Sunday 27 February 2011

Student Showcase: February

We're very pleased to announce the February winner of our Student Showcase, London College of Fashion's Yue Zhou (known to her friends as Elf). Yue Zhou is in her second year of uni studying BA Contour Design and has so far proved to have some exceptionally creative design ideas.
Yue Zhou 
She has recently worked on a live project for The Triumph Inspiration Awards and is building her industry experience by taking a part-time internship for high-end lingerie label Bordelle. She would love to work with the head designer of a luxury lingerie brand but her true ambition is to set up her own label.

The work, which Yue Zhou submitted for February's showcase, is an avant garde piece inspired by minimalism and futurism, drawing on modern art and architecture as a starting point for her designs. She targets the fashion forward with her chic and cheeky style and would define this piece as modern, feminine and seductive. The piece presents geometric shapes and minimal lines, made from luxurious fabrics and finished with delicate binding to frame each panel.  

zhou1 
When asked her opinion of modern lingerie design, she says:
  
"I believe that lingerie is not about eroticism, but about self-expression. My work combines both function and sexuality and makes the best of a woman's looks, whilst controlling the body."

As the winner of this months Student Showcase, Yue Zhou's work will be featured in our  February Newsletter and industry Press Release, as well as in lingerie trade magazines Lingerie Buyer, Lingerie Insight and on The Lingerie Blog. We wish her all the best for the future! 


Visit Yue Zhou's fashion blog here

View January's winner Jessica Preece here


For more information about our 2011 Student Showcase competition and to find out how you can enter, click here


 

Friday 25 February 2011

En Vogue | Free Your Mind



In homage to Sharlotte Ritchie and our fabulous IYP girls, here's what they walked the catwalk to for our Spring show. Bring back En Vogue and their Gucci wardrobes!

Luxe Swimwear Brand Paolita Launches At IYP

We'd like to welcome our latest designer brand, the wonderfully colourful Paolita.

Established in London, ‘Paolita’, focuses on beachwear. Having spent many summers by the sea, Paolita says, "like many other women, I know that with swimwear it is difficult to encounter a good balance between quality, design and sensitivity towards the female body".

For this collection, Paolita has discussed with and understood from other women what makes them feel comfortable and sexy at the beach, a place where women are at their most exposed. Her aim was to create shapes that complement the figure so that women can feel confident and beautiful.

What we love most about Paolita is that the brand doesn't intend to target a particular age group. It tries instead to evoke a feeling. One of poise, liveliness and individuality that every woman should have the chance to possess. 

 

Paolita Swimwear is available to buy here.


Thursday 24 February 2011

Salon De La Lingerie & Interfiliere

 Last month we hopped on the Eurostar to beautiful Paris for two of the world's largest lingerie trade fairs Interfilliere and Salon De La Lingerie. We caught up with lingerie brands Kiss Me Deadly and Playful Promises, met some fabulous new designers and got an eyeful of future trends on the way.








It seems we're a little ahead of the times in terms of trend prediction. We spotted a lot of the larger brands doing big 50's knickers and stitch detail bras, reminiscent of the traditional bullet bra style. We've already seen the vintage lingerie trend peeking through in fashion-forward stores like Topshop and Urban Outfitters but predict that retro lingerie will be hitting the high street in a big way this year. Think longline retro bras and waist-high briefs as outerwear this Spring.. that is, if you're brave enough of course! 

 
 

Having spent two days at the Paris Expo, we hit the galleries and made the most of the rest of our stay in the beautiful City. Sigh..not sure about you but I could definitely live here.


Wednesday 23 February 2011

Paperself at If You Please

We love dressing up and rarely return from one of our events not covered in glitter and feathers! 

One thing we're currently working on for our online boutique is a fab new range of accessories. Think burlesque fans, fascinators and big big lashes. A grown up's dressing up box! As well as Bebaroque's gorgeous new tights range, we spotted unique designer Paperself at this season's London Fashion Week. They make intricately crafted false eyelashes out of paper and their latest designs are inspired by deep sea life. Paperself have been spotted in Vogue, InStyle and the Evening Standard and are currently using DJs The Queens of Noize for their ad camaigns. We queued up at Somerset House and had our lashes done by their makeup artist and they looked great all night. Their retail prices are great too, at £10 for half lashes and £12 for full, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves..

