Tag Archives: collection

Intern-al Affairs 4: Ashleigh

Time to say good-bye to our latest intern Ashleigh Altham. Coming directly from Australia, Ashleigh completed a 3-month placement with us. From photoshoots to garment production, social media updates to press releases, she gave us a precious helping hand in the last months leading up to our second collection launch. Starting her studies in Criminology and Criminal Justice, she changed field and graduated with a degree in Fashion Marketing and Merchandising from the Australian Institute of Creative Design in Brisbane. She then gained styling experience in retail for an Australian designer as well as for fashion shows and shoots before coming over to London.

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Why did you want to work for Antithesis?

Antithesis was first introduced to me through an internship company that was helping me find an internship that was suited to my career wants and needs. After years of experience working in the retail industry back home, I was really inspired by the work that Antithesis do and what they stand for. It was really refreshing to work with a label that wants to connect with their customers and not only focus on what’s trending that season but how their clothes can be multi-functional but stylish at the same time. I also love that it is really important that everything is manufactured in the UK.

What have you learned during your internship?

I’ve learnt a lot throughout my internship, it’s been a really well rounded experience for me. I always had a range of tasks so it was never boring. There’s nothing worse than doing the same thing day and in and day out. It was also really great to learn more about sustainable fashion as it was never something I had a lot of knowledge about.

What have you most enjoyed doing in your time at Antithesis?

I really enjoyed working with both Renée and Zahra; it meant I always had something new and exciting to do. It could range anywhere from working in production and meeting with manufacturers and pattern cutters, to social media management and blogging.

What do you think this internship has brought you?

Above all else my internship has taught me a lot of myself and life and given me more knowledge and confidence to building a successful career.

 What are your ambitions for the future?

I’m still trying to find an answer to that question myself but I’m really excited to get back home and find out!

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Intern-al Affairs 3: Marcia

Good things come and go, such as our wonderful interns. Marcia Asante has been helping us in the studio for a little over two months. Sourcing textile digital printers, visiting trim suppliers, sketching new attachments ideas, filling in cost sheets; in terms of design assistance, she has pretty much done it all! Born and raised in London, she first started her studies with a Foundation degree in Art and Design before going on a Fashion Design course at the University of Hertfordshire. She now works in retail as a key holder and is looking at gaining experience as a pattern cutter.

Marcia at work!

Marcia at work!

Why did you want to work for Antithesis?

I came across some of the brands pieces on one of their model’s social network page and loved the designs. Doing more research into the company, I discovered what they stood for and the multi-functional clothing amazed me.

What have you learned during your internship?

I have learnt a lot during this internship, the most important being pattern cutting on a professional level. I studied pattern cutting during my degree but not on this level so I have to thank you guys for that.

What have you most enjoyed doing in your time at Antithesis?

What I enjoyed most was working with Renée.  She was amazing to work with and taught me so much. I also enjoyed the trips that to various fabric and trimming stores, it opened my eyes to the large amount of creative stores in London .

 What do you think this internship has brought you?

I feel that this internship has brought me a world of experience. It was an all-rounder and I gained experience in everything; from design research, pattern cutting to general admin. There was always thing new to do when I came in to work which made it a  experience.

 What are your ambitions for the future?

My ambition for the future is to continue to gain more work experience and to do a pattern cutting course to brush up on my skills. Hope to later on be a senior pattern cutter and then go on to start my own fashion label .

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Grids & Curves

This season we’re proud to be continuing our partnership with Alcantara to embellish our collection. Based in Italy, Alcantara is a high-end textile manufacturer producing unique and innovative materials. Offering a combination of sensory, aesthetic and functional values, their materials are made in complete respect for the environment whilst respecting ethical and social standards. For our second collection, we chose bright colours and contrasting geometrical and organic textures. Now playtime!
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World Travel Dreaming

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Stupperich, the graphic designer behind our fabulous textile print. As most of you Antithesis fans will be aware, travel is an important theme throughout our collections. So when we stumbled upon her dreamy atlas prints, we immediately fell for them.

Originally from Germany, Sophia studied Communication Design and worked for a handful of publishing companies and design agencies in Vancouver and Berlin before coming over to London to undertake an MA in Graphic Design at the London College of Communication. ‘Moving On’, her series of map cut-out prints was actually part of her final project. ‘Although the concept of travelling has been one of the first dreams of mankind, it has rarely been the focus of investigations itself. Inspired by the Herman Melville quote, “It is not down in any map, true places never are,” the project examines travelling being an ongoing path without a destination’, she explains.

