Last week I had a very exciting job: I worked for the beautiful South African self-made artist (singer/songwriter) Tyla in preparation of the MTV EMA (Europe Music Awards) Awards that was held at the new Co-op Live venue in Manchester,
as her personal tailor.
The EMAs has been celebrating pop music and artists since 1994 as a European alternative to the MTV Music Awards, which are held in the USA every year, and this time it was Manchester's turn to welcome a big bunch of international music icons along the lines of Busta Rhymes, the Happy Mondays, Eminem, Raye, Tailor Swift and the Pet Shop Boys, and Tyla of course, to name just a few.
Punch online
I was sourced by Tyla's agent (check her out, she represents a lot of amazing artists and her portfolio is divine and full of highly editorial shoots which you might love: https://dayone-studio.com/), to work alongside Ronnie Hart, a pretty amazing fashion stylist who is based in New York who also styles celebrity singers Sabrina Carpenter and Anitta. I was required to tailor Tyla's 3 different outfits for the ceremony, as she was wearing a formal ball gown for the arrival on the red carpet, an outfit to perform a couple of live performances at the show, and a third outfit to receive the awards. She was nominated for four awards: "Best New", "Best R&B", "Best Afrobeats" and "Best African Act", of which she won the last three of them (massive congrats, Tyla!).
Tyla isn't unfamiliar to winning though, she has amassed a very impressive amount of awards for her music and her videos in the last couple of years, including a few to the most stylish global artist, so I had to be very precise with my tailoring skills to help her achieve the image she wants to achieve, and very importantly, to not have any sort of wardrobe malfunction, especially during the
performances, and if you have seen her moves, you will understand what I mean: she does move a lot, and beautifully, whilst she sings. She is a great dancer and singer and she has even walked down the catwalk for Victoria's Secret lingerie fashion show just a month ago, smashing it.
I did a fitting session with Tyla at the hotel she was staying for the MTV Awards Ceremony and then I took her garments to my workshop, very near by in Manchester city centre, to do the alterations required, then bring them back to Ronnie, her stylist. She was staying at a very luxurious hotel in town where other celebrities were also staying for the MTV EMAs, so the entrance to the hotel was barred and they had fences outside where the press and the paparazzi were standing with their cameras, trying to photograph anyone who might be a celebrity. A line of shiny official state cars were parked at the entrance to drive the artists to the venue, and there was massive security everywhere, so you could only access the hotel with credentials. It makes sense considering how many fans, paparazzi, weirdos and general public would do anything to meet famous people, so they protect them and I understand why. Being famous means having to secure your privacy all the time, unfortunately, which I feel is a terrible thing, and I would personally not like to be any of them and have to hide to live my life, but I guess it is the price you have to pay to be famous, selling your soul to the devil and that.
Having said that, Tyla seems like a really down-to-earth young woman, with lots of talent and lots of amazing things coming her way. I loved watching her testing her moves and dancing with the outfits when I was safety-pinning the clothes to her at the fitting in the hotel. I always enjoy the buzzing feeling of
working behind the scenes, the anticipation of what is about to happen, assisting with the preparations and helping get someone ready to receive an award, or to come out on stage to perform and do their craft, and their attitude says a lot about themselves and who they are as a person. Tyla reminds me of my darling niece Maria, who is younger (still a teenager), but who always takes any opportunity to dress up and perform. Maria, who is learning theatre and acting from an early age, because fortunately her parents noticed her talents and put her in the right direction, I always said she would be an actress.
Here is Tyla wearing on the red carpet the most beautiful designer and inventor Roberto Cavalli silk gown, paying tribute to R&B legend Aaliyah’s VMA dress from 2000.
The dress had to be fitted to her, and then I carefully did the alteration by hand, since the dress is the most delicate thing you can think of. Actually, when I saw the gown on a hanger I almost cried, it was so stunning and light, made in a beautiful zebra-printed silk chiffon fabric, light as a feather, cut on the bias to hug her figure like a glove and trimmed with stunning petals made out of fox fur, dyed in turquoise and black to match the print of the dress. If you know anything about bias-cutting, you will know how difficult it is to cut on the bias,
specially in such a hard fabric to work with as silk chiffon is. Bias cutting is when you cut a garment placing the pattern on diagonal against the grain, instead of on the grain of the fabric as most garments are cut out, so fabric, and that is almost any fabric as long as it has some drape, therefore becomes stretchy even when it is not meant to be. A garment cut on the bias doesn't need darts to be tailored to your body, much like lycra does, so you get the smoothest of silhouettes but you also get the fabric to move around your body and drape as it is alive. The bias cut was invented by French designer Madeleine Vionnet in the early 20th Century, an "architect of clothing" more than a "fashion designer" by all means and the most fierce opposer to women having to wear corsets all the time (not just for a special occasion dressing), way before lycra existed and thanks God for that, if it had been the other way around and lycra was invented before Madeleine Vionnet invented the bias-cut, maybe the bias-cut would have not be invented at all and that would have been a huge fashion crime in my eyes, as lycra is an evil fabric whilst bias cut is made in heaven!!
