Well our first official Philadelphia Fashion Week has come and gone. Three days of models, music, mingling and most importantly, fashion.
TV personality David Evangelista emcees day 1
Where to begin... Let's get the bad out of the way first shall we?
Out of the 20 shows, including a mix of 17 local and national designers and 3 area college presentations, we'd say about 8 deserved to be there.
You see, there was a heavy emphasis on streetwear clothing, with Palmieri Jeans, Kill City, Love Brigade, Brooklyn Royalty, Wrath Arcane, Street Star, Nine Days, Commonwealth Proper, Parke & Ronen, Triple Five Soul sending out endless graphic tees, tanks, plaid shirts, shorts, button-downs, denim and hoodies down the runway. (And hey, Love Brigade, what was with the guy that kept lifting up his shirt to show his stomach? And was that you playing model Matthew Izzo!?)
Love Brigade
The event was created to show the world "who we are and what we wear." Great idea, but doesn't the world already know that Philadelphia can do streetwear? Don't we want to move away from that image of jeans, tees and sneakers and be taken seriously? If we are ever to be taken seriously as a fashionable city, which we believe was part of the intent in creating this whole thing, then we must step it up and show serious fashion. And by 'serious fashion' we don't mean getting all Paris fashion week avant-garde crazy, but rather, well-constructed, thought-out, quality clothing that makes people open their eyes and pay attention. We also could do without the props and poses and beefcake models. Just sayin'.
Brooklyn Royalty
Marina Makaron Moscow was a bit more interesting to look at with colorful printed dresses and tons of scarves, but it was all a little, I don't know, kooky? Tacky? Euro, but not in a good way?
Marina Makaron Moscow
Delicious had a more interesting show as well, with some good corsetry going on, some goth and military influence, not exactly our cup of tea, though were sure there's people out there that would love it.
Delicious
S.LOVE brought the goth with tons of black, seemingly Gareth Pugh-inspired looks that were of the more avant-garde variety. Interesting concept. Our favorite was the stringy warrior-looking dress. Kind of reminded us of Rodarte SS10.
S.LOVE
So, who did this the best at Philly Fashion Week? Philadelphia University, SA VA, Melani von Alexandria, GAR-DE and Strangefruit, with our pick for the best going to Philadelphia University.
Philadelphia University
Yeah we know they're students, but each mini-collection (the participating schools each sent out several collections of 3-5 looks from various students) they sent down the runway was: 1. interesting, 2. well-constructed and cohesive, 3. wearable and just plain-old cute and of the moment! From cocktail dresses, chic day looks, to swimwear and hip seperates, they had a bit of everything and it was all so well done.
A vignette of looks from Moore College of Art + Design
Deservedly so, they ended up beating out Moore (which had some good stuff) and Art Institute (which we didn't catch) for the Macy's Student Design Award, which involves an encore performance and display at Macy's Center City.
SA VA, the eco-conscious fashion-forward label who recently opened up shop on Sansom Street showed some great looking things as well. Fun prints and unique silhouettes. Think Anthropologie with a bit more edge. Kudos to them for the cute and very Spring 2010 side braid as well.
SA VA
Strangefruit, a Philly-based label, had some great looks. Very military-inspired with a touch of Victorian. Lots of earthy tones, and definitely wearable. Loved that salmon colored dress.
Strangefruit
GAR-DE, a label from New York, had some super cute bomber jackets and chic tuxedo pants. Super wearable and very luxe-looking.
GAR-DE
Melani von Alexandria, a Philly native, closed the whole thing out with some very pretty cocktail numbers, great use of ostrich and draping. Also very luxe-looking and definitely ended the event on a high note.
Melani von Alexandria
Aside from the fashion, the venue was amazing and the absolute perfect place to stage this thing. Everything looked great, sounded great, people were well-fed, the cocktails were flowing, the art installation was rad. Oh and the pop-up shops. Great way to kill time between shows.
Triple Five Soul
Overall, we'd really like to see this become a tradition. Was it worth $75 a day? Not really. Were most of the shows blah? Unfortunately, yes. But considering this is the first time anything of this caliber has been done, of course there's going to be flaws and things to improve on. And we assume it wasn't easy getting quality participants, as everyone kind of didn't know how it would all turn out, considering the fledgling efforts in the past.
L to R: Michael Anderer, Kristie Bergey and Charlie Smith, the team behind Philadelphia Fashion Week
We have to give props to the team for their hard work they put into all of this. Hopefully going forward, we can really step it up and dig a little deeper fashion wise and really show the world what we can do.
Kill City
The backstage scene
A look from Wrath Arcane
A look from Palmieri Jeans
All photos courtesy Christopher Gabello Photography. Visit his website at www.christophergabello.net
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