camilla and marc SS11/12 via Frockwriter
If there’s one thing we have all come to learn and accept from working in fashion, it’s that trends don’t always make much sense.
Clearly, the latest obsession with everything scuba is one such look that’s making most fashionista’s feel like a fish out of water.
Neoprene is certainly a fabric that most of us never considered wearing, unless we were diving in tropical north Queensland or playing with the turtles at the Great Barrier Reef.
But somehow, wetsuit fabric has become an iconic fashion statement.
The fact that we have transformed this fabric from its water-based origins to a highly covetable street style, is a sign of the inherent appreciation and love for the beach culture in Australia.
While I can’t see too many Melburnian’s embracing the lycra look, it is certainly something the Sydney cats have taken up with a fervour.
via Vogue.com.au
You know it’s got a strangle hold in the serious fashion world when it hits the cover of Australian Vogue, as it did in January last year with Australia’s hottest model export Abbey Lee Kershaw and model it-boy Tyler Atkins.
It was the top trend of the spring/summer shows that year and is now only filtering down to a street level.
Since Vogue – and the famous scuba-inspired Dion Lee dress on the cover – it’s everywhere.
Acclaimed American fashion designer, Cynthia Rowley collaborated with Roxy for a one-off neoprene range that included the usual beach items such as wetsuits and swimwear in pastel shades, but the biggest surprise was the LND or little neoprene dress, and skirt.
Both were hugely successful and widely popular.
Lisa Marie Fernandez is a celebrated swimsuit designer – already well known for her stylish neoprene swimsuits – who has transformed the fabric into stylish body-con mini dresses in neon colourways, complete with the exposed wetsuit wide-toothed zip up the back, or the front.
Proof of their high fashion ranking and status is their presence among the highly covetable fashion pieces and designers at Net-A-Porter.com
I can definitely see this trend emerging once more this spring summer. Especially with the return of the midriff, this neon-coloured neoprene wetsuit top by Lisa Marie Fernandez (seen below) will be a hit on the beaches and paired with cut-off denim shorts for festival season.
At the recent Australian Fashion Week, Josh Goot reinvented neoprene with paint splattered or Rorschach digital prints on dresses, cut-away tanks and flared skirts.
And popular Australian surfwear label, Ripcurl were consulted on the construction of the neoprene midriff tanks in hottest pink, featuring the classic thick stitch detail and black plastic zips of its wetsuit predecessor, for their RAFW SS 11/12 runway showcase `infinite variability’.
via Sweaty Betty blog
So in honour of this trend, we sourced a fabulous DIY project using a vintage wetsuit, a pair of scissors, a sewing machine and some pins.
This DIY Daily comes courtesy of model blogger, Natascha Elisa of In Search of Little Sadie.
via In Search of Little Sadie
She informs us this was `super quick and because the neoprene fabric is stretchy and wont fray, you don’t need to do much sewing!’ – Awesome.
Let us know how you go and send us your pictures!
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STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Find a wetsuit at your local second hand store, this one was $11.99
2. Cut in half (around the waistline) keep the bottom half.
3. Measure from your waist to the desired skirt length (on your side) this will become your outside hemline.
4. Lay the bottom half of the wetsuit flat & cut each leg straight across the same length as your hemline measurement.
5. Turn inside out, and use a seam ripper / quick unpick / scissors to undo the inside hem.
6. Keeping the skirt inside out, sew the front seam straight down the center.
7. Turn the skirt around and fold the crotch piece over and pin in place, eliminating a little fabric so that it doesn’t flare and so that the center seam is straight.
8. Sew the back seam following the line of the crotch (the original seam line).
ENJOY!