Day 5 of Malta Fashion week, we are more than half way through this wonderful and exciting journey! Despite the bad weather, the show is, the show must, the show will go on! The Malta Fashion Week team have been doing an amazing job keeping the place ready for action every single evening. Truly admirable! And Sunday night at Fort Saint Elmo was fantastic!

New Designers

The first show on Sunday was definitely one I was really looking forward to. New Designers is an chance to look into the future of Maltese fashion. To see what’s potentially to come and who these new faces are!

New Designers is a category that has been an on and off feature of Malta Fashion Week and I am so glad it’s part of the experience this year! It’s wonderful to present a opportunity, support and show what young creatives, design students and aspiring pros are producing.
There were a total of 10 new designers and it was a great pick – all different and interesting.
There were however a couple of stand outs! I loved the designs of Natasha Polidano: the fit was sooo right, the colours were vibrant, the textures were beautiful and captivating and made you want to reach out and touch them. The fabric of the dress flowed and moved beautiful in the wind… well done!
The second unforgettable performance of the evening was by Eversince (by Danyl Azzopardi) – he went all out and really used his time on the runways to create a performance piece – a quote appeared and was read out followed by an intro video on the Malta Fashion week screen as a clear foreboding on something different coming….and the to the sounds of a cool, rap tune, the models strutted his designs. Male and female designs, and the aesthetic was just so good, I personally loved it…not fitted but right, straps, lines, dungarees with the pants open on the sides; a oversized top with big sleeves with shorts… it was complete and branded. My personal favourite thing was when a model in a preppy looking top turned and had “Slaves Slaves Slaves” written on the back… I lived!

It was a pleasure to watch all of these new designers! It’s important to appreciate what might very well be the future of our Fashion!

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Sanja Design (Slovenia)

Sanja Design from Slovenia presented a collection called “Metamorphosis” which is inspired by the history of her hometown in her native Slovenia. The historical period specifically chosen was around 9 century BC, the transition from the Bronze into the Iron Age.

The designer likes to include natural materials into her fashion pieces and the designer aims to create unique fashion pieces that can be worn and compliment women of different shapes and sized, hence her pieces have many ways of overlapping and closing, curling around the body. Some pieces are rather casual, whilst some wearable are clearly made for an occasion. The fabric ranges from glossy metallic-y materials, to cotton, to hand woven details and accessories such as belts and bags.

There were no crazy colours but rather natural looking ones such as blacks, browns, mustard, greys and a few reds; a few prints of faces / sculptures harkening back to the prehistoric age Sanja’s designs portray; a lot of different cuts, asymmetry and layering, which was very creative. Finally, the collection featured handmade shows out of fabric and lacing which was an interesting touch. We are used to seeing heels on the runway but this was different. Everything about this collection was different, even the performance, with all the models on the stage at the very beginning with no music, dim lighting, just the designs and silence. It felt almost bohemian.

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Nilara.

“Alkebulan – The Garden of Eden” started off beautifully. “This is me” blasting through the speakers, getting the audience moving, setting the vibe. A beautiful gowned, feather adorned models walks out and stand on the catwalk in full glory in a spray painted Gold, feather look corset; a flower print flowing, long skirt and pheasant feathers. The slowly made her way down the runway. The onlookers stunned by this display of beauty. An almost triumphant start.

Then, suddenly, the music changes and the next model comes out in a fun and flirty, long but modern party dress – “A little party never killed nobody”… we agree and we are there for it!

And so it continued. The music kept changing but it was all great music, what a mix…and it kept the vibe going. The models strutted and the observers had fun, while taking in the designs. Gowns on the runway, two pieces on the runway. Big padded shapely shoulders, long beautiful coats and abstract jackets with unusual angles; colours; classy pencil skirts; sexy cuts and slits… Nilara is all about creating beautiful evening wear and dresses to impress and that was clear in this show.
At the end we got to see some of the designs again, all on the runway, with the designer, having a great time in a swarm of colours and shapes they had created!

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What a variety of shows Day 5 of Malta Fashion week brought us – another interesting day.

It was also an interesting and experimental day for me.
I am taking Fashion Week as a chance to express myself and to do something different, and also try something new. I am always all about femininity, sensuality, about showing body-ady and I like to turn beauty looks or freaky and dark looks, I like to have a touch of fetish and alt fashion always, yet somehow slightly burlesque. I knew Sunday was about Gowns and I have a lot of gowns… but I didn’t want to do what was expected.
My look for Day 5 of Fashion Week was not a beauty look (and in no way a protest) but rather a conceptual look and a personal experiment.

So since everyone would be wearing a gown, I decided to wear a Suit. And namely my suit for one of my newest routines “Black and Gold”. This suit consists of a pair of tear away trousers fully rhinestone in gold and bronze stones and a rhinestone suit jacket, with nothing else underneath. To make myself look flat was a feat and painful but oh, how we love to suffer for our art! I paired the suit with black chunky platform heels, slicked my hair back…

A few weeks ago I was thinking of my looks and mostly inspired by the huge trend of drag kinging in the Paris burlesque community, I decided it would be a great opportunity to go all the way. And I did. Why the hell not. I want to try everything once and this would be the day.
So my make up consisted of male like eyebrows, a little moustache and a beard, as well as I could manage and well… here is the result.

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I have to say that I make a very mediocre looking dude and I wouldn’t look at myself twice… but I’m glad I tried it out, I’m pretty happy with this look and the feedback was pretty positive!
I wanted to do something different and I did.

What are your thoughts?

My top picks of the night were the beautiful Sarah Zerafa who looking like she was dripping rose petals in her Nilara dress and Victoria in a beautiful black gown and her hair was style in a way that a few curls were elegantly curled and curved to form a lovely design on her face. It gave me slight goth vibes, must be why I liked it so much! I will never get tired of looking at Tamara Webb and her beautiful dresses… she looked simply amazing in a low cut black dress with a fluffy tulle skirt. The biggest dress award goes to Maya (the MUA), she had a dress which had the biggest tulle skirt i red and black, very nice! Luke Brincat and Jeandor sticking to their own personal styles, no matter the day, I love them so much for that! Gaia Cauchi looked stunning wearing a brightly coloured purple and red gown and a beautiful sparkly rhinestones choker necklace, which glittered from across the runway, catching everyone’s eye. Taryn Mamo Cefai was giving me boss babe vibes in a highlighter pink suit jacket and shorts, so cute and sexy and looks amazing with her pink curls!

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Sarah Zerafa and her Nilara dress was my favourite look of the night. I just looove that deep red open back, petal gown, her lipstick perfectly matching… stunner!!

That’s all from me for today, more tomorrow when we review Day 6 of Malta Fashion Week!

PS: I am working on videos but that might take a while longer. There are only so many hours in a day!

Stay Wicked and let’s Get Freaky! 😉

Yours,
Undine.