A New Breed Of Fashion Saving Shoppers Money

Sept. 17, 2009 - PRLog -- Funky fashionistas used to head straight for their favourite market to scour row upon row of stalls in search of cool new clothes - these days, they're taking a surprisingly different avenue to find the latest hip streetwear.

As more and more emerging designers showcase their collections on the internet, fashion hunters have begun to ditch hectic shopping haunts in favour of a truly global marketplace online - and are supporting a new breed of labels in the process.

One young designer making virtual waves among style-savvy web-surfers is Carlo Salanitri, who has co-launched trendy online t-shirt label Ivory Skies in London at http://www.ivoryskies.net.

The Australian fashion talent, who traded Melbourne for the cobblestones and catwalks of Europe last year, has been attracting international attention - and global sales - with his bold blend of past and present influences since the label went online in January.

In his initial collection, Ebony & Ivory, Salanitri has combined a series of authentic ancient artworks with modern slim-fit shirts to create a truly distinctive range of designer tees.

"We decided to keep our first collection simple - just 10 ebony designs on ivory t-shirts - because we wanted to convey a certain image and fashion ideal from the start," Salanitri explains.

"While our next range will probably be more diverse and colourful, to begin with we really wanted to concentrate on taking these ancient artworks and exposing them to a contemporary and fresh style.

"Ultimately, we wanted to create something that looked cool but that also held significant meaning - a unique representation of the mystical past fused with 21st century fashion - and I think we've achieved that."

The online fashion community certainly seems to agree and, less than two months after being released, a number of the shirts have already become cult classics among t-shirt shoppers across a range of demographics, with the trendy tops just as likely to be spotted in a London rock gig as a New York wine bar.

"The Astro Hand and Brahma & Three Sons designs took off straight away and then the others started to follow," Salanitri says. "We were actually a little surprised by how quickly it all happened.

"We didn't know what to expect when we first launched the collection, and kept it all to a low-key word-of-mouth-type campaign to start off with.

"We wanted to give people a chance to get a feel of where we were coming from and to see what we were about.

"Then we started seeing people wearing them when we were out and it was like, 'Cool, they're getting this'. It gave us a lot more belief in what we were doing to know that all these fashionable people agreed with our vision - and we obviously hoped that would spread the message to more people."

Salanitri puts the instant popularity of the collection down to its simple style and the incorporation of the ancient artwork designs, saying most people recognised the images even if they could not place them.

The images, hand-picked by Salanitri on his global travels, also evoke mostly spiritual and astrological concepts, which the designer hopes offers at least some significance to people wearing them.

"The hand-drawn prints from our first collection include Egyptian, Hindu, Pagan gods and ancient astrology," he says. "So our main goal was to ensure the shirts met with the highest tenets of fashion, we also wanted to infuse them with some purpose and meaning.

"So we see this merger of the ultra-retro - the ancient symbols steeped in historical significance - and the ultra-modern - stylish slim-fit tees with a modern cut - as the perfect marriage of style and substance.

"It was a bold concept because a lot of people want to forget the past - but I think there's a lot we can learn from it, particularly when it comes to any form of self-expression such as fashion and also i one of the biggest things about the artwork is that it looks so good"

And it is not just the online fashion community taking note of Salanitri's message, with the designer revealing the label has already attracted enquires about the range being stocked in shops.

While he admits that could be an option Ivory Skies could pursue in the future, for now, Salanitri says, he is enjoying taking advantage of the global market offered by the internet - and the more affordable prices it allowed him to pass on to customers.

"At the moment we are selling online via our website http://www.ivoryskies.net," he says. "We've already had such strong interest from distributors in Europe and Australia and that might help more people access our range - but at the end of the day the internet is the key access point at the moment as far as we're concerned.

"Because it cuts out the middle man, selling the range online save customers money - which means they can wear a fashionable label like Ivory Skies without it costing them the earth. If i have it my way, Ivory Skies will always stay online predominantly"

In the meantime Salanitri says he will continue his hunt for the ancient artworks to feature in his next collection in far flung markets across the globe. And as far as any clothes shopping is concerned? "I'll probably just have a look around online."

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A new label for the the individual. Combining rare ancient art work with our sweet designer cuts. We bring to life what is considered dead and revive it into a rocked out, funked out state of life. A rare style representation of the mystical past blended with today's indie street fashion. The end result is something that ends up on a cusp between freeky street and uber fashionista.