On the top floor of Pier 59 it was pretty much impossible not to feature in somebody else’s selfie. There were strident leopard-print fashionistas strutting and restrutting dramatic entrances into the Oxford Fashion Studio’s waiting room (always recorded by a trustworthy friend); leopard-print solo flyers touched up their foundation in phone reflections, occasionally pausing to […]
Turkish Designers Debut, NYFW
Shrouded in mystery, four designers and their collections travelled to New York from Turkey to unveil their first fashion week show. Little is known about the four: Buket Özkalfalar Barut, Gökhan İldeniz, Ece Kavran and Fırat Neziroğlu who did a group show under the alias Turkish Designers. This year Turkey was represented in two shows. […]
Calvin Luo AW19: Plaids, Solids & Stripes
After gazing at the clothes modelled in Calvin Luo’s fall-winter 2019 collection, three words seemed to outline for me most of the pieces: in alphabetical order, plaids-solids-stripes. They conjure up the lasting image for me, even though there were a few eyebrow-raising items that featured animal prints, the designer’s name in a series of patterns, […]
CAAFD: A Review
The Council of Aspiring American Fashion Designers (CAAFD) is a non-profit organization whose goal is to bolster aspiring fashion designers and in their own words, “help those emerging designers get a foot in the door.” Chelsea Piers was packed and of the three designers presenting, the first was Mouton Blanc. In French, mouton blanc […]
Hakan Akkaya Glam Rock
In the early 1970’s, a movement was wriggling around in the United Kingdom. Strutting onto the scene in platform boots, and bellbottoms came Glam Rock. Just a little south-east, at the end of that very same decade, Turkey was developing their first feminist movement. Fast forward to Sunday, four decades later, Turkish designer Hakan Akkaya […]
Heavy Metal Music’s Misunderstood, but Wildly Wicked Ward
There are many different genres of music that the public likes to jam out to on any given day. Some prefer to bop along to the latest pop hit, while others prefer the soothing canting of jazz. Others are more interested in the introspective musings of blues, with some canting away to a trusty country […]
Industrial Evolution: Amanda Mehl at NYFW19
At first, a hardware store hardly seems an appropriate venue for a runway. However, for Amanda Mehl’s AW19 show, “Love Handles,” the wrenches, paint samples, and fake grass at Garber’s made the perfect environment. The industrial surroundings provided an intense juxtaposition to the prominently featured animal prints and faux fur. These animalistic elements were paired […]
Tania Stavreva—Pioneering Pianist & Performer
Witnessing Tania Stavreva on piano at the National Opera Center of New York- Opera America, one rainy October night, rekindled my affinity for the lost art. Taking lessons, performing recitals and wooing family members on the black baby grand in our marble-sky lit living room as a kid, the piano became less accessible and more of a […]