RUNWAY REPORTER

PHOTO COURTESY

TADASHI SHOJI

ROARING BACK WITH HAPPINESS

BY KARO DELGOBBO

“One hundred years ago, the Spanish Flu receded and the Roaring Twenties made its spirited debut. Here we are 100 years later. While we all do our best to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19, my hope for this season is a return to parties,” said Tadashi Shoji.

WITH SPRINGTIME RETURNING, THE IDEA OF A FRESH start was prevalent throughout Tadashi Shoji’s Spring 2022 collection. Tadashi Shoji, an Americanbased Japanese fashion designer, is well known for his evening wear and special occasion fashion. This collection was inspired by the Roaring Twenties with its dramatic social and political changes, and it encourages us to forget the dismal past year. He created these chic midi dresses and runwayready gowns to evoke that new spirit of celebration with a focus on living in a wilder, glitzier, and more dazzling way. Shoji played up lace insets and intricate ornamental trims, such as flapper fringes and embroidered tulle cap sleeves, not only to provide an elegant foundation for the collection but also to emphasize his glamorous aesthetic. His color palette included vibrant florals juxtaposed with gorgeous jewel tones as well as textured blacks and whites. The first look

was a gorgeous daytime dress with a pink floral print and a flounce skirt. You can easily imagine Daisy Buchanan in this dress as she cruelly flirts with Gatsby in her East Egg Garden. Another standout was a silver, one-shoulder empire draped gown that evoked a blossoming rose.

Tadashi Shoji’s styles were designed to exist in the beauty of a moment, captured like lightning in a bottle. You can close your eyes and hear the uncorking of more champagne and the sound of laughter as cocktails are happily drunk after midnight. In the end, that’s what New York Fashion Week was all about this season, reinventing ourselves and moving on to greater times full of life and hope. The key to Tadashi Shoji’s collection is the return to parties and he delivered that with a lot of glitz and glam which signaled a more cheerful time and the hope of happiness for the festivities that will come.

runway reporter: copenhagen fashion week ss22 HOW MUCH CAN WE GROW

BY ALFONSO DE HOYOS-ACOSTA

SCANDI-STYLE HAS CERTAINLY changed throughout the last 20 years. Starting with the old-school minimalist looks presented in glittering shades of grey. If you were a screaming rebel spitting at the ruling hierarchy, then you mischievously included white, black, and perhaps brown. Then in 2006, after a brief stint as a fashion editor, Stine Goya founded her own label filling a niche for feminine shaping, artistic prints, and exuberant stylings. In an interview prior to the pandemic, Stine Goya stated “I believe that fashion must be playful! I love when women wear eye-catching colors and beautiful prints. I want to push women’s perception of how they dress, to make them more daring – so that people will notice and compliment!”.

From that point, Scandi-style started to mean something else. Printed dresses, denim, and volume became the rallying cry for the new Copenhagen it-girl or “Ganni-girl”. So, if anyone would start the move away from the now ubiquitous look, it would be Stine Goya with their new collection called “How Much Can We Grow”. The Danish company stated: ” Emblematic of this sentiment, the collection is imbued with the fiercely unique and unapologetic spirit of the iconic Bloomsbury Group”. The early 20th century Bloomsbury Group was an informal group of English writers, intel-

lectuals, philosophers, and artists including Virginia Woolf, and E. M. Forster. They had interconnected views on varied topics such as ethics, feminism, economics, and sexuality. Although they lived in a picturesque London district of garden squares surrounded by elegant townhouses, they were quick to abhor the conventional platitudes of that time as well as the dreaded bourgeoisie, (why is that always de rigueur?).

In other words, they were 20thcentury bohemians whose influence is still felt today. This inspiration was a natural starting point for Stine Goya, but the designer also imprinted her own unmistakable sense of color and draping on the collection. What was new this season was the gradual introduction of solid colors and the building up of knits into her lineup.Interwoven into the fun and chic mismatched prints one can see lovely lime green ruched dresses, in both long and short versions, that still maintained a body-conscious style. The designer also played with shapes, such as the denim jackets in vibrant colors and a curved shape that highlighted a flared peplum. Checkerboard sweaters, seen and loved in the past, were now presented shortened and with both flowered skirts and a solid backflowing skirt that ended just over the knee. Down the runway still came patterns only now with more intensity. One look, in particular, was striking as it combined three abstract prints — a pastel swirl vest, a short sweater vest with geometric shapes, and a skirt covered in strokes of varied colors as if hand-painted by one of the Bloomsbury gang.

