Fashion Main Page

Fashion

Mercedez Benz Fashion Week Madrid September 2020 - Brand: Malne, Designers: Juanjo Mánez & Paloma Alvarez

Alice Berry - French Fashion Designer

When it comes to the world of fashion, whether you are talking about couture or made to fit (custom fit) clothing for women, there are really two options trendy, cutting edge or classic designs. With the former what was in style last year is no longer fashionable this year and you have to replace those clothes, which means you need to have a big clothing budget and it contributes to the amount of waste that ends up in landfill sites and in turn that contributes to damaging our environment further. With the more classic designs, they are timeless, which means for quality you can afford to pay a bit more, because you do not have to replace your wardrobe every year or every second year. It therefore follows that those clothes are more sustainable in environmental terminology. Even if the original owner decides to one day part ways with quality classic designs, there are plenty of eager buyers in the women’s consignment market.

Recently, Riveting Riffs Magazine sat down with fashion designer Alice Berry of Alice Berry Atelier from Paris, France to talk about her timeless clothing designs for women and the importance she places on her collections being sustainable.

“I think timeless dresses are a better choice, because for example in ten years my customers can always wear them. On the contrary if the dresses are on the cutting edge of fashionRead More

Charlott Axenström - Swedish Designer

When you are a little girl growing up in a tiny village in the very far north of Sweden where during the middle of the winter you may only have at most two hours of daylight and you are in some of the best ski country in Sweden, one supposes like most children you turn to sports or music. Charlotte Axenström became an avid skier, something she still enjoys today, but her imagination and creativity, also took her in another direction.

“It was kind of boring,” Charlott Axenström says chuckling, “I think that was the key (to where this all began), you are so bored and it is so dark. I am a skier and a swimmer and I was into clothes. I started sketching clothes when I was five years of age. I think when you have so much time to think about it you (become good at what you are doing). That is what I tell my daughter you have to be bored (first) to be good. If you have everything just in front of you there is no reason for your brain to work.”

“I grew up in the same village in northern Sweden as Ingemar Stenmark the skier (Editor’s note: Ingemar Stenmark won more international ski races than any other skier in history, including eighty-six World Cup wins). I think with it being dark for twenty-two hours every day (in the winter) that was part of the creative process. Yes it is dark and you are out skiing, but you also stayRead More

Andra Cora - Fashion Interview

In recent years Riveting Riffs Magazine has been highlight independent fashion designers from different countries and our guest recently was Andra Cora from Valencia, Spain, an autonomous region of the country and whose three largest cities are Valencia, Alicante and Castellón and the region’s population is approximately two million people.

Andra Cora talks about the influences that are reflected in the women’s clothing that she designs, “I like the romantic drama of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries and the structural silhouettes of the 1940s and ‘50s. The silhouettes and construction lines inspire me, but also the social (implications) within the historical context.

I incorporate the past into the present to create the future Nowadays making an impression is increasingly complicated, especially if your work is focused more on handmade, as mine is and not focused on technology.”

There is an elegant charm about Andra Cora’s clothing that appeals to the feminine side of women and yet the designs also have a boldness and strength about them.Read More

Double Down Cosmetics

One listens to Marvin and Kristen Speller talk about their married life, about Doubledown Cosmetics, the work they do in the community and Kristen’s music and you are immediately struck by how supportive they are of one another and the warmth of their love for one another.

The seeds were sown a long time for their cosmetic line, as Marvin explains, “I will give the shorter version of this. Almost nine years ago when we first met, I was in North Carolina and I had custody of my daughter and she had a dance recital that weekend. As a guy I knew nothing about makeup. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I put my thinking cap on and I called Kristen up and I said I need help and lots of it. She knew a lot about makeup and I thought she was an expert. She was always so passionate about it.

Fast forward down the road and she was always sharing makeup tips with people and always watching people and the gurus. I have always been of the mindset that when you are with someone that you love, a close friend or family member and definitely a significant other you try to help them make their dreams come true.

I kept saying to Kristen you really need a product, because this is something that you are so passionate about and you are so great. She was a guru from my perspective. She was really into it. Last year (2018) we just decided to go for it. The first product was a makeup bag. It is vegan and cruelty free and it coincided with what we do with wellness. It was a great product and there was a market out there for that.”Read More

Paloma del Pozo - Spanish Designer

It was a Friday afternoon in February when I left the Melia Princesa Hotel in Madrid walked to the estacion de metro Ventura Rodriguez and made my way by train to another station Gran Via – Pedro Zorolo. It was a sunny day and the open square, like so many in Madrid was bustling in a good way. There was energy, laughter and a lot of people in this city of seven million. I was on my way to Calle de las Huertas, Number 5, fashion designer Paloma del Pozo’s shop. Like many of the shops in this neighborhood of narrow winding cobblestone and pavement streets, the shop Ojalá Paloma del Pozo has a somewhat modest storefront, but it is full of treasures inside.

My journey to interview this warm, delightful woman began several months earlier when I noticed a fabulous blouse that was worn by Spanish television, film and stage actress Silvia Marso. When I commented on Ms. Marso’s Instagram account about the blouse, she immediately without my asking directed me to Paloma del Pozo. The interview was arranged by her equally warm and personable assistant Sara.

So here I found myself thousands of miles at home surrounded by blouses, skirts, dresses and slacks rich in texture and colorful and in the presence of two fabulous women.

“We don’t make a collection,” says Paloma del Pozo, “We make what we want. We don’t have the sameRead More

Head of Fashion Odd Molly

In 2002 Per Holknet, a former skateboarding world champion, former drug addict and previously homeless person got together with designer Karin Jimfelt-Ghatan and financier Christer Andersson and co-founded the Swedish clothing company Odd Molly, with a shared vision inspired by a real life girl named Molly. The Odd Molly brand is now sold through a combination of boutiques and Odd Molly owned stores throughout the world. (Editor’s note: Holknet and Jimfelt-Ghatan left Odd Molly in 2013 to pursue other business ventures.)

Recently, Anna Bonnevier, the Head of Fashion for Odd Molly took time to talk to Riveting Riffs Magazine from her home in Sweden.

Ms. Bonnevier elaborates on the story behind Odd Molly, “The Odd Molly brand would not exist if there was no Molly girl. It is a true story, because one of the founders Per was a skateboard pro in the ‘80s and at that time he lived in Los Angeles and there was one girl called Molly, just hanging around the skate parks and so on. It was her personal look and style that really inspired Per to start this brand. I know that Per and Karin bumped into each other in L.A.”

We wondered just who is this Molly girl and is she still an inspiration for the designers today?

“Per often talked about her as the girl that everyone wanted to be with, because she was just having her own way of doing everything and also because of the way that she dressed. I think it is the spirit of this girl that is the most inspiring part, becauseRead More

All written material, all photographs and all designs are protected by copyright © and patents by the writers, photographers, editors, designers, musicians, songwriters musicians and filmmakers who contribute to Riveting Riffs Magazine or have by consent allowed their work to be exhibited in Riveting Riffs Magazine, and / or Riveting Riffs Magazine and Joe Montague. Use of any material that appears in Riveting Riffs Magazine, without the written permission of the publisher and where applicable other rights holders, is strictly prohibited and is subject to legal action. This includes the reprinting, in whole or in part on the internet, by photocoping, reposting on blogs or other websites or magazines or newspapers that appear in print or quoting more than 200 words of any one composition, on terrestrial radio, internet radio, satellite radio, webcasts or television.