The 14th edition of the most creative fashion week in the world, Feeric Fashion Week, took place between July 20th and 24th in Sibiu/Transylvania/Romania and its surroundings.
Since 2008, Feeric Fashion Week has been a meeting point to explore new trends and an important national and international showcase for creatives of the fashion world. The 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week brought, again, Sibiu among the world capitals of fashion and this edition the focus was on fashion schools, graduates and emerging designers.
The fashion shows started on yesterday, July 21, at 1 pm, with an unconventional show, in an atypical space, on the spiral that connects the first floor with the second floor of the Promenada Sibiu shopping center.
Ukrainian designer Irina Dzhus opened the 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week with a fall / winter 2022 collection, produced exclusively using cruelty-free materials, according to the brand’s ethical values. A theme that, by the way, we will find throughout this year’s edition.
DZHUS is a conceptual clothing and accessories brand founded in 2010 by Ukrainian designer and stylist Irina Dzhus. Avant-garde yet utilitarian, DZHUS designs are internationally recognised by their innovative cut and multi-purpose transformations. Since Russia began its attack on Ukraine, Irina Dzhus had to flee her Homeland and found her refuge in Western Europe, travelling between Warsaw, Paris and Berlin. Meanwhile, Irina’shusband and business partner Anatolii Elgert has resumed DZHUS’ production in Kyiv. DZHUS Autumn/Winter 2022 collection refers to illusion as the fundamental notion of the metamodernism culture.
Duality and hidden senses are undividable from DZHUS design itself, offering numerous metamorphoses of clothing and accessories, and clothing into accessories.
The visual aesthetics of the looks is ironic and controversial within itself, hence, self-sufficient. In the Autumn/Winter line of unified wardrobe items, the designer’s fantasy went further than functional ‘bonuses’: duplicity is materialised literally, and the extra content is physically unveiled, as the pieces are transformed either when delaminated, or once their inside is extracted. The silhouettes are exaggeratedly structured, and the styles divide into two directions: abstract-escapist ‘cocoons’ versus markedly classic pieces, concealing potential for radical reincarnations. The collection is produced using cruelty-free materials only, according to DZHUS’ ethical values.
In the same space followed the presentation of the Borbala brand, where the designer used only upcycled and recycled materials, including melted plastic bags and then transformed into evening dresses, accessorized with plastic caps and shampoo boxes. All these surprising details try to draw attention to the problems caused by global pollution.
Will humans have a place in the new world defined by the consequences of our actions? Who is in fact endangered? The collection features many recycled and upcycled materials, such as melted plastic bags, recycled HDPE, reworked sportswear, and knitwear. Low-tech waterproof garments are one of the key items of the collection, referring to the dramatic consequences of climate change, that unfortunately many communities are already experiencing. The prints and accessories are inspired by different unicellular organisms playing with the utopian idea of new life forms rising from this chaos of the Anthropocene, and nature’s capability to always renew and evolve. The silhouettes are playful and feminine, some of them incorporating elements from maternity clothes, as a symbol of change and the chance of rebirth. The diy finishings, childish drawings are an open invitation for anyone to be part of the change. We can all be creative and contribute to a better future.
Alist Designers boutique returns to Feeric Fashion Week with a new selection of pieces by Romanian designers. The project initiated by Alist Magazine and supported by Bucharest Mall Vitan, continues to promote local creations, with over 50 names from the Romanian industry in the last two years. The presentation of the collection took place at 4 pm, on the pedestrian passage on Manejului Street.
The last presentation of the day took the audience and guests up the beautiful stairs of the Brukenthal Summer Palace in Avrig. Present for the fourth time at Feeric Fashion Week, the RAMELLE brand will present the Infinity collection at Avrig.
This year the brand celebrated 8 years of activity and Ramona Mihaela, the founder and designer behind the brand, created a significant collection for women. A collection with a sophisticated and minimalist design,
with symbols and architectural details transposed into feminine clothing creations.
INFINITY is about the magical journey of the woman, the harmony between the masculine and feminine energy, is about her endless inner power to create things, feelings, experiences. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed, into space and infinite time.
Saturday, the last day of the fashion shows during Feeric Fashion Week, started at 1 pm with two street presentations, on the ridge of Centumvirilor Street in the Historic Center. The first of them is supported by the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, by a Romanian designer, graduate of the institute, Marinela Djurdj.Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to define the boundaries of fashion where Haute Couture borders on sportswear and gender codes are demolished. IED offers a selection of clothes to tell the gaze of our young talents on the contemporary world. Words such as sustainability, oversize, craftsmanship, tradition, contrasts (black / white) are hidden among the folds, shapes and fabrics of the collection. Furthermore, IED wanted to support and promote a Romanian designer who has just graduated from the Milan campus – the winner is Visovan Anamaria Mihaela from West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Arts and Design.Starting from the traditional dress, Marinela Djurdj finds in the embroidery and innovative materials a new expressive language capable of recounting the independence and redemption of women.Finally, the chosen soundtrack comes from the creativity of the students of the sound design course in Rome.
