Fashion / Fashion designer
Textiles designer launches new fashion brand
Textiles designer Leila Mizen has now extended her contemporary digital patterns into fashion.
With a graphic style that fits in perfectly with the ongoing current obsession with 80s Memphis prints, it’s no surprise that Leila’s bold prints would work brilliantly within fashion, especially in bodywear and streetwear.
Following the Bzzaar Bristol Christmas Makers Market last year, where Leila was selling her homewares including cushions, prints and greetings cards alongside other Bristol creatives, she became inspired to start a fashion brand and by the summer had designed her first fashion item from her home in Cotham.
is needed now More than ever
The first fashion item to get a Leila Mizen signature print is every fashionista’s fave, the crop top. Yeah, you may think that we are, surely, past crop top season, as we start to wrap up and don our overcoats once more, but the crop top is a fashion staple.
Misunderstood as a summer garm for girls with flat tummies, the crop top is an essential fashion item that you can work all year round and works for different body types too. Layered up with an oversized shirt or jacket and a high-waisted trouser (to hide those wobbly bits and keep you warm) or worn with bare arms and less layers on a night out, this essential piece can see you through the whole year.
Brrrr! It may be too cold for ice lollies but the crop top is a fashion staple. Wear yours with high waist trousers and oversized jackets during the colder months.
“It’s a bespoke collection of graphic prints and the idea is that the tops are designed for ladies of all different shapes and sizes, they even work as fancy activewear for the gym,” Leila tells Bristol24/7.
“For a lot of women exposing their midriff and top of arms is very daunting because they feel self-conscious of their shape, but I wanted to design a crop top that complimented and enhanced their curves.
“The straps of the top are thick, which adds support for fuller busts, and the bold print suits all sizes. I think it’s important to celebrate different body shapes and to teach this to young girls too.”
Body positivity is a big thing in 2018, with more instagrammers and fashion brands getting involved with celebrating real people in all shapes and sizes, as a backlash against false fashion media and social media pretences.
We certainly shouldn’t be judged on what we wear and we should feel bloody fabulous wearing it too. It’s time to ignore these unrealistic goals and bring on the Leila Mizen crop top!
Leila Mizen’s digital prints work perfectly for streetwear and bodywear garms.
How supportive has Leila found the Bristol fashion scene and who inspires her? “We have a great thing going on in Bristol with so many talented independent brands to collaborate with and support each other,” says Leila.
“I’m a big fan of the fashion brand Kokomo Design, in fact, maybe obsessed, I now own four of their Perspex laser cut pieces!” she laughs.
Leila trained as a digital print designer at Manchester School of Art, following her time at the RWA in Bristol, where she became interested in screen printing and honed these skills to create her collections, inspired by African textiles and her time in the Middle East, where she was born.
She says that she grew up surrounded by geometric patterns and while her work is not directly influenced by Arabic culture she does have a fascination with repeated patterns.
Leila also take inspiration from African textiles and particularly like the Australian fashion company YEVU, an ethical brand who design and manufacture their garments in Ghana.
Leila Mizen prints inspired by African textiles and repeat patterns.
Dreaming of the summer…..A photo shoot from the summer months featuring Leila Mizen’s crop top.
Leila plans to continue building up both her homeware and fashion collections and work towards selling more products in Christmas craft fairs this year. She is also working towards a high waisted bikini collection for spring/summer 2019.
You can see the African influences in Leila’s work from the muted blues and orange colourways right through to the abstract swirls and repeat prints, which Leila manages to blend perfectly with a more contemporary look, that is so right now. I want to see a whole collection in these inspiring prints!
To purchase any of Leila Mizen’s homewares and fashion items, email leilamizen@hotmail.com or contact her via Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm6Xcq2AbiL
Read our Fashion Editor Emma’s blog No Debutante
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