Con Ilio (Fashion designer of Con Ilio Melbourne)

Con Ilio is a lover of all things beautiful and is a Melbourne designer of his self named label. He specialises in couture designer of women’s bespoke wedding and evening gowns boasting an impressive clientele. His line is known to embody style, finesse and empowerment for the inner God and Goddess. His strong use of elegance is shown and embellished in bead and lace elements. We spoke to Con as he shared with us more about his business, style and inspiration of elegance

Con Ilio是属于一切美丽事物的代名词，是这名墨尔本设计师自我命名的标签。他专心为女性打造婚礼时尚与晚礼服，细腻的设计曲线体现风格、技巧和点缀女性的内在，铸造每一个维也纳女神。他善于使用优雅的装饰珠和蕾丝元素塑造时尚，并分享了更多关于他的商业、风格和优雅的灵感泉源。

How did the brand or the idea of it begin?
A. I started working from home on my own and had a lot of help from my mum. I was also trying to get involved as much as I could in the fashion industry so I was modeling and doing hair dressing on the side. At home, I was making gowns and dresses for my sisters, my mother and did more for friends’ weddings. It was a slow and steady growth process.

关于自主品牌的想法是怎么萌生的?
我一开始是自己在家工作，并且获得我母亲的大力协助。为了涉猎时尚行业，另一方面我也着手于服装和发型。这是一个循序渐进的过程，我在家里先为姐妹设计礼服和裙子，再到母亲，然后延伸到更多朋友的婚礼。

What is your signature look?
I like to use different fabrics and techniques – my signature is the small waist and curvy hips to accentuate the hourglass figure. You’ll see something that’s always on the edge and very elegant. I love beautiful things and I want women to feel beautiful when they wear the gowns.

你的特质是什么?
我喜欢用不一样的面料和技术—我的设计特质是突出腰身和臀型曲线美的沙漏形状。而边缘上的点缀饰物增添优美。我爱一切美丽的事物，我希望女士们穿上礼服时觉得自己超美。

As every gown involves a lot of work, which one involved the most hours?
The most complex gown we did was the hydrangea couture gown where we used 21,500 petals and delicately hand sewed each of them onto the bodice and skirt of the gown. It’s very heavy but beautiful and involved several days and nights of work.

每件礼服制作过程都相当繁琐，哪一件是你印象最深刻的？
制作过最复杂的礼服是涉及大量的球花刺绣设计，精致手工缝纫2万1500朵花瓣，从礼服的贴身上衣到裙子，这是非常吃重但美丽的过程，总共花了几个昼夜完成。

As you have a niche selection of menswear, can you describe its style?
Think 007 James Bond – looking sleek and dangerous with clean sophisticated cuts. I started by making mens wear for myself as I always wanted to wear something new when I hit the town. One of my friends suggested I open up that line as she believed that my style would grab attention as they are daring and unique.

如果你有男装时尚的选项，能描述下是什么风格的吗?
我想是007占士邦格调，透过利落又复杂的裁剪打造光滑又危险的整体观感。我开始思索男装的方向，自己在逛街时候也穿上新感觉服饰。一个朋友建议我朝着路线走，因为她相信我的风格足以吸引那些显得大胆与独特的人们。

André Fu graduated from the University of Cambridge and founded AFSO in the same year to create distinct projects. His design studio has since created a series of internationally recognised works in sensuous and unique projects.

With its head studio in Hong Kong, the firm lists clients such as Maybourne Hotel Group, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Shangri-La Hotels, Swire Hotels, Capella Hotels, Park Hyatt Hotels, restauranteur Alan Yau, Louis Vuitton, lifestyle retailer Lane Crawford, and gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin.

AFSO’s distinctive approach to interior architecture combines the rigorous pursuit of new Asian sensitivities, with clarity in space planning and keen attention to the details of everyday life. It has applied its vision of design to the fundamental qualities of space, proportion, light, and lush materials. Its emotional spaces are created to inspire and indulge.

Opus Suite, the Berkeley

Text courtesy of afso; Image(s) courtesy of Maison&Objet Asia

David Liao (Founder and creative genius of DLX Creative)

He is a man of many talents – some say he’s a photographer, an architect, a property agent who’s also good at many other sporting activities.

In reality, David Liao is a down to earth and successful entrepreneur who is definitely all of the above, but keeps focused with the services that his company provides in the real estate community.

After owning and running DLX Creative for seven years, the business focuses on developers to create marketing material for the latter’s architectural projects – making their projects come to live.

“We are a marketing service agency that provides services purely for property developers. The services are to build long-term partnerships, working closely with our stakeholder groups, and meeting their requirements to ensure an open and collaborative dialogue throughout the production process. We carry out thorough and extensive research for every project, developing considered creative solutions that work,” explains Liao.

DLX has grown as a business housing seven specialised staff and is relatively a young agency which projects a vibrant and forward thinking team. “Our goal is to deliver highly effective solutions in a cost-effective manner. We tailor solutions for developments of all sizes.”

“Three years ago, another person joined me as a partner who has 15 over years in print. The company has grown since then and we do around 20-30 projects in Melbourne and some in China. DLX are my initials – David Liao and X stands for Exponential potentials – no boundaries, no limits in our services.”

With a rather impressive list of projects under its belt, Liao hopes to explore more opportunities in the future.

“I’d like my team to have more ownership of the company and project. I like to focus on different things and tap into new industries.  There’s another project in the pipeline to do with tourism from China to Melbourne where there is huge potential because of the amount of Chinese tourists who come here every year.”

And so, there is definitely exponential potential for Liao where he will take on these new projects with no boundaries and no limits.

他多才多艺-有人说他是摄影师、建筑师、产业代理，甚至擅长体育活动。在现实中, David Liao 是脚踏实地的成功企业家，这是公认的事实，并且一直集中在为房地产社群提供专业服务。

运营 DLX Creative 的7年来,他们的业务专注于创建房产建筑项目的市场营销方案，让客户的房产项目更具活力与神采。

“我们纯粹为房地产开发商提供服务，建立长期合作关系，与他们密切合作，满足一切需求，并且确保良好开放的协作贯穿整个制作过程。我们对每一个项目皆有广泛的研究和探讨，给予具备创造性的方案。”

DLX已成长为拥有7名专业人员的年轻效率机构，充满能量和拥有超前思维的团队。“我们的目标是提供符合成本效益的高效方案，为各种规模的项目定制完美方案。”

3年前，随着一名具有15年印刷经验的合作伙伴加入，那时起，DLX 在墨尔本有20 – 30个服务订单，还有一些是在中国。DLX 是由 David Liao 名字首字母组成，而X代表潜力指数 – 服务无极限，没界限。

为了发掘令人印象深刻的项目列表，他希望在未来拓展探索更多机会。

“我想让我的团队掌控更多公司和项目的主动权。我喜欢关注不同的东西和进入全行业领域，另外，针对每年不断攀升到访墨尔本的中国旅客数量，这个巨大潜力的旅游项目管道我们也在进行着。”

因此，在具备绝对潜力指数下，这些新规划理所当然无极限，没界限。