Tuesday 1 August 2017

Around the Factory - Hand Embroidery


Our SS17 collection sees elements of hand embroidery scattered throughout, whether in small bursts to enhance a piece of clothing or larger to create a bold statement look. The work is intricate and the attention to details requires time and a highly skilled individual. The process of embroidery was developed from sewing techniques and its decorative possibilities led to the art of embroidery. It is also known as a folk art, using materials that weren’t available to the non-professionals and this led to this tradition being passed from generation to generation. It’s this care and high amounts of detail that adds to the value of our products. 








Friday 14 July 2017

Around the Factory - Colour and Mixing

It’s hard to imagine our wardrobe without a bounty of shades especially here at {*Conditions Apply}. It’s said that fabric dyeing dates back to 2600 BC where dyes were made with natural pigments mixed with water and oil, and not only was it used for clothing but it was also applied to the skin as a form of decoration and was used in jewellery. In our factory in Delhi, we dye all our fabrics with iso free dye and mix our own colours to create our exact desired shade from vibrant blues to crimson reds.



Thursday 27 April 2017

Ss17 Anthropologie

Pieces from our ss17 collection, such as this screen printed and lace worked jacket, are now available online at Anthropologie.
For this jacket and to browse for more of our products, click on the following link https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/sian-printed-cardigan-black?category=SEARCHRESULTS&color=095

Monday 6 March 2017

Inspirational Artist Profile: Fin DAC

“Art, and creativity in general, should not be about social or political statements but only to do with beauty” Fin DAC
This March Fin DAC is seizing our artistic eye with his graceful, gothic, geisha’s and their ‘hidden beauty’.
With his awe inspiring pieces he combines’ the manga genre and traditional Japanese dress with western culture and pointedly uses pan-Asian/Latina female characters to reveal the hidden emotions of these striking women. The ‘Melnagai’ piece was created with stencil and then painted free hand. DAC uses a black and white backdrop and splashes of vibrant colour to convey his girl’s unique feminine features and style. In all the pieces of his ‘Hidden Beauties’ collection he applies a signature splash of colour over their eyes like a mask.
In recent interviews he explained “It’s the only mystery in my work so why spoil it by revealing the nature of it". t
he nature of it”


Thursday 16 February 2017

ss17

Ss17 products are now available in stores. From hand embroidery detail to lace trims, feminine touches are added to the urban wear inspired collection. 

Monday 13 February 2017

Knitting at {*Conditions Apply}

{*Conditions Apply} use knitwear in their collections as it is one of the longest standing pieces in our wardrobe, whether it be big chunky knits in the winter or as a lightweight summer piece its always going to stick around. We also like using knitwear to add a touch of luxury to non-knitted tops or outerwear by using ribbed knits on collars and cuffs. The word knit is derived from the word knot, and it literally is the process of using various yarns to loop in and out of each other to knot together. At our factory in Delhi, we use hand-knitting machines to keep a level of craftsmanship in the making of our knitwear, rather than using fully electronic knitting machines. It adds a level of value and care that is put into the making of our products, and helps to generate employment. 


Monday 6 February 2017

ss17 lace

Our ss17 collection sees snippets of lace and crochet trimmings, giving joins and hems a delicate finish. Lace and crochet are very time consuming fabrics to make and require a high level of skill and practice to create them. The first recorded making of these elegant materials goes back to sixteenth century Europe, where women had two distinct ways of making lace; needle lace and bobbin lace. Needle lace is created initially on paper with stay-stitches, with hundreds of small stitches from buttonhole to blanket stitches that cover the entire area with the lace design, and then the stay-stitches are removed and the lace comes away from the paper. Whilst bobbin lace (also known as pillow lace due to using a pillow where the pins hold the threads in place) is made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread which are wound around bobbins, and the pattern of the lace is made based on the positioning of the pins on the pillow. {*Conditions Apply} admire the extent of craftsmanship needed for making lace, and to help keep the craft going we relish in incorporating it into our designs.  



Friday 3 February 2017

Inspirational Artist Profile: Izziyana Suhaimi

"My work explores the evidence of the hand and of time" Izziyana Suhaimi.
Combining a variety of mediums within a work is definitely an artistic trend of late. But none is quite as striking as Singapore - based Izziyana Suhaimi's embroidered illustrations and paintings. Part whimsical, part fine art, each piece conveys a very different set of emotions. Showing off her incredible skills. She documents her different project and the journey of her work on her blog, as well as exhibitions which she's held in Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan. Her techniques are very traditional and drawn from the past, but her work is undeniably modern, connecting history with the present.




