Bolero fashion magazine, August 2008 issue.

The Diana Bobar spring ‘08 dress that was featured in the ‘Greek Goddess’ spread, worn as a top. Versatile and accesorized perfectly!

I actually can’t believe it either: two of my dresses were featured in an actual fashion magazine, called Bolero, which all my girlfriends get and read, so imagine their excitement. Multiply that by a gazillion and think that that’s how I feel. It’s a sense of adrenaline mixed with a relaxed feeling of accomplishment. And it’s only the beginning, right? Also amazing is that one of the dresses was featured on the editor’s choice page, next to a cute cute pair of Coca Zaboloteanu sandals.

It’s worthy of appreciating the fact that the stylists and editors of the magazine try to really promote and help young designers (such as myself, and Coca), they’re not only playing by the rules of the ‘mafia’ in fashion (remember that scandal about Italian Vogue?).

Cheers to believing in dreams and watching as they slowly but surely come true!

I am mostly flatered to be featured next to designs from already established Romanian designers such as Maria Lucia Hohan, whom I deeply admire, Claudia Castrase, Andreea Raicu for Irina Schrotter. I can’t wait to meet them sometime (hopefully soon) and let them know face-to-face how flattered I feel to actually have a garment (that I myself made) featured next to their lovely designs.

‘Greek Goddess‘ fashion spread published in the August issue of Bolero magazine. Photographer: Ciprian Strugariu; stylist: Ailin Ibraim, stylist assistant: Andreea Jivcovici; make-up: Alina Nacu; hair: Bogdan Mirica; model: Iulia Savulescu/One Models.

The last picture is a closeup photograph in which the model wears of one of my dresses from the spring 2008 collection, as a top, with the most amazing belt ever, from Claudia Castrase. This just proves that the work of a stylist is extremely important, mostly because it’s a different/better point of view on the garment that one designer makes. Absolutely love how it looks and the fact that one of my mom’s friends told me she would totally wear the top like this, makes me give even more kudos to the stylists.

A big big Thank You to all the people involved, and if you want to get that dress/top, you can find it in the Ummagumma store in Bucharest.

While I may work a lot lately, Coca Zaboloteanu is not lazy either. She kept herself busy recently, working on new shoe designs and finally took photos and made them available for purchase. I have a lot of friends who will be thrilled to see the new samples, so hopefully you will be too!They are all made from real leather or suede leather and come in all sizes.

If you are interested in any of these lovely pumps and want to get a pair, just contact me at diana[at]sofashon.com and you will be automatically redirected to contact Coca and order you own pair of cute pumps.

First row: 1 Black suede and white leather with bow at the back; 2 hot pink suede with bow at the back; 3 grey suede with bow at the sides; 4 blue suede with green bow at the back.

Second row: 1 black, red and white sandal; 2, 3 mustard and dark brown peep-toe booties; 4  yellow platform pumps with blue heart at the sides.

Classic pumps in different combination of color.

The fab Coca Zaboloteanu signature sandals in a lot of combination of bows and colors.

Also click to read the full post and see some very cool Oxford shoes and a first pair of pretty awesome boots for next fall!  

Givenchy and Sonia Rykiel ads. [image credit: TFS]

If I had to choose between a strong masculine look and a frilly feminine, I really could not. I am torn between these two extremes, and maybe the fact that they represent such extremes style-wise is what appeals to me most. Call it split personality, call me undecided, call me what you will; I just can decide which I genuinely like more. Sure, I’d love to look like the Givenchy models from their latest ads: modern, strong, ready to take over the world. However, I would also love to dress in soft, flowy fabrics, ‘bathe’ in silk ruffles and fabric-rushes like the lovelies in Sonia Rykiel’s ads.

The ’soft and feminine’ trend seems to have caught on. Ads from top to bottom, left to right: Sonia Rykiel, Bottega Veneta, D&G.

More Sonia Rykiel soft beauty. Pretty inspiring for me.

