Fashion students celebrate women's liberation

Talent in the fashion scene here is actually abundant. One small example is the small boutiques dotted across the big cities, where young fashion designers showcase their designs.

Last Monday, around a dozen students of ESMOD international school of fashion here presented their creations, another proof of the emergence of potential young blood.

Featured in a fashion show at the residence of French Ambassador Renauld Vignal, the students showed their interpretation of the evolution in French fashion during the period 1880 to 2020.

Comprising 60 outfits, it featured both funky and futuristic designs.

The 1880 era was picked because it was the period of early women's emancipation, where women embraced the sharper tailored jacket fashion, military and more tailored styles of jacket, amid the bustles that still existed.

The students adapted the style of that period, for instance, into a 19th century Victorian white dress but with a doll print on the chest.

Details of the era were exaggerated, like overly puffed sleeves, overly wide skirts with lots of ruffles or puffed capri pants.

Playing as the background during the fashion show was a slide show featuring the students' sketches and drawings.

The era then moved to the 1920s, the period where dress reform and liberation in women's fashion became more evident, especially because in 1914 the first bra was invented.

They were also the evolutionary years that bridged the gap between the rigid formality of the Edwardian styles and the ultimate changes that led to the knee-length dresses of 1926.

And knee-length dresses it was that appeared at the ESMOD fashion show. As an accent, the students used geometrical prints, with the black and red as the main colors.

Black and red were the dominant hues during the fashion show amid the era. White and gray also dominated.

Polka dots also appeared in almost every period, adjusting to the style at that time: The 1960s -- psychedelic, 1980s with more power dressing (suits and ties, plus cone-shaped bras) and the year 2000 with black, long coat-dresses and long coats.

As for the 2020, the students projected the style as mysterious, theatrical and dramatic, with a black angel as the icon.

The whole collection was pretty creative and full of imagination. The next question would be how to think beyond creativity as good designs will be useless if people cannot wear them.

As noted designer Biyan once said, "To be creative is a must but don't just focus on that. We have to pay real good attention to other aspects.

"We have to always keep our feet on the ground, no matter how creative it is. People have to be able to wear it, because they are alive, they exist. It's life. We don't only dream, but we have to combine dreams and reality."

-- Hera Diani