Who will be crowned Miss Teen Couture on the Fashion Runway 2012

There are teens who design fashion and there are teens who are born for fashion. The Teen Couture Design  Club at Academy of Couture Art, Los Angeles takes that passion to the highest of fashion reaching French couture.

Many don't know that French couture technique is different in a very special way from the commonly taught American style. Yet there is a growing number of young teen designers who have a keen sense of what is luxury and the elegant line it brings to the magical world of design. They are the Teen Couture Design Club.

Every year or bi-annual at the design college, Teen Couturiers take a lesson in the creative eye of developing a couture collection with French couture fashion drawing of their own garments that are made-to-measure the couture way to fit these young designers on the runway. It's a highlight of the show for the fashion industry. There's something about fresh unlimited creativity that is youth. Combined with high fashion techniques and a love for learning, you have a suitable candidate for Miss Teen Couture chosen from the industry.

Last year's Miss Teen Couture was Angelina DUFRESNE of Beverly Hills, an amazingly talented young lady in fashion and acting. She won a scholarship of $5,000 to the Academy's specialized French couture for the American system Associate and Bachelor degree programs.

The Teen Couture Design Club is on the search for the next Miss Teen Couture and the future couturiers of the world. Recruiting is on now and the grand theme is Le Reve (Dream). Send your idea for a sub-theme collection to lalanterne@teencoutureclub.com or call (310) 360 8888 for more details. The program begins January 7th.

Teen Couture Design Club Fashion Show Prep

The Next Big Stars in Fashion

Academy of Couture Art: Design College of Haute Couture is an elite college recognized for being true to the couture aesthetic. Every summer the college opens its doors to the best young talent in design. These artists take their early emergence in the fashion industry with a couture flair. Check out some looks from the skirt collection summer 2011!

Summer of Couture Fashion Art | Fashion Camp | Academy of Couture Art

Couture Fashion Summer Camp on Grand Fashion Runway

The group of girls came into camp to give their personal fashion sense a lesson in Haute Couture. Every day of the camp, each artist was being challenged in her own way to think outside of her fashion box. Surrounding them, the walls, rooms, and tables spoke openly of the discoveries of other students, present and past. Discoveries that had resulted in art and nature inspired fashion collages, hand-embellished textiles, sketches of concept collections. This was an environment ripe for breakthrough.

Each student spent time to study under their well-trained instructors, learning the fine art of fashion and pattern. Watchfully cutting and measuring to Haute Couture standards, training their eyes to acutely observe images from the minds of the masters, and disciplining their instruments to sketch fashion figures the proportional and naturally elegant French way. Also, the students felt their ideas and expressions come to life with the use of European color theory, in addition to American, providing them with an entirely new and innovative color palette!

The progress that each girl felt as she watched her skills and design concepts become more refined and matured just added to the spirit. Every girl watched and invested in each other’s progress, getting excited and encouraged to encounter their newfound abilities in fashion. Excitement that built with each new fashion sketch, each experiment with color, each hand-measured muslin skirt, each carefully chosen final fabric…All leading to the height of the Summer Couture Camp achievements- the Red Carpet!

The girls were a burst of exhilaration, modeling their handcrafted skirts in front of the long ornate mirrors, teasing and primping their hair to decide the ultimate impression, tossing questions over their shoulders to others for their insider opinions.

Almost the moment. All feverishly lined up and waiting, smoothing their skirts, listening for their music cue. Then it’s time.

Music compels as each girl strides down the runway, pride in her eyes while she shows off her perfectly fitting, personally hand-made skirt to the eager onlookers. Everyone is thrilled to be experiencing this satisfying unveiling of the month-long program’s culmination.

A job well done (and exciting!), all the girls agree at the end, surrounded by admiring family and friends. When asked what they learned about fashion that was fresh and brand new, they beamed, and each answered with her own enlightenment. From the importance of knowing American and European techniques, to learning how to make their own patterns as well as concept sketches, to the value of piecing a garment together from scratch, to learning how to make garments that fit perfectly and capture a vision. Parental feedback was also revealing, one mother noting that during their last shopping trip, her daughter had immediately assessed a garment to find if it had a luxury finish (it did not). And another mother thoughtfully describing her daughter’s “evolution and refinement of taste” visible in her fashion sketches and still life drawings, as well as her garment design and construction.

Testimony after testimony reveals young artists flourishing under instruction at Academy of Couture Art, the only fashion design school in the U.S. teaching the height of fashion technique, Haute Couture.

Fashion Camps | Summer of Couture Fashion Art | Academy of Couture Art

Celebrity talent follows up on her ambitions in fashion at elite Design College of Haute Couture

Tiffany Trump designs and creates French Couture tailored garment.

Tiffany Trump has been looking into fashion design colleges that train in the elegance and sophistication of design. Inspired by designers such as Elie Saab, she pursues fashion education at Academy of Couture Art’s Summer Couture Camp in the Pacific Design Center of West Hollywood.

French Couture Fashion Illustration

During the intensive four week camp Tiffany explored her creativity in fashion design starting with the fundamentals. Discovering the balance and line of elegance that makes couture illustrations so drop dead gorgeous, she developed French fashion croquies to the body’s anatomical proportions to create the basis for the full fashion figure.

Mother, Marla Maples, upon viewing Tiffany’s illustrations, “Look at those gams!”

French Couture Tailoring and Pattern Drafting

Intrigued by French tailoring methods to draft patterns, Tiffany took a go at constructing a garment from start to finish.

“She certainly looks lovely behind the pattern table as she delicately presses her basic straight skirt for the final finishing, “commented her classmates. Her love of fine quality and precious care was a model for all. In fact, it was she who inspired finishing off the binding with a couture style of hand sewing.

Leading the Runway

Tiffany took the lead on the runway elegantly displaying her special touch on her final design to add subtle sexiness to a sophisticated piece. Marla, among others, was truly amazed to see participants transform during the month into confident mature ladies with a more realistic vision of the time and patience invested in fashion and pattern design. “It’s fabulous for young creators to foster their passions; especially when it’s nurtured in a realistic environment.” 

 A Message for All

“Whatever your passion, pursue it; and the best place to go for it is in school,” says Tiffany. “It’s hard work, for sure, but it’s definitely worth it in the end!” When you develop your creativity along with technique, the future holds many opportunities.

As Tiffany goes on to explore her interests in singing and acting, she encourages future fashion designers who love high fashion to give couture a try. “It’s an all round rewarding experience.”

Academy of Couture Art: Design College of Haute Couture is recognized for being true to the couture aesthetic. The exclusive summer camp provides opportunity for young exceptional talent to enter the couture world through design and creation of their own luxury ready-to-wear garment.

Summer Fashion Camps in Couture | Academy of Couture Art | Fashion School LA