There has always been something otherworldly about fashion shows. Whether the collections are drab or the tailoring is poor, any sartorial flaws are temporarily overshadowed by the vibrant hum that comes with the mechanics of socializing, which was most definitely the case at this year’s FEDISA graduate show.
As with most things lately, poor man’s chic was the way of sugar-coating the recession. I thought my designer friend was kidding when she said to meet at P4 at Wembley Square, but the parking lot venue added a much-needed moody contrast to the haughtiness of the standard bright lights and white spaces. Given the nature of student shows and their family-filled audiences, there is usually an absence (for the most part) of upturned noses and the front-row hierarchy that comes with haute couture territory. More importantly, your audience is more forgiving.
You would, however, think that given you’ve feted fashion as a career, studied the likes of Posen and Jacobs to a pious degree and eaten, breathed and slept designing for over year, you would be well out of the boundary of the tacky and shabby?
Picture courtesy Kelly Berold
The show started off with the first and second year pieces before segueing into the final year collections, which compromised of about eight or nine pieces per student. Most collections succeeded in threading a nice common theme through their work, with influences stemming from film (Alicia Oakes’s Clockwork Orange), historical periods (Gretel Weichardt’s turn-of-the-century Paris) and abstract takes on Gothic, Victorian and Pirate themes.
That being said, I generally expected something a little more inspiring. While the show setup was beautifully executed and catered to each patron, FEDISA organisers copped out by not hiring professional models, something most other fashion institutes do. Even the best of clothes can look awkward on the hunched-over and the poor walkers, or worse, non-models who think they’re the next Brazilian export.
Many designers failed to strike a balance between creating something magnificent and wearable, with the only notable exceptions being Inge Lembrechts, Mathi Kellen and Jennifer Rubidge. Lembrechts was the only student to capture the much desired vampiric undertones (thank you, Twilight) and translate it into something dramatic yet accessible, with an intelligent use of shapes and textures. Kellen’s impressive tailoring and use of billowing soft fabrics were reminiscent of Marchesa and Chanel, while Rubidge mastered 1930s British high society with boaters and blazers in clean lines and an effective colour palette.
I found many of the others to be a mere rehash of old trends, suffering from the matric dance hangover of taffeta and ill-fitted bodices, or sifting through the leftover buckets at Vogue. Despite the great work on the organisers’ part, the designs were generally lacklustre and not those of the bright young ingénues I was expecting. Better luck next year.
Kelly Berold is a media student at UCT.
Tags: fashion, fedisa, wembley square