From the first designer, the winner of the fayrouz competition, designer temi tayo of T. I. Nathan bespoke talked about his inspiration for his collection. ‘It is nineties minimalism mixed with sportswear’. There is no single designer in New York who hasn’t tackled such a theme. Klein? Karan? A. Wang? They’ve all done it. So what was new here besides the superb tailoring, clean lines, and the predominance of white? Art. The shows opening white jacket came with a splattering of water color. Vivid enough to be noticed, but faint enough to be understated. Five shift dresses came with Palm(hand) print on their hems. A varsity jacket had the work of a contemporary artist done behind. Very impressive attempt on the subject, I must say.
Mi-le’s designer, ponmile said she’d been thinking about maths. Actually, the topic in maths called sets. She’d been thinking about how beautiful it is when two circles interlock each other, and the product of the interlock births something new. It was literal in some of the decorations. White beaded circles interlocked red beaded circles to produce the meeting portion in pink. About the sports thing, mesh, jerseys and tops decorated with sequins or embellishments in the form of numbers made sure of that. Also, a smashing combination of a jewel collared white shirt, worn beneath a spaghetti strap jumpsuit, turned a number of heads.
The Grey show, despite the incident, wasn’t half bad at all. It begun with the signature color blocking, but the news here was the shredding. The front of the opening dress spelt ‘this is just grey’ with gaping holes that was caused by the deliberate application of a razor or laser. It was the connective thread throughout the collection. Some clothes gaped to reveal sequins beneath. All colorful, all wearable, all chic.
Rodney emeka of Mcmeka, winner of last year’s young designers, category showed how improved his tailoring of menswear has become. Washington Roberts tackled technical seaming that resembled leather jacket quilting in simple shapes, which was smart. Dzyn showed evening dresses in pink and gold. The brides of sunny rose wore white lace body suits.
Arguably, the best show of the night, which according to the saying, was shown last. Amaka Osakwe’s Maki oh. This is a continuing feminism series which she’s been tackling since the spring of last year. This was a cerebral mix of the hardness and softness of a woman. A knee length evening dress was heavily beaded to the point that it could double as a knight’s armor. Intuition kicked in and she added an up-to-there slit. A powdery pink sweatshirt was decorated with feathers. Pleated chiffon panels leaked from her signature boxy shapes. A shift dress came with graded layers of chiffon. Her dense spongy mesh was sometimes tied in a feminine knot. No one needed to know her inspiration after such a visceral outing.
Good clothes are good clothes. It is that simple.