The second day of Dubai Fashion Week was an international affair, with two overseas names delivering outstanding shows.
From Adelaide came the Paolo Sebastian brand and its ethereal alien-like looks, while Parisian label Weinsanto brought its riotous chic to Dubai once again, presented by the governing body of the French fashion industry.
Paolo Sebastian
Paolo Sebastian creative director Paul Vasileff and his team arrived from Adelaide two days ahead of Sunday night's show. And what a show it was. Titled Stardust, the show opened with a model wrapped in a voluminous black cape before casting it off to reveal a second skin dress, so covered in crystals that she shimmered like an ethereal spirit.
“I kind of imagine the idea of this 'being' falling from the heavens and lighting up the Earth, bringing joy and hope and magic to the darkness,” Vasileff explained to the The National. “Then it was just imagining what she was doing, what she was thinking, feeling, wearing … and then thinking about the clients that want to wear these pieces and live their life in these pieces.”
The looks he created around a mysterious heavenly being are exquisite: light and ephemeral on one side, sculptural with densely beaded surfaces on the other. While Vasileff is known for his fairy-tale ability to conjure an otherworldliness with his designs, this particular collection came about in an unusual manner. “This was one of those crazy things where you know you have to come up with a collection, but have absolutely nothing,” he admits.
Sourcing all the fabrics from Italy, the team was used to colours with beautiful names such as lattementa, rosa alabastro and stelle. “I don't know why, but I heard polvere and stelle, and suddenly, it was polvere di stelle – which is a cool name for a collection. With my Italian background, I checked with my family and it means stardust.”
With the name secured, the collection quickly fell into place. The collection arrived as a sheer grey top that fell away into a train, over a skirt made from a lattice of beadwork, and a beige bodycon dress made in jacquard with golden fringing hanging from the sleeves and neckline to the floor. Another look was a slinky, backless dress of champagne beads, covered with a cloud of ostrich feathers, while another was a strapless, full skirted tulle gown sprinkled in the very stardust that started it all.
Paolo Sebastian is the first Australian brand to take part in Dubai Fashion Week. Vasileff expressed what it meant for him and his team. “I'm very proud to say that all of our pieces are handmade in our Adelaide atelier,” he said. “It's something that I'm most proud of, and I think for the team and I all being here today, little kids from Adelaide showcasing in Dubai Fashion Week, is just a real pinch me, humbling moment.”
Weinsanto
The French designer Victor Weinsanto returned to Dubai for his eighth season, bringing his irrepressible energy and joy once again. Opening to a soundtrack of shouting customers and crashing plates in a restaurant, the story he delivered was about an eatery where everything is going wrong but in the end everything turns out fine.
The story is translated into clothes such as his signature long corsetry, here in pin stripes and worn laced up over matching trousers for a dash of city rebellion, and body suits covered in a riot of colours. There was a side-fastening mini skirt, under a high-waisted bomber jacket and hoodie, followed by wide-shouldered jackets, cropped short to the ribs and worn with more micro skirting.
This season the young designer has also been named as a member of the Dubai Fashion Week Council, which helps curate the designers showing at the event. “I am so honoured and so proud because Dubai is where everyone can dream,” he explained. “There are so many things to do and create in terms of fashion and it is evolving in a fast, fast way, its totally crazy. I think the fashion scene is really becoming so strong here in Dubai and I feel really lucky to be part of the beginning.”
Now with other long-term names including Dima Ayad, Weinsanto will help shape the event moving forward, to establish a robust fashion industry in the UAE.
