The 14th edition of the most creative fashion week in the world, Feeric Fashion Week, took place between July 20th and 24th in Sibiu/Transylvania/Romania and its surroundings.
Since 2008, http://gowstakeout.com/2010/11/06/simple-chinese-meal/ Feeric Fashion Week has been a meeting point to explore new trends and an important national and international showcase for creatives of the fashion world. The 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week brought, again, Sibiu among the world capitals of fashion and this edition the focus was on fashion schools, graduates and emerging designers.
The fashion shows started on yesterday, July 21, at 1 pm, with an unconventional show, in an atypical space, on the spiral that connects the first floor with the second floor of the Promenada Sibiu shopping center.
Ukrainian designer Irina Dzhus opened the 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week with a fall / winter 2022 collection, produced exclusively using cruelty-free materials, according to the brand’s ethical values. A theme that, by the way, we will find throughout this year’s edition.
DZHUS is a conceptual clothing and accessories brand founded in 2010 by Ukrainian designer and stylist Irina Dzhus. Avant-garde yet utilitarian, DZHUS designs are internationally recognised by their innovative cut and multi-purpose transformations. Since Russia began its attack on Ukraine, Irina Dzhus had to flee her Homeland and found her refuge in Western Europe, travelling between Warsaw, Paris and Berlin. Meanwhile, Irina’shusband and business partner Anatolii Elgert has resumed DZHUS’ production in Kyiv. DZHUS Autumn/Winter 2022 collection refers to illusion as the fundamental notion of the metamodernism culture.
Duality and hidden senses are undividable from DZHUS design itself, offering numerous metamorphoses of clothing and accessories, and clothing into accessories.
The visual aesthetics of the looks is ironic and controversial within itself, hence, self-sufficient. In the Autumn/Winter line of unified wardrobe items, the designer’s fantasy went further than functional ‘bonuses’: duplicity is materialised literally, and the extra content is physically unveiled, as the pieces are transformed either when delaminated, or once their inside is extracted. The silhouettes are exaggeratedly structured, and the styles divide into two directions: abstract-escapist ‘cocoons’ versus markedly classic pieces, concealing potential for radical reincarnations. The collection is produced using cruelty-free materials only, according to DZHUS’ ethical values.
In the same space followed the presentation of the Borbala brand, where the designer used only upcycled and recycled materials, including melted plastic bags and then transformed into evening dresses, accessorized with plastic caps and shampoo boxes. All these surprising details try to draw attention to the problems caused by global pollution.
Will humans have a place in the new world defined by the consequences of our actions? Who is in fact endangered? The collection features many recycled and upcycled materials, such as melted plastic bags, recycled HDPE, reworked sportswear, and knitwear. Low-tech waterproof garments are one of the key items of the collection, referring to the dramatic consequences of climate change, that unfortunately many communities are already experiencing. The prints and accessories are inspired by different unicellular organisms playing with the utopian idea of new life forms rising from this chaos of the Anthropocene, and nature’s capability to always renew and evolve. The silhouettes are playful and feminine, some of them incorporating elements from maternity clothes, as a symbol of change and the chance of rebirth. The diy finishings, childish drawings are an open invitation for anyone to be part of the change. We can all be creative and contribute to a better future.
Alist Designers boutique returns to Feeric Fashion Week with a new selection of pieces by Romanian designers. The project initiated by Alist Magazine and supported by Bucharest Mall Vitan, continues to promote local creations, with over 50 names from the Romanian industry in the last two years. The presentation of the collection took place at 4 pm, on the pedestrian passage on Manejului Street.
The last presentation of the day took the audience and guests up the beautiful stairs of the Brukenthal Summer Palace in Avrig. Present for the fourth time at Feeric Fashion Week, the RAMELLE brand will present the Infinity collection at Avrig.
This year the brand celebrated 8 years of activity and Ramona Mihaela, the founder and designer behind the brand, created a significant collection for women. A collection with a sophisticated and minimalist design,
with symbols and architectural details transposed into feminine clothing creations.
INFINITY is about the magical journey of the woman, the harmony between the masculine and feminine energy, is about her endless inner power to create things, feelings, experiences. Nothing is lost, everything is transformed, into space and infinite time.