Check out her website for more examples of her work.

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Spring Is In The Air

Yes, we know it’s autumn and feels like winter right now, but as you may know the fashion world is always working one or two seasons ahead. This is why here at the Antithesis studio, we’re talking halter tops, beach gear and swimsuits (can you give us a better way to forget about the shortening daylight hours out there?). And because we love to talk about what we do, we’ll let you have a peak of the developments of our next collection. We won’t reveal it all but expect geometry, pleats and turquoise!

Mood board: contrasting colours & geometrical repetition

Fabric sourcing from French & Italian mills

3D experimentation

Collection plan & fabric swatches

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The Ultimate Travel Bag Goes to Paris

Last week, we took advantage of our bi-annual trip to the world-renowned textile tradeshow Première Vision in Paris to test one of our favourite products: the Ultimate Travel Bag! Designed by Charlie Goldthorpe for our first edition of the Antithesis Collective, it transforms from a carry-on suitcase into a shoulder bag or rucksack and comes with a detachable pouch. Here is Renée’s experience:

“The suitcase is the perfect size for a trip of less than a week: I managed to fit in six days-worth of clothes, 2 pairs of shoes, my huge beauty case, a few notebooks and a handful of snacks. I normally travel with a backpack so it was a relief not to have all the weight on my shoulders, plus it looks much more stylish! The detachable pouch and strap came in very handy to carry valuables such as my travel tickets, passport, wallet, phone and keys.

Once in Paris, I removed the Design Go trolley and folded the bag into an oversized tote in which I put my work files, business cards, lunch and the pouch containing my personal items. A women’s day bag can never be too big! Before going out at night, I simply dropped the bag into my room and wore the pouch as a chic evening clutch.

Overall I am very pleased by the versatility of the bag. Day or night, work or leisure, city or countryside: whatever your look or activity, the bag adapts to you. I definitely recommend it to all of you nomadic cosmopolitan females out there!”

Available now at our online store.

Excited to be in Paris! Travelling with the bag as a suitcase and wearing the Anti-Blazer

Ready for PV wearing the bag as tote, our Two-Piece Blouse and High-Waisted Trouser

Going out with the pouch, our Little Navy Dress, Fringe Attachment and Reversible Overpiece

Saturday Market shopping with the pouch & strap wearing our Reversible Overpiece

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Sisters in Arms…Spotlight: Jennifer Williams-Bafoe

Here at ANTITHESIS it is no secret that we are great lovers of and firm believers in the powerful 21st Century woman. With this in mind we stop to take a moment to tell you about the inspirational and lovely Jennifer Williams-Bafoe, who we have been lucky to have had great support and mentoring from over the past few months.Jennifer has been a wonderful advisor to us, and that is why we couldn’t be more excited to get the opportunity to work alongside her with the launch of our first collection at one of her fabulous Ladies’ Nights on the 6th September at the Park Plaza Hotel, Primo Bar.Originally trained as a designer and with over 17 years in the fashion, creative and business industries under her belt Jennifer decided that there was much-needed space in the market for a company that would lend help and support to small, up and coming creative businesses. So, in March 2005 Jennifer founded and set up her successful business Willbaforce Ltd and with her wonderful team of experts they have continued to provide assistance and advice from Project Management, Events, Pr & Styling to Business Development and Product Management.

Often referred to as “Willbaforce” or just “The Force” Jennifer has a wide range of connections within the creative industries and has mentioned before that one of her proudest moments was “on my work at The British Fashion Council by acknowledged by Drapers Record and being referred to as a person running the Industry’s Dating Agency”. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder that it has been such a pleasure to have been given the chance to work with such a presence in the Creative industries.

For more info on Jennifer Williams-Bafoe, follow her inspirational Twitter feed @willbaforceltd, visit www.willbaforce.com, or come down to our launch event and see ‘The Force’ in action!

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Manufacturing Files I: Neobotanic

Welcome to the first of a series of articles dedicated to the wonderful people behind the production of Antithesis’ clothing! Finding a good manufacturer is not easy, especially for a start-up brand with tiny orders. Yet we have managed to find two London-based production units who accepted to cut and sew our reversible/modular/transformable pieces.

