L-A: So, straight up, this post is going to suck a little bit. Why? Because the batteries in my camera totally crapped out on me and I forgot to bring backup batteries. I’m pretty sure I learned that you should always have backups on day one of J-school. Although, maybe it was my camera feeling insecure – there were real journalists with real cameras at the show, so my Kodak was feeling bad about himself. Camera is going to be hitting the wine and brownies hard after I go to bed. My camera phone was pinch hitter for photos – and I’m going to apologize to all the designers for the photos being of camera phone quality – a lot of colours/details are probably lost in those pics. I promise we’ll link to people who took better photos later on.
Anyway, Emerging Designer show! Good times. There were twelve designers and they all put forward some really interesting stuff. It was a little weird going into a car dealership deep into the North End, but the seats were full and it was a good production. There was a lot to see, so I’m going to split this post up into six designers per post.
The first collection down the runway was Chloe comme Parris, designed by sisters Chloe and Parris Gordon. This collection had a bad-ass, tribal-esque look to it with some great leather pieces and a tuxedo jacket that really caught my eye.
There were lots of cuts and slits and some raw looking items, but it was clear that it was meant to look raw. I liked the fringed jewelry and the keys that hung off of the edges of zippers. Overall, the collection looked cohesive and was a great opener. (Check out this interview with the sisters that I found while googling reseraching them).
Up next was Pam Onecia Johnston, who had some adorable dresses/pants outfits for girls. Between kids moving and my camera phone, I didn’t get any good shots of them, but the crowd loved them. And the girls seemed to enjoy twirling the skirts (and from what I remember, when I was a kid, a skirt with a good twirl to it meant it was best skirt ever). There was some adorable smocking on one of the dresses. She had two pieces for big girls, one of them was a summer dress I’d maim for:
Seriously. That dress just begs for a picnic. And the coat (which was blue) had a “through the woods to grandmother’s house” sort of feel to it, but without being too cutesy. She plans to launch her line when she finishes school. If she does, I might be first in line for that dress.
Alison Seary’s bio listed Bowie and Beetlejuice among her influences. When I heard that, I had no idea what to expect. What we got was some seriously bad ass denim.
A piece that was sort of out of place with that denim was a high waisted pair of shorts with a floral bustier. While it didn’t quite fit, it was still a great outfit that looked fun and summery. And yes, that’s right, I just endorsed cute high-waisted shorts (in my head I was saying, “normally, I wouldn’t like this…but I totally do! it’s great!” I was also thinking that guest blogger Jo would love it). Sadly, no picture of those shorts are available. Just trust me when I say they were cute and you probably want a pair.
Designer Sam White only had one piece on the runway, but what a piece it was:
Tulle! That picture doesn’t do it any justice. It was kind of crazy, not at all wearable, but really quite fantastic.
Stiks by Rustik was the last of the NSCAD students and it was the sort of collection that Ally would die for. It had that boho chic look that she loves (you know, the one that she goes crazy over everytime she sees a picture of Nicole Richie). Even though I’m not a fan of the look, I thought designer Danica Olders did a great job on the collection. I was impressed by her menswear, particularly a jacket that and trousers that had a sort of old-school military feel to them. While I’m pretty sure I spotted some kind of hockey print on the lining of the jacket (I think I spied a Boston Bruins logo) that I didn’t love, the overall look of the jacket made up for that.
Third year St. FX business student Sarah McKenna wants to pursue a career in fashion and after seeing the four pieces she sent down the runway, I hope she does. The dresses were bright, colourful and completely adorable! One dress (and my camera totally crapped out on me for this one) looked like it could have been one of the yellow dresses on Glee a couple of weeks ago.
Fun, n’est pas? Her dresses made me wish I was about five years younger and had better legs, because they were totally up my alley. The teal-ish coloured dress had a ribbon detail hanging from the zipper that made it even more cute.
(p.s. Dear designers: when I say things like “cute” and “adorable”, I mean them as good things. I suppose I should invest in a thesaurus, because I use those words as alternatives to “awesome” and I’m starting to run out of good describin’ words).
So that’s part one. I’ll whip up a part two in the morning. Tomorrow night is the more established designers plus the sample sale. Since I now have a job that requires I get dressed and leave the house every morning, I’m hoping that I might be able to snag something at the sale. I promise that I’ll have tons of extra batteries with me tomorrow to get better pics.
