As part of the Boston Stands with Haiti relief campaign, Boston University’s Hillel House co-sponsored the lackluster “Haute for Haiti” fashion show Sunday February 28th. The designers featured were Kat Schamens, Betsey Johnson, Tom’s Shoes, and two BU student designers: Emily Gasda and Cassie Locsin. Hilary Rappaport for HMR Designs provided the jewelry.
Some of the designs may have looked a unquestionably familiar if you attended the Fashion & Retail Association’s Fall 2009 “NUDE” fashion show November 14th. The burst of fresh air in the runway show was Kat Schamen’s carnival-inspired line.
The festive collection featured an array of tropical colors: high-waisted fuchsia skirts embellished with peculiar yellow, green, orange, and blue rosettes, a virtually shapeless orange sack dress with a royal blue top band, kitchen tablecloth-like circle skirts, a yellow, a midriff baring halter top clearly showed inspiration from Haitian dancers, and a tube dress with a bubble skirt that was vertically-striped with all of the aforementioned sizzling colors.
I loved the vibrant and relevant Haitian inspiration, but the execution was severely disappointing. I found myself being distracted by the wrinkled taffeta and swirls of fabric that had been tacked on to the garments. Essentially, the inspiration was poorly executed through overly embellished, flashy-colored, garments that evoked some serious ’80s prom styles.
Also adding to the unintentional ’80s theme was the hair and makeup. Some of the models had a mini Snooki-pouf going on in a frizzed-out, high ponytail. Beaming cheeks and lips made model faces look a bit like a Crayola box. However, the bright flowers perched aside the ponytails added a vivacious pop of color and made the collection more cohesive.
Designer Kat Schamens came out for the finale, and was absolutely adorable when she unrolled a model’s voluminous skirt to reveal a pop of rainbow confetti.
However, the recycling of looks from a few of the other designers was a complete disappointment; plus, a Spring/Summer collection preceding the Fall 2009 collections added to the lack of cohesion.
It was a sweet, good-hearted effort and cause, but the result seemed more like playing dress-up than haute couture.
Donate to Haiti here.
To the biased writer,
I have seen you around campus, and you have a very interesting style yourself. You tend to love the black pants and black mini skirts, and hippiesque hats that droop in the back. I have never really seen you in a color that expresses liveliness, fun, and individuality. I think this article was purely biased based on your own fashion sense, rather than viewing the fashion world as a whole. I saw your comments on the betsey johnson show in boston a few weeks ago, and you seemed to enjoy her line that had the word “BJ” written all over it. My last sentence speaks for itself, so don’t go insulting the hard efforts put on by the designers at BU and Betsey Johnson because you fail to appreciate COLOR! Also, 2 lines were repeated , and that was for exposure of the designers. So for you it probably felt like a dress up party because i am sure you are a cynical writer that tends to make fun of any girl that loves the color pink! so bash all you want, but the show will remain a success to those who appreciate true fashion!
~ anonymous