Monday, June 26, 2017
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Fiji Fashion Week 2017
Given Fiji managed to avoid any major cyclones this season, Fiji Fashion week was held during its normal time of year.....the cool fall (ie May). This year was the 10th anniversary of Fiji Fashion Week, so they went with a gold theme to celebrate ten years of 'Fashion in Paradise' (as they marketed it)....
Given the first show was highlighting the different island nations, a number of the designers had a model/dancer come out in traditional dress before beginning to showcase their line. The first line to this was The Haus of Koila, a designer from Fiji.
Fijian warriors with neck breakers came out as you saw. The warriors then lined runway while the models showed off the clothes. They were very good at holding the pose.
At this point, my camera started acting up (it kept focusing on a person in the audience on the other side and not the models....grrr). So I don't have many photos and the ones I do have are not super duper focused....so sorry about that. My phone tends to take pretty grainy photos so I opted to not switch to that. So I apologize in advance for the not super sharp photos....
I really liked the chambered nautilus designed on this dress by El Designs from the Solomon Islands.
The designer even made the "opposite" dress (white dress, black nautilus) as well....
The Cook Islands had a dancer. I was able to catch her on video.....
I liked the bright colors and shell trims in Tauariki Wear from the Cook Islands (though probably a little too bright for me....unless I'm chilling at a resort....but then I'd feel a bit too touristy...lol).
Not sure if this is what she was going for, but I thought these cover ups/dresses from Adrienne Whitewood's line look liked the insides of Kiwi fruit (which ironically both hail from New Zealand).
Another Fijian designer, KuiViti. While the woman's swimsuit cover up, I could totally see someone wearing....
The one modeled on a man, not so much.....if I bought what was on the last model for Richard to wear, he would look at me like I lost my mind....lol.....
The man in the middle in the masi fabric (traditional Fijian fabric) is the designer, Epeli Tuibeq.
The one thing I learned during Fiji Fashion week, is my entrance onto the beach all these years has been wrong!!!! I will no longer be carrying bags of toys/water/sunscreen/snacks (sorry Richard, all you). I must make an entrance onto the beach holding my cover up wide open. The best photo I got of a model doing this is the one with the white bikini bottom and orange cover-up. Lol....watch out world here I come.....
The Samoan designer of the DMF brand is the man in the sunglasses.
The line from Papua New Guinea began with a traditional dance.
PNG has a reputation of being a "rougher" island nation. The music played while the PNGianKala line was modeled was very 'LA/Compton/Rap' sounding to me.
A lot of national pride was shown though, with elements of their flag in some of the dress patterns.
The last designer of the evening Kini Zamora, was from Hawaii. Which I did not know until a friend told me, had participated on Project Runway.
We did comment, his clothes had a bit more NYC feeling than island life....
Though, I did like this dress a lot...
In case you are curious, Kini is the one with purple hair....
After the last line, Rako Pasefika did another performance. It had elements of the meke and was played on the lali drum but had a very modern twist to it.
That concluded the Resort wear show. There was a bit of socializing after the show. Some of the designers had items for sale after the show (right off the runway....that 'inside of the kiwi' cover up...for sale. The Hawaiian designer had a lot of his models wearing "Aloha is the new Black" shirts....for sale. So you could shop a bit too, but given kiddos had to be up to catch the school bus the next morning it wasn't too late of a night.
Friday night was the Trendsetters show. This show is typically new and upcoming designers and some of the more 'out there' styles. One of the neatest collections I missed seeing that night, was the older sibling of a classmate of Mason's. Her brother Oliver Sinclair is only sixteen and had a phenomenal collection!
Saturday night was the finale night....which was the Gold Couture show. Just like the previous nights, for rows A&B you received free drinks for the hour before the show....
Then like trying to herd cats, they try to encourage everyone to take their seats so the show can start on time....I unfortunately was leisurely circling Target (or more likely rushing around to Dr appts) Stateside when tickets went on sale.....so I ended up sitting across the runway from everyone else I went with....but I could take a great picture of the fashionistas.....
I could of sat up in the rafter section with some others though, it does look quite fun.....
Prior to the show starting, I did scoot around to chat/for a quick selfie.....shhh don't tell anyone.
Then it was show time!
