Avant-Garde Africa: The Finished Collection!

After more than a month of hard work, the collection is finally finished. This was my first time ever designing a collection. It was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I'm just glad it's finished. I hope you-all like it!

Thanks for viewing, and welcome to Avant-Garde Africa! 

A Glance at Avant-Garde Africa by Diane O.

Avant-Garde Africa: The Collection

 khaki button-down top, African print bandeau, khaki cargo shorts,

brown knee-length boots with buckles, thin belt

This Sketch Was Inspired By: safari rangers

 African print bandeau top, African print slouchy trousers, sandals, boyfriend blazer

I wish I was good at drawing because this sketch would've turned out much better. The outfit in the Polyvore set is basically what I was trying to portray in my sketch.

 white tee, African print maxi skirt with slit and tie-waist, sandals

 African print bra top, cuffed African print high-waisted shorts, thin belt, nude strappy wedges

This Sketch Was Inspired By: Freida Pinto on the cover of Glamour Magazine - May 2011

 tank top, African print skirt, sandals

 African print one-shoulder dress (strong, ruched shoulder), nude pumps

 African print blazer, white tee, skinny jeans, black pumps

 yellow blazer, ruby tee, green shorts, black sandals

This Sketch Was Inspired By: The Cameroonian Flag

Color-Blocking! I chose ruby instead of red for the top. I wanted to prevent that horrible red and green combination.

African print bodycon dress, African print clutch, nude pumps

 African print romper, thin brown belt, sandals, fedora

Since I only designed 10 outfits instead of 20, I also created 5 outfits on Polyvore to go with my Avant-Garde Africa collection...

Avant-Garde Africa (Outfit 1) by Diane O.

Avant-Garde Africa (Outfit 2) by Diane O.

Avant-Garde Africa (Outfit 3) by Diane O.

Avant-Garde Africa (Outfit 4) by Diane O.

Avant-Garde Africa (Outfit 5) by Diane O.

(go to http://www.polyvore.com/avant-garde_africa/collection?id=938316 to view all my Avant-Garde Africa-related Polyvore sets)

And I put together an African-inspired outfit for myself.

 Guess what I found hiding out in the garage? This cute African print skirt! I wanted a picture of me wearing an African-inspired outfit for this post. It wasn't that hard for me to find something to wear because both of my parents are African (Cameroonian), so we have more than enough African clothes in our house. I love this skirt because it fits like a glove, and it is from Africa, so it automatically goes perfectly with this collection!

black tee, orange necklace, African print skirt, black sling-back heels

Thank you for viewing my collection. I hope you liked it!

Avant-Garde Africa Inspiration

ATTENTION: This collection has already been completed. You can view it at http://dianesfashionblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/avant-garde-africa-finished-collection.html

I created the set below to serve as an online "inspiration board" for my Avant-Garde Africa collection.



Great News! Our 2-month blog-iversary was a few days ago (on the 26th of April), and we recently exceeded 300 views! Thanks for all the support, it really means a lot! <3

Coming Soon: Avant-Garde Africa!

ATTENTION: This collection has already been completed. You can view it at http://dianesfashionblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/avant-garde-africa-finished-collection.html

Avant-Garde Africa will be the name of my first "collection". Making the sketch above (which features a Cameroon-Flag printed top) inspired me to come up with the idea of designing African-printed clothing in modern shapes, styles, and silhouettes.
I'm going to do about 10-20 sketches for this collection. When I'm done with all of them, I'll upload pictures of them onto a blog post.
It's going to take me a while to complete this project because I want it to look great when I'm done. I'm going to start sketching right away. I already have some possible outfits written down in a notebook.
I won't be doing 3 sketches a week while this project is going because I want all the time I can get to work on it, but I'll still regularly post on this blog.
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited about this collection! Aren't you?! lol
Thanks for all the support, and keep on checking-in because there's lots more awesome stuff on the way!

Coming Soon... last week's sketches, and a new outfit