Then, Andreea Pleşa presented the InBetween project, a project that wants to sound the alarm on the excessive consumerism that underlies the clothing industry, the collection thus becoming a spokesperson to draw attention to both material and physical abuses that it uses fast fashion.The InBetween project aims to raise awareness about the excessive consumerism that is at the heart of the clothing industry, and the collection thus becomes a mouthpiece to draw attention to both the material and physical abuses of fast fashion. InBetween talks about the present and is rooted in several auto reflective and reevaluation processes experimented in the past few years. We talk about the revaluation of human potential at the expense of post-human society concepts.The geometry of the collection is not aimed at current trends, emphasizing the impersonal nature of clothing. The color scheme is based on the industrial landscape with a touch of orange that means to bring out of anonymity the wearer and doubles as an signal of alarm about standardized style. In regards with tech-human-industry relationship, the collection takes a pro-human stand by using only natural fibers sourced locally.
From Centumvirilor, the Feeric “caravan” moved to the industrial setting of the Boromir factory, where in the geometric space on the top floor of the factory we will see a new collection signed by Bianca Popp, the longest-lived designer present at Feeric Fashion Week.OUT OF THE BOX, is a collection about the emotions that grow inside us when ignored, up to the point of bursting out and controlling us. It us a collection of evening dresses so extravagant that they become characters, made of noisy taffeta, so that not even those with the eyes in their phones would not miss their entrance. Loss of function, the last dress in the show, was inspired by the multicolored spinning wheel that tells us that the computer is blocked.
The fashion shows ended with the most awaited event of the fashion week in Sibiu, the Feeric Gala. For the first time since its establishment, the Gala did not take place in the Small Square but in the courtyard of the Evangelical Church in Huet Square. Was a gala full of pomp and surprises, with quality music and seven fashion shows that are more and more spectacular. As every year, the host of the gala was the TV star Cosmina Păsărin.The Gala started with the last collection showcased by Atelier Luz.
“The Carnivale by Chotronette” collection is intended exclusively for special women who express their personality through unique combinations and strong colors. Seemingly discordant notes are combined in a hallucinatory mix. The sources of inspiration for this collection were Frida Kahlo, Art Nouveau and punk music. We have explored the aesthetics of kitsch, which for us is an ineffable source of inspiration and the basic idea from which we start is the power of colors to instill magic and joy in the lives of spectators. We have appeared in Vogue UK, Vogues Italia, Conde Nast Brides, on the cover of Rock’n’Roll Magazine and held fashion shows on cruise ships New York and Sydney taken on Fashion TV. “
Casi Couture created the Own The Moment collection for the woman proud of her sexuality, who loves luxury, attention, and to draw all eyes on her, to remain an unforgettable memory in the eyes of viewers.The transparent tulle hand-accessorized in hundreds of hours of work with extremely precious elements, transposes the inner brilliance of the invincible woman to the outside, the fragility of the feathers show us at the same time how fragile a strong woman can be, while the pearls remind us about the elegance and the refinement of the feminine beauty.
Dear Spacegirl – RTW 2023 Sandra Chira translates into clothing language a fragment from the designer’s childhood. “After skiing, at the end of spring, I used to pick crocus flowers …”. In the winter of this year, the mountain landscape followed the same delicate aesthetic, but it had more plastic bags and snowy packaging than flowers. The project has the role of a self-portrait – subtly incorporating in some technical details specific to the
retro ski suit, brought in a feminine context of warm and cold whites, shades of pink, blue and colored grays. The graphic elements speculated in prints and textile structures are the spring flowers whose root grows in plastic bags.
Before presenting the collection, designers Aida Lorena and Claudia would like to thank the organizers of the Feeric festival for all the support they have shown in the last four years and for all the wonderful challenges they have encountered since then. The “New” 2022 collection tells the story of the spiritual alphabet of numbers from zero to nine with the help of colors and elements inspired by sacred geometry. Numbers have been and will remain consciousness and the primary and infinite source of inspiration from the beginning of time. Their story begins in a vacuum and contains all the stages of the creation of the universe, matter, and the human being. Too many words would load the imagination of the spectator, so the designer of the collection will leave an open door to the world of fantasy in which the creation creates itself through your pupil. And as if by magic, the story becomes ours!
The concept around Bianca Ripan’s collection is “the will to empower ” inspired from the woman’s strength to rebuild herself after a trauma or disappointment, reshaping herself stronger every time and more aware of her own strengths. This collection is more than a storyline, it’s a walk within the soul as nothing from what rebuilds herself has been randomly used or chosen, but rather as a form of expression, a metaphor. The materials used like: leather, latex, tulle are a gradual openness towards people and society. Also, the closure systems as well as the cutting design itself reveal the woman who now Knows what she has to do. This collection basically represents an extension of every woman’s personality ( either revealed or not) who managed to rebuild herself from ashes at least once!It’s a manifest of well deserved empowerment!
“We are at the 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week, the journey so far is incredible. We have managed to bring Sibiu to a place of great honor on the European fashion scene, to become the most important fashion week in Eastern Europe and one of the most creative in the world, but things are really starting now, with this edition of transition that prepares a new path. Thus, we will add continuity to the project by approaching an educational segment and by involving the local community. We continue to offer designers the most suitable launching pad through the connections created over these 14 years around the world and we will try to turn Feeric Fashion Week into a huge global fashion hub. And we are proud to create everything in Sibiu”, says Mitichi, president of Feeric Fashion Week: www.feeric.ro
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