080 BARCELONA FASHION SPRING-SUMMER 2009
BARCELONA, September 3, 2008 /FR/ – Being the first designer to open the catwalk for a series of runway shows is a privilege, but also adds pressure on this designer’s shoulders. Teresa Helbig, a confirmed designer, coming from a family background very rooted in the sartorial craft, might just have missed the privilege, maybe due to the pressure for the collection she has sent on the runway on the opening night of 080 Barcelona Fashion.
The meticulous designer, a master in the art of combining silks, tulle, chiffon and light sequins or embroideries into fabulous cocktail and evening dresses, seems to have been told that she should seem more “edgy”, modern, subversive.
So what was she left with? Choosing a theme which hardly showed through, “Punky Dolls’’, which did not really suit her market, and which certainly did not conquer a new one.
Meant to be inspired by the 1980s, the pieces were supposed to incorporate references to the romantic innocence of that decade with the rebellious independence linked to the punk attitude. The result was deluding: mittens, skirts with a short front, big golden grommets in the shape of pyramids for embellishments have been put in for the subversion, while pale pinks and beiges, long floating backs dandling in the air at the back, bad-quality white opaque crystals embroidered in lines and badly proportioned layers of tulle around the silhouette were in for the romanticism.
Think of what Alexander McQueen might have made with the same theme, and no further comment will be needed.
Although Teresa Helbig is a designer who has gained some recognition and success in Catalonia, she needs to really show who she is and what she really stands for now, instead of trying to receive a good perception from the fashion community and miss her target.
Noone is asking Elie Saab to become Viktor & Rolf… As silly as this may sound, Teresa Helbig should remain (or become) herself before she targets an international audience.
JEAN PAUL CAUVIN
Photos Courtesy of 080 Barcelona Fashion
