Drexel Programs Rank Highly on Fashion Schools List

This month, a website dedicated to helping direct students aspiring to enter a career in fashion design to the right schools once again ranked Drexel in its top 10.
Drexel ranked seventh in the United States on the list for Fashion Design on Fashion-Schools.org’s Top 50 list. It has been named one of the ten best schools in the country for fashion design since 2012.
Drexel’s Design & Merchandising program also ranked highly, coming in at no. 14 on the list ranking schools in the United States offering that major.

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The top administrators for those programs shared with DrexelNow what they think puts them fashion’s top echelon year after year.
Allen Sabinson, dean, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
“With well over 40 years of history, Westphal’s programs in Fashion Design and Design & Merchandising (D&M) have produced generations of talented designers and industry professionals who fanned out across the world, working in many of the world’s most well-known fashion and merchandising businesses.”
“You only need attend the annual Drexel Fashion Show to witness the lavish production staged by the D&M students featuring the exquisite designs of Fashion students and you’d know we have very special programs.”
Roberta Gruber, head, Department of Design, Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
“The Fashion Design and D&M programs often work in concert with each other as well as with other majors, forging many interdisciplinary initiatives. The two most popular are the annual student Fashion Show and the D&M Magazine.”
“Our programs stand out for a variety of reasons. Our excellent faculty who have industry experience and maintain valuable research and/or creative activities, a rigorous curriculum, a diverse student body, superior facilities, easy accessibility to cultural institutions and activities, study abroad opportunities, a focus on professionalism and experiential learning through Drexel’s co-op program all serve to stimulate creative thinking and doing.”
“Also, the Fox Historic Costume Collection is an outstanding resource as a teaching tool where students visit with faculty or on their own for inspiration.”
Lisa Hayes, program director, Fashion Design
“Drexel fashion students learn to master critical design skills while exploring a wide variety of opportunities within their field and beyond. We encourage a collaborative approach to design and research where students can experience a broad range of disciplines throughout the university.”
“Students are supported by accomplished faculty mentors and industry liaisons. Our diverse student body enjoys both a local and global approach to design thinking, as they work to solve design challenges for the future, with fashion as a catalyst.”
Catherine Fox Byers, program director, Design & Merchandising
“While there are more fashion merchandising programs in the United States, Drexel’s Design & Merchandising is a program that incorporates both the principles and aesthetics of design with sound industry practices.”
“Of course, Drexel’s co-op program sets ours apart from others, with students working for a full six months, broadening their value to employers and enriching their experience.”
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An Entire 3D Printed Fashion Collection Was Created By A Recent Design Graduate And The Results Are Beautiful

From printing out three-dimensional organs to 3D printed jewelry, 3D printing aficionados have clearly explored the many possibilities of the technology. 3D printed clothes have also had their share of the limelight, but an entire 3D printed fashion collection takes it to the next level. Recent graduate from Israeli university, Shenkar College of Design, Danit Peleg created her entire graduate fashion collection using laser work and 3D printing technology.
On her website, Peleg described how 3D printing was fairly new to her, but after working with a few experts, she was able to produce the first piece of her ready-to-wear collection — the Liberte jacket. With a deep neckline and a structured outline, the jacket looked very similar to a chic blazer. Using Eugène Delacroix’s painting, Liberty Leading the People, as her source of inspiration, Peleg created the outerwear by linking various 3D printed triangles. The best part about her collection is that the silhouettes are not at all “out of style” and they are all very much trendy.

