The Coil Review

Tuesday, October 03, 2006










DESIGNS FOR EVERYDAY WEAR

While both Dena and Christine share a love of apparel design - each brings their own distinctive style and skill. Their strengths and weaknesses keep this pair feeding off one another's ideas...and that's when the sparks fly.

Christine's style is Spirited, Witty, Edgy and Uncommon. Here are a few of her custom designs.

Josephine Baker T-Shirt

Black Tank

Janet Jackson TShirt-Dress

Tank Top - "Diva Boot Camp"

Mexican Style Peasant Dress and matching Halter

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS IS ANOTHER DESIGN TEAM

What a joy it is to lauch this site and reveal to the world, the tale of two talented cousins who have a dream...a dream that will take them to the highest heights of fashion and accessory design.

Is it reasonable to believe in this world that there's still room for cutting edge designs and unparalleled style? Erma "Dena" and Christine say....YES, YES, YES!!

HOW THEY MET

Imagine that two years earlier, these two cousins had never heard of eachother. Had never uttered one single, solitary word to one another. But on that fateful day in 2004 when they met at a family reunion picnic in Los Angeles, CA, they began a friendship they could not have imagined. Talk about "Devine Intervention!" That's exactly what it was.

How else would you explain the syncronicity and commonalities shared between these two women? How else would you explain a love of designing and all things "fashion" that these two share? It's uncanny. Perhaps we can, with the belief that "blood is thicker than water." As their blood lines reach back to ancestors who have excelled with uncharacteristic talent, drive and craftsmanship in a variety of professions.






I DON'T BELIEVE IT

On the personal front, the similiarities are frightening. It was revealed that they work within blocks from each other in Long Beach, while maintaining separate households in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

They are one year apart in age. Neither has children, nor have either been married. Both come from large families with strong mothers and fathers. Both have a firm faith in God and his ministry, and each sings in her church's gospel choir. As well, both women sing professionally in venues outside the church.

Both have been designing, sewing and/or creating unique items since childhood. Imagine their amazement to find out that each had Design/Sketch books so similar in layout and purpose that one's book could pass for the other's. Both women have also been models, and walked the runway on many fashion show catwalks.

When comparing similar tastes, in several instances they found that they have the "exact" same items in their homes....i.e. mannequins, jewelry, fabric, notions and the like. Once they were organizing their clothing and accessories for a fashion show....it went something like this.

" Christine created a cigar box purse. Excited to be able to complete this item in the animal print and style she chose, she showed it to Dena. Without a word, but with a wide smile, Dena went into her closet and pulled out a floor length Duster coat made in the "exact" same fabric. In an instant, they created a complete outfit unbeknownst to the other...but a pefect match no less."

Cigar Box Purse with Animal Print

Whenever they met for lunch or attended concerts and other affairs, they could be seen exchanging the customary greeting of a "kiss on the cheek" which garnered them the nickname of KISSIN' CUZZINS!

When it comes to fashion, both have similar likes and dislikes. They have a strong sense of what fashion means to them. Both believe that the other (one) brings the missing element to complete the package of an extraordinary design team. And with one look at their amazing collection, you will agree that they are indeed Extraordinary!!

DENA

Dena is an excellent seamtress. She has designed for Bates Leather and created costumes for the movie industry. She has studied fashion design, and worked with many talented mentors under their design labels while developing her skills.

Several magazines have written about her, featuring her designs and style aptitude. Dena can sew just about anything - suits, wedding dresses, prom dresses, skirts, evening wear and chic & high fashion without batting an eye! Dena also has a flair for home decorating, as she has designed her own one-of-a-kind sofa and loveseat set by simply sketching out the design and hiring a talented craftsman to build her dream furniture. She creates lamps, drapes, and matching accessories like you wouldn't believe. She has single handedly created the E'DenaV line of fashionable merchandise.

CHRISTINE

Christine is a fashion fanatic and design officianado. Her skill in the design of Accessory and Art & Crafts products is uncharacteristcally unique. Christine is a designer's designer. One look at an item and she can reconstruct it with ease and flare.

She is a strong proponent of "mix and match coordinates" and has ideas of one day creating a line of separates for the woman who has to have matching accessories that are completely unique and adaptable for every day wear.

Christine is self-taught and comes to the table with her own set of natural abilities and skills - "God-Given" talent as it were. She is often heard saying that most times she can begin a project with no inherent knowledge of how to construct that item, but by studying it and understanding the rules of design and functionality; she finishes it like she's done it one thousand times.
She admits to being obsessed....yes...obsessed with Arts & Crafts. She has created crafts in every imaginable medium......decoupage, paper emphemera, clay, wood-working, plaster-of-paris designs, jewelry-making, beading, rubber stamping, and altered art.

Soft purses and Decoupaged traveling case.


Currently her "altered" artwork appears on the on-line Art zine,"Artitude" - click here: http://www.artitudezine.com/14autumn04gallery4.htm

She also enters her art into various contests and art challenges regularly.

She continues to up the ante by creating T-shirts, Handbags, Belts, and Hats that are Devine, with flair to spare. Even though she believes her strong suit is design, her work is that of a master crafter.



African print Tank Top


Custom-designed Patti LaBelle Cigar box purse






TALE OF TWO SISTAHS

So now you know the tale of two sistahs. Two cousins who grew up worlds apart...one in Mississippi and the other in California. Two women who knew that they had something special in the way they approached designing stylish apparel. It is up to them to take this dream and give it wings to soar above the mundane, the confusing, and the fad-driven styles that reveal the desperation of ideas in today's fashions for women.

Today they embark on a journey that will lead them to never before realized opportunities. They have the will, the desire, and the skill to make it all happen, and it will happen as sure as you bet.

One day you'll look up and see them on Oprah, the Tyra Banks show, in Essence Magazine, in Ebony....People, Fortune, Black Enterprise, Fashion Review, on Television and Runways around the world.......yes, they have big dreams.

WELCOME TO THE HEART AND SOUL OF....




BEZEM Y MAI LAN FASHION SHOW

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