Sandra Backlund Knitwear

Sandra Backlund is an incredible design talent and this is the reason we decided to post a small collection of her work above. She has a way of using volume and material in bizarre yet innovative ways. She is an amazing knitwear designer, but she also has a talent of using unexpected materials suck as molded fabric, hair, and even paper clips. Check out more of her work at www.sandrabacklund.com.

Featured Photographer: Brendan Austin

Brendan Austin has earned his spot as our new featured photographer. His work is crisp, clear and unexpected. We love his choices of subject matter, whether it be in his portfolio, notebook or even commissioned works. Check out more of his photos at www.brendanaustin.com.

Let us know what you think of his work, and feel free to recommend any new artists to feature here at The Albert Zoll, Inc. Blog.

Haider Ackermann

We have chosen some looks from Haider Ackermann's F.W.08 show that stood out as our favorites. We love Ackermann's designs and use of luxurious materials, but in dramatic and unexpected ways. His color palette is also so subtle and elegant we couldn't help but take notice. Check out more of his work on style.com, as well as a featured video at SHOWstudio and keep an eye out for more of his work, we know we will.

SHOWstudio: The Belgians

As always, we love SHOWstudio and in particular their project The Belgians.
They feature our favorite designers such as Martin Margiela, Haider Ackermann, Bruno Pieters, AF Vandevorst, Jean-Paul Knott, Véronique Leroy and Veronique Branquinho.

Fashion Illustrator: Cecilia Carlstedt

Our new featured illustrator is Cecilia Carlstedt. Below are some images from her portfolio. She has worked for quite a diverse clientele such as Bloomingdales, La Perla and the NY Times. Her hand is controlled and she has an amazing sense of color and composition which earned her a spot as one of our featured illustrators. She has gone to The Fashion Institute of Technology, University of Stockholm and The London College of Communications.

Check out more of her work at www.ceciliacarlstedt.com.

Other Featured Illustrators:
David Downton
Eduard Erlikh

Nouveau Knitwear

There has been some incredible knitwear this F.W08 season. Some of our favorites were Iceberg with their large chunky cords draped across the body in a vibrant orange and black. Also, Doo.Ri has a great white cable knit sweater that was incredibly wearable and luxurious but still has that innovative element of unexpected design. And then finally, there was Benjamin Cho's bizarre elk outfit that was simply included in our lookbook because of it's humor.

Camilla Skovgaard

Born in Denmark, followed by training in the art of coutour in Paris, Skovgaard truly fell into her niche of shoe design while in Dubai. She was able to further develop her abilities by attending Cordwainers shoe college for her BA.

She has won a variety of awards for her unique footwear designs. Most recently, she has been getting quite a bit of press in such publications as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and The Times. Her shoes are made out of super-refined and high quality materials. What really made us take notice is her clean planar aesthetic. Check out more of her work at camillaskovgaard.com.

LBDs. Please!

The Little Black Dress (LBD) is sure to be reinterpreted each and every season by the best designers around. Here are some of our choice looks for the F.W. 08 season, from conservative to the more avant-garde. The use of materials varies with some wool crepes, to leather and ostrich feathers as well as the beautiful fabric treatment that Ralph Rucci used on his spaghetti strapped number. Though some are more wearable then others, we have everyone from Balenciaga to Narciso Rodriguez and even Gareth.

Shoes: Funky, Fabulous...and a bit Freaky

Here are our choices of the best/most ridiculous shoes for the season. Though some are more practical then others we love the bold shapes and use of unexpected materials such as goat hair on Pierre Hardy's patent leather sandal.

Balenciaga
Patent and mirrored leather Escarpins bootie.

Pierre Hardy
Patent leather sandal with goat-hair detail.

Lanvin
Metallic bootie with lacquered cone heel.

Christian Louboutin
Leather and ponyhair patchwork bootie.

Prada
Leather ankle boot.

All photos courtesy of Style.com

Trims-Turned-Textiles: Cat Chow's Zippers

To further out post about Trims-Turned-Textiles, we found it necessary to include the master, Cat Chow. She is one of those artist that pushes the envelope by using everyday common materials, but in unexpected ways. One of our favorite examples is her zipper dress, that is created by a single continuous length of zipper. The gown not only uses an unexpected material to create the "fabric" of the garment but the way that it is constructed forces the wearer to be zipped into the dress.

Best Bags of the Season

Here are some of our favorite bags this season from style.com's accessory report. Accessories over the past few season have been pushing the envelope as far as innovative use of materials and ironic design details. We love the use of materials shown on these bags from the rippled strips of leather on Burberry's Lowry Bag and glass gem encrusted clutch to Lavin's use of grosgrain ribbon as a textile for their Happy Partage handbag. The most innovative use of materials was shown on Salvatore Ferragamo's resin and mesh fringe bag shown below. This accessory resembles more of a sculpture then a handbag. And finally, we have Marni's suede handbag with its simple shape, typical Marni aesthetic, but what sets it apart is the very specific use of color, it's subtle, yet still looks rich along with the distinctive high shine hardware.

Christian Lacroix
Clutch with feather detail.

Burberry
Alligator clutch with amber glass gems.

Burberry
Corrugated alligator pleated Lowry bag.

Lanvin
Grosgrain Happy Partage handbag.

Salvatore Ferragamo
Tiered mesh fringe frame bag with resin barrel closure.

Marni
Suede handbag.

Prada's Lacy Things

Here are two bags from Prada for the F.W. 2008 season courtesy of style.com's most recent accessory report. We adore the wit and ironic way that Miuccia Prada designs and this is one of our favorite collections from Prada recently, accessories included.

Find all types of lace, ribbons, trim and handbag handles from Albert Zoll, Inc.

The Unconventional Wedding

Balenciaga's Single Seam Wedding Gown - 1967

This wedding gown by Balenciaga was created in 1967, one year before Cristobal Balenciaga decided to officially close the house in 1968. The gown is created with only one seam which creates a simple and very intentional triangular silhouette. This is a prime example of how Balenciaga's work became further simplified and increasingly architectural as his career went on.

Yohji Yamamoto Wedding Dress S.S 2000.
Natural cotton muslin and ivory silk jersey with large laser-cut holes.
Images Courtesy of the Costume Institute

Yamamoto has a unique ability to deconstruct and reinterpret clothing like very few other designers, and this dress is a prime example of that. To view more information about this dress visit one of our favorite blogs blog.mode: addressing fashion by The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This gown can be recreated using muslin from Albert Zoll, Inc.

Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci
Lauren Davis's reception/after-party gown

Both of Lauren Davis's gown were designed by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci, but of the two, this one remains our favorite. This is the feathered gown she changed into for the wedding reception, and later had Theyskens literally cut into a mini-dress for the after-party. The white feather gown is so beautiful in its simplicity with the allover texture created by the feather embellishment, and also in the clearly flattering silhouette of the dress, but then what else would you expect from Theyskens?

Albert Zoll's has an assortment of items to make any dress you can imagine from feathers, thread, trims and beads.