On Friday, the second day of Feeric Fashion Week, at 1 pm, at Cinegold, in Feeric Venue, students in clothing design from Romania, Poland and Italy presented their works resulting from their years of study in a large collective show. Students and graduates of the University of Art and Design in Cluj Napoca, the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design in Iași and the University of Timișoara, the School of Art and Fashion Design in Krakow or the Istituto Marangoni in Milan took part. At the end of the series of presentations, Istituto Europeo di Design and Feeric Fashion Week will award a young Romanian designer with a full scholarship for the “Summer Course” that takes place on the IED campus in Barcelona, in July next year.
Dukuhturi CHANSA
The designer Chanelle Savulescu has recently finalized her studies at Istituto Marangoni, Milano, an Italian school of fashion and design. Today we are welcoming her to present her capsule collection „GLAM YOUR JOY“. The collection is about romanticizing the 70’s glam rock inspired silhouettes found in the movie „Bohemian Rhapsody“, in order to awake a certain emotion of what Freddy Mercury had felt for his duty as a performer; which was to share „a touch of the heavens“ by doing what he loved most, despite the knowledge of his deadly illness. Glam your joy is about turning something devastating into something extraordinary.
ALEXANDRA CATRANGIU STUDIO
Inspired by the abstract paintings of Al Held (an abstract expressionist painter), I’ve created the Echo minimalist collection, named right after one of his works, bringing into focus and re-enacting the circle bicolor element. The circle represents evolution as a transformational process, the beginning and the end, the eternity. Minimalism never begins or ends, the joining of black and white continue to move within the circle, elegantly. The natural, sustainable materials also transform themselves on the line of time. The entire universe of sustainable clothing maintains things in a constant state of movement, a progression that inspires me towards continuity.
NARGIZ SALWA (Cracow School of Art and Fashion)
All my journey with fashion began in Poland at the Cracow School of Art and Fashion design – a private fashion school belonging to the leading European schools and part of the Krakow Art Schools run by Joanna Gaweł. In 2021, I took part with my graduation collection at the Crakow Fashion Week. The “THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE” collection received several awards. My collection, which is entitled “Moments”, is inspired by the moments of life that people perceive. Moments of childhood, of youth,of maturity. of changes and turns. It shows all stages of life and its colors – from carefree childhood, youthful rebellions, the world of adults, to the passing. The collection is made of dead stock materials and fabrics. Ortalion (polyamide fabric), taffeta, cotton. The colors in the collection are pink, gray and black, purple. Shades of blue appear.
Some items in the collection are knitted by hand, to show the moments of our childhood, when our grandmother made gloves with warmth and passion for us.
WEST UNIVERSITY OF TIMISOARA – FACULTY OF ART + DESIGN – MDV TIMISOARA
The group collection represents an eclectic selection of creations extracted from the graduation projects of students from Faculty of Arts and Design, West University of Timișoara.
The collections address various topics of interests in fashion and contemporary society: from the revaluation of Romanian ethnic elements, to the aesthetics of tattooing, the theme of bullying, body dysmorphia or 40s military uniform. The young designers are: Airinei Patricia, Florin Breje, Andrada Roșu, Evelina Tănasie, Mihaela Vișovan, Mălina Popa, the projects being coordinated by lect.assoc.dr.Corina Mutu and lect.univ.dr. Sandra Chira.
ALEXANDRU FEDIUC – GEORGE ENESCU NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARTS, IASI
The “Far East” collection is made by Alexandru Fediuc, master student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași. The collection consists of six clothing ensembles and is inspired by the culture and traditions of the countries of the Far East.
RAMONA BIZBAC – UNARTE UNIVERSITY
“I’m in the middle of a golden field, I hear the sound passing from one musical note to another. I feel every little disaster, from a shattered anthill to the drying ears, they all have a cadence, every arpeggio that is blown by the wind captures a unique chaos. ”- Ramona Bizbac
RAM is an autobiography collection that refers to the images of the author’s memory, furthermore to her connection with nature from the birthplace area. The transposition of the pieces and accessories from the collection focuses on the slow-fashion approach that includes fabrics made traditionally using looms, modifying the structure of fabrics, hand-made crocheted surfaces with natural organic threads and wooden sculpted accessories. Ramona wants to deliver a personal authentic story, a viable alternative experience to fast-fashion.
ESZTER PENTEK – UAD CLUJ
The shapes of childhood and the colours of tales were the most important sources of inspiration in the creative process. The collection presents a personal, nostalgic vision, and through the design and execution I got closer to defining my own journey. Hyperreality is actually a perception, a reflection of the outside world in the human consciousness. Images are perceived as reality itself, but these “realities” are the product of imagination, ingenuity and fantasy. My collection attempts to find parallels between art, fashion and social/psychological issues in the age of hyperreality. Every motif and every pattern has a meaning, through which the clothes tell stories. I used different textiles as my canvas: from brocade to velvet to softshell, trying to create a coherent whole. The creative process was coordinated by Prof. Anca Pia Rusan, PhD, at UAD. Vector Fashion supported the execution of this collection. Through which, I represent the students of the UAD master’s degree.
UNIVERSITY OF ART + DESIGN CLUJ – UAD CLUJ
Group collection of bachelor graduates of the Fashion-design Department clothing from the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca is a synthesis of 15 collections, compressing 15 concepts, which these novice designers have developed in the framework of their license project.
The group collection of the 15 students reinterprets in a personal way the most contemporary fashion themes, such as the issue of gender and ethnic identities, ideas ecological, ethnographic legacies. We also find classic themes, such as the relationship of fashion with time, or the relationship with fashion and cinema. The subject of some collections was the interaction of fashion with the various artistic movements such as surrealism or the DADA movement. Some students have developed collections based on nostalgic themes of childhood or funny themes such as human relationship-pets. The collection presents contemporary forms with different experimental areas. Some ensembles of clothing were developed on the basis of the idea of deconstruction of some classical forms, others are hybridizations of silhouettes from different historical periods. We find exquisite juxtapositions of materials and digital prints. In the group collection of UAD undergraduate graduates all digital prints are the personal creations of these rookie designers. This collection invites you to a journey full of adventure in the world of contemporary fashion.
IED- ISTITUTO EUROPEO DI DESIGN: SUPERHEROES WANTED CONTEST
IED – Istituto Europeo di Design and Feeric Fashion week are very excited to award a young Romanian designer a full scholarship to the Summer Course in Fashion Trend Investigation held in IED Barcelona campus in July 2023. The search began a few weeks ago when the two institutions joined forces to organize a contest with the title “Superheroes Wanted”. The brief invited the applicants to address the current issues of interpreting the overcoming of these difficult times through the invention of new superheroes. The competition was harsh and many applications but only the best passed to the final phase. The winner announced during the Feeric GALA is Visovan Anamaria Mihaela from West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Arts and Design.
From Venue, the fashion shows moved to another unconventional space, in the Remat warehouse on the outskirts of Sibiu. Among the cars mutilated and transformed into old beasts, the pieces of DRESSINGZ Store and the new HOOLDRA collection were showcased.
Born out of concern for the planet and love for fashion, Dressingz is the newest home of luxury pre-loved garments. In the form of a market-place, this is the destination where you can shop and sell authentic goods, verified by international experts: from rare vintage items, IT contemporary pieces, and exclusive garments coming directly from our famous friends’ dressings, to a wide selection of goods uploaded by fashion enthusiasts. Dressingz is also an inspirational fashion hub, updating you with the latest trends and fashion news, or sharing styling ideas. We invite you all to #DressForTheBiggerPicture and rethink your shopping habits. Unite with our community by RE-styling RE-thinking, RE-loving, RE-inventing and finally, join us in a battle of RE-modelling a polluting industry.
Hooldra is a responsible upcycling brand and we are used to seeing its marvelous collaborations with emerging creatives for a new ethical standard in fashion. For the new collection, with considerably less impact on the environment, HOOLDRA involved once again Mira Wanderlust and Jacqueline Barth. On the first side, Mira wants to reflect a kind of punk concept by mixing raw hand-painted fabrics, unfinished art and graffiti with an aesthetic approach. The idea is to reflect the interior youth, no matter the age.
Jacqueline, instead, shows us the importance of upcycling, reflecting through tiny details that re-using garments and accessories is always a solution for a better environment. We can see a kind of enthusiasm, a challenge to do the best with what you already have. Creativity gains a main role when you are scarce. Jacqueline completes the styling with accessories like chains and safety pins.
Everything in the collection is ‘real’, starting from the deadstock upcyled garments, leftover fabrics and hand-made shoes with recycled adhesive bands, to the choice of the location to reflect our environment and the choice of the models. The artistic moment was joined by a media campaign initiated by Feeric Fashion Week and Humane Society International in Romania, which aims to stop the use of furs and natural leather in fashion creations.
Before the last presentation of the day, at Cinegold took place a visual installation, entitled Home, at the origins – Făgăraș Country, a wide campaign of identity recovery of the traditional port in Romania and in the territories inhabited by Romanians, as it is worn and kept in Nowadays. The project is initiated by the La Blouse Roumaine community, in partnership with the Ţara Făgăraș Community Foundation, the Canvas and Storytelling Museum, Mândra Chic and local volunteers, in order to reconnect and develop communities through what is most valuable: cultural heritage. The event started at 6 pm. At 8 pm, on the terrace of Sibiu Promenade, the Synergia collection was unveiled to guests and spectators, a collection of 12 outfits that gives positive energy and harmony to the shapes that shape the silhouette, being inspired by the visual identity of Sibiu Promenade. The collection was made by the clothing designer Raluca Elena Coșăreanu.
Synergy collection outlines a versatile feminine figure to whom timelessness is a reason for the identity construction of a unique style of clothing. The contemporary trend is built and inspired by the study and patterns of various sartorial periods, in hybrid constructions and creative interpretations. The chromatic patterns built from the game of a well-established and recognizable visual identity, as well as the accessories made with new technologies, represent the interlude that connects and brings unity to each piece of clothing. When we deconstruct the outfits, each of them takes the place of a dramatic piece of its own. Gathered together, they merge into a suite of times and times. The past and the future find their performative space in the power of “now.”
The chromatic game detached from the pattern presented in the 12 outfits gives positive energy and harmony to the shapes that outline the silhouette, being inspired by the visual identity of Promenada Sibiu . It is one of the 5 colors: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, it is also found in the contemporary, minimalist accessories, specially designed to follow the shape of the body, which becomes a canvas for the fashion designer. Spaciousness is hidden in the concept of accessories that, deployed, form the outline of a city. The reading key is the map of Sibiu itself. Thus, the entire collection is based on the space we are in, Sibiu, and the present time, given by the visual and chromatic identity of Promenada Sibiu . From here, the senses of the viewer will reveal the constituent elements of the collection, in a playful and positive sartorial treasure hunt.
Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to define the boundaries of fashion where Haute Couture borders on sportswear and gender codes are demolished. IED offers a selection of clothes to tell the gaze of our young talents on the contemporary world. Words such as sustainability, oversize, craftsmanship, tradition, contrasts (black / white) are hidden among the folds, shapes and fabrics of the collection. Furthermore, IED wanted to support and promote a Romanian designer who has just graduated from the Milan campus – the winner is Visovan Anamaria Mihaela from West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Arts and Design.
Starting from the traditional dress, Marinela Djurdj finds in the embroidery and innovative materials a new expressive language capable of recounting the independence and redemption of women.
Finally, the chosen soundtrack comes from the creativity of the students of the sound design course in Rome.
Then, Andreea Pleşa presented the InBetween project, a project that wants to sound the alarm on the excessive consumerism that underlies the clothing industry, the collection thus becoming a spokesperson to draw attention to both material and physical abuses that it uses fast fashion.
The InBetween project aims to raise awareness about the excessive consumerism that is at the heart of the clothing industry, and the collection thus becomes a mouthpiece to draw attention to both the material and physical abuses of fast fashion. InBetween talks about the present and is rooted in several auto reflective and reevaluation processes experimented in the past few years. We talk about the revaluation of human potential at the expense of post-human society concepts.
The geometry of the collection is not aimed at current trends, emphasizing the impersonal nature of clothing. The color scheme is based on the industrial landscape with a touch of orange that means to bring out of anonymity the wearer and doubles as an signal of alarm about standardized style. In regards with tech-human-industry relationship, the collection takes a pro-human stand by using only natural fibers sourced locally.
From Centumvirilor, the Feeric “caravan” moved to the industrial setting of the Boromir factory, where in the geometric space on the top floor of the factory we will see a new collection signed by Bianca Popp, the longest-lived designer present at Feeric Fashion Week.
OUT OF THE BOX, is a collection about the emotions that grow inside us when ignored, up to the point of bursting out and controlling us. It us a collection of evening dresses so extravagant that they become characters, made of noisy taffeta, so that not even those with the eyes in their phones would not miss their entrance. Loss of function, the last dress in the show, was inspired by the multicolored spinning wheel that tells us that the computer is blocked.
The fashion shows ended with the most awaited event of the fashion week in Sibiu, the Feeric Gala. For the first time since its establishment, the Gala did not take place in the Small Square but in the courtyard of the Evangelical Church in Huet Square. Was a gala full of pomp and surprises, with quality music and seven fashion shows that are more and more spectacular. As every year, the host of the gala was the TV star Cosmina Păsărin.
The Gala started with the last collection showcased by Atelier Luz.
“The Carnivale by Chotronette” collection is intended exclusively for special women who express their personality through unique combinations and strong colors. Seemingly discordant notes are combined in a hallucinatory mix. The sources of inspiration for this collection were Frida Kahlo, Art Nouveau and punk music. We have explored the aesthetics of kitsch, which for us is an ineffable source of inspiration and the basic idea from which we start is the power of colors to instill magic and joy in the lives of spectators. We have appeared in Vogue UK, Vogues Italia, Conde Nast Brides, on the cover of Rock’n’Roll Magazine and held fashion shows on cruise ships New York and Sydney taken on Fashion TV. “
Casi Couture created the Own The Moment collection for the woman proud of her sexuality, who loves luxury, attention, and to draw all eyes on her, to remain an unforgettable memory in the eyes of viewers.
The transparent tulle hand-accessorized in hundreds of hours of work with extremely precious elements, transposes the inner brilliance of the invincible woman to the outside, the fragility of the feathers show us at the same time how fragile a strong woman can be, while the pearls remind us about the elegance and the refinement of the feminine beauty.
Dear Spacegirl – RTW 2023 Sandra Chira translates into clothing language a fragment from the designer’s childhood. “After skiing, at the end of spring, I used to pick crocus flowers …”. In the winter of this year, the mountain landscape followed the same delicate aesthetic, but it had more plastic bags and snowy packaging than flowers. The project has the role of a self-portrait – subtly incorporating in some technical details specific to the
retro ski suit, brought in a feminine context of warm and cold whites, shades of pink, blue and colored grays. The graphic elements speculated in prints and textile structures are the spring flowers whose root grows in plastic bags.
Before presenting the collection, designers Aida Lorena and Claudia would like to thank the organizers of the Feeric festival for all the support they have shown in the last four years and for all the wonderful challenges they have encountered since then. The “New” 2022 collection tells the story of the spiritual alphabet of numbers from zero to nine with the help of colors and elements inspired by sacred geometry. Numbers have been and will remain consciousness and the primary and infinite source of inspiration from the beginning of time. Their story begins in a vacuum and contains all the stages of the creation of the universe, matter, and the human being. Too many words would load the imagination of the spectator, so the designer of the collection will leave an open door to the world of fantasy in which the creation creates itself through your pupil. And as if by magic, the story becomes ours!
The concept around Bianca Ripan’s collection is “the will to empower ” inspired from the woman’s strength to rebuild herself after a trauma or disappointment, reshaping herself stronger every time and more aware of her own strengths. This collection is more than a storyline, it’s a walk within the soul as nothing from what rebuilds herself has been randomly used or chosen, but rather as a form of expression, a metaphor. The materials used like: leather, latex, tulle are a gradual openness towards people and society. Also, the closure systems as well as the cutting design itself reveal the woman who now Knows what she has to do. This collection basically represents an extension of every woman’s personality ( either revealed or not) who managed to rebuild herself from ashes at least once!
It’s a manifest of well deserved empowerment!
“We are at the 14th edition of Feeric Fashion Week, the journey so far is incredible. We have managed to bring Sibiu to a place of great honor on the European fashion scene, to become the most important fashion week in Eastern Europe and one of the most creative in the world, but things are really starting now, with this edition of transition that prepares a new path. Thus, we will add continuity to the project by approaching an educational segment and by involving the local community. We continue to offer designers the most suitable launching pad through the connections created over these 14 years around the world and we will try to turn Feeric Fashion Week into a huge global fashion hub. And we are proud to create everything in Sibiu”, says Mitichi, president of Feeric Fashion Week: www.feeric.ro
