was most likely this exhibition that worked in me when I chose Hungarian photographers as a subject, and an era when they took their most iconic photographs, between 1930 and 1950. This inspiration line was strengthened by a Munkácsy exhibition at Ludwig, and Blumenfeld’s exhibition at the Somerset House. They used light and shadows, viewpoints, interconnecting ideas and composition in a way that marked an era. Logically, Moholy-Nagy and the Bauhaus movement was associated with them in me, and this became more and more accentuated with time,” says Zsanett about the collection. “To position myself in the aspect of the great ones, to draw an instructive picture with my own means was a real challenge for me. The perfect lines of fine cut continuously cross the haute couture world of shadows and lens projections, creating the shadowgraph of my thoughts about the silver era, which seems to be imaginary and unreal by now.”

The SHADOWGRAPH collection debuted on the runway of Vancouver Fashion Week in September 2014. VOGUE chose 15 from the 70 designers, AIAIÉ among them, the runway photos of which were published on Vogue.uk and Glamour.uk as well.

AIAIÉ / SOCIAL MEDIA

Web / aiaie.wordpress.com

Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/AiaieBespokeDesign

Instagram / @hegeduszsanett

Pinterest / http://www.pinterest.com/aiaiedesign

Not Just a Label / https://www.notjustalabel.com/designer/aiaie

© AIAIÉ - Zsanett Hegedűs - all rights reserved. 

FEATURE // YUYAN HE . FASHION DESIGNER + ILLUSTRATOR

Our feature today is talented YUYAN HE who is a Fashion Designer.  She recently finished her MA Fashion Design Degree in the US and began her career as a Fashion Designer and Illustrator for various clients from NYC, Dallas and Atlanta since 2011.

Yuyan's signature style lies in her keen ability to capture and find inspiration in a great variety of artistic disciplines (architecture, painting, cinema, music, etc) and to creatively translate them into  modern, dynamic, and yet timeless fashion.  She likes challenging new things and competing in a limited timeline and the use of materials.

You can view her new collection"ARCH COLLECTION" which is a mini collection she finished all by herself in a month and a half - www.yuyanhe.nyc.

You can also view her amazing portfolio here and here.  Below is a glimpse of some of her images from her portfolio of fashion illustrations and ideation mood boards.

© Yuyan He - all rights reserved.