Valentin Herraiz's collection "Valentia"

View of the press conference set up at the "Alfons el Magnànim" assembly hall, built in 1886 as a neo-byzantine chapel

"Designing the future is looking for and finding beauty to make mankind happy [...] Designing the future is to project living with intensity the present and understanding the past nicely". Alberto Campo Baeza

(Pictures shot by Leticia. Thanks for being my blog-tographer for a day!)

Anastasia - EcoThiQue. Sometimes it truly feels like the Universe aligns to bring you the most unexpected experiences. As I love getting involved on every project and every new idea, both related to personal to professional-related fields, I was looking for a new way to get involved into something exciting when I found about Workkola. Workkola is a brand new Spanish-based startup which aims to connect College students with startups related to their educational field or interest. The startup chosen by the student gives him a task to accomplish inside the company; offering in return a recommendation at LinkedIn, a letter of recommendation or even the possibility to enroll the startup as part of the team.

So, that's how I discovered today's main character here at the "Behind the Design" section at the blog. Anastasia - EcoThiQue is a Colombian based company created in the wake of two truly laudable goals: to make something profitable out of tons of textile waste (T-shirt collars, wrong-dyed fabrics and textile leftovers which is a real problem) and to help a community of mothers in charge of disabled child. Did you know that more than 32,5kg of textile is wasted per person, a year? And that more than a 48% of it might be reusable for good?

I got the chance to talk with María del Mar, Anastasia's CEO and founder and have a glimpse of the hard work they do everyday. Anastasia - EcoThiQue helps those mothers by including them at their production chain of handcrafted clutches, handbags and accessories made out of textile leftovers, which ends on an unique and colorful product. A fashion company is much more than catwalks and great design: there's a lot of management, talks and meetings with producers, with the community in this particular case, with future stockists and vendors... Being a contributor helped me have a little look on how hard it is to coordinate everything and everyone as an orchestra director, to obtain a final product to sell, which has to have an impact on the public to keep growing.

Anastasia has also worked hard on keeping a lovely and very attractive image on their main social network which is their Instagram official account , full of colorful images featuring artists and fashion bloggers carrying their handbags on unique photomontages.

Designing your own clothing may look like a really difficult thing when you have zero sewing skills. But it actually isn't. As you already might know, I'm a design enthusiast, and I do design a lot of things. I'm always drawing, creating, even doing my own prototypes of circle skirts, jewelry, etc. But one thing I'm unable to do is sewing. I'm a total dummy on sewing, and I will always fail sewing my own dresses and a bit more complicated than circle skirts designs. But I still wanted to create and wear my designs... And then light came: Why not hiring a seamstress who I could take the fabric I wanted to, explain my idea to her and who could give me some advise on how would be the best way on getting my new, unique piece to be made?

At first I thought it would be one of the most difficult tasks to do in this world. A seamstress? It would be absolutely impossible to find one, and also a very expensive thing. But anything beyond it! At least in Valencia (and I presume, most medium-sized cities and towns on this world) there're plenty of both professional and amateur seamstresses who do not only sew dresses and blouses, but will also help you fixing an unexpected hole on your favorite jeans, will shorten your pants' or party dresses hems. Finding María José was pretty easy just doing some research on the Internet and asking friends and relatives, and her workshop is just a few bus stops near home. We brought to her a few fabrics (this red Toile de Jouy fabric is actually from this fabric haul I did a long, long time ago...) and just explained to her with words and a few drawings what we had in mind for our brand new, unique clothing designs. 

Apart from this super cute, vintage inspired A-line pleated Toile de Jouy dress, she also sewn a felted winter skirt which I hope I can show as soon as I start shooting winter outfits!

Have you ever brought something to a seamstress to be fixed? Do you also design clothing but do not sew them?

#CHAPELLESUMMER. As some of you might know, I'm a regular contributor at Chapelle Magazine, an independent online fashion magazine 100% made in Valencia and where I have the pleasure to review fashion shows, talk about fashion and architecture or trends every three months. I'm very proud on taking part on this project, not only because their founders (Eduardo, Natalia and Beatriz) have become true fashion colleagues, but also because Chapelle Magazine is one of the most important independent fashion publications at the city right now, giving the opportunity to young and emergent designers to feature their creations and to reach more people interested on their designs.

