Academy of Couture Art gets a double take from Monaco, France!

From Monaco to Los Angeles, the Academy of Couture Art designers are causing a double take within the industry. Able to hold their own on the couture circuit, this June 23 at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles (near Beverly Hills) the secret to haute couture and the Academy of Couture Art will be revealed. 

In Monaco, ACA designers presented a collection paired with red carpet couturier, Gilbert Chagoury Couture, at the Monaco Charity Film Festival held outdoors at the beautiful Villa & Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The designs went beyond expectations. 

Couture is not only a very specific and unique way of designing and making clothes, but it's also a way of viewing the world. What makes the Academy of Couture Art so distinct is how it weaves couture through all aspects of the fashion industry. If you stick only to tailoring in couture, you've most likely missed the point. 

So, what does it mean? Check it out! Le Rêve 2012 fashion show and gala by ACA tells the story of couture in perfect construction, design balance, mood of the collection, and special techniques to create magic in clothing from our graduating designers. You'll even find looks that push forward what you would expect at a department store or large retail boutiques. After all, it's about changing what we see everyday!

Be sure to see it before the press. For more on tickets visit www.CoutureShows.com

Majoring in chic at L.A.'s fashion schools

Majoring in chic at L.A.'s fashion schools

This LA Times article by Susan Carpenter is an interesting resource for anyone considering fashion schools especially in Los Angeles. For those questioning what Academy of Couture Art is doing different, check it out. Here’s an excerpt about the New Design College of Haute Couture.

…Located in a Wilshire Boulevard high-rise, the academy’s curriculum is focused entirely on French couture techniques for making clothes that are luxurious, hand-sewn and precisely fitted. Its associate and bachelor degree programs offer students choices in two areas of specialization — pattern making and fashion design.

“By offering degrees in the specialized professions, we train in how the industry actually works according to the division of labor,” Été says.

“Haute couture means highest creativity, highest technique,” adds Été, whose students have gone on to work with couturier Roberto de Villacis, Nolan Miller and Badgley Mischka. “We want to take a student to the couture level to teach them the thinking process, creativity and technique. If you study at the highest level, you can always trickle down to any level in the industry,” says Été, whose curriculum includes work with beading, feathers and furs as well as classes in business development, manufacturing collaboration and trend forecasting. …

Couture in the City: West Coast Fashion goes Haute Couture

Bright white sun on the modern mid-rises makes the greenery distinct and the couture garments elegantly bold. For a Saturday afternoon downtown Portland you can feel glamour all around.

Not many would put those two together: Portland and glamour. This is an achievement that only the two best schools of beauty could create. Academy of Couture Art, Los Angeles and Paul Mitchell the School, Portland have redefined west coast fashion and beauty which has usually tended on the side of surf wear or woodland chic.

The Fest in the Square event makes a mark in the movement of couture in the U.S. It is a movement of education in what is couture. Too often couture gets lumped into either the unobtainable wild and crazy creativity that is solely for inspiration or the occasional bows added here and there to make something look cute like Chanel.

Couture is an aesthetic. It is a sophisticated training of the eye. For fashion, it is also a method of designing and creating clothing from the highest to the lowest. Balance, proportion, line are brought out from a different perspective. Couture is where creativity meets beauty. Let's face it, not all creativity is pleasing or moving, yet all couture is artistically stimulating or attractive to the eye. That's technique.

The show in Portland was the first time Academy of Couture Art designers partnered with the talent at Paul Mitchell the School, Portland. The whole team of hair artists, models and designers where inspired to take it to the max for elegance; an experience you do not often see in mid day Portland.

“What's amazing about this experience is seeing even the models transform. Not only did the team at Paul Mitchell bring out the most sophisticated chicness in the ladies, the luxury fit garments of Academy of Couture Art had the girls experiencing a new totally view of who they are as women. You can see it in the photos.”

That said, we have to agree and let the photos speak. Cheers to the west coast woman!

Couture makes for Exceptional Careers: Alumni

Having achieved her Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design and a few quarters away from achieving her Bachelor of Science in Pattern Design (Pattern Making), Christina Manolescu embarks on a career that is “…beyond what I ever thought I would achieve.”

Last quarter she began working freelance as a pattern maker for several different design companies. Her first experience was with couturier Roberto De Villacis on a few garments that were made-to-measure for his fit model. “She was so stunned by the fit that she wanted to take the muslin cut home!” At the same time, Christina embarked on her first custom wedding gown, embroidery and all.

Next adventure in the industry, children’s wear. “This will be my first time to integrate the methods of modern haute couture, which is typically calculated for the woman, to children’s wear.” Easier than she thought, she introduced an elegant basic pattern block that the company had not yet developed to bring consistency in production. Her first project was the cutest little coat you can imagine. “I really like this kind of work. I can work when I want, where I want.”
Currently she is employed part-time in the company atelier and freelance in her studio creating patterns and leading consultations between fashion designer and seamstress for a local Parisian luxury leather clothing company.

Her first project brought in a few hundred dollars. The second one received reviews that were unimaginable a few years back when she transferred fashion colleges to specialize in modern haute couture practices. “Our seamstress, who has been over thirty years in the business, said that my pattern was the most elegant and simple to execute that she has ever seen.” This came on the same day that the owner, former fit model for the couture runways in Paris, tried on the muslin of her second project. “No fitting was needed, and I believe she’s keeping this one for herself. It cascaded down so elegantly; It was gorgeous!”

More projects are on the pattern table. Christina has just been approached to make custom garments for a lady with unique proportions. “Her size is bigger on top, making it challenging to find anything becoming for her type of figure.”

“I never thought I would be able to make pieces like crazy complex motorcycle jackets and custom garments to bring out the unique beauty in all. The techniques at Academy of Couture Art are so easy and so elegant. This is awesome! To the students, take lots of notes; this is your bread and butter.”

July 24 2010 the stars Collide precision, attraction, imagination with passion

ACA 2010 Grand Fashion Gala Revealing the highest of design talent in Nouvelle Couture Collections including exclusive designs for Swarovski and Lloyd Klein Couture on the Grand Fashion Runway at the Sofitel, Los Angeles. If you're passionate about elegance, luxury, and the fine art of fashion, join the movement! Tickets are $25 with stamp for evening dancing and mixer: www.acawh.com/Home/ACAEvents.html