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As she was first embarking on her exploration of 3D printed clothes, she immediately noticed that most PLA filament produces fairly stiff clothing. So after testing out a variety of different filament, she ended up choosing FilaFlex because of its fabric-like qualities.
Using the fashion design software called Optitex, she was able to create 3D graphic renditions of her designs and transfer them to the 3D design software, Blender. Peleg described the finished products looking, “a little bit like lace,” and she said, “it moves beautifully.”
In her YouTube video 3D Printing Fashion: How I 3D-Printed Clothes At Home, she shows various models wearing pieces from her collection, which revealed how they flow, fit and look. At the very end, Peleg spoke about the more real world application that her collection brought light to, “Just imagine the potential. If you’re cold, print your own jacket. Traveling with no luggage? Just print your clothes in the hotel room,” and she ended with this great question, “Will we soon be able to design, share and print our own clothes directly from home?”
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The next big untapped fashion market: Muslim women

Think the Muslim market isn’t interested in fashion? Check the numbers: Globally, Muslims spent $266 billion on clothing and footwear in 2013. That’s more than the total fashion spending of Japan and Italy combined, according to a recent report from Thomson Reuters. The report also notes that that figure is expected to balloon to $484 billion by 2019.
And yet industry watchers say the market for Muslim women’s fashion is still relatively untapped—though perhaps not for long.
Several mainstream designers have started producing clothes and collections especially for Muslim women. It’s a trend that recognizes Islam’s rapid growth—Pew Research predicts that the number of Muslims in the world will equal that of Christians by 2050—along with its constituents’ impressive spending power.

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“Globally, the Muslim population is a youthful and growing demographic,” says Reina Lewis, professor of cultural studies at London College of Fashion UAL and author of the forthcoming book Muslim Fashion: Contemporary Style Cultures. “This makes Muslims a very important consumer segment for anything.”
“The market for Islamic commodities started out looking at food and finance,” she adds. “I’ve been saying for the last few years that fashion is going to be the third F—and this is indeed what is beginning to happen.”
DKNY went first, unveiling a women’s capsule collection for Ramadan last year. Tommy Hilfiger launched its own Ramadan capsule collection this June, and fashion designers, manufacturers and retailers including Net-a-Porter, Zara, Oscar de la Renta and Mango are currently offering lines specially themed for the holiday as well. A Mango rep says the Barcelona-based company is pleased with how well the Ramadan collection is selling, noting that Arab-speaking countries made up 5% of the company’s sales last year.
The emphasis on Ramadan comes from its increasing status as a shopping holiday among Muslim communities. While Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, founding editor-in-chief of MuslimGirl.net, says that designers are in a sense “cashing in on Ramadan—for the other 11 months of the year, we really don’t hear anything from these companies or brands,” she also likens the Ramadan fashion collections to Christmas- or Hanukkah-themed ones.
“There are times of year about specific groups of people, and it’s cool for us to be included in that,” she says. “We see fashion designers giving a nod toward the Muslim community [with these Ramadan collections]: We understand this is your month.”
The question is whether designers will eventually target Muslim shoppers beyond their annual holy month.
Shelina Janmohamed thinks so, and as vice president of the Muslim-focused brand consultancy Oglivy Noor, she has researched the subject extensively.
“It’s easy to understand why designers have gone for Ramadan,” she says. “But actually, it’s the rest of the year that’s really important to these consumers and young Muslim women. I think brands are going to have to start developing [year-round] lines for this audience.”
Uniqlo is one retailer that’s going in that direction. The Japanese clothing company launched a new Hana Tajima LifeWear collection on July 3, available in certain Singapore stores and online. Tajima, a Muslim fashion blogger, created loose blouses, skirts and dresses for the new collection, along with more traditional kebaya and hijab.
But Uniqlo describes Hana Tajima as “a special modest-wear collection,” with no mention of Muslims or Ramadan. Lewis thinks that’s because Muslim-focused fashions can serve other cultures as well, as part of an emerging “modesty movement.”
The other question is whether these Muslim-oriented collections will reach Western stores. DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger and Oscar de la Renta offered their capsules exclusively in the Middle East. Mango and Zara’s are available online, but only through the Middle Eastern versions of their websites.
“What’s the point of having these Ramadan collections from these huge brands and huge designers if they’re only being made available to people overseas who are already well aware of Ramadan and inclusive of it?” Al-Khatahtbeh says. “Really, it’s here in the U.S. or other Western countries where that kind of visibility would go a long way.”
“I don’t think they’re recognizing the potential of our demographic here,” she adds. “Honestly, that’s a huge loss for them because we’re a virtually untouched market right now.”
But Janmohamed is optimistic that designers will soon expand their new Muslim-focused collections to Western stores. She says it was “almost unheard of” to find Muslim fashions in the mainstream five years ago. “Within five years, we’ve seen it go from something talked about to something designers are actually marketing,” she says. “The growth curve has been escalating faster and faster.”
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Female designers rising in the Turkish fashion industry