As last week, I was invited to one of the most iconic and modern places in Valencia which is L'Umbracle, a partially covered garden turned into a terrace and summer lounge bar where I had the pleasure on covering the Barreira A+D School fashion show last week. This time I came not only as a blogger to tell you all what happened there, but also as a contributor, friend and kind of assistant on the previous backstage. I will tell you about that, about what happens behind (and before) the show on another post (because the first thing you should see is the final result, like when Cinderella attended the ball) but I can tell you there were nerves, there were plenty of mishaps and everything happened on a rush.

As it was the launch of the new Summer issue, we had the chance to see some swimwear collections of designers featured at the new number and even a dance performance by dance crew DSM5. Eve Angel Suit, Moisés Prats, Isabel Akkin, Anna Vicent, Nathnit, Montag73 and E. Jairycovich were the ones in charge to add fashion and style to the night with their collections of bikinis, swimsuits (both for men and women), beach wraps and accessories. Their designs were as fresh as ever when talking about young designers, and the night was as fun and bright as I thought it would be. Congratulations!

When I first met Elvira 't Hart designs I could do nothing but feel amazed at the idea behind the whole line and the particular performance process.

Elvira is a fashion designer and illustrator based in Utrecht, Netherlands. She absolutely loves drawing and sketching, her work has been featured on several expositions and fashion fairs in Paris and Milan, international magazines and also worn by Lady Gaga! Just a little hint of the talent I'm talking to you about today.

Sometimes I think I learn tons of things at the School of Architecture, except how to do architecture. I promise: the weirdest things you could never imagine, the most unbelievable situations, the most curious speeches, I've learnt them all at college. And there's still some years for me to go, so this has just started.

One of the anecdotes I talked above has a lot to do with fashion. I needed to tell you, because when I heard of it, I though it was so fun and rare that I was in need of sharing it.

Nowadays is not a weird thing having a multidisciplinary job which can be based on different disciplines and combine the best of several professions. I've met artists converted into makeup-artists, but also financial and marketing experts who have come to the dark side and are now designing websites. Industrial designers who illustrate books at nighttime. And why not, architects (some of them known all over the world, and considered the best creating buildings) who have decided to transfer their talent at creation into clothes and accessories. Without going any further, Rem Koolhas and Zaha Hadid launched some time ago a pair of shoe collections collaborating with famous brands and shoe designers. Gianni Versace studied architecture, as Gianfranco Ferré and Pierre Balmain, who didn't finish the degree because he wanted to focus on his career at Haute Couture. But 120 years ago, this was not so simple: if you studied something, odds were that was your profession for life.

First of all, sorry for the massive lack of posts or either signs of life around here guys. Having limited or even non-existent free time at all it's one of the "perks" of architecture students. Actually not free time at all but also all the craziness around deliveries and drawings and work and so on that those really few seconds you have for yourself you spend them doing totally random things which have nothing to do with obligatory things. At all. And that includes the blog.

It's not like I put it on hiatus or something, writing here and meeting all of you is one of the most fun, amazing things I've been ever at. But that's the same reason why I've been out for awhile: I needed to focus on classes this last weeks (totally crazy. No sleeping at all and hard working hours and hours), but also needed to boost my creativity on the little gaps I used to blog. I've been collaborating with some friends (stay tuned at the Fashionart crew, they're launching their very first online magazine issue and I wrote something for them!) and thinking about new fashion projects coming.

Some of you who follow Something Fashion on our fan page might have noticed about my little adventure into shoe designing which actually turned into clutches and fabric designing. Seriously, the pattern and fabric design thing is thrilling and lets my mind fly away from classes and daily issues for a while. I'm planning to launch soon a little collection of unique clutches, makeup bags and pouches. They're really fun to do, and also super useful! Stay tuned at that.

Believe me, it feels literally like decades since the last time I got out to shoot some outfits! I'm super on the mood for it, so as soon as I'm able to you'll have me around here once again.

[...] ''For the fashion industry, I believe the digital aspect gives the designs a whole different feel- and that is what I think attracts people to it. It isn't the traditionally and commonly used method of hand painting and sketching'' [...]

