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We are also seeking individuals with other talents - particularly, those who have an interest in fashion but currently lack fashion experience.  Projects in this category include

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The committment level required from volunteers and interns are open-ended, ranging from as little as one-half hour every week to forty-plus hours per week (for those with more available time). 
The focus of projects range from the local to the global.  Volunteer and internship opportunities can be conducted еither romotely (from the community you live in/via phone or internet) or from our Fairfield County Connecticut location. 

TITLE: Bringing them to the edge of their seats at Indie Fashion Week F/W '09
DATE: November 8th, 2008
SOURCE: New England Fashion+Design Association 

This evenings Indie Fashion Week F/W ‘09 offered a brilliant collage of new talents, a collage made all the more appealing by the dynamic tensions and contrasts between their collections.

Eco-fashion designer Erika Askin opened with a two-part collection.  The first part consisted of designs constructed from recycled materials and second from eco-fabrics. The first part of Mrs. Askin’s show ably suggested that fashion saves the world by saving fashion.  Each of her unique pieces shines with a lovely playfulness, a youthfulness naturally energized by the past they contain and are constructed from.  To be clear, Erika Askin’s work is neither a simple remaking of clothing or a jumping on the bandwagon of green fashion, but her work is instead filled with an artful soulful quality and a sense of newness that comes directly from this designer’s vivid and energetic imagination.  With the second part of her show, Ms. Askin presented pieces which utilized new eco-fabrics to reclaim a romantic and pastoral past, a feminine image born from a modern remaking of latter German romanticism.  Her she presented a wonderful series of looks at once natural and wholesome, playfully seductive and expressive of love and mystery.

In the grandest creations of nature, the males of a species are stamped with colors so brilliant and expressively beautiful that females of the species cannot resist.  With its explosion of the dominant monochromatic palette and ideal of non-expressiveness which characterizes too much of menswear, the second collection of the evening from fashion designer Leslie Lewis’ Stailista collection brings this deliciously irresistible truth of nature to wearers of his menswear collection.   Mr. Lewis shows us that color is manly. Color is attractive. Color is desire.  This sumptuous collection of menswear and womenswear reaches for and achieves the highest of standards satisfying all that one would desire in a true luxury and premium collection.  His keen eye for detail makes each garment in this collection an adventure, whether viewed at a distance or up-close traveling from detail to detail.  This eye for detail extends to encompass a masterful blending of luxurious and unexpected fabrics and textures, velvets, taffetas, silks, shantung and brocades.  With his Stailista, color is transfigured and becomes the essence of luxury and couture style.   Mr. Lewis collection is unequivocally for those understand the true value of luxury and quality, for those who understand the transforming value Stailista can bring to their lives and, of course, for those looking for a can’t miss winning good-time winning rightly deserved attention and more.

The third collection of the evening came from Daniela Vlad. Ms. Vlad’s taste is for bold primary colors and grand scale floral prints. This combination is balanced beautifully by the clean lines and logical patterns which imbue her designs with an internal strength.  Ms. Vlad’s couture collection brings sensuality into the realm of formalwear without, and this is magic, destroying the sense of elegance that formalwear requires if it is to succeed. With thoughtful and well-constructed pairings such as her wedding of delicately embracing corsets with formal multi-layer floor length flowing skirts, Ms. Vlad’s collection executes this pleasing invasion of the formal with the sensual.   With her interlocking of silk and lace, her use of ruffles to crown and frame miniature boleros, with her Venetian pleating wrapped with scarves and accessorized with bouquets sculpted from fabric, and with feathers and pearl chokers Ms. Vlad’s brings the delightfully devilish spirit of Mullin Rouge to rescue the world of formalwear and New York Met Galas from boredom: The mood now is flirtatious. And now an unspoken drama takes center stage. She is looking to provoke gossip and create a splash in her life. She will have a story to tell.   Ms. Daniela Vlad’s collection expresses this world of dreams, a world which once opened reveal a land of infinite possibility.  Vlad Couture offers its wearer an inner-power that shines openly, a power born of the knowledge that through couture fashion she is already living her dreams. 

In an appropriate finish to the New England Fashion+Design Association sponsored Indie Fashion Week, the evening concluded with a lowering of lights and the appearance of a dress design (voluminous, translucent, glowing and constructed with interior design textiles supplied by KnollTextiles) was created not by a fashion designer, but by the team of architects Michelle Newman, Antoaneta Fedeles and Peter Newman from the firm Newman Architects. 

As with Indie Fashion Week’s opening evening -which featured Viennese fashion designer Eva Poleschinski, as well as fashion designer Jeph Russo, Ebony LaFrazier and Vanessa Ortiz - the masterful and dynamic range of Parisian Coiffure Patrick Juanno was on full display in his ability to accent the uniqueness of each fashion designer’s collection and the models who walked the Indie Fashion Week runways.  His devotion to his craft (always on display to those lucky determined few who find the rare opening in his schedule at Rick Garcia Salon in Westport CT) created a high energy behind the scenes which visibly inspired all participants. 

In a return performance, although this time as the evening’s makeup artist director Sebastian Acosta created flawless looks and provocative accents that enhanced and enriched the evening’s collections. With his natural sensibility and artistic intuition Sebastian Acosta (who can be contacted through the New England Fashion+Design Association) created looks of editorial quality.  This was particular evident in his work with the fresh faces and spirited performances of the young models Paula Dofat has brought together with The Modeling club of the 21st century CLC/Harding H.S. Resource Center/RTCC-YMCA that she leads.

Special thanks to Norwalk-treasures Christine Ducker, Mike Spizzirri and The Flow of Art Gallery for their support of Indie Fashion Week.

About Us:
 
The New England Fashion+Design Association. Educating & supporting the next generation of style innovators & leaders. NEFDA aims to transform the region into a trend-setting destination where emerging & independent designers, fashion entrepreneurs & promoters find a vital & accessible stage for what's next in fashion & home design. Visit NEF+DA online to learn more about its exciting schedule of fashion+design professional workshops in both the Norwalk and Hartford CT area.  www.worldfashioncouncil.org  203-345-0030

Hauterfly, The Fairfield County Fashion Insider is a quarterly publication produced by Canaiden Publications and The New England Fashion+Design Association.  For subscription or advertising information:  www.hauterflymagazine.com