My Instagram Account

Hello everyone!! I know it’s been such a long time that you’ve heard from me and I promise you, all is well. Actually well might be an over exaggeration…I’m still at school stressing over exams so clearly all isn’t well haha! 

I’ve recently created an Instagram to start showcasing my work as I think it’s time to put myself out there and really build on my brand and expand my base. I would love it if you guys could give me a follow as I would be posting much more regularly on there (it’s just a lot easier and more convenient). 

In no way does it mean I am neglecting my blog however! After my exams are done and I’m finished with school once and for all I will have a lot of free time to switch between the two so hopefully I’ll be a lot more active then what I am at the moment. 

It’s so nice to have posted after 638834 years and I can’t wait to start posting again more regularly! If you wanna show some love (which would be much appreciated) follow me on insta-my username is: khanxstudios 

Also show some love by viewing my one of kind (!!) lace blouse that I made which I’m selling on eBay; just click here.

Much love and have a great week my sweets! Until next time ❤ 
                             xx A xx

My First Luxury Blouse

Long time no see my friends! I haven’t been posting regularly because I’ve been so caught up with my school work…and it’s only the beginning of October.

Anyways my friend’s birthday is on Sunday (9th October) and I thought I’d give her a really special, one-of-a-kind gift. I’ve been able to find time to practice with my sewing a lot more so I’m definitely getting better each time.

I went to Manchester with my dad to check out the University of Manchester open day and thought I’d pop by the market to find some nice material to make my friends blouse with. I’m a sucker for lace myself and whilst there were (way) too many beautiful styles and designs to choose from, I really fell in love with this one. The pictures definitely do not do it justice, especially because they were taken in artificial lighting (note that the pictures of the material on the chair is great because it’s taken in natural daylight).

Because this was a not-so-cheap lace I had my mum sit with me and make sure that I made no mistakes when designing this blouse. Once we had cut the shape out we began to custom make our blouse to give it a look of luxury. We had ordered a pack of multi-colour flat-back pearls from eBay and, along with our clear-dry fabric glue, we began sticking the pearls to our hearts content.

The next day we sewed the blouse. It was very simple as it was just the sides that needed sewing, the sleeves attached and the the folds at the end of the sleeves and along the bottom of the blouse that needed neatly folding so the top doesn’t fray. My mum of course had to do the neckline and the bias as I can’t quite get that professional look yet with my lack of experience. My mum also sewed pearls along the bottom, the sleeves and the neckline as, again, I had never done it before and it had to look nice.

Overall, the top is a bloody beautiful product. I seriously get Dior x Zuhair Murad vibes from it and I couldn’t be prouder. In essence, it’s encouraged me to carry on pursuing my dream of becoming a fashion designer because seeing my creations come to life, my hard work and effort, is what makes it all the worthwhile. It really was my first big project, and while I had a lot of help from my mum (thank you mum and God bless you), I’m proud of myself for pushing the boundaries and going outside of my comfort zone.

thanks for reading my sweets~until next time! ❤

x A x

Making My First Blouse

 

Hello again! Today’s post is going to be a little different. I first started this blog off by uploading my designs (which are in my old design book) with the intention of learning some sewing and making some of my designs come to life. I’ve been doing rough suits here and there and even made my sister some plain, basic cotton pyjamas But now I had to go out of my comfort zone and start making something that requires a bit of imagination and thinking.

The bodice isn’t fitted. It’s the opposite with it going out the further you go down. That bit wasn’t complicated and so I cut it myself. The sleeves, however, I had a little help from my mum. They’re flute style with a fake ‘drawstring’ look.

I’m really pleased with this. Not only did I cut and sew 95% of it (my mum really just helped me with cutting the sleeves and then sewing one so I could independently do the other) but as a first attempt almost by itself, for it to have gone the way it did is splendid. I had a few problems along the way. I cut the bodice on the seam line instead of the cut-line which resulted in me having to attach extensions. I was also rusty with the neckline as I hadn’t sewn in ages but I eventually got there-let me tell you that thinking for myself wasn’t all that great lol. I hand sewn the neckline so the seam appeared almost invisible. This gives it a much nicer and neat finishing.  My measuring was also a bit off. I added an inch too much on the shoulder so the sleeves drag a bit but that’s minor. Weirdly I somehow didn’t cut the back the same length as the front so it’s actually shorter but we’ll just pretend that’s the design. Because I also cut the back of the neckline too much compared to the front it pulls back. But these are all mistakes that I can learn from when sewing my next garment. Next time I will also use a plain baby pink or black material to sewing the drawstring with as the pattern is so busy that you can barely see it.

Overall I’m very happy with my first independent piece of sewing!

Thanks for reading my sweets~until next time!

Much love ❤

x A x

Outfit of the Evening #1

  
  
                   






  

So on Friday night my family and I went for a meal out to celebrate my sister’s birthday. She turned 19 and because we rarely ever go out these days (life is stressful!) I obviously needed to make an effort to look presentable.

As you know my mum is a professional at sewing (see my Eid 2015 to see another one of her creations!). She made these amazing clothes for me. Her imagination is really one of a kind. Not being biased but even the design the model in the picture wore was no where near as nice as how my mum had created it.

The pears down the front of the kameez and the along the bottom are her own touch, as well as the red piping around it. The kameez itself was beautiful-the embroidery and material is a really good quality but my mum made it look 100x better with her artiste and skill.

