Morose Glamour at Andy The-Anh

Let’s just say – thank god for blogs!

The shuffling of the cattle (me and the public) and disorganization at MFW hasn’t changed since last season. It’s amazing how such a large number of people like to consider themselves ultra important therefore are allowed to cut in line and act like the prima donnas that they are. Learning from previous seasons, I repeated “patience is a virtue” to myself as I inched along to my awaited seat.

Andy The-Anh’s show was delayed 30 mins due to crowd mismanagement, but everything was cool once we filtered into the showroom. I was seated near the backstage, up on the last row in the bleachers. MFW figured out that bleacher seats were prime and labeled an entire section as “VIP”. I was not VIP, I was just able to sneak into VIP (nobody really checks except the front row).

As mentioned previously, the show is to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Society. Now, I have nothing against raising funds for cancer, but I do have a problem in trying to associate a fashion show with morose poetry reading. My only question is…with all the money the Breast Cancer Foundation receives every year, wouldn’t you think they would’ve found a cure by now? Or are the money grubbing pharmaceuticals really just jerking our chains in saying there isn’t a cure for cancer? That’s for another blog….

Yes, poetry reading. Very depressing and morose poetry reading. That was a mood killer and it was the opening of the show. I half expected the entire show to be like that. I personally don’t think breast cancer needs more awareness than it already does, but moving on. Lots of “local celebrities” read their bit and finally the mood alleviated with the fashion show. Unfortunately, the show closed with an over the top dance fusion violinist named Dr. Draw. Ok, yes I get it, he’s very talented. He closed the show with a solo that went on five minutes too long. Music is definitely encouraged at fashion shows, but only when it’s nice, sweet and short. We don’t want a concert, just a punch.

The Collection

Andy’s specialty are evening dresses that are made of flowing chiffon and sheer fabric. He seems to fancy heavy bejeweled garments (a nightmare to clean, I can imagine), raspberry and strawberry pinks, choco browns and slate grays this season. I saw a little bit of Donna Karan-ish draping on some dresses and liked the sheer back numbers. His Spring dresses aren’t as impressive as his Caribbean blue dresses for Fall though. He had several ruffled pieces that had the crowd wowed and clapping, but I’m not a ruffle person, so I didn’t care for it. More varied pieces of body hugging dresses and variations of the pencil skirts followed, while the models sported chunky purple platform heels and fuschia eyelashes.

You can view more photos on Canoe.

Can the collection sell?

For Andy, I would say selling his Spring collection won’t be much of a problem, at least in the practical sense. There are a lot of pieces that are fit for the office as well as evening wear, giving a sexy edge without being trashy. He’s probably one of the best local designers who is able to bring a little bit of pizazz to an outfit without overdoing it. My only gripe is quality control, if he can just improve that, it would be worth spending the high price tags. I would be curious to know how he’s faring in sales…

Was it a success?

Frankly, as pretty as the collection was, it was certainly missing something. I would like to see Andy try new shapes, new fabrics and textures. Even if he’s comfortable in always creating tight tailored blazers and pencil skirts, it wouldn’t hurt for him to experiment a little more with volume. It’s great that he’s found his safe zone, but if he continues to always play it safe, he’ll have less room to wow in the future. Yes, I’m very hard to please eventhough the crowd last night gave him a standing ovation. I just believe he has the capabilities of doing much better.

Image credit: Jimmy Hamelin, Sensation Mode