Fashion Week Friday: What I Liked

Heather Jones' military inspired blazer - LOVE IT!

So last Friday was the opening night of TT Fashion Week and as I wasn't there I really can't comment on the location, venue, crowd, food or drinks. (I'm still sour.)

Pictures gone up tho, so I can comment on my favourite part of a fashion show, the fashion.

The designers chosen to show this night for the theme "Breaking Ground" were a mix of newcomers as well as seasoned professionals. They were, in order of presentation: Heather Jones Designs Ltd, DLR 'D', Faraii, Michael's Vogue Designs, Sonia Mack, Millhouse Menswear, Brown Sugar and CPFS (Claudia Pegus Frederick St).

Immediately some issues with the collections jumped out at me. I will do an overall post later on after I have seen all the collections, detailing each of these but I just wanted to go over them quickly here. If Caribbean Fashion is ever to reach the levels of the New Yorks, Parises and Milans, criticism should be necessary and accepted.

That being said:

1. Wearability: I understand that not everyone wants to make fashion for every Tara, Dana and Harriet to wear on the street. However from looking at these fashion shows I had a very hard time distinguishing who was designing haute couture, who was designing ready to wear, who was designing Carnival costumes, and who just wanted to show off what they could do with fabric (resemblance to actual clothes being minimal).

2. Cohesiveness: I feel like a Fashion Show should be just that, a show. As such there should be an underlying theme or at least a connectivity between each of the pieces so that we can understand the designer's point of view. A couple of the collections on the first night looked as if they could not decide what woman they were designing for.

3. Overzealousness: which leads to problems in finishing and fit. A fashion collection does not have to be 45 looks! However, if it is, each of those 45 looks need to be finished BEAUTIFULLY and fitted perfectly on the model otherwise it just looks like crap! (yeah, I said it!) So if you don't have time to do 45 looks, properly steam your items, press your seams and hems so that they don't pucker (this also has a lot to do with fabric choice) or fit to your models, stick to 12 and make them IMPECCABLE! If I could pick out these flaws in the pics, I really can't imagine what some of these pieces must have looked like on the runway. And if you insist on doing long sleeved swimwear, let's not make that sleeve so baggy that it might drown a swimmer in distress when waterlogged!

4. Fabric Choice: Cheap fabric looks cheap. Talk dun.

5. Editing: Not every element you envisioned on your garment needs to end up on the final piece. Really, a burnout velvet print pajama suit with marabou feather trim? Honestly? Also I think this is important in the styling of the models as well as the sewing of the garments. Many of the accessories used either annoyed me or completely confused me For example, look at how this large coloured scarf obscures the workmanship on this dress bodice. And you going to couple that with a pallet stick headpiece? Its a wonder anyone looked at your garment at all!!

OH AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON THIS!

Oh...but this was supposed to be a post about what I liked right?



That being said, I feel like certain designers really know their client and their customer and you could just see exactly who their designs were meant to be for. Heather Jones was one of these with her signature hand painted floral motifs, and vibrantly coloured rich fabrics. Usually I am not attracted to this kind of fashion for myself but I was most excited to see some more modern elements brought into the pieces (and by that I do not mean the shutter shades that the male models were wearing....I really don't believe fashion designers should be biting the coattails of already played out trends in their presentations). Can somebody tell Madame Jones that I would like to order this here jumpsuit toute suite! (And one in white too please thanx). Also the sunshine yellow military jacket above is fabulous and impeccably styled (although I can't help but wish there was a lil hand painted scarf tied around the model's neck....hmm maybe its a lil too Bwee tho...ok forget I said anything).

I also enjoyed seeing the younger, unknown designers trying something new. This look from Michael's Vogue Designs really had nothing else to do with any of the other pieces in the collection and could have used some serious editing (read no furry collar or cuffs) but I'm loving how he is experimenting with layering and we can see from the outfit that this is a designer who can make jackets, vests, pants and blouses. (He also is the dude who makes marabou feather pajama suits...again EDITING).

I loved the two monochromatic looks in the collection by Brown Sugar. Again they fit in nowhere with the bright coloured satin dresses that dominated this show (cohesiveness people, oh and finishing too! Satin will show all flaws!) but I liked that they demonstrated that they could take a geometric fabric such as this one and do something really funky then something equally simple and classic and pull off both looks. Thumbs up newcomers!

Obviously, all pics courtesy www.triniscene.com