If kaftans are your thing, then last weekend Casablanca was the place to be. Maroc Premium magazine hosted the 3rd annual Mode Made in Morocco and the spotlight was eight designers whose work blended tradition and modern fashion.
According to Michele Desmottes, the fashion show's director, "Moroccan designers are getting more and more orders from abroad as people recognise the exceptional creativity in Morocco."
Her view is shared by the Parisian couturier Dominique Sirop, the show's guest of honour. "For three years, we've been seeing a real emergence of Moroccan designers, worthy of what is happening in other countries," he said. "They prove that Morocco is not just the sun, tajine and the kaftan."
A Mademoiselle Lucien design.Designers such as Jamal Daoudi and Nabil Dahani still draw inspiration from Morocco, but as they work in Paris, their creations seem more audacious, more modern, lighter, and indeed more European.
Hassan Tanner took home the Jean-Louis Scherrer prize for his dresses that were light and closely cut to the body -- perhaps the most radical designs to be seen at the weekend's show.
Creations by Marrakesh-based Frederique Birkemeyer were equally feminine, rich in embroidery and inlay.
One wonders what Yves Saint Laurent would have thought. The legendary French designer, who died in Paris in June aged 71, kept a second home in Marrakech, and many of his best creations took inspiration from the kaftan.
Menswear got a look-in at this year's Mode Made in Morocco as well, with Tangiers native Salima Salima Abdel-Wahab sending out two highly original outfits light years from that classic desert robe, the djellaba.
Designs from previous years"It is time to wake up and to encourage individual talent," Desmottes said, as Sirop underlined the role that fashion can play "in the economic development of the country."
Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
No comments:
Post a Comment