One of them is Neobotanic, a bespoke production unit located in the shadows of the Olympic stadium in Hackney Wick. Founded only two years ago by Olga Ankudinova, it already employs four full-time machinists and one cutter. All the workers are women who emigrated from East European countries such as Ukraine and Latvia to work in the UK, where wages are much higher. They usually work a minimum of 8 hours a day but are always happy to work overtime to compensate for the off-season period where the factory sometimes needs to shut down.

It was not part of Olga’s plans to start up her own manufacturing unit. With a fashion diploma from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Design in hand, she moved to London to find her dream job. After a few months of unfruitful job hunting, she was offered a small pattern cutting and sampling contract, which then turned into a production order. With the help of a skilled friend, she spent countless hours sewing dozens of dresses, which had been cut directly on the carpet of her flat! She gradually built up her clientele by word-of-mouth.

Neobotanic is not only a manufacturer, they also design and produce women’s and men’s collections. Using bright and bold graphics inspired by natural elements such as flowers and plants, they offer their customers the chance to make a flamboyant fashion statement.

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Save The Date – ANTITHESIS launch 06/09/2012!

Antithesis has finally arrived! We are happy to announce our launch event will be on Thursday, 6th September 2012 hosted by the Primo Bar, Westminster Bridge Park Plaza from 6pm.

We’d like to tell you a bit about our journey in the hopes of encouraging you to come down and join us in celebrating the formal birth-day of our label. Although it’s been a pleasure carrying our baby to term, like most expectant mother’s we are now excited to see the fruits of our labour in the world!

ANTITHESIS was born when Managing Director, Zahra Ash-Harper and Creative Director, Renée Lacroix teamed up to produce their final MA projects at London College of Fashion. It was our shared belief that not only could modular/multifunctional design be a major influence in slow fashion it could also facilitate creativity in personal fashion styling, which brought us together.

Inspired by powerful women of the 21st century, who maintain frantic work schedules whilst cultivating successful family lives, as well as communing, travelling and socialising internationally. ANTITHESIS decided our first call to action should be to dress these women in a capsule collection sympathetic and befitting their chosen lifestyles. It just so happens we are those kinds of women – we are mates with them, we admire, love and celebrate them too!

So… after months of hard work and organisation, we couldn’t be more excited to finally be launching our first collection the ‘Carry on Closet’ a 10 piece  transformable capsule collection, easily packed into  a multifunctional carry-on-case specially designed in collaboration with Charlotte Goldthorpe.

Our launch night promises to be full of wonderful things, between 6pm-8pm our lovely guests will have the chance to try and buy our Autumn/Winter collection. We encourage you to enjoy a night for the ladies! Pitch up with your girlfriends and share a fashion secret!

The bar will also be open for you to enjoy a cheeky cocktail whilst you shop, and at 7pm we will be holding a short catwalk presentation so  guests can get a feel for the versatility ANTITHESIS garments offer. There will also be a “try-it-on raffle” where every time you try on one of our pieces from the collection you will receive a raffle ticket and if you’re lucky even win a prize!

If all this didn’t sound like the perfect evening out with the girls, the hotel’s Ladie’s Night will start from 8pm onwards, with live music, £4 cocktails and free Mandara Spa treatments! Its an evening not to be missed, so if you would like an invite then simply e-mail us at info@antithesis.co (don’t worry your eyes have not deceived you, our e-mail address is just .co)

We would love for you guys to pay us a visit!

 

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Antithesis on the Move

Many exciting things have been happening here at Antithesis!

Now we’ve completed and shot our Fall collection, which will be landing on our site Antithesis.co from 6th September, we’ve been busy planning our launch event at the Primo Bar – Park Plaza Hotel! Not content with a busy month we decided to top off our schedule with a change of scenery, just in time to soak up some East London Olympic charm!

After a good old look around, we moved into our new location at Hackney Downs Studios last week, where we opted for The Heartspace, a great shared space just a stone’s throw away from the delightfully authentic Russet Cafe (perfect for a much-needed coffee break or delicious lunch). Here we are surrounded with creatives from every possible discipline and enough floor space to swing a clowder of cats!

After a couple of incredibly busy days last week we are both delighted and relieved to say that we are finally all settled into our new home for the forseeable future. Our fabulous new pattern cutting table made by Aldworth James & Bond has made its arrival, and we can’t wait to start getting creative and crack on with our Spring collection! Take a look below at some images of our new surroundings and keep an eye out on the blog for images from our editorial shoot of the Fall collection!  

Here’s our brilliant new pattern cutting table!

Our great new space at The Hackney Downs Studios.

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