Photo Courtesy of Style Fashion Week
A red carpet stroll led to a blue dapple-lit ocean catwalk. Enfolded by a glassy water enclosure, Sunday night’s Style Fashion Week Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood was visually stunning.
After meandering the marketplace exploring brands and their wares, my companion and I were escorted to front row seats at the end of the catwalk, with perfect views of the upcoming collections. Our evening’s festivities began after the break with a series of vocal performances, leading to a sassy and charismatic performance by Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Zumanity’. The audience was instantly entranced by the naughty, playful and mesmerizing contortionist and hooping performer.
Appropriately following the spectacle, the first collection of emerging New York designer Honee took to the stage. A female industrial designer with a fine arts background, Honee’s collaborated with award-winning Welsh fashion designer, Antonella Commantteo, to express ‘the challenge of accessing and channeling the authentic identity’ in an offering for both men and women. Honee feels that fashion is a sculptural expression within fabric that makes a statement in the world. Apparent in her clothing line, Tête–à–tête, she shifts that intimate discussion to an inner dialogue about personal identity and our place in the world.
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Posted by Style Fashion Week on Monday, April 3, 2017
Honee aspires to see more of a sense of “dressing” in the fashion world, as well as outfit selection that exhibits more flash and style. She feels that, “Clothes are outfits of Be-ing. Fabric showcases skin. What skin do you want to be in? How powerful it is to put on a garment! To have the ‘luxury’ to choose it!” Honee invites men and women to ‘embark on a journey’ and see where it takes them. Beyond fashion as a vehicle of self expression, she also sees the universal connection of fashion to individuals; the interconnectedness of what we wear and those that created it. From the fibers to the fabric, the colors to the shapes, or the creative process itself, this all touches our lives.
The collection is comprised of dramatic layered pieces that have a sense of fantasy and the avant-garde. Made with a wide variety of fabrics, there is an emphasis on whites, metallics, bright reds, oranges, and yellows; many topped with sheer layering and iridescence. The men’s collection featured jackets with structured shoulders and angled hemlines, shirts with side-slits, and transparent backs.
Highlights from the women’s collection included long dresses with thigh high slits topped with dramatic capelets, tunic-like dresses with side-slits similar to Vietnamese ao dai with deep V-necklines piped in a contrast color, and striking sculptural one shoulder midi-dresses continued with thigh high slits. Long sleeve rompers with a deep-V revealing a splash of color underneath or topped with a translucent corset graced the runway. The architectural drama of high collars, engineered lantern-like sleeves, and splashes of fringe were also incorporated.
Whimsy was added with dimensional flowers and butterflies adorning fabrics in appliqué, as well as atop hats and headdresses on both men and women.
The collection seemed to share a blending of cultural influences which created a festive and theatrical expression on the human form. Accessories and accents ranged from Asian straw hats to exotic floral headdresses, from white tennis shoes and platform heels to Japanese wooden ‘geta’ shoes. Long braids accented hair, with geisha or kabuki-like makeup and gold and silver metallic masks on both men and women.
Overall the collection offered vibrant and creative contrasts with a contemporary operatic flare, and as a result, Honee was successful in capturing the audience in the journey in which she envisioned.
Article by Janná Giles
