Williamsburg Fashion Weekend followed on the heels of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2010 in New York. But other than similar timing, the two events were drastically different. Williamsburg Fashion Weekend could be likened to a beer kegger party at a frat house, while MBFW was more like a Metropolitan Opera gala at Lincoln Center (which, by the way, is where Fashion Week will be hoisting its tents in September, when the event relocates from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park).
But I digress. Back to Williamsburg Fashion Weekend, which was held Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 20-21, in Glasslands, a bar in the warehouse district of Brooklyn, on Kent Avenue near Second Street. I attended the first segment of the second night, which kicked off with a performance art piece by Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty (described in the event’s liner notes as a “cult of motivational speech persuasion”). I was more interested in the main rapper’s and his dancers’ primary colored, stretch knit body suits and hoodies, emboldened with geometric shaped appliqués in contrasting colors than the actual rap and dance number.
All acts and fashion shows were staged on a raised platform in the far right corner of the bar. The place was packed and people crowded around the stage to shoot photos and video. One person in the crowd resembled Lady Gaga, garbed in white lace with matching white lace crown and veil. Since it’s the 80s revival and leotard and legwarmers made popular by movies like “Flashdance” and “Fame” are back on runways again, Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty may have something going.
That also could be said for Tar and Feather, the second act Sunday night. I’d seen their spring 2010 line last September so was excited to see their fall collection. The design duo titled their show “Walk of Shame”, with the liner notes explaining: “think of having to borrow your fling’s clothes to get outside and be halfway presentable.” It featured unisex garments, some with wine stains and others with cigarette burns. The models were disheveled, but the clothes looked wearable and comfortable. I liked a white Roman toga dress (although it looked more appropriate for spring/summer); white long underwear pants tucked into gladiator high-heeled sandals; and some of the long sleeve, button front, cotton shirts, worn untucked. More fashionable and fun were the white hip-length overshirts/tunics worn by the designers, who came out onstage at their show’s end.
Also onstage that night, but showing his line the night before, was Williamsburg Fashion Weekend organizer Arthur Arbit, sporting a gold shirt with silky bow tie and tan, slim-cut suit with pants tucked into midcalf high leather boots. Arbit said the 12 designers showcased in the event shared his “passion for unwavering, personal, take-no-prisoners aesthetic vision.” Arbit’s line, King Gurvy, is self-described as “clothing meets art experimentation.” That also could be said for his Williamsburg Fashion Weekend. In its seventh season, his experiment may not have the glitz and glamour of New York’s fashion week, but those in attendance sure seemed to enjoy the show.
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