Louis Vuitton and Versace ads. [image credit: tfs]

I told you recently that because of the fact that I started to make clothes recently, my obsessions shifted towards the accessories section of fashion: mostly shoes!!!! Pardon me: high heels that is! I can’t stop drolling over these latest Louis Vuitton and Versace shoe ads. Would most definitely wear them, even if it would make me be 2 meters tall. Take that not-quite-tall guys!

Even though I had all the graduation exams stress going on the last couple of weeks, work did not wait for me to finish University. But I’m glad that now, when I finally got over all that mad stress, I get to enjoy looking at and posting pics of my recent fabulous clients wearing their Diana Bobar Design dresses.

You might remember Diana, from the post about the dress I made for her (read here). I told you she is gorgeous, now I can prove that I am right about that. Absolutely love her in the dress, it fits her perfectly and she seems to be enjoying herself a lot and that’s eventually all that matters. Fab Diana in fab dress, don’t you think?

I’m sure you remember Ruxi for back when I was photographing her for the website. I’m glad she turned to me in making her a couple of dresses for some weddings she will attend to this summer. The most important one is her sister’s pale pink themed wedding in the heavenly Cote D’Azur. However, this champagne colored dress is for her boss’ wedding taking place this Saturday. Congratulations to all the future brides and congratulations to Ruxi for looking like a perfect, cute doll.

I featured Leontina quite a lot recently and I’m glad about that, because she is a good friend of mine. Neverminding the fact that we are BFF’s, she purchased a lot of clothes that I made, and it makes me very happy to see her wearing the suff that I made when we go out. That is such a great feeling! She doesn’t come over to my place very often, just because we both are so busy working, but whenever she does, she loves to try out all the dresses she sees around and always ends up getting something new. Great to have such friends, no?

These are some variations on this type of dress that I first made for the spring 2008 colection. It turned out to be a great success commercially (meaning I sold it a lot) and I’m thinking of making it in different types of colors/fabrics. The best part is that I integrate some thin strech bands at the waist, for a better fit. Get ready to see more variations of this dress very soon.

I made these two dresses in one day only: making the pattern, cutting the fabric, sewing the dresses, fitting it on the client, finishing them and also applying the Swarovsky cristals with my own fingers at the end. I must admit it was like a working marathon that day, but as long as the client was happy, I was happy, so it was all good! And I actually loved how the purple dress turned out; I’m not much of an orange fan, so nevermind the one :).

Mara promised to send me pictures from the wedding she wore her dress to. However, good thing that I made some on my own, so that I can post them right now. I made it in basic black, so that it can be worn with different types/colors of belts. Also, I came up with the idea of the golden pleats bolero after I made a basic black one which was too tight. Yes, stress can get positive results.

Gabriela, the organiser of the ‘My Grandma’s Backyard‘ fashion&accessories event wore this kimono jacket from hte fall’08 colection, at one of the event’s editions. Lovely how she wore it with Coca Zaboloteanu shoes and it does look like she had a lot of fun! I am still so very sorry that I couldn’t attent the B’est Fest music Festival. I heard Roisin Murphy was in Gabriela’s tent. How amazing was it if she would have looked through my clothes and actually got something??? Oh, well, maybe next time!

Kate is the sweetest girl from Skokie, IL, U.S.A . It took some time for the dresses to get ot her, but eventually the wait was over and as you can see, she likes and rocks them a lot! Thank you so much Kate for both the support and the patience, and I can’t wait to send you more of my designs, all the way to U.S.A.

Still have to finish a few orders today, but this weekend I plan to go visit my parents and meet all my friends (everybody is vacationing right now, so most are back in their/my hometown), hopefully even have summer fun in the sun, at a lovely lake not far from where my parents live. Will get back to work next week however, because I can’t really take too many days off (the work would just pile up and it’s not goot to work under so much stress - talking from experience), also, I got my first wedding dress order, so I’m quite excited about that!