Japan Fashion Week in NY

Japan Fashion Week's Spring 2009 season of collections commences on Sept. 1, but for those New York residents unable to make the journey to Tokyo, Japan Fashion Week (JFW) organized a showcase of some of Japan's most promising emerging designers—Ato, Mikio Sakabe, Somarta, Ylang-Ylang, G.V.G.V., Mercibeaucoup and Ne-Net—at the newly opened Japanese-owned boutique Aloha Rag on Tuesday, Aug. 19, in New York.

The designs on view offered a distinct sampling of the range of styles that will be present at Japan Fashion Week. From the humor and whimsy of Ne-Net (a printed sweatshirt dress had a hood that resembled bunny ears) to the bold, almost cartoonish work of Mercibeaucoup, to the couture finishing of Somarta modern elegance of Ato, JFW hoped that with the impressive selection they would bolster the visibility of Japanese fashion design in the U.S., and perhaps encourage more foreign press and buyers to travel to Tokyo for the collections in the future. Last season, JFW reported a 25 percent increase in the number of foreign media in attendance.

Another case in point of the increased awareness of emerging Japanese talent: Alongside the JFW mannequins and models at Aloha Rag, the store's own rack of pieces by Ylang-Ylang were on sale, an indication of the increasing availability of some of these Japanese designers stateside.

South Africa's spotlighted at Cape Town catwalks

From avant-garde couture to wispy romantic ready-to-wear, South Africa's growing viability as a new fashion frontier was paraded on the ramps at Cape Town's Fashion Week this weekend.

Veteran South African designers launched their spring/summer 2008 collection alongside young unknowns as the country aims to provide a springboard for the growing array of fashion talent at the tip of Africa.

Bursting with creativity, South African designers are working to show their skills can compete worldwide.

Themba Mngomezulu -- the designer of South African label Darkie -- first became interested in fashion when he helped his mother sell secondhand clothes.

"We know what we want and who we are," Mngomezulu said after showing his latest collection, youthful and urban in seasonal brights peppered with slogans and the ever present image of the Afro-comb to the soulful sounds of Ray Charles and Nina Simone.

"We have got the vision in this country. Internationally people have been using Africa as an inspiration for years. It is time for African designers to benefit," says Evan Schiff, spokesman of Africa Fashion International, which runs the event.

"Traditionally the only stories coming out of Africa are of war, famine and despots. We are trying to put something else out there. There are lots of beautiful things coming out of here," he told AFP.

Getting designs to the world was made easier in a major coup for South African fashion recently, as designers from the continent's economic powerhouse were last year granted a permanent slot at Paris Fashion Week.

While four designers showed their spring/summer collections there last year, local household name Gavin Rajah became the only South African designer invited by France's prestigious Federation Francaise de la Couture to showcase his collections at the Paris Fashion Week.

Rajah's 2009 couture collection displayed in Cape Town combined the rhythmic kick of the tango, samba and bossanova with a Latin America inspired range in opulent sicilliene silks, tulle and chantilly lace and meticulous embroidery.

Full lacy skirts, beaded bustiers and romantic Spanish-inspired silk capes took the enraptured audience from Cuba to Argentina and Rio de Janeiro, from where old world architecture alongside modern asymmetry inspired Rajah.

He drew parallels between the radiant and diverse people of South Africa and South America.

Daring designer David Tlale was also true to dramatic form at the finale where models dazzled in red-sequined hands, lips and feet while draped in shimmering black designs.

Rajah, who founded Cape Town's fashion week, said South Africans, so long cut off internationally as a pariah under the former apartheid regime, had "learned to be a lot more innovative. We look at what we have and make do".

However launching spring/summer ranges as trend-setting Europe enters winter, he feels designers are echoing collections on international catwalks instead of putting their own twist on available fabrics and trends.

"The designers are following the trends far too late," he told AFP, adding local designers still had to fight the instinct of going overtly Afro-chic as they struggled to find their identity.

"As fashionable as traditional clothing may be it is not fashion. It has to translate into something that has commercial appeal," said Rajah, who has dressed Beyonce, Tyra Banks and Nelson Mandela.

While an economic crunch has seen thousands of job losses in South Africa's textile industry and a general tightening of belts, Schiff says a growing black middle class and the super-wealthy in the country meant there was still a market for exclusive design.

"There are people with money and they do want to look good."

Madonna dressing to her beat!

No matter what your taste, there's probably a Madonna for you.

The pop star, who is turning 50 Saturday, is one of fashion's great chameleons. She's been a punk princess and lady of the manor. She has channeled Marilyn Monroe, Eva Peron and a geisha.

The whole underwear-as-outerwear trend? That came from Madonna. Not to mention those '80s blondes who proudly showed their roots while wearing lace gloves and lots of chains. And would Kabbalah and yoga as lifestyle trends be where they are today without her?

"She's become an adjective. Friends will go shopping with each other and say, `It's so Madonna.' That's what you want in fashion," says stylist and TV commentator Robert Verdi.

Lately Madonna has mostly been spotted in workout gear, perhaps in preparation for her "Sticky & Sweet" world tour that will be partially outfitted by Givenchy. Designer Riccardo Tisci has worked up two outfits: a frock coat in black stretch satin and a long cape worn over a black dress embellished with colored ribbons — for a Gypsy-inspired outfit.

It's hard to say if the Gypsy look will start another trend. The cone-front corset Jean Paul Gaultier created for her Blond Ambition tour in 1990 didn't fully catch on with the masses.

But whether her looks are influential or merely memorable, Madonna always finds a way to connect with people and she never wears a look long enough for it to become stale, observes Verdi. If the disco revival look of her "Hung Up" era in 2005 clicked with him, her cowgirl-hat days in 2000 spoke to someone else.

"I don't love all her looks but can appreciate them all," he says. "She's always operated from a position that's a good hybrid of contemporary pop culture — the psyche of the nation — but also an artistic slant and art always pushes the envelope."