Here is a sample of one of the best-known designs by Madeleine Vionnet, who by the way, she wasn't just the most amazing designer, but also fought for the clothing industry's workers rights throughout her working life:
Evening dresses by Madeleine Vionnet for Vogue magazine, photograph by Edward Steichen, 1930. Museum no. CIRC.969-1967. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Talking about silk fabric, I have made countless silk garments and even wedding gowns, and I know, silk does what it wants, not what you want it to do. It is almost alive! it moves, it slides, pins make marks so you can not pin the fabric in order to cut it. If you happen to accidentally stretch the fabric whilst cutting it, then you cut it wrong, better dispose of it and get a new yardage of silk chiffon and cut it again, and believe me, you dont need to do much to stretch silk chiffon, you breath and your breath moves it and the silk stretches on its own. Do not even dare sneezing next to it, it would twist so much you would have to start all over again...the whole process of cutting silk chiffon on the bias can be so stressful, I only do that nowadays for a very special gown, otherwise I refuse to. Furthermore, silk fabric is very expensive as it is handmade, so if you cut it wrong just by making the mistake of not just sneezing, but breathing, whilst you cut it, that is a few hundred pounds/dollars/euros down the drain.
Needless to say, silk is a nightmare to cut, but it is also a dream to wear...
You can see Tyla wearing the dress in this video as she arrives on the red carpet, notice how beautifully the fabric moves with her.
This dress was made of just two pieces of fabric: front and back. The top around the neckline is folded inwards and not stitched to anything, so that it moves with you when you are wearing it. The bottom part was carefully hand-stitched to the fur (not a dress for vegans, hey!), and then it has tiny straps to go on your shoulders and tied behind your neck, and it has not lining in it, so it is semi-sheer and beautifully delicate and sensual. Seriously, a gown to die for, in my understanding. Simple yet effective and clever. It feels just like a 1930's silk evening gown that would belong in a museum, but modern. No need to re-invent the wheel here, designers know what works and over-designing is no good; as a designer you don't need to invent new things all the time, you can also revisit well known techniques and adapt them to the fashion of the times you live in. It is a clever move by amazing designer Roberto Cavalli who unfortunately just passed away, but who was well known by his beautiful wild animal prints on fabric (he actually invented and patented a printing system in the 1970's) but even more popular for his invention of the sand-blasted technique on jeans that was all the rage and we all wore in the early 90's. The whole world copied his technique and it was a trend that lasted for the whole decade and beyond, to become a classic. Who hasn't owned a pair of sand-blasted jeans?
Sandblasted Roberto Cavalli jeans
Talking about Cavalli, who has been ever since on my list of favourite couture designers who produced high fashion garments so wearable that they could almost be streetwear, I actually went through a phase in the early 90's when I was obsessed with Roberto Cavalli's tights and hosiery, and I used to treat myself to them on payday (I was a full time university student in Madrid back then, but I also kept jobs outside of studying times that would help pay for my education and mainly for my fashion addictions), although I never wore most of them because I treasured them too much, so they are still in their packets, ...crazy innit!
Going back to Tyla's outfits for the night, the second outfit, that she wore for the performances, were a pair of Guess short jeans with interesting side laced-ups that show the bare skin underneath, made in the most unusual metallic denim fabric, black with a subtle silver overtone that makes it look almost like plastic. I tailored them to Tyla to be shorter even and more fitted on the backside, basically make them even sexier to fit her style. She wore also a super cool strappy black jersey body suit encrusted with silver studs, and a belt
made out of the waistband of a pair of jeans (genius design!). Here she is and you can see her performance at the MTV EMAs Awards below, enjoy it:
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Vogue Italia
Finally, for the last outfit, to collect her well-deserved three awards, Tyla wore a black knitted pencil skirt with a matching halter neck top. Unfortunately I don't know the designer or brand who made them, but I have to say I absolutely loved the design of both garments because of their simplicity and how well they fit her (they almost needed no tailoring to Tyla's body as they already fit her like a glove). The skirt, was tightly knitted from waist to hip and very fitted, but then from the hip down to pass her knees, it was just like a messy spiderweb knit, super sheer and super cool, ending on a thin band of again close-knitted cashmere probably. The top part is basically a flat rectangle of knitted wool yarn with very thin straps at every corner (4 straps in total), that tie both around the neck and the waist of the wearer. Yet another genius design idea. In between the yarn, small sparkles were knitted within the wool, they can barely be appreciated although they shine with the lights.
And a clip of Tyla receiving the awards:
What a day! I watched the show live on TV and it was really good, totally recommend it, performances were great and British singer Rita Ora presenting it with lots of crazy and whimsical outfit changes made it very enjoyable.
Congratulations to Tyla on her awards, and to everybody else, especially Ronnie Hart, Tyla's stylist, who put these three stunning outfits together.
It was a pleasure to do this job, I enjoyed it very much, thank you all for counting me in! I feel inspired.
Thank you all for reading, please universe send me more Tylas this way!
Silvia
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