Defined Moment Couture FW2014
Article by Frank Cierpial
Images provided by Defined Moment
After going through a hard time in life, sometimes you need to take a few steps back, rediscover who you are, and integrate the old you with the new you. That is exactly what I did after coming back to Paris after a great loss in my life and spent some time with my greatest loves : my friends, crêpes, night walks along the cobblestone streets of le Marais and fashion! It is my favorite time of the year in Paris : Haute Couture Fashion Week (woooo!!!!!! confetti!). Going to a fashion show/presentation in my opinion is the most exciting thing in the world. It can be compared to opening Christmas presents, you never know what you’re going to find inside, and this show was almost like a Christmas present to me. Christmas in July!
The invitation is like the wrapping paper. It gives you a sense of what you’re going to see and serves as a teaser to the show and you can’t wait to just tear it off and look inside. When I got to the show in the Marais, I was immediately drawn to the building with the windows covered in what looked to me like duct tape or black plastic bags partially covering the windows. I was invited in by some very nice young ladies who were dressed in their chicest outfits. With one look around, what I saw literally blew my mind… (Drum roll please…). I saw plastic mannequins in beautiful dresses with wires on the front in all different colors and all funky shapes. It was exactly my style to the point where I felt I wasn’t meant to be anywhere else at that moment. I learned that the designer whose name is “Nga” who is Vietnamese had a wonderful idea of bringing the inside of a person to the outside hence the colored wires which I learned were all to represent organs.
I was so in love with this collection that I had to meet the designer who walked in a few minutes after me, and that to me was like opening the box, looking inside, loving what I saw so much and asking the person how they picked such a great gift for me. She was so sweet and explained to me that her fascination with the human body made her create a collection where we are not just looking at the outside of a person, but the inside too emotions and even organs of a human being are all important. The main materials that were used were slim finishing wire metals to create the designs on the outside which was the draw of each piece as they were all different and beautiful.
She also has a fascination with knitting. Knitting for her is very organized and has a general pattern, it is hard to do something creative and different while knitting, so she incorporated it into the “chaos” of the wires, which makes me love her work even more. Usually, if you are used to reading my fashion articles, I normally pick three of my favorite outfits and explain them, but I was so blown away by this atypical couture collection that I will let the pictures and her work speak for themselves. In fashion today, it is hard to find designers that really reflect on the world around them and let their artistic freedom just lead them to their own salvation, so things start to sometimes look repetitive, but Nga is a real trend setter, a great thinker, and an incredible couture designer. Being at her show made me feel like more of myself than I have in a long time; it was amazing. Congratulations to Defined Moment and all involved with this incredible collection. I hope to see more in the future.
