DUT Fashion Show 2013

The DUT Annual Fashion Show is an event created and hosted by the Fashion and Textiles Department from Durban University of Technology. This prestigious event is created as a stage where the 3rd year students from the Fashion and Textiles Department get to showcase their first collections before they graduate and have to face the fashion industry at it's raw form. Industry insiders and the who's who of fashion are all invited to this event.
The DUT Fashion Show always looks into showcasing the best talent this institution has groomed. 2013 was no different if not tons better. The show happened over a period of 3 days from the 2nd of October to the 4th (I don't know if the organizers wanted to be in time with the global fashion month as it was happening while Joburg was having SAFashionWeek? Well that's a subject for another day)

For designers who are just emerging and are still to be recognized the 3rd year students are required to put their best foot forward and my! did they deliver.
To avoid sounding bias in any way I must say some designers were rather too predictable by following some of the already overdone trends but obviously you'll always have one of those creative sparks who leave everyone at awe and one of those sparks was the AMAZING Nqobile Mdletshe with her Ndebele inspired collection which tells a story of metamorphism of a Ndebele girl. Mdletshe's collection captured what I call African Couture. She was one of the designers who's collection was out of the box yet so 'home made'. And seemingly I was not the only one who had recognized Mdletshe's high form of artistry as she won the very first ever "Judges' Recognition Award in the history of the event. The show has only five categories and Mdletshe's praise-worthy collection created the sixth category. Will she be the first and last designer to win this award only time will tell and the future designers.

Other collections that struck my eye were ones from Nicola Foaden who's collection was all monochrome black yet she played around with a lot of textures from luxe leather, fur, to velvets. Benazeer Mulla was also a major sport also sending down her menswear models in all black. Mulla's aesthetic seems to lie on symbolism of Egypt. She had played around with a lot of layers for her symbolic-sport chic collection. All this saw her taking away the award for Most Innovative Range, further proving street style to be bigger than some of us may think.
This year's DUT Fashion Show proved to be a must attend typa event.

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