Williamsburg Fashion Weekend, Fall ‘08
By Kaytee Papusza
The Williamsburg Fashion Weekend show brought together talented indie
and emerging designers from within Brooklyn. This seasons show was at
a local Williamsburg art space, Secret Project Robot. In the true
spirit of Brooklyn fashion, and the artistic nature of it’s youth, the
clothing was anything but boring. I attended the second night of the
two night production, and enjoyed creative presentations of
collections put together by 5 different designers; Treehouse Brooklyn,
Dear Birthday, Sodafine, Untitled 11:11, and Racecar. It’s refreshing
to see so many designers grasp the opportunity to be creative in how
they showed. Williamsburg Fashion Weekend creator, Arthur Arbit, and
also designer of the line King Gurvy (shown the first night of the
show), puts emphasis on having nontraditional shows that are more then
just a model and a runway and encourages designers to implement other
elements of performance art, such as musical acts, theatrics, and
interaction with the audience.
Treehouse Brooklyn by *Sirius
Untitled 11:11 (untitled111.com), by David Peck and Laurel Anderson,
opened the show with a collection of elegant and sophisticated pieces,
beautifully tailored and draped on the models in a manner that felt
architectural at times. Models coasted along the runway as mock flight
attendants carrying trays of candies and other little treats they
passed out to the audience, as well as origami cranes, mirrored in the
designers choice of origami prints on their textiles. The show was fun
and a perfect balance of natural sophistication, reflecting the
designers use of fair-trade and eco-friendly materials.
The second showcase of the evening was of the menswear collection,
Racecar (myspace.com/racecarapparel), by Jeannette Tiso. The line was
a collection of handmade vests with vintage charm and a touch of rock
‘n roll, perfectly suited as the designer is known to dress many
Williamsburg bands. The models fit the part, strutting with BK band
Gulf of Michigan playing in the backdrop. The guys wearing the clothes
were covered in tattoos and theatrically sipping from flasks on the
runway as they paused to show the sexy workmanship of the designer.
Materials ranged from cashmere to cotton and canvas, always conveying
that vintage quirky sense of style that only Brooklyn boys can seem to
pull off.
Treehouse Brooklyn by *Sirius
The finale of the evening was collaborative and included the work of
three inspired Williamsburg designers, sending their clothes off on a
picnic. The models gallivanted and skipped down the runway in a free
spirited air, carrying picnic blankets, which were spread out on the
stage- they then of course sat down on the stage and were joined by
other models carrying baskets of apples and bottles of champagne. The
show included the works of Sodafine (sodafine.com) by Erin Weckerle,
Treehouse Brooklyn (treehousebrooklyn.com) by house designer *Sirius,
and Dear Birthday (dearbirhtday.com) by designer Valerie Soles. Each
designer showed five looks, to have a party of 15 at their picnic.
Sodafine showed a series of hand-painted dresses dripping with
exquisite details and collaged fabrics, creating looks full of texture
and depth. Treehouse Brooklyn house designer *Sirius showed a
collection of eco-friendly pieces made of reworked vintage and
eco-friendly jersey. Her fun flirty silhouettes and funky organic
mixing of unusual fabrics create her unique look. She also showed some
of her intricate hand knit collar pieces, lace-like and contrasting
beautifully with her clothing. Last but not least Dear Birthday showed
a collection of dresses inspired by Edward Gorey and the Cape Cod
shore in autumn. Models clad in sweet and airy vintage-like pieces
joined the picnic just in time to pop some bottles of bubbles and set
a warm and joyful tone to end the evening. All of the designers had
reason to celebrate; it was a beautiful show full of inspired
Williamsburg designers with a talent and dedication to craftsmanship
and creativity that can rarely be found in the rat-race of Manhattan.
Williamsburg Fashion Weekend continues to grow and is extremely
important for those of us passionate about fashion as our artform.
Indie designers, often invisible to the corporate fashion world, need
a platform to present their beautiful and unconventional work. Stay
tuned for the next Williamsburg Fashion Weekend in February, where I
will be showing a new collection from my line, PapuszaCouture, along
with a sleigh of other original and talented Williamsburg and Brooklyn
designers.
You can check out more photos from the event at Williamsburg Fashion Event and Compai Projects.
-Kaytee Papusza PapuszaCouture
{ 0 comments }