For a long time, the fashion industry, which is generally thought of as dedicating itself to fulfilling women's wants and desires, has been dominated mostly by male designers. Despite the fact that most fashion brands generally cater to women, very few are led by them. To illustrate the point, certain female designers such as Phoebe Philo, Stella McCartney, Alessandra Facchinetti, Jenna Lyons and Clare Waight-Keller have introduced some of the most interesting, successful, inspiring creations in the fashion industry, yet when it comes to talking about prestigious fashion designers around the world, the first names that come to our minds are Christian Dior, Jimmy Choo, Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Pierre Cardin and Roberto Cavalli.
Although men seem to hold the fate of the fashion industry in their hands, can it be true to say that there is a rising trajectory in the careers of female designers? When we think of Istanbul, we clearly see some favorable changes regarding this. Over the past decades, the city's fashion scene has experienced a notable change, as has it arts and design environment. With the new generation of Turkish designers, the fashion industry in Istanbul is getting more attention both from locals and international fashionistas and the number of female designers is increasing significantly.

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With the debut of Istanbul Fashion Week (IFW), also known as "Mercedes Benz Fashion Week," the city's fashion scene clearly changed: The fashion industry in Istanbul is increasingly turning into a world managed by female designers. Each season, the majority of individual designers attending the IFW are female. These trend-setting women enthusiastically introduce new concepts and collections to fashion lovers. There are many boutiques selling top-line clothes and jewelry in the Galata, Nişantaşı, Cihangir, Tophane, and Bebek neighborhoods.
When Istanbul started to prove itself as a global fashion capital at the beginning of the 2000s, some female designers such as Arzu Kaprol, Zeynep Tosun, Dilek Hanif and Gamze Saraçoğlu stood out among the others with their stunning creations. These female designers are now considered as some of the most influential women in Istanbul's fashion scene.
Studying at Mimar Sinan University and the Paris American Academy, Arzu Kaprol has become a brand name reflecting the mystery of Istanbul and Ottoman culture. At first sight, her dresses feature a simple cut design, but in detail, they have a sublime female touch. She also creates sculptural texture designs with the use of lush fabrics. Kaprol has participated in many fashion weeks in Istanbul, Milan, Paris and Dusseldorf and designed dresses for celebrities like Meg Ryan, Gisele Bündchen and Sienna Miller. Currently, she continues to design attire in Istanbul. She has branches in Nişantaşı, Galata and Bağdat Avenue.
Zeynep Tosun, who worked with the famous Italian dressmaker Alberta Ferretti, is particularly known for her designs in haute couture. Founding her own brand in October 2008, she held her first fashion show at the 2010 Istanbul Fashion Week. Defining her style as eclectic, masculine and with contrasting harmonies, Tosun has a shop in Akmerkez Shopping Mall in Etiler. Lady Gaga, Nicole Sherzinger and Keri Hilson are some of the well-known celebrities who have appeared in Zeynep Tosun's designs.
Dilek Hanif, the first Turkish fashion designer admitted to the official Paris Haute Couture Week in 2004, has won many prestigious awards since 2002, including "Most Successful Fashion Designer of the Year" by Avon and "Most Successful Women of the Year" by Oriflame. Today, such celebrities as Jane Fonda, Rebecca Romjin, Katherine Heigl, Nicole Richie, Iggy Azelea, Miranda Kerr, Kelly Brook and Sophia Bush prefer to wear her exquisite collections. In 2012, Hanif opened a boutique in Teşvikiye.
Founding her own brand "Gamze Saraçoğlu Fashion Design Studio" in 2004, Gamze Saraçoğlu sells her products not just in Istanbul but also in Paris, London, and Copenhagen, as well as across the rest of Europe. Between 2007 and 2010, she created designs for many brands including Zara, Marks& Spencer, Kokooi, Nafnaf, Etam, Promod, Chevignon and Apple. Running a boutique in Teşvikye, Saraçoğlu is the board member of the Fashion Design Association and hosts her shows every season at the Istanbul Fashion Week. Mentioning all of these exquisite designers, I recommend you pay a visit to any of these boutiques, if you have time for shopping during your Istanbul trip and would like to know about the tastes of Turkish designers. Zeynep Tosun's inspiring boutique is my recommendation for those who like bohemian fashion trends.
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Cool Girls & Fashion: Montreal Creative Tatiana Poblah’s Style Illustrations