I wore it with a pair of fitted (almost cigarette style) pants, which were a plain grey, and some pink pointed heels.

Add a touch of a subtle brown smokey eye and lightly-dabbed-on dark red lipstick and I was good to go 🙂

I really enjoyed it! I posted some snaps on my snapchat story (which you can add me: amnakhxn) but I didn’t save them because they didn’t translate that nicely when I took the pictures.

I will be sure to take some outfit pictures next time I wear it though-the hunt for good lighting is long and difficult one!

Until next time my sweets ❤

x A x

Style Inspiration: Deepika Pudokne

I thought I’d give my make-up posts a bit of a break this week. Recently I’ve been loving Deepika Pudokne’s style. She’s always been elegant and dressed classy but I feel like she’s really upped her game recently.

My favourite out of the chosen images has to be the gold Sabyasachi dress-that’s heart eyes emoji all over. Of course most of these aren’t for everyday wear but once in a while when you need to dress up it’s good to get your outfit looking on point!

I’d love to know who your fashion inspiration is. I’m always looking for new ways to upgrade my style so please recommend them to me!

Thanks for reading my sweets ❤

x A x

BoI: Wedding Wear Part Two

Last Monday I uploaded a bridal couture design that’s part of my current collection, the Beauty Of Islam. This is the “grand unveiling” of the rest of the design!

I hope you can see the calligraphy at the back as I’m paranoid that the glitter has messed it up and it’s not readable. I initially (and unknowingly) accidentally wrote a prayer at the back, so obviously out of respect I changed it to the current calligraphy design it is now, which reads ‘Undying Faith’ in Arabic and was taken from the last picture.

I hope you like my first ever bridal dress I’ve created! Maybe I could design some more in the future and make all sorts of wedding couture instead of sticking to traditional South Asian wedding wear 🙂

Thanks for reading my sweets ❤

x A x

Important!!

For the next couple of weeks I’m going to go unorthodox on this blog and put some different posts up. I’m currently really busy with my a levels and I don’t want to upload designs I’ve not put my heart into just to get a post up on time. I’m really sorry and I hope you understand! I won’t stop blogging but I won’t be putting any new designs up for a while. Inshallah I’ll come back with a bang and tons of new collections to show you!

❤

BoI: Wedding Wear Part One

My design is inspired by the above picture, a wedding gown created by the talented Saira Rizwan

Very much like me, my designs are not photogenic (laughs at my own terrible sense of humour)

This piece was inspired a 100% by a traditional South Asian wedding gown created by Saira Rizwan.

You may ask why on Earth this has anything to do with my current collection: The Beauty of Islam. Well that’s why it’s part one!

This design took me 4 hours to perfect today (and it looks a lot nicer when you see it in person trust me!) and with all my a level work to catch up with, this is all I could squeeze in my free time. You’ll see the rest of it next week!

The design is a spaghetti strapped (very heavily embroidered and embellished) oxblood coloured gown with a thin jacket-kameez over it, made from a luxurious chiffon and carefully hand embellished designs.

Hope you like the first of my wedding looks as there’ll be a lot more coming soon!

Thanks for reading and see you next time my sweets 🙂 ❤

x A x

New Collection: The Beauty of Islam

A surah from the Qu’ran in a beautiful calligraphy style art (to be situated on the left side of the jacket)

This is something different and quite scary to be honest. Recently I’ve become so much prouder of embracing myself-my culture, ethnicity and religion.

Growing up, I always believed white was the standard of beauty and that my culture was inferior. My religion has always been demonized in the media and so (ashamedly) I was always too scared to embrace it.

Being aware (holla if you’re woke!) of the world around me and why things are the way they are, I’m embracing myself more than ever because I missed out on doing so all those years growing up.

My new collection: The Beauty Of Islam, incorporates modern times with an old and beautiful religion. Hopefully my future designs can spread awareness on, not just the beauty of Islamic art or fashion, but the religion itself. I will feature one high street design (in the future) with a beautiful, peaceful quote from the Qu’ran to really get that message across!

Although my design here is only (marginally) Islamic due to the emblem that I have feature on the jacket/kimono style top, more of my creations will be a mix of Islamic culture, calligraphy and art.

Thanks for reading! Until next time my sweets ❤

x A x

Romanian Designer Inspo: Cristina Săvulescu

A designer that I’ve recently stumbled upon on my search for inspiration, Cristina Savulescu’s designs are absolute perfection.

Using my favourite material in the world (lace!), her designs combine classy and sexy, and are so eye droppingly beautiful while maintaining simplicity and elegance at the same time.

I wish she was more mainstream so she gets the recognition she deserves. I can imagine a few Hollywood stars slaying in her dresses!

If you’d like to view her whole collection click here. I’m sure you’ll come to love them as much as I do!

Much love ❤

x A x

Midnight Velvet Collection: Design #6

Behold my final design! Or at least the last one I’ll show you from this collection 😛

This is very different to the rest of the Midnight Velvet Collection designs, because the major part of the design isn’t the velvet itself nor the midnight blue colour. The main part of the dress is made from a very fine sheer net material (a sheer dark blue), and the mehndhi inspired design on the dress is the bit made from deep, midnight-blue micro velvet.

Because the design of the dress is mainly made from a sheer material, I added undergarments that are part of the dress that are made from a matte spandex material.

I can’t wait to show you my newest collection which thrives off culture and religion, and focuses on the beauty of it.

Thanks for reading my sweets ❤

x A x