Theatrics closed the final day of Fashion Forward Season Five, from a Tim Burton-inspired finale to acrobatic entertainment at Pacha for the party. Dramatic was the buzzword of note, but, for Dubai, would we expect anything less?
Welcome To The Candy Shop. The reason the fashion flock turn out in force for Madiyah Al Sharqi? The woman knows what she’s doing. Cutting a mean red carpet dress, adding a generous amount of sparkling bugle beads and masterfully layering chiffon, leather and lace, her collection was a masterclass in modern pastels. Girly, but cool all the same. One show-goer’s hair matched the palette – how very Fernanda Ly of her.
Honey I Shrunk The Mascot. If your biggest fans weren’t pocket sized this season, you weren’t doing a good enough job, clearly. Meet the Stella McCartney-bedecked, Vuitton-toting fashionista on the FROW at Taller Marmo, and Liyana, House Of Nomad’s mini mascot (the brand dressed her, naturally). The boys at Taller Marmo even took it to the next level, hiring mother and daughter beauties Caroline and Mimi Labouchere to walk for them at their show. Fashion Forward? A family affair.
Courtesy @laylabrunton
Liyana
Art Dubai. But not in the way you’d think. Art was everywhere this season at Fashion Forward, from the sketches and mannequins in the Pepsi Lounge to the doodled floor-cum-catwalk at Amber Feroz, on which the models mimed, danced and generally made merry on.
Caped Crusaders. Comic Con might have been on elsewhere but there were capes aplenty on the catwalks. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the dramatic swathes of fabric at Mauzan, House of Nomad, Madiyah Al Shaqi and Amato, respectively.
Word Up. Or more accurately, word on. Slogans abounded on almost everything from signature sportif cuts at House Of Nomad to delicate jewellery from Prana (a Lebanese designer displaying in The Garden). Our favourite, though? The hand-embellished straw hats from CarenLola, which we can already see us gadding about JBR in this summer.
And speaking of hats… they were the accessory du jour, both on and off the catwalk. Talking at Fashion Forward, the legendary Diane Pernet, and her equally legendary veil, are possibly the greatest ambassadors for any kind of headgear, cementing the trend even further by showing a short called Headpieces for Peace at her presentation on fashion and film. If in doubt, wear a hat.
Fringed & Fabulous. Blame it on the Woodstock revival, or just that it makes a damn good entrance, but fringing is back in fashion in a big way.
Fashion Features Editor Olivia Phillips wears Bedouin Studios
Cold Shoulder. But in the best possible way, mind. Mauzan chose to play peekaboo with shoulders this season, embracing a far more subtle sensuality than thigh-grazing hemlines ever could. Bravo.
Drinks got a fash-over. From the Kenzo x Evian bottles to the designer Pepsi cans, and the omnipresent, mineral-infused Blk water to fashionista fave Vita Coco, if your drink didn’t make a fashion statement, it wasn’t in your hand. Rock & Ice even put their affinity on a sweatshirt in sequins. That’s dedication.
Diane Pernet owned it. The inimitable founder of fashion blog, A Shaded View On Fashion gave a talk on the cross-pollination between fashion and film. She spoke and we listened – after all she was a designer in NYC for 13 years, a costume designer and has been running her own film festival at the Centre Pompidou in Paris for seven years. Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with the creative star…
Speaking of films… Amato’s gloriously dramatic closing show was an overt ode to Tim Burton and Alfred Hitchcock. Diane, in all her gothic glamour, we’re sure approved.
And then this happened. As if we hadn’t been stunned enough by Amato’s haute creations, Pacha’s closing party was a dizzying array of people doing impressive things from the ceiling. After all that heel wearing, we think we’ll leave it to the experts.
