DESIGNER MODE: Aysha's Atelier

I've been following an up-and-coming designer for the last year or so, Aysha's Atelier, which I'm becoming a huge fan of as I see more of her dresses and the beautiful work used on the outfits.

I contacted Aysha's Atelier recently to speak to Aysha and find out more about her work, and also find out about placing an order for a formal, especially as she had designs which I really liked. I really like the brand's approach to creating bespoke clothes and the level of commitment given to the outfits, which Aysha sent me some information about after a discussion about her designs:

"We aim to create bespoke pieces of formal and bridal attire and are passionate about attention to detail. We are lucky enough to be working with talented craftsmen to give each outfit it's own unique look, right down to the style and materials used for embellishment."

Formals

I've been looking through the formals that are in Aysha's collections, and love the variety of embroidery and materials used, from cut-work, pearls, french-knots and various metal-work to create gorgeous patterns. The material used is also well-chosen - one of the biggest problems I have with online vendors is that they use either cheap fabrics or have terrible finishing, which can really ruin an outfit. In this case I can see that the material used is a higher quality, and Aysha's knowledge of fabrics and embellishment really shows in her designs.

These two designs are my fvourites from the formal collection, they both are classic designs and you can see that the embroidery is not machine-worked which gives the detail more of a intricate look to it.

"Our "Flowering Quince" and "Crimson and Gold" formal dresses [below] are hand-worked with a significant amount of single resham thread-work to create the delicate flowers."

Bridals

Aysha's Atelier also has a range of custom-made bridals, which are usually designed with the bride, with progress reports every step of the way - again, Aysha makes sure she is very thorough with each decision made.

I love this engagement outfit which was made by Aysha when she was first starting out, and which was an early design a few years ago before she began branching out into more designs. The outfits has a gorgeous colour combination of soft colours, as well as the delicate work is something is isn't always easy to find without having to spend a lot of money.

I also loved this bridal which was made more recently - it was a maxi dress with work all over the dress and the dupatta for a beautifully regal effect. Again, I've seen a few designs like this on the high street but the quality of the work doesn't match this, which is a lot more intricate and well-finished. You can see a lot of thought goes into each piece to make sure the outfit blends well with the work and the colours.

"For our "Blue Winter Rose" bridal, our bride wanted to move away from the typical silver and crystal work often used on similar coloured fabrics and desired a greater use of pearl and white work. She also loved the Swarovski shade "Black Diamond" and we therefore incorporated this shade within the work."

You can contact Aysha directly via Instagram or email Aysha's team directly on ayshasatelier@gmail.com.

Formals start around £300 upwards, bridals are from £1500 and upwards and she also does a range of simpler kurtas, kimonos and gowns which you can work with for a lower budget.

I'll be making an order from this designer very soon, and will be sure to post the results - I have already had several talks with Aysha about what I like and she has given me a lot of ideas for outfits. It's not often I find a designer which I find quite reliable, and better yet, Aysha is based in the UK so there's no worry about miscommunication or any missed messages!

COPYCAT DESIGNS & DRESSES #13: The Green Anarkali Dress by Sonas Couture

I thought I'd post about this dress, which I ordered a long time ago (about 7 or 8 years now!), that I ordered through a friend from her contact in India.

Green and gold are my favourite colour combinations when it comes to Asian clothes, although weirdly enough I don't have many clothes in these colours (my wardrobe just feels like its full of blue dresses right now!)

I originally ordered this dress a few years ago, and found that it was too heavy to wear to my friends' weddings, which is when I wanted to wear it - back then I wore a lot less heavier outfits that I do now and it just felt too dressy for a guest to wear! I then decided to save it for my engagement, should I have one, although in the end I didn't have an official engagement so I never wore it, To be honest, even if I had an engagement, I would probably have gone with something else, perhaps because I felt like I outgrew the style of this outfit.

My opinions of this dress also varied over the year - when I first ordered it I was astounded at how long it was and didn't like it, and packed it away. A few years later I pulled it out (when the fashion of hemlines were long!) and wished it was long - it was too short for me! Eventually I didn't wear it at all and actually ended up selling it online, I didn't think it suited me and thought there was no point in it taking up wardrobe space.

