Fashion Meets Art at Concept Fashion Week
Concept Fashion Week was a great place to find upcoming design talent. There were multiple fashion shows and a series of art meets fashion installations that ranged from conceptual to avant-garde. The opening night included installations by Valerj Pobega, MB999 and N-Frastructure who were inspired by various aspects of nature to create their Spring 2011 collections.
Dark flowers blossom - the key line from Massive Attack's song "Teardrop" that inspired Valerj Pobega's Spring collection.
Valerj Pobega’s work was recognized by Gen Art last year and is currently carried in top boutiques such as Church and TenOverSix. For Spring the designer created her custom “works of art” inspired by the Massive Attack song “Teardrop.” The lyrics to the song hung on the wall while models wore garments which illustrated the theme. Pobega's collection, which has a dark, grungy but avant-garde aesthetic, was made in a variety of silk fabrics. A silk taffeta top resembled a rose and the painted streaks on dresses mimicked the colorful streaks of a lily. One of the most detailed pieces had a corset effect created with multiple layers of paint and crinkle chiffon.
Valerj Pobega Spring 2011
MB999
Maya Reynolds' Spring 2011 collection for MB999 was inspired by arthopods such as the praying mantis. “A lot of the pieces have the seaming details and the panels were inspired by the shapes of the exoskeletons…sort of like an armor to the world,” said Reynolds.
MB999 designer Maya Reynolds
Swapnali Ahire and Jessica Huang with model (center) in one of their creations.
Designers Jessica Huang and Swapnali Ahire launched N-Frastructure this year. One-off pieces in the Spring collection are inspired by spiders and architecture. “We were looking at really cool forms and webbing that the spiders created,” said Huang.