A number of the dresses in Rachel Fairfax Designs had what I call that 'mermaid' fabric that changes color when you rub it......yeah I want one! Or the one below, had matching boots too! The designer is the one in very back with the short dress.
Elaine Taylor's designs for Aladdin's Cave (a local shop) were characterized by very big accent pieces!
After the final line walk, the guy in front sat down a few seats down from me! The floral pattern was pretty though. With kids, giant necklaces don't seem very practical to me....
My personal favorite designer, Robert Kennedy! He's a descendent of settlers from the 1870s (you can read more here). I have some of his clothes already....woo hoo! There are very cool/weather appropriate for the climate here and easy to find at a local department store chain.
Of course, great colors.
The man himself at the end.
RIMA Designs were moral formal and sprakley....
The designer, Birima Mbaye, is African (at the end with her hands together). Opened her first boutique in Dekar, Senegal but currently resides in Brussels....talking about international!.
The Karalina line called 'Tokyo' used a downtown Tokyo backdrop during the show....very fun. My confused camera was even more confused then....the photo of the designer, Carolyn Ah Koy, turned out at least.....
CK Designs by Mala Chawda were all over. The navy ones up front had a very vintage flight attendant feel to them. The white multi length right behind it, you could see butt cheek when she turned, probably not work place appropriate...lol. The very last dress, probably doable....
I hate to say it, when I saw this line by JOAN.A......I judged. I thought really, really????....velvet in Fiji....you think there is a market for that.....I think it is a tad too warm. Then after the show, I was in the ladies room and I saw two young women wearing completely different velvet dresses.....and so I admit it, I stand corrected.....apparently there is a market...
This dress by Hefrani got the most OMG looks.....around her shoulders are little ladle like spoons....each with their own burning tealight candle.....(look at the audience....this dress has their full attention!)
Look at it from a distance with the rest of the relatively standard line of evening gowns....
Here is the designer, Aisea Konrote. You can honestly say....that last dress you designed...it was on fire!!
Hani Haring had a line in the resort wear show (I somehow did not get any photos) as well as a bridal line in the couture show. Very greek goddess-like.
Hani Haring (the designer - the woman) is from Tahiti. Ben is the artistic director at their fashion house.
In preparation for Dewali one will need the finest sarees, and AZA has you covered.
So many sparkles!
AZA designer, Ali Zufika.
Another line of resort style bridal wear. You can't really tell in this photo, but the 7th dress back (the poodle skirt like bottom). Yeah, the lace top....totally see thru....as in nips out in their full glory....while fun and edgy for a fashion show....Not sure if I'd want a photo of my wedding day hanging on the wall for years to come showing my mammaries (though that would be a special level of torture for your tween....threaten to hang that back on the wall when friends come over).
The designer, Hupfeld Hoerder, walked out with his son.
The show ended with the Oceania Dance Group performing a jazzy number (don't fret, about midway through they turn around and you don't have a strictly backside performance).
I snagged this screen shot of the audience watching the performance from the Fiji Fashion Week FB page....see if you can find me!
The couple that had been sitting next to me bailed before the dance performance (and subsequent thank you for your support speeches and award ceremony). It was fun to splurge to get front row seats, this year was a much bigger event than last year (so I would have been "stuck" with whatever seats I had bought if I hadn't splurged). We don't know our PCS date for next year, but there is a good chance we will gone by next year's fashion week. So this may be my last fashion show (and even more likely if I go to another fashion show my last front row fashion show event...lol). It was a great experience!
PS - Sorry it took a while to get this posted....had some technical difficulties.....our iMac died! As in hard drive failed, we were able to reinstall the operating system/restore some things from time machine/redownload others. It took about a week to get everything almost back to normal (ie add all our media back into iTunes).....spent lots of time doing that. Then about another week later, it started acting squirrelly again. We started to do some repair utilities and it up and failed! Could not even find the hard drive.....sigh! Coming to you live from the laptop while we wait on a new one to arrive.....
This year I opted to only get tickets to two shows (mommy guilt, thanks Clarissa...three nights out in a row and she starts getting super clingy when I head out again......). I opted for the two most relevant shows...the resort wear show (so casual tropical clothes) and the Gold Couture show (final show of fashion week, potentially something I might wear to a ball at post in the future).
I think there was the biggest group of us expats that were able to coordinate and get a picture together the first night. You will be happy to know the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are represented here! The rest of the show occurred over Memorial Day weekend, so a lot of the Americans headed out of town for the long weekend...
