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| Image courtesy of Kuna Photography |
The mix of shows this day was truly inspiring! My wonderful friend Shravan Ramaswamy returned for his third season at VFW - opening the night with a stunning show and receiving a well-deserved standing ovation from many of us. Because of the depth of his show - I will be featuring him in a separate article next week so I can include more information and a larger grouping of pictures. The evening continued on with a wonderful variety of styles offered on the runway. When you sit through all shows every day - well over 50 shows this week - you need to see an ever changing range of styles to keep your focus sharp. Yesterday the mix was perfect.
My outfit was one with an interesting story - and I love my clothes to have a story. The top is by RV Designs. Designers Theresa James and Roger Prince were students emerging from the fashion design program at Blanche Macdonald when I first met them. They showcased their graduation collection at VFW in April 2010. I was so sad when they moved to Newfoundland, but continued to follow their career.
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| Images courtesy of Kuna Photography |
In 2012, they created a special collection which featured on the runway at Lakme Fashion Week. This beautiful silk blouse in an original print was part of that collection. It's one of my cherished treasures. This evening I paired it with a deep turquoise knit skirt by JAC. The two bracelets (one was actually a necklace wrapped 3 times around my wrist) are both special to me as well as they were gifts from Shravan and worn this day in honour and support of his runway show.
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| Image courtesy of Kuna Photography |
Saturday was the toughest in terms of who to cover as each designer so unique. In the end I decided to feature José Hendo, Teresa Farese, Marko Feher and Hong Kiyoung. but I cannot stress enough that you really should take a moment and check out the other great collections shown this evening. And be sure to check back later next week for individual articles on both Sunny's Bridal and Shravan Ramaswamy. I also have a third surprise article coming - something that will be a first for me on this site. SHHHH - It's a secret!
José Hendo
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| Images courtesy of Dale Rollings |
Award winning, London-based designer José Hendo's runway offering was full of truly unique silhouettes. I was instantly intrigued. Until reading her bio this morning, I did not realize it was also an eco line. Here is an excerpt, "The label...uses eco-friendly fabrics as much as possible, creating unique, one-off pieces, from organic barkcloth, cotton, hemp, used garments such as suits, denim, wedding dresses etc. ‘ José Hendo’ promotes the use of organic, eco- textiles and recycled materials. Supports ethical trading, fair working conditions and raising awareness about the environmental issues affected by the fashion industry...Jose’s keen eye and attention to detail, together with her character as a perfectionist, can be seen in the quality of the work produced. All garments are finished to an exacting standard." She is the go-to designer for Ugandan Royalty and has shown at London, Berlin, New York and Kampala fashion weeks.
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| Images courtesy of Dale Rollings |
Hendo has eight collections to date inspired by her African background, sculpture and nature. Fabrics embraced include bark cloth, upcycled materials, end of roll fabrics, organic cotton and hemp, eol denim, eol silk and eol wool. The very sculptural nature of her looks last night are what drew me in. Hendo really has an impressive eye for proportion, drape, detailing and creating visual flow. I particularly loved her use of one colour, structured fabric to hold and highlight the intriguing shapes paired with linings in print fabric that peaked out subtlely. Great palette, great variety, great styling - wonderful show all around. I adore wearing interesting pieces and this designer had a great balance between interesting and beautiful construction.
Teresa Farese
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| Images courtesy of Ed Ng Photography |
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| Images courtesy of Ed Ng Photography |
Even though structured, there was stunning visual flow and soft drape to the garments. Love the folded drape at the hips with with accent colour to highlight - beige with black, black with beige. Fabric colour contrast was also used to highlight a label, a skirt peplum or an arm opening. The same colour accent was used with small beige buttons, outlining a aside opening on a pant leg or just a few subtle hints at the bottom edge of a pant. The off the one-shoulder and off the shoulder silhouettes laid perfectly on the models. The black dress on the right in the bottom strip really caught my eye. Honestly, words are inadequate to describe the silhouette and how subtle draping folds were created - you just had to see it. The accent ruffle down the left was just the right accent note. This collection featured garments of the highest quality. I hope one day to have a garment by Farese in my closet. It would be an honour.
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| Images courtesy of Peter Jensen Photography |
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Images courtesy of Peter Jensen Photography
From first to final look, Feher held the audience captive with his edgy designs in Black and white. The looks were strong and the simple black/white palette let the design work stand out on its own, I found the leather pieces particularly strong featured intricate tailoring and detailing including well-placed silver zippers. Interesting see through mesh head pieces in organic shapes were an added styling note with several looks. There was an adrogeny in the collection that will allow many pieces to find a market with both sexes. |
Hong Kiyoung
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| Images courtesy of Peter Jensen Photography |
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| Images courtesy of Peter Jensen Photography |
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