Tuesday 31 January 2017

Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech

Part of our ss17 collection has been inspired by the Jardin Majorelle, a botantical and artistic landscape garden found in Marrakech, Morocco. {*Conditions Apply} drew colour inspiration for its new collection from the 2 acre garden, and particularly from the striking Majorelle Blue colour that is found on surrounding buildings and pots when walking through the garden. It was French painter, Jacques Majorelle, who constructed this garden in 1924 and had discovered the distinct blue colour in various Moroccan tile work, in Berber burnouses and around the windows of local Kasbahs and gave the colour the trademark name of Majorelle Blue. 
The Majorelle Blue had inspired us, displaying a vibrant strong extract of colour among softer tones of almond, and so we incorporated hints of this into our new ss17 collection. 
After taking 40 years to construct this enchanting garden, Jardin Majorelle is now one of the most visited tourist attractions in Morocco. Jacques Majorelle dedicated his life to developing the garden until his death in 1962. The garden then went downhill and was going to be built upon for a new hotel complex until Yves Saint Laurent with partner Pierre Bergé discovered the garden in 1966 and did everything they could to save it. They successfully managed to stop the hotel project going ahead, bought the garden along with the villa and painters studio that joins it, and gradually brought the garden back to life. The garden today is a great source of artistic inspiration, with its painters studio also having being transformed into a museum for Berber culture, its an endless fountain of rich morrocan culture. {*Conditions Apply} were left in awe and couldn't wait to intergrate the gardens unique colours into the new ss17 collection. 

Saturday 28 January 2017

Friday 27 January 2017

Addressing our Environment

“The situation the earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way” – quoted by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. We believe it our duty, as a fashion brand, to try stop over-consumption happening the best we can.
Fast consumption of clothes is said to be the second most polluting industry of the planet after oil. For this reason {*Conditions Apply} make a conscious decision to create clothes that last a long time. Unlike fast fashion brands, we create our clothes to an elevated standard, by sourcing high quality of fabrics which last much longer, to help reduce the amount of consumption in the fashion industry. We want our customers to be able to enjoy their clothes purchased with us for decades to come.
Another way we also try be less polluting to the planet is by using natural or synthetic fibers (cotton/viscose) in our collections. We try to avoid using polyester, as the production of this artificial fiber can be a very polluting process due to using harmful chemicals.
As a brand we are proud to provide consumers with a less environmentally polluting option and hope that more and more brands pursue to do the same moving forward. 


Friday 13 January 2017

ss17

{*Conditions Apply} are proud to introduce to you the new ss17 collection, being delivered in stores now. An urban twist on traditional craftsmanship is the DNA to this collection. Featured is our hand embroidered get a funny life jacket. 


 

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Using Denim at {*Conditions Apply}

Although denim is one the oldest fabrics, it is one that has managed to stay around and be continuously popular throughout fashion history for a long time. For this reason at {*Conditions Apply} we see denim as an investment and also, the fact that denim being a long lasting material, helps reduce fast consumption makes it a very important material to use throughout our collections. 
Denim can be traced all the way back to being used on the sails of one of Columbus' ships, before it begin being used for making clothes. It was then used to make clothing for hard manual workers such as farmers and miners due its durability, hardiness and being a fabric that can withstand all weather conditions. Denim has since been developed into a variety of compositions, now ranging in all weights and suppleness. The word "denim" is believed to originally comes from "Serges de Nimes" meaning the durable, twill fabric "Serge" that was developed in the French town of Nimes. 
For our collections, we source our denims in India where they are produced with extensive care and attention to detail from the initial purifying of the cotton to the rich indigo dyeing. Indigo is among the oldest dyes for textile dyeing and printing, and with India being the oldest and still most major center for indigo dyeing the quality of our denim is unbeatable. 
Throughout our denim capsules, {*Conditions Apply}’s skillfully trained workers mix traditional techniques, such as hand embroidery, to create contemporary pieces of art.



Saturday 7 January 2017

Sophisticated Sisters wearing {*Conditions Apply}

 To read more about ethical bloggers the Sophisticated Sisters and to see their article on {*Conditions Apply} aw16 collection, click on the following link: http://www.thesophisticatedsisters.com/2016/12/fair-label-to-watch-conditions-apply.html/ Based in Austria, the Sophisticated Sisters are passionate about fair fashion and live by the quote "Be the change you wish to see in the world". 




    

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Inspirational Artist Profile: Brad Spencer

This month Brad Spencer is grabbing {*Conditions Apply}'s attention with his figurative sculptures that he has worked on around his local area in the streets of North Carolina. He uses a relief technique where he first uses unfired clay to carve the figures, then proceeds to fire the pieces and assemble the bricks on top. We look forward to seeing more of his work during 2017.