Fashion Week T&T - The Review, Pt.1

Two looks from the very same collection by DAV Originals.

Five days. Forty two fashion designers. Hundreds of pics to wade through. Fashion Week Trinidad & Tobago 2009 (May 29th - June 2nd) gave me a lot to coo over, roll my eyes at, and ponder.

I purposefully waited for weeks before reviewing the collections; as I've said before, I didn't return to T&T for the show this year, as I did in 2008 for the Debut, so I wanted to give myself time to see the pieces from all the designers before giving my opinions on their creations.

And after carefully looking at the pics & pieces, I can only call it as I see it. The proof was in the pudding, folks, and let me tell you, the majority of collections weren't too good.

Let's get the bad news out of the way, shall we?

I'm not going to outright name all the names, but 75% of the designers who presented at FWTT09 failed to impress with their showings. Sad to say, the vast majority who fell in that category were designers who were either just getting some measure of recognition after years of toiling in the trenches, or were entirely new to the fashion scene.

I wanted, so badly, to rave about all the designers, but it's hard to have positive things to say when some collections obviously lack cohesiveness, a presentation theme, individual technique and aesthetic, along with an overall focus.

And that lack of focus said a lot. Perhaps there is not enough focus on understanding what the purpose of a fashion week is (hint - it's not just to 'show off' what you can do with cloth.) Having a show to reveal your collection is supposed to inform the viewers about your design focus, your approach to the design process, where you drew influences from, and so forth.

It's supposed to inspire 'fashion desire;' people should be clamoring to grab your pieces off the Model on the runway, the very instant they see your designs. From looking at the sets, it was hard to understand what some of the designers were trying to achieve and convey with their collections.

Some sets lacked a unifying theme, colour-scheme, motif or direction - plain and simple. Designers like Sonia Mack, DAV Originals, Simply Garnett and others presented pieces that were a mish-mosh of wildly varying elements, materials, and colours. At times, it felt as if the designers simply picked up whatever materials and pre-done looks thatwere hanging around in their studios, and just threw them onto the runway.

Others were doing fantasy design, totally disregarding that, unlike Carnival - where outrageous elements can be introduced on a costume and be deemed passable - fashions presented for a Fashion Week were to be actually worn by everyday women, and that attention should be paid to the season/place/people you're designing for. In which part of Trinidad & Tobago would a Marabou, or fur-trimmed coat be appropriate fashion?

These design-ills appeared in the collections of over 30 designers, and there were numerous pieces that were poorly constructed: linings were omitted, seams were sewn with too much tension and no give room, and many designers used patterned materials to create their looks, failing to line-up the patterns in a flattering manner.

Material selections revealed that designers went on the cheap (understandable, given that the world is feeling the recessionary effect), but even with $10.00 Cottons, there's a way to render a piece so that the materials fall, just right, avoiding that worn look.

I guess that's why they say, "The Devil's in the details...'

Note: Look out for "The Review - Part 2," where I'll talked about those stellar & dashing collections that are definitely worth mentioning.

LMN Harris.

NB Image courtesy Triniscene.com