Meet Angelina Paldzyan, blogger and illustrator from Fashion Freedom, where she features her personal way to combine fashion and art on an universal and understandable language for everybody. Angelina is a young artist born in California but Armenian descent, who wants to study fashion design while she recreates on her drawings collections by famous designers like Giambattista Valli or Valentino.

Fashion is body art. A framed art piece looks nice hung up on a wall, right? But what if you took that same art piece, turned it into a patterned, textured fabric and made it into a structured dress? The woman wearing this dress would add much more effect to it with her confidence and energy. This is what fascinates me the most: the impact that nice clothes have on people and vice versa. I draw fashion because I admire the concept of style and personality coming together with art and design.

Shading! It's the key to a more realistic, three-dimensional illustration.

[...] ''For me, what's important is the story behind the design, the care you put when you create a very unique design'' [...]

Meet Sofi Le Geron and her designs at LouveDeNordneg, where art and imagination turn into unique silk scarves and bowties. Sofi studied at London's Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, and launched her brand on 2011. She designs chiffon silk pieces from manipulated photographs of different objects and sculptures created by her own.

Your designs are delicate and very imaginative. How does the main idea of a pattern come up? 

It will all sound very romantic (OMG I’m so French sometimes!!) but for this collection, I used withered flowers from my garden, feathers, leaves, ink, pearls, ribbons, lace, etc. I use these as a base to create miniature sculptures (yes I’m quite small – size 6 and 162cm so I like creating small worlds that fits me!). I spend hours carefully arranging my selection of objects to make sure that the final result is as perfect as possible, harmonious, well balanced and striking by their colours and textures. 

Tell us a little bit about the process that your scarves and bowties follow. Do you use chiffon silk for any particular reason?

I just love silk. It’s so soft on the skin, so delicate, floaty, light but strong at the same time, like the tiny little worms who make it, haha! Because my designs are quite romantic and aerial, so I felt that it was the perfect material to use. 

Do you think there’s any particular pattern, shape or colors that always come on your scarves? Or they just come up in total different ways?

My designs always come up differently, that’s what I prefer when I create patterns: sometimes they really surprise me. When you create something, it’s like psychoanalyzing yourself somehow: you  discover traits of your personality you might not have been aware of. Getting a different result each time is very exciting. But the challenge is to have an harmonious collection and that takes a lot of practice, knowledge and learning. 

Here's the expected post about architecture & fashion I talked to you about some posts ago. Today I want to talk to you about something we see everyday and maybe we don't think about it too much, but can be considered another important point at fashion: window displaying and visual merchandising.

Why I consider this architecture? It's another way to create spaces, and creating a window display or a shop itself is somehow another way to designing an interior project. You must work with light, furniture, colors and lots of factors as you'd do on a house, on a work space as an office, etc. The goal here is that you want the client to gaze at the product you want to. You want to get someone's attention at what you're selling, and it has to look 200% incredible than it actually is.
Think about this: maybe you didn't have looked at that dress or shirt if a designer didn't put the light like this or that.

• What: Window displaying, and fashion shop design in general. The principal target is to attract the client and create a sort of visual impact.

I love full mornings downtown. Almost all my friends are out of city for holidays, and because I'm taking my driving license course and I had to go to University to fill documents and prepare everything to enroll on it, I'm still here bearing with this horrible warm weather.

As I had to go out to look for the Clinique treatment I talked to you about and so on (and why not, because I'm bored when I'm home in the mornings), I decided to go out downtown to visit a family's friend who owns a bridal store (she also has lovely cocktail and party dresses, some of them by Patricia Avendaño, a very famous designer in Spain) and decided to try on some dresses, because once a year I'm having an important gala on the local holiday association (every March, Valencia celebrates the ''Fallas'' and most of us belong to a ''Falla'') and we must wear elegant or cocktail dresses. It's the perfect chance to feel like a celebrity of Gossip Girl character, or feel like you're stepping the red carpet.

I tried on four very different dresses, and I must chose one. I think all of them had that unique, classy but different and with modern sparkles shape that defines my style. We decided to do an improvised photo shoot so I could show you what I chose.