Last night I attended the second night of Charleston Fashion Week with my press pass for the national blog I write for, Ask Miss A. I was lucky enough to be a part of the interviews with last year's winner, Marysia Dobranska Reeves and Social Primer creator, K. Cooper Ray (both Charleston residents). They were adorable! It was an honor to hear their take on this year's Fashion Week as well as the emerging designers they were there to judge. And I really enjoyed learning more about their new collections and the various projects they are working on. If you want to learn more about K. Cooper Ray, stay tuned as I am going to write a lil' feature on him!
Marysia Dobranska Reeves
There was a pre-party in the Style Lounge where vendors could showcase and sell their merchandise while attendees got their drink on! I really liked the jewelry by Anne Belen. Go check out this Southern gal's creations! I love that this show not only features local merchants and emerging designers from all over the Southeast BUT it also serves as a competition for models and it is an amazing resume builder for hair and make-up staff. There are some seriously creative folks involved in this whole process! Love it!
The emerging designers in last night's show were...
Stephanie Mejia
Mary Labberton
Anjelika Krishna
There was a total Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" with one of her models and I fear that this will be all that is remembered of her work :( I give written props to the model that rocked it and came back out for the finale unphased! She gets my vote as the Model Talent winner!
Cody Sai Adler-McAllister
And here is a list of the Fashion Panel that will crown the title for Best Emerging Designer East out of the 16 Finalists.
The Featured Designer I was lucky enough to see was Lindsey Carter and her collection Troubadour. She is crazy talented! Her collection combines masculine and feminine in an completely effortless way. She claims her garments read "Made in New York with love from the South." I can totally see that!
And this was my favorite piece of the night!
I am by no means a fashion expert so I am not going to discuss or critique any of these designer's work. However, the one thing that I will mention (because it seriously erks me!) is that you have to view a fashion show as a work of art. Each model is a canvas or a sculpture, essentially a walking artform. Are you going to go out a buy one of these outfits, as is, and wear it exactly like the model did. Probably not. But you might see a color combination that inspires you or learn a new way to tie a scarf! So please don't scoff and laugh at the avante guard aspects of the show. Instead view it as art, learn something and you will get much more from it! [If you are reading, this is directed at you, the lady sitting next to me in the sequins jacket.]