For anyone who wants to know about this outfit and where I ordered it from, I don't have specific details as a friend of mine ordered it from India. I do know that the tailors are called Hafeez and that they were based around Delhi area.

So this is the original design that I sent to India, which I think is from Sonas Couture but I'm not 100% sure, although I do remember this being a popular design which was copied by a lot of online sellers.

Below is the dress that I got, which was actually a pretty decent copy, although one of the reasons I got it so cheap was the work was a lot more cheaper, being mostly french knot threadwork, beading and sequins. The colours were pretty spot on though and the shape of the dress was good, although the bust area wasn't perfect but it looked better on.

Here's a few close ups of the dress - it was pretty full of work and really heavy because there were motifs and a heavy hemline on the front and back. It was also pretty tightly knit, in all the years I had the dress the work didn't really get messed up, surprisingly enough. It also helped that the dress itself was made from georgette rather than the usual chiffon material sellers often use, which meant the fabric was a little sturdy.

I haven't got a picture of myself wearing this outfit because I only tried it on a couple of times, and while it didn't look quite as good as it did on the model in the picture above, it was really flattering. It was pretty slimming on as well, although I do remember wishing I could get it made longer!

THE GOOD: The price - at the time of buying this outfit, I bought another 4 and paid £250 for all of them, so this worked out about £60-70 because it was the heaviest outfit. I may have gotten a discount because there were so many outfits, but there would be no way I'd ever get a dress like this for this price!

THE BAD: The bust, I really wasn't a fan of it. I didn't get a lot of choice at the time of ordering in terms of making alterations, and because it was done through a friend who had to shout down details over the phone to India, I didn't want to confuse or complicate things so I didn't make any changes at all. I don't really tend to go for outfits which emphasise the bust area too much, it did fit pretty well and I always like to make sure something is tailored to my body properly, but I didn't think this was a an amazing shape on me because I'm more straight than curvy in terms of body shapes!

THE UGLY: Squeezing into the outfit a few years after I bought it, and realising I wasn't a size 6 anymore!

OVERALL: I got a pretty decent deal with this outfit, and although I didn't end up wearing it, it was pretty beautiful to me when I got it. I loved (and still love) this colour combination and would still wear them as a formal even now. I remember looking into getting a jamwar or brocade fabric skirt or sharara made for this outfit, so that I would give a really flowy look to the outfit but in the end I didn't because I decided not to keep the outfit.

It's nice to look back at outfits I've had in my wardrobe and see how far fashion has come, and also the idea of ordering from India and Pakistan. Nowadays I do a lot more online shopping and I have more of an experienced eye when looking in the shops and online, although I don't think I did too badly with this one!

Amir Khan gets engaged to Faryal Makhdoom

Boxing celeb Amir Khan got engaged over the weekend, in a lavish ceremony with 20-year old student Faryal Makhdoom, and the pair looked great together. The sari with the bride-to-be picked was very beautiful, having fitted long sleeves on the blouse, and silver and pearI motifs. I particularly loved the shade of deep, cranberry red the sari was in most, it's a very flattering, rich colour and looks very elegant. Expect a few copies of this sari to be soon floating around folks, although I'm not sure where Faryal herself got hers designed from, I'm sure it wasn't cheap!

 Images from here

The Engagement Outfits...(finally!)

I've finally managed to get a few pictures of the engagement we had for my sister last weekend, and I must say, I'm quite please with the general look we had, and how much fun we all day that day!

This is the outfit below, which was a pretty grey and hot pink dress from Zeba'ish, a local shop in East London. What I love (and why she picked the dress) was how flattering the shape was, and how classic and wearable the dress was. It wasn't too too heavy, which was suitable as we really only had a small event, and it has a good mix of the East-meets-West, fusion style that is often seen in Asian fashion. It's also a very feminine dress, plenty of swishes to be had and the hot pink really compliments the grey without either being over-powering, The dress is made from several layers of material to give it a little volume, and was also less shinier than the pictures suggest, rather it was a subtle shimmer which made it look pretty. The other clincher about the dress is how unique it looks, it looks entirely fashionable by today's standards, yet the shape and style of it means that it is something that can be worn over the next few years without it feeling dated. I think my favourite part of the dress has to be the hem, which had strips of pink velvet and silver and looked very luxurious.

