Hong Kong Fashion Week Kicks Off Spring/Summer 2011
The temperature outside was hot and humid—think 91 degrees with 70 percent humidty—as Hong Kong Fashion Week kicked off July 5 with four days of fashion and business.
Ika, an Indonesian designer based in Hong Kong, brought a cooling trend to the show with her as-always incredible collection of fashions that, for Spring/Summer 2011, is taking its inspiration from the oceans of the world.
The perapatetic designer and her husband, Jay Bouton, were in Paris three months ago when UNESCO was holding a conference on the oceans of the world. And considering what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the BP oil spill, Ika thought it was timely to incorporate the ocean into her collection. "We have to make sure in Asia that we are concerned about the ocean," said the designer, who is always one of the principal figures on the Hong Kong catwalk.
The petite designer broke her "Time of the Tides" theme into five waterways: Ujung Kulon, the Galapagos Islands, Isimangaliso, El Vizcaino and Sian Ka'an. Each watery division had its own color scheme and designs. Ika is known for incorporating different fabrics and colors into each dress or piece that turns into a cloth canvas for her creativity. Yellow dresses were swirled with purple strretches of fabric. Blue and green tones swam with pinks and corals.
Ika employed oodles of ruffles that cascaded down the fronts of dresses or bounced in layers at hemlines. The ruffles represened the various wavy patterns found in the clams and fish that dwell in the ocean.
To the left, Bijan Kiannahe, Ika's U.S. distributor based in Los Angeles, with Ika to the right of him.
