Set in Transylvania’s historic Sibiu district, it is difficult to imagine a more scenic location than the one provided by Romania’s Feeric Fashion Week. Feeric, an acronym meaning “Fashion as Enhancive Experience for Romanian and International Creators,” has emerged in recent years as a leader in Eastern European fashion; drawing attendees from across the continent for its manifold designers and beautiful landscapes.
Ramelle
After every Feeric Fashion Week, Schön! takes the time to recount highlights from the week and this year is no different. With foregrounding sustainability as the week’s main theme, Feeric presented a range of designers across sundry locales resulting in an entertaining and awe-inspiring week.
Having shown at both Paris and New York in the past, Bianca Popp has become a leading voice in the Feeric fashion world for almost a decade — in fact, last year, the fashion week’s F33ric platform offered among its prizes a mentorship opportunity within her studio. This year, she showed her new collection, setting the display among the hobby planes at Magura Airport in Cisnadie – a perfect tie-in with the collection’s themes of freedom and casualness.
She would later show her first-ever menswear collection, which diverged heavily from her earlier offerings – broad, oversized pieces incorporating elements of both her previous work and contemporary streetwear, showcasing her range as a designer.
Silvia Serban’s collection, entitled “DoubleYou,” was an ode to the modern woman wherever she may be found. Incorporating styles from cultural dress around the world, “DoubleYou” used layers of textural contrast to create complex silhouettes — tying all of its offerings together with a self-described theme of “[accepting] others as they are.”
Sustainability played a factor in Serban’s collection as well; several pieces produced zero material losses, and extra fabric from previous projects was either incorporated into the new collection or integrated into the show’s decoration.
Ramelle, the brand created and helmed by designer Ramona Mihaela, offered a change of pace this season, blending fashion and architecture to create a surreal, futuristic collection. Designs were minimalist yet involved; layering spawned simple geometric forms then tied together with polygonal accents, creating a truly otherworldly feeling that spanned across the breadth of the collection.
Set at the Brukenthal Summer Palace in Avrig, the surrounding greenery and bubbling waters beneath the models’ feet set the mood for Argentinian designer Eduardo Ocantos’s lively and colour-rich collection.
Ocantos is one of the longest-running designers at Feeric, and this year saw a continuation of his trademark vibrancy. Drawing from his South American background, Ocantos found inspiration in local Argentinian painting techniques, inspiring him to use sustainably-sourced llama wool dyed with traditional, natural colours, later mixing these wools with silk. The result pops, making for an intriguing entry into Feeric’s diverse lineup.
Istituto Europeo di Design held a group show centred on the theme of sustainability, aptly entitled “Time is Now.” The culmination of over a year’s worth of sustainability efforts, “Time is Now” emphasised that, while sustainability may currently be a buzz word in the fashion industry, it is important to consider environmental efforts as both an urgent issue and a long term project.
To encourage this thinking, IED invited students to collaborate with Italian brands already producing in an eco-friendly way, such as Ecoalf, Thermore, Isko, Texmoda and others. These brands then provided the designers with material, fabric and expertise for their capsule collections, which were on display at Feeric.
The week concluded with Gala Feeric, heralded as “the most important event of the festival.” On display were collections from Aida Lorena, Casi Couture, Irina Akkaya and Chaotic, providing the perfect closure for a wonderful week.
Discover more about Feeric Fashion Week here.
words. Braden Bjella
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