My sister also got her hair and make-up done by a make-up artist who was recommended to us. Honestly, we weren't too impressed by the make-up that was done and the final result, as it looked a bit hurried, and didn't look particularly special. What we were more pleased with was the hair style my sister got - its suited her hair and the dress perfectly, and looked very elegant.

The decor we kept mainly in the house, and quite simple, as we didn't want things to get too cluttered. We draped fairy-lights, organza fabric and strings of silver beads along the wall to go with the pink and grey theme we were having. We also added some ornaments such as silver lamps (spray painted by  myself!), pink candles, pink and silver sequinned table runners and pink and silver balloons, which really gave a nice effect for the house. We also decided to keep this theme for the presents which we gave to the groom's family, and it was a nice surprise to see that they had also brought gifts, in a rainbow coloured theme!

Here are a few peeks of some of the outfits which my sisters and I wore on the day (I ended up wearing this outfit), while most of the girls in the family wore various styles of abayahs, long kameezes, short ones and pretty dresses. The last picture is of my niece in her lovely flowery print dress posing at the restaurant we went to!

It was a lovely day for all of us, not too fussy and not too extravagant. It was great fun running around getting last minute pieces and doing the decorations in the home (as well as picking out our outfits!).


The restaurant we also went to was great, called Lahori Grill, which gave us a a good deal on the with the food and venue, and had a really nice atmosphere on the whole.

Next up...wedding planning! Anyone getting married this year, or have a close wedding to attend and help out with? I think we all like to see ourselves as stylish and good as event-planning type things like decorations, outfits, gifts and venues, so it will be interesting to see how my creative family gets on with a wedding in the family. We've had a little experience after my brother's wedding reception last year, but there's always room for improvement!

Do share any tips with us, we'll all be browsing online on how to get our creative side inputted into the wedding!

Sneek Peeks...!

Hey all, hope you had a lovely weekend! Don't have any proper pictures to show you yet of the weekend I had, but here's some sneaky pictures I took while helping out in getting the decor/gifts ready. Sorry it looks so ambiguous, but thought I'd show you the colour theme and the material we used so you can see what we did! Enjoy :)

 

Engagement outfits...

There's excitement and aflutter in the Curly Fry household at the moment, with one of the girls (one of my sisters of course!) in the family getting engaged with this coming weekend. We're still running around sorting out various things (decor, outfits, food, outfits, cake, shoes!)  and we're slowly managing to pull everything together.

The main thing, of course, was my sister's engagement outfit, which we didn't want to be too extravagant as it's not really going to be a big 'do'. We looked around a lot of shops nearby and found a whole variety of outfits, but she finally settled on an outfit from Zeba'ish, which is situated in Green Lane, East London. I've had favourable reviews from this shop (and their designer) before, and certainly when we visited the store we found more than one outfits which took our fancy. Below are a few examples of the promotional material for the store.

What I liked about the Zeba'ish is how so many outfit have a great mix of vibrant colour and style, and there really seems to be something for everyone. There were traditional looking kundan-embellished anarkalis, pearls on kameezes and sparkling maxi dresses, to full blown bridal gowns, Victorian-style, empire-waist long dresses, and even one men's suit which seemed to have a slight Austin Powers twist to it (ruffles and all!).

Here's a few of their extravagant outfits from their most recent shows, featuring bold colours, a variety of materials and styles, and rich embellishments, to get a bit more idea of the range that we saw in the store. Even though the styles and dresses we were looking at were a bit more toned down than these ones, they still had that sense of uniqueness - certainly, the designer of the store told us that each piece is a one-off piece, which adds to the appeal.

Images taken from Viya Magazine

I'm not allowed to post any pictures of the final outfit that we picked (sister's orders!) until she's worn it on the day, but it's definitely a lovely outfit, and it captures the 'fusion' style of this store very well. Suffice to say, the theme of the decor will be greys and hot pink - so more details and pictures to come very soon!