After last year's show and managing to snag front row seats for two of the shows I got spoiled, so during the year I started squirreling away cash so that I could splurge and get front row seats again this year. For the resort wear show, they had our names on our seats (well a version of my name....I prefer Deb over Debt)....sooo fancy!!
The first night's entertainment was provided by Rako Pasefika. The Pacific Island Resort Show began with a performance by Rako Pasefika performing songs from the recent Moana movie, fitting since the show represented 11 Island Nations (Fiji, Solomon Islands, Guam, New Caledonia, Samoa, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, PNG (Papua New Guinea), Hawaii/US).
Given the first show was highlighting the different island nations, a number of the designers had a model/dancer come out in traditional dress before beginning to showcase their line. The first line to this was The Haus of Koila, a designer from Fiji.
Fijian warriors with neck breakers came out as you saw. The warriors then lined runway while the models showed off the clothes. They were very good at holding the pose.
I didn't get a photo of the next dancer, from the Solomon Islands. The dresses from the Proton Creation line were cute (and science geek Deb likes the name), but if you have any bumps or lumps you will have triple layer the Spanx underneath it......
Chamorrita Swimwear enlightened me to the fact that in Guam butt cheek coverage is optional....
I really liked the chambered nautilus designed on this dress by El Designs from the Solomon Islands.
The designer even made the "opposite" dress (white dress, black nautilus) as well....
The Cook Islands had a dancer. I was able to catch her on video.....
I liked the bright colors and shell trims in Tauariki Wear from the Cook Islands (though probably a little too bright for me....unless I'm chilling at a resort....but then I'd feel a bit too touristy...lol).
Not sure if this is what she was going for, but I thought these cover ups/dresses from Adrienne Whitewood's line look liked the insides of Kiwi fruit (which ironically both hail from New Zealand).
Another Fijian designer, KuiViti. While the woman's swimsuit cover up, I could totally see someone wearing....
The one modeled on a man, not so much.....if I bought what was on the last model for Richard to wear, he would look at me like I lost my mind....lol.....
The man in the middle in the masi fabric (traditional Fijian fabric) is the designer, Epeli Tuibeq.
The one thing I learned during Fiji Fashion week, is my entrance onto the beach all these years has been wrong!!!! I will no longer be carrying bags of toys/water/sunscreen/snacks (sorry Richard, all you). I must make an entrance onto the beach holding my cover up wide open. The best photo I got of a model doing this is the one with the white bikini bottom and orange cover-up. Lol....watch out world here I come.....
The Samoan designer of the DMF brand is the man in the sunglasses.
The line from Papua New Guinea began with a traditional dance.
PNG has a reputation of being a "rougher" island nation. The music played while the PNGianKala line was modeled was very 'LA/Compton/Rap' sounding to me.
A lot of national pride was shown though, with elements of their flag in some of the dress patterns.
The last designer of the evening Kini Zamora, was from Hawaii. Which I did not know until a friend told me, had participated on Project Runway.
We did comment, his clothes had a bit more NYC feeling than island life....
Though, I did like this dress a lot...
In case you are curious, Kini is the one with purple hair....
After the last line, Rako Pasefika did another performance. It had elements of the meke and was played on the lali drum but had a very modern twist to it.
That concluded the Resort wear show. There was a bit of socializing after the show. Some of the designers had items for sale after the show (right off the runway....that 'inside of the kiwi' cover up...for sale. The Hawaiian designer had a lot of his models wearing "Aloha is the new Black" shirts....for sale. So you could shop a bit too, but given kiddos had to be up to catch the school bus the next morning it wasn't too late of a night.
Friday night was the Trendsetters show. This show is typically new and upcoming designers and some of the more 'out there' styles. One of the neatest collections I missed seeing that night, was the older sibling of a classmate of Mason's. Her brother Oliver Sinclair is only sixteen and had a phenomenal collection!
Saturday night was the finale night....which was the Gold Couture show. Just like the previous nights, for rows A&B you received free drinks for the hour before the show....
Then like trying to herd cats, they try to encourage everyone to take their seats so the show can start on time....I unfortunately was leisurely circling Target (or more likely rushing around to Dr appts) Stateside when tickets went on sale.....so I ended up sitting across the runway from everyone else I went with....but I could take a great picture of the fashionistas.....
