Luxe materials, simple clean-cut lines, bold color contrasts, textural games, monochromes and one eye-catching print were designer Fatema Fardan’s tools to refresh tradition through an imaginative, easy-to-wear FW15 collection that blends timeless principles with urban aesthetics.
Refined folk references connect with contemporary tailoring and evening wear to inspire unexpected tactile surfaces for functional basics and a softer, prettier ‘modern folk” feel. Obscure symbols and ritual traditions provide darker undertones and inspire decorative finishes, ornaments and details.
Her New York Fashion Week presentation was sensational and validated through the presence of fashionable notables including Julia Restoin Roitfeld, Rachel Zoe, Roger Berman, Carole Radziwill, Stassi Schroeder, Natalie Joos, Lilla Crawford, The Misshapes, and Cory Kennedy.
Her go-to pieces for next season are made of attention-grabbing red fur (stoles and jackets), buttery soft leather, wools, velvet, chiffon, and cotton. Details such as fringing and trimming are decently used to infuse clothes with a classy wow factor. Exceptional pieces to be noticed were a forest green sheared fur and leather jacket, a Mondrian-inspired leather pencil skirt, and an intricately printed ethereal gown.
Her silhouettes came down to eye-catching opulent outerwear (including a subtly decorated sharply-cut grey coat), mid-calf flared wool skirts, cropped pants and culottes, perfectly tailored jackets, menswear-derived shirts, and pencil skirts. The palette consists of deep jewel tones (green, red) black, white, shades of grey, as well as colors inspired by nature.
The setting at the presentation was nature itself, with a rich flowered garden surrounding her creations and clearly emphasizing her primal inspiration. Clothes were a pleasure to see and touch, styled in an equally desirable way; very feminine and classic, sophisticated and chic. An elegant stiletto-heel pump in black or nude was complementing ideally every look – further contributing to an amazing silhouette – while hairstyle, makeup and accessorizing were super minimal. The red lipstick did all the charming effect and fashion spoke by itself!
Fatema was born in the UAE in 1987 and educated in London at the American Intercontinental University where she graduated with first-degree Honors in Fashion Design and Marketing. As a young designer, her innovative and distinctive style earned her the Most Outstanding Student Award in London, and the Fashion Show Competition at the AIU in London for women’s wear design in 2011. Her career includes designing with formidable fashion houses such as Tata Naka, Bora Aksu (UK), and interning with Louis Vuitton in the Middle East. Fatema’s odyssey has propelled her further to explore Textile Design and Fashion Marketing at the London College of Fashion and Central St. Martin’s where she has developed an international vision for design.
She’s undoubtedly a rising star in the fashion industry and a creative who takes her job very seriously. Those clothes, as well as the vision, seem to have been executed to perfection, and this matters a lot when it comes to a very demanding clientele!
Love!!!
Elena Sendona