Paperself will be landing at If You Please in the next few weeks


Tuesday 22 February 2011

These are a few of our favourite things..

This weekend we visited Somerset House for London Fashion Week, in search of fresh trends and fabulous new brands. Amongst the never-ending rails of textured frocks and Autumn hues, stood luxury hosiery and now fashion brand Bebaroque. 
These ladies have been around since 2007 and have already graced many a cover of Vogue. They do hand appliqued tights and clothing and we LOVE the bold colours and oversized adornment in their latest collection. Keep your eyes peeled for Bebaroque at If You Please this Spring, we've a feeling we won't be able to resist!


London Fashion Weekend Competition

Have you always wished you could sit in the 'frow' alongside the likes of Anna Wintour and Alexa Chung but just couldn't blag the tickets? Well now is your chance! 

If You Please is working with live video streaming site Bambuser to voice your creativity and reward you for it. All you need to do is live stream your fashion tips, tell us what inspires your style or chat about the latest addition to your wardrobe. Whatever you like. Make sure you entitle your video #LFW11 and the team at Bambuser will choose the most inspiring entry as the winner. 

    First Prize: 2 Platinum Tickets

  • Front row catwalk seats
  • Chambord Royale cocktail on arrival, canapĂ© reception and complimentary drinks
  • Stylist sessions
  • VIP Edition of the Show Bag

Second Prize: 2 Gold Tickets

  • Two gold tickets to London Fashion Weekend
  • Catwalk seats
  • VIP Edition of the Show Bag
 

Monday 21 February 2011

If You Please & Sharlotte Ritchie

This week we headed west to Movida to launch our spring ranges in style with the fabulous Sharlotte Ritchie. The lovely Ruka from Sugarlesque and talented stylist Violetta came along to lend a hand and provide us with fascinators and ltd edition lingerie. The show featured some new pieces from our If You Please Vaudeville range, keep your eyes peeled for our pink demi cup bra, rhinestone pasties and ribbon tie knickers.

Our models looked stunning and were even more wild than usual. Check out the videos on the right side of our blog to see what happened...


Spring Ranges on the Catwalk

Our gorgeous IYP models are starting to cause a bit of a stir within the lingerie industry. Move over Pussycat Dolls, there's some new gals in town!! If you were lucky enough to catch them working the catwalk at Movida last week then you may be wondering what it was they were wearing, unless of course you were way too busy checking out their (ahem) dance moves.

Here's a run down of how you can get their look.

Sammie wears: Soyeuse by Rosy & Retro Seamed Stockings                Jana wears: Vaudeville by If You Please, 
                                                                                                                         fascinator by Sugarlesque.                                                                              
 

Sharlotte wears: Josephine Corselette by What Katie Did                    Anna wears Pericolo by Mimi Holliday, nude
Retro Seamed Stockings. Jewelry, stylists own.                                   seamed stockings by What Katie Did.

Eilise wears: Beetlejuice by Sugarlesque,                                            Lucy wears: The Black Vargas Dress
coming soon!                                                                                      by Kiss Me Deadly.
 

All styling was done by If You Please in association with Sugarlesque and talented London stylist Violetta. Photographs by Adam Streames.


2011 Student Showcase

If You Please has been busy visiting fashion and contour colleges in search of some of the UK's finest young designers to bring before the lingerie industry. This year, we will be flaunting the raw talent of twelve fabulous degree level students to fashion blogs, press and industry.  

Students who wish to participate should submit their work to info@ifyouplease.co.uk, along with an application form, in which they're required to answer a few simple questions about themselves and their work.

On the last Friday of each month, we'll select whom we believe is the strongest student and announce the winner in an industry and media press release. They'll also have their own designer profile written about them in our blog and be featured in our monthly newsletter, which currently goes out to over 500 of our customers.


You can download an application form here. Please email your work and a form to info@ifyouplease.co.uk. Good luck!