Honolulu Fashion Week unveiled
Honolulu Fashion Week, a mega fashion convergence between Honolulu Magazine and Japan Fashion Week, was announced Friday night at the Pagoda Hotel, with representatives in fashion, media and government in attendance.
The centerpiece of the two-day event — scheduled for Nov. 7-8, 2014 — will be a pop-up shop featuring international fashion designers and both established and up-and-coming fashion designers and artists in Hawaii. Designers Maison Kitsune from Paris, Saturdays Surf NYC, in New York, Corto Moltedo of Milan, and Mr. Gentleman from Tokyo will collaborate with local designers Heather Brown, Kaypee Soh and Sig Zane.
At Friday’s event, after Honolulu Magazine Publisher Alyson Helwagen announced the partnership, Akiko Shinoda, Director of International Affairs for Japan Fashion Week, described each capsule collection, along with the branding, food presentations, installation and architecture that are planned.
“One of the things that we wanted to accomplish by bringing the international designers to Hawaii and introducing them to Hawaii designers was to create a megaphone effect,” Helwagen says. “We could sort of shout from the mountaintop about the Hawaii fashion community and the renaissance that’s going on here. There are so many Hawaii designers doing amazing and successful things. We thought that by bringing in some very high profile international designers to Hawaii who could collaborate with some of our artists and designers here, that it would amplify the message and story about the incredible design talent and potential that is here in Hawaii. We really want the world to take notice.”
Honolulu Fashion Week will be a new component of November’s Hawaii Fashion Month. The inaugural Hawaii Fashion Month was co-created last year by the Hawaii Fashion Incubator and the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
Here are scenes from last night’s event:
