Fashion with flair and heart
BelezaX showcases student talents and creativity
Written By Ema Poposka
Cristiana Papadopoulos with her designs.
Eleven student-designers showcased their new creations at the RCHK BelezaX fashion show that took place on January 18. RCHK Truth was there to experience the atmosphere and talk to Maisha Maryam, Head of Communications and Cristiana Papadopoulos, student designer and Deputy of Designers.
The show started with a welcoming speech by a representative from the Arts for the Disabled Association of Hong Kong, highlighting that what makes Beleza different from other school fashion shows is their charity donation. Every year all the proceeds from the show go to support a cause. This year the team “decided to honour the fact that art [should be] accessible to everyone,” points out Maisha. ADAHK was selected because of their work with people with both physical and mental disabilities, helping them to create their art and display it. “We wanted to make sure that everyone has access to art because it is so intrinsic to our lives and our culture,” explains Maisha.
The show itself was an absolutely spectacular runway of high fashion. The designs varied from those taking inspiration in various historical periods to some highly futuristic looks. The collections of Jasmine Wong and Alvin Ho brought the feeling of 18th-century French gowns. Alvin Ho’s heavy-fabric, elaborate dresses were accompanied with luxurious gold head ornaments, in a very effective merging of Western and Eastern extravaganza. Jasmine Wong’s feminine creations turned the French 18th century into a modern everyday look with short skirts and short pants. Somewhat different than her other designs, but very remarkable was the last dress in Wong’s collection, a white gown with handwritten Chinese characters, which is rumoured to be a letter to her mother.
Julie Choi presented a unique all-male collection inspired by traditional Korean attire with lengthy overgarments in different colours. Wincy Cheng and Tiffene Larose presented darker, more goth-like, black and burgundy creations.
Jasmine Somaya and Cristiana Papadopoulos presented very feminine creations. Jasmine’s designs were monochromatic black or white, while pastel pink dominated Cristiana’s collection. “The inspiration for my dresses comes from Dior’s recent fashion show, which was nature-themed, very big and extravagant, but I also wanted something more flowy, petite, and pretty, as well,” says Cristiana, explaining her inspiration.
Grace Ng was the only designer that presented two very different collections. The first one had a Spanish vibe using pastel colours, and the second one featured black and white clothes for a working woman. Gigi Genivia introduced her modern and youthful jeans and red fabric collection with a very interesting video of the models walking the streets of Hong Kong. Samantha Tsui’s collection was also modern and colourful, with her signature butterfly look being presented in a different palette. Jasmine Yu combined black, white and red casual look with transparent fabric.
The event was not only a showcase of the students’ creativity in design, but also in music and dance. RCHK’s well-known band, Funk Division, opened the show while Elisa, Sunwoo and Roshita performed a very energetic dance that introduced the sport’s collection of Catch Me. Carmen and Sabrina performed a duet concluding the Womany Dress professional collection. Abigail Sailsbury sang ‘Let It Go’ by James Bay and Kenzuo wowed the audience with his expressive dance moves. Other sponsored collections presented by RCHK models were Levi’s, Luxe Tuxedo, Holy Street and Vans.
Beleza is a completely student-run event. Students can participate in many different roles, not only as designers and models. Although, fashion is still a ‘male dominated’ profession with men outnumbering women in leadership positions, Beleza is changing this with predominantly-female organizing and designer teams. “Doing the behind-the-scenes of the show as well as being in the show walking with my collection was really fun,” points out Cristiana.
Signing up for this year’s show started in 2019, and designers were expected to submit a bunch of designs that cater for different body shapes and genders, but also excel in quality. There are many reasons to keep your eyes open for the next call and join this event next year. The event “[builds] up a legacy of showcasing amazing, fantastic designs from students every single year, and the quality of designs each year gets better and better,” says Maisha proudly. Additionally, as a participant, not only does one get the opportunity to develop [one’s] own designs, but also learn other skills. “I learned that I should manage my time better, because I was awake until 3 am this past week which was not the best of ideas,” confides Cristiana. Finally, it is “just a great event where people come to socialize, have fun, obviously appreciate the institutions of art, design and fashion, and above all, have a great time,” ends Maisha.
Beleza is a fashion show “focused on harnessing the best of student creativity through the artistic and experimental side of fashion” explains Maisha. If you are interested in fashion you can also check out the other RCHK fashion show happening in May, Trashion, with a focus on sustainability and recycling.