By Rita Okoye
Dear fashion lovers, how updated are you with the latest fashion trends?
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Here, we bring you all the new and hottest gossip in the fashion industry.
In this article, we will be highlighting one of the rising clothing brands in the fashion industry that has caught our attention – Gaze of Luxury.
Gaze Of Luxury is a clothing brand whose mission is to make exceptional dresses that don’t just stand out but also tell a story. The brand is also dedicated to designing luxurious wear that expresses beauty and strength.
Aside from this, the brand is equally committed to protecting the environment. With millions of textiles wasted each year, the brand keeps striving to make a difference by ensuring that a solid 90% of excess materials used in creating designs are repurposed into handcrafted indoor decor or unique wearable art.
Additionally, Gaze of Luxury empowers skilled artisans like weavers and tailors by providing training that covers the ins and outs of fashion and supports adult education programs for women in low-income communities, helping them achieve self-sufficiency.
This exceptional brand was established in 2018 by a revolutionary Couture Artist, Folafoluwa Oluwambo Afolabi, who, aside from making dresses, is passionate about using fabric to portray a message.
His biggest motivation for starting the brand is to craft fashion pieces that help women feel confident through their clothing. His part in fashion stardom began at the age of 16, and ever since then, he has achieved several milestones, including gaining expertise in cloth making and creating sensational collections and custom wear.
One of his collections that is so admirable is the 2023 Gaze of Luxury collection. The collection is a crisp set of impeccable attires whose concept will leave you impressed. The collection also comprises a Power Dress set crafted to give women that ‘power look’.
This theme wasn’t picked just for its sake. It was chosen because of the significance it holds in women’s history. Power dressing is a trend that can be traced back to the 1970s. It was a time when women were only beginning to gain a voice in a world ruled by men. So, to portray that aura of power and confidence, power suits became the trend of the day for women who were part of the workforce.
The style was designed to help women move up the corporate ladder and be taken more seriously by men. Years after, this trend has evolved and has been made even better than it was previously by several garment artists and brands, including Gaze of Luxury, with their 2023 collection – Women Power.
The Gaze Of Luxury 2023 collection has the perfect combination of class and chic.
At this point, you must be very curious about the details of these dresses, right? Well, tighten your belts because this is where it gets interesting.
The first apparel in the collection is a two-piece set comprising an off-shoulder top and tapered trousers made with a nude brown silk crepe fabric. The blouse embodies a whole lot of asymmetrical patterns that make it very unique and one of a kind. The first asymmetrical design in the blouse can be found around the neckline.
Unlike other off-shoulder attires that have both sleeves off the shoulder, this dress has only one shoulder off with a slant V shape running from the neck to the left shoulder, almost making it share similarity with a mono-strapped dress. The next feature of the blouse is what we believe to be the highlight of the dress – the curved partition lined with shank buttons.
The first thing that would probably come to mind when you view this particular dress is a Chinese woman’s attire. Though this dress and the Cheongsam are completely different, the curved pattern and buttons used in creating this piece almost make them look alike.
We particularly appreciate this design because it is quite creative, the way the designer chose not to go for the conventional type of button-up shirt when crafting this apparel. The little slit at the end of the top, the back zipper and the black bias used to line the shoulders, neckline and sleeves make the dress very classy.
The bottom part of this attire is a unique recreation of tapered trousers. Tapered trousers are suit pants that are usually wider at the hip and narrower as they go down. Though this pair of pants doesn’t have such a feature because it falls in trend with loose pants that would ensure comfort to the wearer, it has other features of a tapered trouser such as an in-seam pocket, a waistband and a zipper.
This pair of plain, slightly loose, floor-length pants consists of a waistband, a coil zipper at the back, and two pockets in front.
Overall, this design is a spectacular piece. If we were to rate the dress, it would score a solid 80 per cent.
From top to bottom, both pieces represent the theme of ‘power’, but we believe the designer could make some adjustments to the neckline. The non-slanted sleeve of the dress should be moved slightly away from the neck area for comfort.
Come along; let’s get on to the next outfit.
This second outfit is different from the first because it is a midi gown, yet it still shares some similarities with it. The dress was made with two fabrics – a silk nude brown crepe and a black polyester crepe. It is also made up of several features, including a collared cold shoulder, ruffled sleeves, applique, slit and zipper.
The collared cold shoulder is an off-shoulder like the one found in the first dress. However, this one is slightly different because it was tilted on the right side and made to look like a thick collar. Moving on, we have the ruffled sleeves.
The sleeve seems to be taking the limelight because of its ruffled attribute. However, what’s quite catchy about the sleeve is that the ruffle can only be found on the right sleeve, while the left-hand sleeve remains bare. All of these features are housed in the upper bodice of the dress.
The lower bodice is made purely out of black polyester crepe fabric. It is what you would most likely refer to as the skirt part of the dress. This skirt starts at the mid-waist area of the dress and runs down to the calf, and this length automatically qualifies it to be called a midi dress.
The only characteristic that can be found on the skirt is an applique. An applique is an ornamental needlework. It is the process whereby pieces of fabric are placed and sewn onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. As seen in the picture, there is a curved pattern starting from the back of the skirt to the front and ending a little lower than the skirt length.
Appliques such as this are usually done to take away the ‘plain’ feature from a dress, and we believe that was what the designer was aiming to achieve with this. Lastly, the closing attributes of this dress are the slit and zipper at the back that allows a sense of ease and comfortable accessibility to the wear.
While this piece is just as outstanding as the first, we have cause to believe that the applique wasn’t meant to be added to the dress. The designer might want to consider taking it out completely or adding it in a more fitting position.
In conclusion, Gaze of Luxury served up some serious fashion styles that had us hooked all through, and we are sure it impressed you as well.
The designer Folafoluwa Oluwambo Afolabi did a number with this collection. The dresses are everything and more. From the classy two-piece silhouette to the impeccable midi gown, he showed himself to be, indeed, a master of his craft. We applaud his attention to detail and the remarkable designs he came up with to make up this collection.
Kudos to you, Folafoluwa and your team at Gaze of Luxury.
And there you have it, folks. We have come to the end of our fashion gist. Keep up with us because we will be bringing more fashion news and tips your way.