To celebrate the color red, and in a move that was somewhat influenced by National Wear Red Day, a day that’s celebrated the world , IEC School of Art & Fashion organized "Red Day” on Friday. The day saw 80 fashion designers from IEC College and School put on an exhibition where all the works on display centered on the color red.
Many fashion shows in Nepal often display clothes that are so outrageously creative that they are anything but wearable. But the clothes featured at this year´s “Red Day”, the show´s third edition, were designed such that people might actually take to wearing them.
It wasn’t just the runway where red hogged the limelight; even the judging panel, made up of actors, models, fashion designers and journalists, played along with the red theme. Every one of them had on something red. Among them, Shristi Shrestha, a model and a member of the judging panel stole the show and stunned the audience with her flowing satin red gown.
The theme for the day was red, but that didn’t mean that the designers couldn’t try variations on the color: most of the young designers didn’t hesitate to supplement the primary color contrasting colors with contrasting swatches and swathes of purple, green, white, yellow, golden and black.
Some of the combos came off well and some seemed, well, amateurish in their execution. For example, though green syncs very well with red (for example: you may have noticed the red sarees embroidered with green sequins), the designers who tried to mix-match green with red, failed to come up with anything novel. It was actually a supposed color-contrast no-no that actually came off pretty well: fashion designer Deepa Khand superbly matched red with purple, which is the last color that one would think would hit off well with red. She harmonized the two colors by pairing a plain red gown with purple accessories--a necklace of beads, a belt and a clutch.
The single-color theme far from reining in productivity, actually seemed to have spurred on the creators to get even more prolific. From highly embellished dresses to plain-Jane types, every piece of attire was abundantly represented. But the runway was dominated by party dresses, with very few kurtis and sarees being put on the display. Empire-line dresses were the favorite among the female fashion designers, while the male designers, for some reason, could not rustle up a comparable line up. Among the men, the only standout presentation was made by Sanjay Phombu, whose sherwanis embellished with hand-stitched add-ons made quite a splash.
Hand-stitched add-ons and sequins were plentiful at the show. The designers even dared to carry over the experiment with accessories. A few played with pieces of clothe or ribbons to make a bow or a belt out of them--to accentuate the plain red dresses.
Two young lady designers in particular, Antie Gurung and Nisal Risal, got the most mileage out of accessories, by using bows and circlets as head adornments. And as far as fabrics went, lighter textiles like silk and satin proved to be the favorite. Only a few used cotton and velvet.
It´s the prize time.Bijay Gajmer
The one-color theme was striking enough, but even more so was the fact that the show didn’t stick to the ‘traditional’ type of models. From petites to plus-sized and everything in between, it had real-sized women. That’s because the models for the show were the designers themselves and as we all know, while models come in a only one, highly restricted width, designers come in all shapes and sizes. For people who’ve gotten tired of ramps being littered with scrawny model, the lineup certainly proved great alternative eye-candy. Managing Director of IEC Nepal Shailaja M Adhikary said that the school came up with the idea to give designers the liberty to design dresses for their own selves and also so that the designers would get a chance to learn about their body type as well. It would certainly be grand if all these aspiring designers continued to design for every person on their ramps when they’ve turned professional too.
The fashion works were judged on the basis of cut, creativity, accessories used, design and color combination. The winner was Anumika Pandey, who when being feted by the judges, said that she came up with the winning design, a simple red gown whose upper parts were decorated with floral patterns, because she kept on pushing herself to create a dress that she would really, really enjoy wearing, not something that would merely be hung on a model.
Thus though the school may have chosen to focus on creating a one-color themed novelty show, it seems that the show achieved something even more commendable: the designers for once created clothes actually looked like clothes, the people catwalking on the ramps didn’t make viewers feel like they were ogling aliens; and the winning dress proved that taste can overrule cutting-edginess.
Along with the fashion designers, the winners for the IEC interior designing competition held on May 26, which was also red-themed, were also awarded.
