on ten30s ukrainian girl show

I’m not going to lie to you – I’d been crazy excited about Alan of ten30 premiering his new Ukranian Girl collection. Also….fashion photographer I ain’t. Point being – after lunch time chats about the concept, seeing wee squatches of fabric and following the Ukrainian girl blog – to see all of ten30’s work fully realised in such a unique show was wonderful.
I have to say I was skeptical when I heard The Flying Duck was the venue of choice for the collection launch. It’s not really somewhere I associate with fashion (but fuck…what am I saying, neither is the Subby.) Point being…I was really curious as to see how it would play out. Thing is…it worked really well. The audience looked down on the dance floor that would become the stage for one of the most interesting shows I’ve seen in the last year.
The fashion show was more of a ballet than anything else – the models (all dancers) performing entirely on point to showcase the collection. It felt so natural everything coming together – the eastern European inspired designs, the ballet and the Russian doll inspired make up. Everything just made so much sense and had a nice flow to it. The over all show had an ethereal feel to it – Heather Leigh Murray providing this really powerful dark music to soundtrack the evening.The clothes themselves were amazing. Embroidery and print feature prominently throughout the collection. Lots of silk, lots of wool throughout….pretty sure the stand out piece for me was the black silk trousers with the embroidered detail at the bottom. The silk shift dresses were nice simplistic pieces that have a nice European feel to them – and something about the print and indeed the colour palette makes them the sort of pieces that can make the transition from spring wear to winter wear. Button detailing and peter pan collars added a nice sense of kitsch and a playful edge to the collection. The white and pastel trousers and jackets proved popular with a few people I spoke to (though not my favourites)..I find myself favouring the dark colours and prints…though the white dress with purple embroidered detail was pretty astounding and may lure me from the dark side yet.
Over all I was very impressed by the collection, and the concept of the show as a whole. To see all the different elements drawn together was brilliant. A few people seemed to have mixed feelings about the make-up and the music – but not a bad word about the collection. I love that the show seems to have got such a reaction from people – and rightly so.
FYI you can still vote for Alan at the Scottish Variety Awards here.
Also for nicer fancier pictorials you can check out Grant Alexander’s beautiful photography here.