In one signature design, she works with Thai silk as the main fabric of a one-piece, a line dress inspired by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) outfits, and cleverly replaces the dragon embroidery at the hems and the collar with colorful wax. Sidney names her collection "Habesha," which, according to her, means "to mix" in a local dialect from Ethiopia. Born in Guyana with Haitian parents, Sidney was brought up in Paris, the capital of style and design. A trip to Shanghai to visit her friends in 2006 changed her life - she was a marketing executive in the airline industry, now she's a fashion designer. "I fell in love with the local fabric markets immediately," she recalls. "And I happened to bring some African wax with me. One day, when I walked in a fabric market, the idea came to me all in a sudden - why not integrate Chinese style with wax? "I've really wanted to become a fashion designer for a long time," says the 31-year-old. "Unfortunately, I couldn't do it in France because the market there is already saturated. I think China is a great place to realize my dream because people here are quite open to new things." Sidney visited China a further 10 times that year before she finally decided to make the move. The young designer labels herself a self-taught fashion designer, who draws inspiration from reading, traveling and simply, "looking around." Her design philosophy is to "look at a Chinese piece and to envision it as a new piece combining African inspiration." It certainly works.
The annual Shanghai International Fashion Culture Festival is a launching pad for many Chinese designers. Over its six years, it has witnessed the budding and flourishing of the city's fashion design scene. Some designers, such as Xie Feng, Wang Wei, Qiu Hao and Ji Cheng, are recognized not only in China but also around the world. At the same time, the competition among these designers is becoming sharper, and even furious. There are more and more emerging designers while the number of people who are willing to pay for their fresh ideas remains the same - or rather, their target customers are the same. Also, the prices of these designers' works sometimes can be as high as those of top design houses. It is no surprise for a cocktail dress to be priced over 5,000 yuan (US$715). People can't help wondering: Who are buying these clothes? How do these designers survive? "First of all, you have to make sure that the quality of your clothes is not second to that of designer houses'," says Chen Xunlei, who presented his namesake collection of leather apparel at the festival. "Some designers make clothes that only glitter under the spotlight. They are usually made of poor materials with lousy techniques - of course, nobody would want to spend a large amount of money on them." The 30-year-old says his collection is designed for elegant, confident women aged above 26. The inspiration came from a recent trip to Barcelona, where he was fascinated by the architecture, plants, seaside and the sky. He uses leather treated with different processes to create jackets, coats, pants and skirts featuring a tough feel but a soft touch. "Though I have used a lot of leather and fur, my works are by no means pretentious or showy," he says.
For the evening, there are short, colorful cocktail dresses featuring exquisite embroidery details. Accessories are highlighted by big and soft high-gloss bags with lacquered bamboo handles, comfortable ballerina shoes and two-color pumps. Biker and bombers jackets in leather and other luxurious fabrics are essential pieces in the men's collection. The skinny high-button suit and the long and lean trousers create the image of a sexy, crisp Gucci man. Get set for super-short miniskirts in autumn this year, if trends at last weekend's shows for New York Fashion Week are any guide for the fall season. Along with chunky turtlenecks and peacoats, the leggy look was big at shows for Nicole Miller, Lacoste, BCBG Max Azria, Erin Fetherston, Abaete and Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat line - among the early previews for editors, retailers and stylists at the tents at Bryant Park. Most minis were paired with opaque tights and ballet flats, a good sign for women who bought into those trends last fall. Treat those things with care and you'll get another season out of them. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week still has plenty of time for new "it" items to emerge. Runway shows run until Friday with Oscar de la Renta, Diane von Furstenberg, Zac Posen and a new incarnation of Bill Blass yet to preview their collections. Nicole Miller reversed course with her fall styles, ditching the Central American and Moroccan themes she has favored in the recent past and adopting an edgy, rock 'n' roll tone.
Anyway, Shanghai ladies once again demonstrated their buying power at the launch party for Pudong's first Gucci boutique at Huarun Times Square late last month. That night, the two-level store was packed with the Italian high-end brand's loyal fans busy checking out and purchasing its latest collection. The boutique covering 430 square meters is the fourth Gucci store in Shanghai and the 18th on the Chinese mainland. It sells a complete collection including ready-to-wear for men and women, handbags, shoes, watches and other accessories. To celebrate, actress Li Bingbing and actors Joseph Cheng and Cheung Chi Lam took the stage wearing Gucci's "Cruise" collection. Well-known local models also catwalked some highlight pieces. The "Cruise" collection, as its name suggests, exudes a cheerful, carefree holiday mood. For women, Gucci's signature juxtapositions of femininity and toughness are carried throughout the collection. The full-skirted shape prevailing in the 1950s is back this spring in various designer brands such as Gucci and Prada. "Modern, graphic, swinging and circling the body" is how Gucci reinterprets this 1950s new look. The skirts are worn with sexy tailored jackets and tops and belts at the waist, not on the hips. Both men and women's collections feature strong colors: black and white interrupted by flashes of bright, fresh hues such as orange, green, yellow and citrus. The prints include Gucci's iconic bamboo and coral, stylized leopard and seashore motifs.
For his signature line, Dior designer John Galliano also delivered heavily layered looks, covering the models at his "Sunset Boulevard"-inspired show with sheer negligees, light printed skirts, sharp-shouldered jackets and trenches with lace paneling. Prada's second line Miu Miu's collection - which brought together parts of a straight-laced schoolgirl's wardrobe and that of a Vegas showgirl circa 1955 - was disquieting, slightly subversive and very appealing. Lebanese designer Elie Saab, a red carpet favorite, sent out a collection of asymmetrical sheath dresses with powerful shoulders and chiffon goddess gowns sprinkled with sequins which, while not quite Academy Awards material, would have been perfect for one of the myriad Oscar run-up awards ceremonies. I'm guessing singer Nelly Furtado, one of the show's front-row guests, can find the right occasion to slip into one of them. Kenzo rocked the casbah with an alluring collection of mosaic-tile printed sundresses and harem pants of North African inspiration, as The Clash's iconic hit blasted and an enormous metallic sun burst into shreds of tiny foil confetti overhead. French-born designer Roland Mouret, whose label bears the cumbersome name RM by the designer Roland Mouret, was on-trend with his artfully draped metallic jersey jumpers and asymmetrical cocktail dresses. Paris' ready-to-wear shows officially ended last Thursday afternoon, following shows by five smaller-name labels.
In 2007, he made the world's most expensive hat, using diamonds, pearls, rubies, garnets priced at 1 million pounds. At The Ritz-Carlton show on Nov 12, Shilling said China had inspired his work, particularly two hats called "Fireworks" and "Chop Chop". The hats were a fusion of Audrey Hepburn elegance with a penchant for the outlandish, and transformed the models into birds that seemed to have been plucked from some exotic and futuristic flock. "Chop Chop", was instantly recognizable, and featured ruby-studded chopsticks on a black sequined cap. "Fireworks," featured pink, yellow and orange tulle and black spirals emanating down the side. One hat offered a more standard feather and lace design, and this was followed by a creation that featured simple, delicate white flowers blossoming out of a ponytail. Another was a cross between a hat and a wrap, which wound like a snake around the model's neck and head. But most memorable were the meta-hats, the black and white striped hatboxes refashioned to be worn, the second of which could only be described as some sort of hatbox burqa, with slots for the eyes that could be opened and closed. "This is hilarious. I'm going crazy," squealed Elisabeth Koch, a milliner seated in the audience. "I have so many ideas!"