Today starts
FASHION WEEK! YAY! It just so happen to coincide with the fall fashion season. I wish I could say I planned it this way, but I have to point to divine inspiration (or maybe an intuitive sense of fashion timing? nah...) So this week fashion designers from all over CEE are going to be feature by country. I plan on posting at least 5 designers per country because designers in CEE tend to use the internet to market their clothing. This may be because the internet's ascent coincided with the renewed fashion scene, which no longer had to stay underground. (Pictures after the jump!)
Hungarian fashion designers are the focus today. It took a wee bit of browsing, but a
press release sent me in the right direction: WAMP.
WAMP is a Budapest based design organization and they have quite the directory of designers, fashion and otherwise. Had I chosen Hungary for last week's post, I would've needed this website. Three Hungarian women run the organization and one of them is an active designer under the name
Crix. Her designs for accessories incorporate traditional Hungarian costume elements as well as the tradition of Hungarian embroidery. Her fashion lines have less relevance to peasant dress, but they're far more tame than some of the designers I came across on the WAMP site. I rather enjoy conceptual fashion because it brings attention to the architecture and concept of clothes. There is less time spent saying, "Oh, I'd love that" but more time spent saying, "I never though to wear fake fur on my glasses".
The first designer is
Daria Kostenko. Getting the pictures of these outfits was a hassle because the website is in Flash. Sigh. I really liked her collections. The ribbon dress is rather insane, but I loved it since it reminded me of a raincoat someone designed for a fashion show I was in (his collection was very post-apocalyptic). It's got this garbage chic vibe while also being luxurious. The piece to the right is part of a great collection that uses all the symbols from playing cards in various pattern combinations. They're chic instead of kitschy, which is hard to do with such a recognizable form.
The next designer is
Annamária Csorba. Her label,
Mío Design, is much more ready to wear than conceptual, though she has a few of those pieces. Her website seems to suggest that she is a more recent designer since she has fewer collections to view. The one that caught my eye was this ensemble. If you navigate the "textilek"section, you will find closer views of the material. It reminds me of rag rugs and it's a rag rug shawl! Too cool! Her floral pattern ready to wear ensembles didn't really do it for me, but her sketches and "inspiration board" were interesting. One skirt had blue flower curtains with a chihuahua peeking out, which is such a funky fresh idea. Cheeky and funny.
The next designer is
Valéria Fazekas. She is most famous for her amazing felt hats. If you visit her
website, you will see them in the flash slide show (click "Limited"). Some are very geometric, others are more bulbous and rotund, and some are very fashionable vintage styles. I very much like the felt hats. The rest are too frilly for my tastes. Check out her selection!
The next designer is
Náray Tamás. His lines are primarily cocktail dresses, which means he's not in the business of conceptual fashion. The dresses have a young, fresh vibe, but some of the materials seem less expensive. The dress (2008) to the right was one I liked and would probably wear, but I didn't feel inspired by his work. He predominantly used an orangeish-red and green in his Sp/Su 2009 collection, an obvious homage to Hungary, and some pieces were lovely, but it's nothing that makes your jaw drop. I do think, however, that his collections have progressed nicely and shown more skill in construction and minor detail work.
The last designer to be highlighted is
László Bea. I saw the clothes
here on WAMP and loved the overall kookiness of the animal masks. His
blog is written in Hungarian, so don't go looking for anything other than photos. He styles his own clothes as well, which is worth noting, and has a generally appealing collection. I liked most of the pieces I saw.
There are lots of other interesting designers in Hungary that I liked, but here's a good cross-section of what I found. Visit the WAMP website (beginning of the post) and this website called
Cinnia Édua. You can shop for designer duds there or simply browse the selection of the various designers. It's worth a look!
