Designer Antonio Ortega’s SS 2017 Collection was inspired by the notions of beauty and martyrdom. The visual aesthetic was a paradoxical blend of crucified Christ and the elegance of the 1930s.
The scene opens on a clerical circus where pain and suffering hide behind the luminosity of beauty and creation. The normality of revealing pain through a collection both created and distorted by the striking blows of a hand was quite tantalizing.
Yet, through the morbidity and horror of a bloody, bruised body, the viewer glimpses a dynamic dance emerge from colorful and textured patterns. A dance where silk crepe, cotton, chiffon, silk, and taffeta are highlighted by the embroidery, defining Ortega’s trademark.
The collection exposes two worlds seemingly in contrast, through cuts, flowing lines, and stained-glass beadwork. Lashes of a whip, either planned and carefully premeditated or completely spontaneous and unexpected, expose traces of the designer’s creations, whims, and patterns.
With his passion for couture, craftsmanship, and creation, Antonio Ortega’s style embodies diversity and elegance, enabling a woman to look and feel her best.
The martyr of beauty – or beauty of the martyr?
Butterfly of paradise
At the Westin Hotel in Paris, designer Ziad Nakad presents his inventiveness of a universal paradise where butterflies and flowers are the pivotal emblems of inspiration.
Each silhouette evokes a radiant bouquet of summer flowers. The poignancy and delicacy of butterfly structures are depicted in three-dimensional forms and in sophisticated embroidery insertions. With a predominant color range of salmon pink, soft blue, dazzling gray, and calm amber.
Cuts wide and narrow, short and long, or even asymmetrical, give a touch of audacity.
The show culminates with an ethereal bride in the magnificent paradise, appearing in an astonishing gown embroidered with butterflies.
Ziad Nakad’s creative mix of materials and colors reflects timeless femininity and the beauty of a woman’s personality.