Tatiana Poblah is a multidisciplinary artist born in Montreal to a Haitian mother and a Beninese father. From landscape architecture to illustration and now fashion design, Poblah has developed a unique style that says feminine and strong. With her new clothing line, TATI P., set for an August release, we caught up with the Montreal-based artist to talk about her creative approach.
What do you think?Samantha Etane for Okayafrica: Did you always know you wanted to be an illustrator?
Tatiana Poblah: Yes I did! I attended a Leonardo da Vinci exhibit when I was 6 and decided that I would be an architect and artist at that exact moment. I received my Bachelors and Masters in Landscape Architecture, both while perfecting my skills as a fashion illustrator.

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What do you think?OKA: How has your work evolved over the years?
TP: I think I keep getting better as an artist because I trust myself more. My Mom gave me a quote from Hans Urs von Balthasar [the Swiss theologian and Catholic priest] a few years ago that says “What your are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God”. It has become my motto. Every day I keep developing my strengths as well as working on accepting my weaknesses.
What do you think?OKA: What made you decide to add “fashion designer” to your list of achievements?
TP: I’ve been wanting to launch a line for a while now and every time I would come up with excuses to convince myself that I wasn’t ready. This year I didn’t want to waste one more second of my life doing something else. I also decided to launch TATI P. because I am a curvaceous woman with a small waist and curvy hips AND a voluptuous butt and I am constantly having problems finding skirts, pants, and dresses that fit properly; they often leave a waist gap, are tight at the hips, or fit on top and not on the bottom, or vice versa. I wanted to look good without having to wear clothes with stretch all the time; instead I wanted to wear polished garments made of quality natural fabrics like linen, wool, and silk that would last a long time as well as accentuate my curves. After doing my research I saw that there weren’t many lines dedicated to this market and chose to market the line for this niche.
What do you think?OKA: Was the creative process different this time around?
TP: Yes! Drawing the clothes is one thing but drawing them and executing is another level of creativity. Add that to the fact that I am launching the business as a sole proprietor! It’s been a crazy and an extremely lovely year so far.
What do you think?OKA: How would you describe the woman who wears Tati P. clothes?
TP: The woman who wears TATI P. knows herself and what expresses herself through her personal style; she is a professional, an entrepreneur, a hustler. She grinds and constantly strives to better herself and the world around her.
What do you think?OKA: How would you describe your style?
TP: Home girls in Paris! Solids colors and classics mixed with bright colors and custom patterns that show off my customers’ swag.
What do you think?OKA: What’s next for you and your work?
TP: Right now I can only think of one thing – launching the website on August 23, 2015 and creating pieces that my clients love and buy!
What do you think?
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