This many-layered collection can be seen as an antidote to being locked in at home. Stine Goya brought us clothes to dance, play, and be seen again. She asked us “How Much Can We Grow”, and her answer was to grow by being more intense, colorful, and daring. Yet? Still doing it with great panache and an eye for detail.

PHOTO COURTESY

TEATUM JONES

JOY, SADNESS, AND HOPE

BY AGATHE DAMAS-HOTTINGUER

THE RE-LOVE | GLOBAL WOMANHOOD 2022 COLlection from Teatum Jones, Catherine Teatum, and Rob Jones, was inspired by a collective of 25 unique women who embody the Teatum Jones spirit – bold, confident, creative, and smart – including women such as Trans model Munroe Bergdorf, disability model, and activist Kelly Knox. Teatum Jones takes us on a journey unearthing their moments of intense joy, sadness, and hope which represent our most instinctive human emotions.

In an accompanying statement with the collection the designers wrote: “By Re-DISCOVERING footage from the archives of our past interviews, we have been Re-INSPIRED to further research these moments of intense joy, sadness, and hope and Re-BUILD a new collection from their collective human stories. We call this Re-LOVE | Global Womanhood 2022”. The collection was presented in three chapters based on the emotions of Joy, Sadness, Hope.

JOY manifested in a palette of explosive red and burgundy tones with pinks, and purples. These looks were beyond eye-catching with details such as pink florals, silk organza, Liberty waste prints, and merino knits. The first dress was a standout with vibrant neon pink florals printed on transparent red silk organza. It combined a beautiful top with a deep neckline, voluminous hanging sleeves, and a flowy, pleated skirt with a handkerchief hemline.

SADNESS revealed itself in a palette of midnight navy, intense blue and spring white. These looks were more demure but still contained gorgeous silk organza, ruffle skirts, and floral prints. Representative of this chapter was an elegant midnight navy dress constructed with geometric flock printed fabric, an offthe-shoulder neckline, and a skirt reaching down to mid-shin. This dress was stunning with its heavily textured fabric cut into a flattering hourglass shape that would be pleasing on all body types.

HOPE was the concluding chapter and was brought together with a group of fun, optimistic patchworked denim looks. All patchwork textiles combined magenta, red, black, and white mismatching prints. One of these looks included an oversized grey and light blue plaid suit jacket playfully embellished with the signature patchwork on the sleeves and right-half of the garment. The jacket was combined with a white shirt and patchwork jeans that provided a unique overall look that was fashionforward and stylish but also appeared surprisingly comfortable.

Material manipulation was a central focus in this collection along with sustainability goals that reused deadstock fabric and recycled sleeves. Teatum Jones celebrated their 25 inspirations with fashionable clothes that referenced our instinctive human emotions but still maintained clever construction and a point of view that seriously takes on the issues of body inclusivity and the environment.

SPACE TIME

BY ALFONSO DE HOYOS-ACOSTA

TAIWANESE BRAND OQLIQ VIRTUALLY presented their genderless collection, “SpaceTime” at the London Fashion Week. OqLiq is designed by, Orbit Lin and Chi Houng, who have partnered to create garments based on their shared passion in Ura-Harajrhuku culture, the vintage aesthetic, and the skateboarding scene. Lin’s experience as an internet engineer and Houng’s fine arts background has enabled them to create a streetwear line that is innovative and unorthodox but at the same time beautifully minimalistic. This season OqLiq presented a virtual 3D maze that symbolized the anarchy of the virtual world with 3D models showing the pieces from one camera angle before switching to another.

Oqliq’s designs utilized a wave of earthy grey, green tones with splashes of bolder colors such as neon green or a deep oceanic blue. Their spring-summer collection not only provided color-blocked shorts, light-weight pants, t-shirts, and vests but also continued to highlight their playful jackets with unique pockets and introduced genderless skirts that were reminiscent of “andon hakama” worn by the Japanese samurai elite classes.

One particular look was a gorgeous deep blue Noragi-style jacket paired simply with grey-moss color-blocked shorts. While another design that stood out was a gossamerlight grey skirt with a matching collarless jacket containing subtle moss and white blocks of color. You can just imagine this intriguing outfit being used as a utilitarian and artistic suit worn by any gender as they stroll through an orbital dock on their way into space. The entire collection has this cohesive futuristic vibe with unexpected flourishes such as a sleeveless vest or a monastic grey asymmetrical one-sleeve jacket with a powerful burst of neon green.

In addition, the brand presented new fabric technology — the garments were made with recycled materials like yarn mixed with oyster shell powder, and leather coated with dam sediment mud. OqLiq continues to impress with its streetwear and its subtly complex construction and color palette.

AVESSABAZAAR.COM COMING SOON

BZR