Every year a new fashion week is added to the already packed fashion calendar. In fact we could almost say that every month a new fashion event mushrooms somewhere in the world.
Despite these new additions open up new markets to up-and-coming designers, in some cases you wish there would be fewer fashion weeks and more quality.
The AltaRoma event has just started in Italy, for example, with a rather thin programme revealing all the weak spots of the by now defunct universe of Italian high fashion and the consequences of not having enough funds to organise properly competitive events. At the beginning of July, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin proved instead that, though the road to establishing a fashion house is long and winding, there are quite a few interesting and talented designers out there keen to work hard to pursue their dream.
South African duo Black Coffee, comprising Jacques van der Watt and Danica Lepen, showcased their latest collection at Berlin Fashion Week together with Argentinean fashion and costume designer Pablo Ramírez. The design duo, recipient of the 2009 Mercedes-Benz South Africa Award for Fashion Design, presented a collection that displayed an ethno-chic influence.
Patterns, hand dyed techniques, bright shades and beaded motifs were borrowed from African traditions and the netted helmets evoked a world made of explorers and colonialists, yet the shapes and multi-draped layers of fabric wrapped around the models or cascading on their bodies were quintessentially modern.
One of the first collections Pablo Ramírez did was inspired by his Catholic education in Buenos Aires, and, though this new collection was prevalently grey and black, traditional colours of nun's dresses and school uniforms, there was no religious call here, but a tribute to model Kouka, who worked for Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior among the others.
With this icon of elegance and style firmly in mind Ramírez presented both a men and women’s wear collection characterised by tailored pieces and very simple silhouettes.
Grey frocks were enriched by delicate pleats that surrounded the waist, cropped jackets were paired with wide pants and sheer blouses created contrasts with matte skirts.
It was interesting to spot also a collection with an art connection, Je Suis Belle’s. Despite the French name, Je Suis Belle are a Hungarian design duo founded four years ago by Dalma Dévényi and Tibi Kiss, graduates of the Moholy-Nagy University of Applied Arts in Budapest.
Hungary is a totally new country when it comes to fashion and this duo could be an interesting introduction to the local fashion scene and to further Hungarian designers.
Though Dévényi and Kiss are both young, they have already won as a team the first price at the Hans Christian Andersen International Fashion Designer Show and Competition, held in Denmark in 2005, and have also been named in 2007 Top Young Fashion Designers of the Year in Hungary. Dévényi and Kiss presented at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin a collection that mainly comprised dresses, tops and trousers characterised by relaxed shapes and silhouettes, evoking a sense of freedom and practicality.
Yet they managed to mix into their work a little bit of art, printing on their creations four works by Hungarian contemporary painter Attila Szűcs. Using the work of a painter as the print for a dress is not a new idea, but Je Suis Belle seemed to touch also on the theme of memories and nostalgia, mixing them well with arty inspirations.
The best dresses were the ones with blown up prints of Szűcs’s drawing entitled "Girl in Red" (206) portraying a little blonde girl in a red dress and stockings on a vivid red background, but also the tops and dresses with details of Szűcs’s animations “Bubbleworld” and “Bubblememory”, with their dreamy and at time disturbing atmospheres.
Also Wunderkind displayed a strong link with the world of art as designer Wolfgang Joop infused once again a little bit of avantgardism into his collection, mixing feminine and masculine details, tailored and structured garments with more relaxed silhouettes.
The collection had already been presented in March at Paris Fashion Week, but it was showcased in Berlin through an innovative installation in the brand’s store. The presentation allowed visitors to discover how the collection was created through different sketches and paintings. Art fans easily spotted the colour palette of Kazimir Malevich ‘s "Morning in the Village After Snowstorm" (1912) and Alexandra Exter’s "City" (1913) in the geometric prints that characterised Wunderkind’s A/W 09 chiffon dresses, though twentieth-century Russian abstract art wasn’t the only inspiration behind Joops' Autumnal collection.
Joop mixed abstract art with the work of contemporary German photo artist Gregor Törzs, printing on dresses and woollen coats his images of animals such as deer and cheetahs.
Presenting the collection in this way proved less theatrical than showcasing it through a proper catwalk, yet it was this absence of theatricality that allowed to analyse better Joop’s skills as a designer and tailor and to make the clothes look less excessive and more wearable.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments