(Cute Like Mad)

Indie Designers showcased their Fall/Winter 2016 collections at the Nolcha Shows during NYFW, at Artbeam, featuring 11 runway shows.

  Cute Like Mad

The day kicked off with the “Ones To Watch” show at 11am spotlighting emerging brands including Vitruvius, Cute Like Mad, Planet Zero Motorsports, Fine Art of Fashion, and Minan Wong.

(Cute Like Mad)

Both Cute Like Mad and Minan Wong are sustainable brands that are manufactured in NYC and the U.S. respectively. Cute Like Mad’s vision is all about creating unique styles that empower the wearer with confidence. The brand’s signature style is relaxed luxury with an injection of rock ‘n’ roll — tough as nails and yet refined.

With Minan Wong, here is what she has to say about her Vision — “When I decided to make my own collection, I brought my personal journey into the details. When I design, I get a surge of energy. I love clothing that exudes a vibrant, youthful aura and can support the strength of a woman. The crisp touch of a brand new dress. The exhilarating breath you take before meeting your dream client. The strut that begins when you catch a reflection of yourself in the window, rocking that jacket. This is MINAN WONG.”

Vitruvius and Fine Art of Fashion showcased various works by fashion design students from Vancouver and Stevenson University in Maryland—giving them a platform to jump-start their careers. Vitruvius’ collection collection is named ‘I am Astronaut’, inspired by the news of the discovery of an earth-like planet. The students have used their imaginations to create garments inspired by aliens, planets, moons, and gravity.

With Fine Art of Fashion, the students designed their looks based on a variety of inspirations. The juniors were assigned a theme, Fine Art of Fashion, and each student chose an artist or art movement as a rich source of inspiration for their collection. Student, Benish Masih was inspired by the Qajar Art Movement, Erin Boggs used Street Art as inspiration, Venus Khosravani drew her inspiration from Michaelangelo, Sarantos Papavasilakis was inspired by Roy Lichtenstein, Tatsiana Toustik by Andy Warhol, and Tearsa Thomas’ inspiration came from Magical Realism.

The seniors each designed a five-piece collection based on their inspiration of choice. Amber Lloyd was inspired by the contorted shapes of the deciduous forest in the winter,Sherese Mclean designed a Japanese inspired collection, Janic’e Sethman was inspired by the emotion of growth and development, and Jasmine Ward’s inspiration came from spring time in Paris.

PlanetZero Motorsports, whom I recall from last Nolcha fashion season, was back this go-round, showcasing their vision, which is to blend high fashion with motorcycle apparel and to bend the line between safety and Haute Couture.  The mission of PZM is to assure that everyone who participates in motorsports, consistently wear the apparel needed to for maximum protection.

The 1pm solo show featured Chinese brand Soufflesong, designed by Fan Shumin and inspired by traditional Chinese Lolita fashion, mixing victorian styles with medieval times. Made up of three collections named Neverland, Girls’ Dream of Hana and Roses Valley, the brands vision is to create high-end fashion which represents vintage and Regal styles of Lolita Fashion.

The Neverland Collection stands for Gothic Lolita and traditional Chinese Lolita style. Made up of a dark nature and melancholy style with totems of crossbones, roses, thorns, angels, demons and more the Neverland collection contains a rock and roll influence. The Neverland collection is a fierce new style that is completely different from other Lolita collections. The Neverland collection successfully combines the foundational outfits of traditional Chinese Lolita style with Cheongsams.

The Girls’ dream of Hana collection is inspired by Sweet Lolita and Country Lolita. The Girls’ dream of Hana designs are pink, pastel blue, with light and soft color to augmented effect of aesthetics. The printings on bustles are fresh flowers and horticulture sceneries. Girls’ dream of Hana vision is to create Victorian styled fashion, Baroco style, and Rococo style. Girl’s Dream of Hana also presents more mature design concepts that use flowers as a main theme in heavy but soft colors combined with slender patterns.

Roses Valley vision is to create a high-end collection that represents vintage and royal styles of Lolita Fashion. This collection is affordable luxury derived from the dresses of French palaces, with inspiration derived from the Medieval Century of Europe, showing brilliant colors, mysterious, and religious belief in stories created on bustles. By stamping palace stories on the bustles and changing the leg-of mutton sleeves into puff sleeves, Roses Valley retrenches the intricacy of palace dresses into compendious Lolita dresses.

The 3pm solo show featured newcomer Rohitava Banerjee, a 19 year old New Yorker making his NYFW debut.  His work reflects his eternal love for history, drawing parallels between the past and today’s contemporary world.  The first collection wa sinspired by Greece: both it’s mythical past and the tumultuous economic times of the present.

The main runway show at 6pm, spotlighting three ready-to-wear brands: Intrepid byAO’C, Acid NYC, and All Comes From Nothing.  Intrepid by AO’C, designed by Aerin O’Connell, presented a hybrid of minimalism and luxury womenswear.

Acid NYC, made by husband & wife superhero design team Evelyn Luna and Scott Chester, introduced pieces using Thermaltech—a steel mesh inserted into their garments that absorbs heat to warm the body.

All Comes From Nothing, founded in 2014 by Eva Yiwei Xu, debuted an art-inspired contemporary collection.

The evening closed with a solo show by Di Yusupoff, a collection by Eastern European born Sabina Yusupova, who is now based in Brooklyn and designs contemporary ready-to-wear and formal gowns.

Official Sponsors of the Nolcha Shows included presenting sponsor Neogrid, along with Citi Bank, Ecru New York, DXV by American Standard, Thermaltech, Don Q Rum and Regulus.

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