“3 May, 1890. Bistrit.
Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late”. – Jonathan Harker’s Journal – Dracula, Bram Stoker
July 17, 2017. Castelul Bethlen-Haller, Cetatea de Baltă.
Here the adventure began that, in less than a week, led me to the discovery of the distinctive places in Transylvania, the same described by Stoker in his famous novel.
However, the reasons that pushed me right there are different from those that ideally led the poor Jonathan more than a hundred years earlier. Indeed, from the 17th to the 22nd of July, Transylvania was the unconventional epicenter of the tenth edition of the Feeric Fashion Week.
Conceived in 2008 by the ineffable President Mitichi’s volcanic mind and supported by the City of Hall of Sibiu (a delightful town in the Carpathian Mountains – European Capital of Culture in 2007 – which actually hosts the event), today the Feeric Fashion Week is the Romania’s most important event in this field. It is a catalyst pole for local designers and experts. Not only. Thanks to the international partnerships and credibility gained over time, the event succeeded in attracting more and more emerging personalities from different geographic areas: China, Italy, Spain, Holland, just to name some.
The imaginative choice of the locations that host the shows and the skittish creativity of the staging undoubtedly make the event one of the most spectacular ones in the world. It is a welcome invitation to knowledge, to the attendance of the Romanian culture. It is a pleasantly exciting touristic tour. It is a complimentary ticket for one, a lot of “natural” museums where fashion is still the main attraction.
As usual, I have selected five collections, five names to keep in mind… Enjoy them!
8IGB COMMUNITY CLOTHING
Supported by the amazing Myra Postolache and The Secret Code Of Fashion, 8IGB Community Clothing 1st collection wants to make us explore mental complexity and especially nowadays mental weaknesses through graphic manipulations and sarcasm. 8IGB uses the logo manipulation of very famous brands coming from different domains to highlight the fact that addictions are hidden behind these desirable and colorful graphics that are here to make us “want it”. The brand has decided to concentrate on addictions and obsessions that are less explored but very typical of our time such as money, sneakers, chocolate or sex. For the show there will be 2 different axes mixed together, rehab center and gay sauna, two apparently opposite elements but so similar in the way people walk around with no destination, desperately looking for an issue to satiate a powerful need. The mix of very industrially made pieces with rough handmade pieces in 8IGB community clothing collection materializes the eternal fight between the outside and inside world.
MODEMENT
Inspired by the Bible phrase regarding the creation of Eve from Adams bone and flesh, the Hong Kong-based designer, Aries Sin, brings together different colours and silhouettes creating a collection that portrays the process of finding each other. Keeping loyal to her signature androgynous and unisex concept. Sin brings out the bright elements of nature finding its way in mixing and matching in order to bring happiness. The different textures and weaving represent the bones curving and transforming into something. Connotations are made to blood vessels with the specially crafted fabrics. Sin believes that we are living no longer in a world where fashion is about size: fashion is about style and the ability to mix and match in order to find the personal fashion. Thus, Sin keeps her designs simple with interesting elements that create the sparks for bonding.
MINIMAL TO
Minimal To is a unisex brand founded in 2011by Danila Olivieri, Stefano Sberze and Elisa Mazza in Turin (I interviewed them some years ago). It was born from the unceasing observation of the changing society, the creative boost to the birth of their collections. Natural and technical fabrics are shaped in a radiantly surrealist atmosphere in which it is possible to play according to absolutely personal rules free from conventions. The design conveys the desire for greater relationships between clothing and the person who wears it, through meticulous research of shapes and fabrics that adapt to the body and of one’s own interpretation, into a new concept of made in Italy.
BIANCA POPP
Bianca Popp is a Romanian-born designer, who grew up surrounded by the uni-dress code during communism. Thus, her decision of starting a clothing range was based on an obvious need of individuality and self-expression. She presented her collection on the background music of the Academy of Land Forces “Nicolae Bălcescu” in Sibiu, an institution also responsible for the decoration of the fashion event at the Boromir factory, a decoration loaded with military elements as army vehicles or combat equipment. The collection included looks for both genres, men and women, creative monochrome patterns that followed architectural lines and volumes, being made-up of original materials.
VISORI
The brand created by Javier Soria in Valencia is the result of the hybrid concept of creating a symbiosis between fashion and art, doctrines on which his creations and his development as an artist are based.
Instead, SUTURA is the name of the collection presented during the Feeric Fashion Week. SUTURA is purely Visori. It speaks of hate, love, human wounds, ideologies, religions and conflicts, collective suicide facing the human being and the whole apocalyptic world that the designer always wanted to reflect in his own fashion.