I could of sat up in the rafter section with some others though, it does look quite fun.....
Prior to the show starting, I did scoot around to chat/for a quick selfie.....shhh don't tell anyone.
Then it was show time!
A number of the dresses in Rachel Fairfax Designs had what I call that 'mermaid' fabric that changes color when you rub it......yeah I want one! Or the one below, had matching boots too! The designer is the one in very back with the short dress.
Elaine Taylor's designs for Aladdin's Cave (a local shop) were characterized by very big accent pieces!
After the final line walk, the guy in front sat down a few seats down from me! The floral pattern was pretty though. With kids, giant necklaces don't seem very practical to me....
My personal favorite designer, Robert Kennedy! He's a descendent of settlers from the 1870s (you can read more here). I have some of his clothes already....woo hoo! There are very cool/weather appropriate for the climate here and easy to find at a local department store chain.
Of course, great colors.
The man himself at the end.
RIMA Designs were moral formal and sprakley....
The designer, Birima Mbaye, is African (at the end with her hands together). Opened her first boutique in Dekar, Senegal but currently resides in Brussels....talking about international!.
The Karalina line called 'Tokyo' used a downtown Tokyo backdrop during the show....very fun. My confused camera was even more confused then....the photo of the designer, Carolyn Ah Koy, turned out at least.....
CK Designs by Mala Chawda were all over. The navy ones up front had a very vintage flight attendant feel to them. The white multi length right behind it, you could see butt cheek when she turned, probably not work place appropriate...lol. The very last dress, probably doable....
I hate to say it, when I saw this line by JOAN.A......I judged. I thought really, really????....velvet in Fiji....you think there is a market for that.....I think it is a tad too warm. Then after the show, I was in the ladies room and I saw two young women wearing completely different velvet dresses.....and so I admit it, I stand corrected.....apparently there is a market...
This dress by Hefrani got the most OMG looks.....around her shoulders are little ladle like spoons....each with their own burning tealight candle.....(look at the audience....this dress has their full attention!)
Look at it from a distance with the rest of the relatively standard line of evening gowns....
Here is the designer, Aisea Konrote. You can honestly say....that last dress you designed...it was on fire!!
Hani Haring (the designer - the woman) is from Tahiti. Ben is the artistic director at their fashion house.
In preparation for Dewali one will need the finest sarees, and AZA has you covered.
So many sparkles!
AZA designer, Ali Zufika.
The second dress in the 8mountains collection....I swear it looks like a dorsal fin in choppy waters! The model is clapping so it is a bit obscured....but I actually had to go check the dress out after the show....This designer won the Designer of Year Award and the Diet Coke Special Achievement Award.
Another line of resort style bridal wear. You can't really tell in this photo, but the 7th dress back (the poodle skirt like bottom). Yeah, the lace top....totally see thru....as in nips out in their full glory....while fun and edgy for a fashion show....Not sure if I'd want a photo of my wedding day hanging on the wall for years to come showing my mammaries (though that would be a special level of torture for your tween....threaten to hang that back on the wall when friends come over).
The designer, Hupfeld Hoerder, walked out with his son.
The show ended with the Oceania Dance Group performing a jazzy number (don't fret, about midway through they turn around and you don't have a strictly backside performance).
I snagged this screen shot of the audience watching the performance from the Fiji Fashion Week FB page....see if you can find me!
The couple that had been sitting next to me bailed before the dance performance (and subsequent thank you for your support speeches and award ceremony). It was fun to splurge to get front row seats, this year was a much bigger event than last year (so I would have been "stuck" with whatever seats I had bought if I hadn't splurged). We don't know our PCS date for next year, but there is a good chance we will gone by next year's fashion week. So this may be my last fashion show (and even more likely if I go to another fashion show my last front row fashion show event...lol). It was a great experience!
PS - Sorry it took a while to get this posted....had some technical difficulties.....our iMac died! As in hard drive failed, we were able to reinstall the operating system/restore some things from time machine/redownload others. It took about a week to get everything almost back to normal (ie add all our media back into iTunes).....spent lots of time doing that. Then about another week later, it started acting squirrelly again. We started to do some repair utilities and it up and failed! Could not even find the hard drive.....sigh! Coming to you live from the laptop while we wait on a new one to arrive.....
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