Last week’s Smirnoff International Fashion Awards were overrun by the young and ruthlessly hip. If you survived the trek to Helderfontein Estate, you were assailed by adolescents in hipsters and halters, cooler-than-thou kids at the hottest party of summer.
“Decadence” was this year’s design theme, and the press release was dotted with words like “depraved”, “millennium” and “cutting edge”.
The show’s staging and production lived up to the sponsor’s “pure thrill” tag-line: faced with the daunting challenge of a vast venue, the production crew pulled off something of a technological coup. The problem, then, was in distinguishing the fashion from the event. Slick multi-media can make bad design look very good, and Smirnoff’s money-is-no-object approach made it difficult to see past the hype to the talent of the student designers.
The 24 finalists for the national chapter of the awards are chosen from fashion schools across the country. Their merits are judged on the basis of two storyboards, one a “fantasy” interpretation of the “decadence” theme, the other a more commercial adaptation. Part of the selection process involved interviews with students by judging panelists Dicky Longhurst (chairman), Dion Chang, Errol Arendz, Gideon and Fred Eboka.
Some distinct trends emerged in the final entries. No less than six students used wire or mesh as design components, which I suppose is inevitable when the influence of “the streets” means vendors making a living out of wire objects.
Flesh’n’mesh ruled the ramp – the general impulse, particularly with evening wear, was in favour of breasts, bellies and bottoms that are not ashamed to be seen in public.
Port Elizabeth Technikon’s Braemore Lundell came third, despite the fact that his model pulled a Naomi and slipped on-stage, where she was left to lie in agony for minutes before anybody realised that this wasn’t part of the show.
Peninsula Technikon’s Dan Naidoo, who came second, was the only student to explore menswear to any degree, with body-hugging lycra active-wear that was well made and conceptualised, and surprisingly un-naff.
Winner Sarah Perkin, from the London International School of Fashion, was a choice not immediately obvious to everyone present – perhaps because her decadence outfit, the finale to the show, eclipsed its elegantly simple commercial counterpart.
Perkin’s fabrics – paper sheet, silk netting, and handwoven indigenous mopane silk – were put together to interpret decadence through one dress that could be worn by two women – one black, one white.
But the sight of the models’ Siamese-twin entrance in rustic earth-mother drag was not what finally won over the judges.
Dion Chang, judging panelist and Elle magazine’s fashion editor, says Perkin was selected to go forward to the London finals this year because the strength of both her showpiece and commercial back-up indicated “a good headspace with regard to the industry”.
“The panel chairman gets tips from Bruce Oldfield, Jasper Conran, and others in London regarding trends there,” explains Chang, “which helps us to ensure we send a candidate who will have a fighting chance in an international arena.”