SAMOA SINNET FASHION SHOW
Reflections of a non-fashion Journalist
I don’t do fashion – like never. My sisters do, but not me. Being naturally beautiful and stunning means I don’t need makeup….bahaha….but really, it’s for lack of beauty skills. I like nice clothes and I do make an attempt occasionally, but when it comes to fashion, I would much rather go the casual route. So when I pitched to cover the show for Coconet, I was not thinking straight, obviously I had been up all night with the 9 month old to put together logical thoughts. Also, as a side note, I specialize in environmental journalism, so I must not have been thinking straight AT ALL!
Anyhow, my sister Omega who lives in the Middle East, travels the world for fun & knows the difference between a mascara and a lip pencil and her beautiful friend Liana who is Tongan from Sydney, wearing Guess heels and enough gold to sink a ship joined me “on assignment” that night.
On my part, I had my hair done by Tanya who is a gorgeous fa’afafine who operates out of Ranaz Hair Studio and she did my makeup too, which made me look like a million bucks, if I should say so myself. I had a Calvin Klein dress I bought from Ross in Florida last year for USD$20.00. The dress, fit, thank goodness because everything else stopped fitting after the second baby. Selfish child.
We arrived at the venue – the newly opened Taumeasina Island Resort – a very flash international hotel at 6:30pm and sauntered in like the non-super models that we are. We took photos in front of a limo that was parked at the entrance (cause we can’t afford our own) and in front of the show backdrop and made our way to the pre-show cocktail. Feeling quite posh, by this point, we entered the cocktail venue and were offered water and soft drinks. We asked for wine and champagne alas it was not included in our VIP Gold Tickets… dammit… or any other ticket for that matter.
Anyhow, some context here, when we were told there would be food and drinks as part of our tickets (SAT$150.00) I mentally prepared myself for that much worth of food, because like all good Samoans – I revolve my life around that very fine line on an invitation that states: “Refreshments Included”. So, when I saw that the snack table consisted of pork, taro, sashimi and oka my heart just sank a little bit. I was wearing a white dress, and if one is to do justice to the eating of pork, one would be showered in pork bits by the end of it. Anyhow, we moved on and made peace with not eating or having any alcohol included in the show.
Upon entering the show itself, I was impressed by the setup and how it looked really professional. This is Samoa mind you, so expectations are always realistic, but this setup was particularly of international standards.
The show started with an unnecessarily long prayer and sermon, as you do for any event on this God fearing nation of ours. Followed by a Government speech, and another by the Director of the Show.
Formalities aside, the show began with a Samoan number by five half naked men.
Once the show started I could not keep my eyes off the models, both men and women were absolutely stunning, world class stunning. I loved that I knew every third model, they were either a daughter or son of a family friend, the owner of a coffee shop I go to, or my good friend Talaesea Ronneberg whose daughter Amalia is my daughter Aolagis best friend. I loved that, that we knew who was on the stage, and loved the fact that the designers were also people we knew.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a fashion line by my Aunty Faauiga Mulitalo of Uigas Fashion. Her line was traditionally inspired and focussed on clothes that could be worn to work on special events. It was also lovely seeing Pele, which featured works inspired by Frieda Paul, one of Samoas first fashion designers. By far my favourite designers of the night were Insider Samoa and Pele Creations. Theirs were a beautiful Samoan inspired works, that are based on elegance and charm. I loved how they experimented with different designs that came out quite stunning.
The rest of the designs were really good, I was impressed by the quality that we now have in Samoa. There were three student designers, which I thought was a very good touch so we can encourage the next generation of designers.
Of course I was disappointed not to see Plantation House, Mena and Pacific Jewell in the line-up, but hopefully next time.
Overall the show was an excellent start to an event that will hopefully be featured annually on our shores. Like all great initiatives, it’s good to start from somewhere and perfect from there. The fashion show gave the opportunity to young people to explore their modelling potential, walk the catwalk and experience a vastly different world from their day-job. The Show gave local designers who otherwise don’t have that platform to feature their wares. It brought together fashionistas both aspiring and established, social butterflies both natural and nurtured to a night of mingling and chatting about fashion. It was a lovely event that brought together singers, artists, designers, models and dancers.
In the next one however, I would much rather see a more diverse sized model cohort with some larger sized models, whose shape and physique reflect the people who buy the fashion exhibited.
Let’s not fall into the trap of skinny, tall and gaunt models but rather conform to the beauty of our own people, which is shapely, tall, short, largish and damned beautiful. Let’s see more afro, more local motifs, more tapa, more locally made products and things that are overall Samoan on that catwalk.
Let’s embrace our own culture, let’s smile on the catwalk dammit, we are the happy isles of Oceania – as Theroux so famously noted – we are not Milan or Paris. We are the humble, food loving and cheeky Samoans many an anthropology have fascinated over and many a travel writer have written about.
By: LAGIPOIVIA CHERELLE JACKSON
Photo Credit: Insider Samoan Fashion House, Lagipoivia Cherelle Jackson & Samoa Observer