Fashion week Amsterdam has come to an end and I still have an ecstatic after feeling. This was my first fashion week attendance and I loved every bit of it. I went to the catwalk show from Sophia Bentoh and Sunanda Chandry Koning. Both designers showed their collection with a message and it was loud and clear.
Sophia Bentoh went back to her roots. Her collection Ibileye which means ‘’beautiful as a precious piece of fabric’’ is a contrast of African prints meets pop/punk. It was beautifully outspoken on the catwalk. It is a mix and match of colours and clothing pieces for men and women. She draws the prints by herself and prints it with a screen-print on the clothing. Not only she makes figurative prints from African origin, but also symbols that we all know like peace signs, spikes and safety pins.
Sophia comes from a creative family. Her father is a sculptor and her mother a doctor that makes her own clothes. Her passion for fashion started right from her home. With her personal memories, culture and hard work: Ibileye was born. I like that she got inspired by her roots. As a Moroccan, I can truly appreciate traditional clothing that represents my culture. Because of this I felt a connection with her collection.
The models she chose for the catwalk are individually unique, not the models you used to know. Same goes for the models from designer Sunanda. Her clothing collections comes with messages like make love not war and gender acceptance. She uses many twins as models with the thought to represent connectivity in her clothing. She showed her capsule collection Behemoth. Unfinished clothing pieces were at the end free to take because she stripped her models into white tops and underwear. Expect for two twin models who she let walk topless on the catwalk. It was not clear what to do with the clothing that she left. I looked it up online and find out that the unfinished clothing was free to take to make it your own by her or yourself. I like the thought behind it, nothing is perfect. Make it your own. Too bad it wasn’t clear for the audience.
I had such a lovely day! I went with my sister and made it a girl’s day out. It was interesting to experience the event. Even if you curious just to see how a fashion show looks like, you would be impressed by the music you hear and the people around you.
❤
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Saïda Chahid 