Day 1: Designer Andy Nguyen shines at Ottawa Fashion Week
by Jenny Kleiningeron Feb 19, 2012 • 6:01 pm“Ladies and gentlemen, if you see an empty seat in front of you please feel free to take it,” is not usually heard at a runway show, but it was opening night of Ottawa Fashion Week on Feb 17.Once the first collection began, the small audience made sense. The black scuffmarks on white cowboy boots and tacky jewellery in Elena’s Creations were hard to ignore. Models wore arm length satin gloves, bright-red lipstick, and fur shawls; an attempt to look glamorous instead looked cheap.Next down the runway was Amanda Emmanuel’s “Hidden Treasures.” Drawing inspiration from exotic birds and plants, her collection consisted of bright-printed silk dresses. There’s an evident incorporation of city chic as well. Prints with multi-coloured skyscrapers and telephone lines were blended with tropical flowers and paired with black spandex leggings. The models wearing canary yellow, hot pink, and orange walked in time with the high tempo music, their sleek ponytails swishing to the drum beat.

FrAsh’s show began with a woman in a black tutu dancing to ominous sounding music. Covered from neck to breast in white feathers, the white powdered models walked barefoot. Inspired by Joan of Arc, the gold-plated necklaces and plastic arm cuffs resemble medieval armour. After another ballet dancer, this time in white leaves, the final look enters: a dramatic gold headpiece with points in all directions.

Up next was the shiny retro leather jumpsuits of !N.UI. The vintage throwback consisted of 80’s oversized frames, crimped hair parted down the middle, and lots of cheetah print. Leather paneling on the back of a wool sweater gave the knitwear a much-needed edge — which the next collection lacked.

Illyria Design’s nude pallet and plain silhouettes made for a boring runway show. The pieces were something a working woman could wear to the office, but Reitmans does the same thing for much cheaper.

The best of the night was saved for last. Designer Andy Nguyen’s Y!D.N.A. Collection was nothing short of a dark spectacle. And in case you were curious, his leather outfits are dance-proof as demonstrated by the opening dance number that featured a girl popping out of a crate stamped with the design label.

Looking like they’ve been dug up from the grave, models wore wrinkled, and stained garments that could have very well be eaten by moths.

The first model’s spooky appearance saw her covered head to toe in black face paint; she carried a lantern and wore ripped nylons over top of high heels.

Nguyen’s was the only collection of the night that featured menswear as well. One highlight was a shirtless male model wearing black combat boots, boxers, and silver studded gas mask. The mix of textures and fabrics like tweed and leather were impressively detailed. The show was provocative and off putting, exemplified by a model who had a bundle of cigarettes forcibly held in his mouth by a wrap-around strap.

— Photo by Portia Baladad

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It was a fashion show that drew a standing ovation from its Ottawa audience.

Some of the models wearing clothes by Montreal designer Andy Nguyen carried lanterns or bird cages, some wore spiky masks or furry hats. And some were wearing a thick layer of black makeup on their faces with a white strip over the upper lip.

When Rachel Décoste saw photos online she wondered how it was possible that no one spoke out about the blatant use of “blackface” during last weekend’s Ottawa Fashion Week.

But for the 22-year-old designer, it was nothing more than a simple use of makeup. The models – half of whom had dark skin and the other half fair – were painted either white or black to play off the show’s use of black light, Nguyen said.

“It was nothing against any race,” Nguyen told the Citizen. “I’m sorry if it caused people to think that.”

But Décoste said “it doesn’t matter” that some of the models had their faces painted white, or that some of the models wearing black face paint had dark skin. Some symbols, such as the Confederate flag, the hooded Ku Klux Klan uniform and a noose hanging from a tree are always offensive, she said.

“Would the swastika be less offensive because it was pink? These are symbols that represent oppression that people have suffered through for centuries,” said Décoste, an Ottawa software engineer and active member of the Liberal party who once sought the federal nomination in her home riding of Orléans. “There’s no way to turn them into a cutesy, artsy-fartsy fashion statement.”

Ettie Rutherford, the director of a Toronto-based education consulting business, said she was “upset about the racist portrayal of blacks by a fashion designer.”

Julie Lalonde tweeted a photo of one of Nguyen’s “blackface” models using the hashtag “humanity fail.”

However, Nguyen said it’s all a big misunderstanding. Models were not performing a caricature of a stereotypical black person, as in the classic use of blackface in minstrel shows, but rather strutting down the catwalk modelling clothes. Ottawa Fashion Week did not receive any complaints about Nguyen’s show, said spokeswoman Gabrielle Raina Plouffe.

“Y!D.N.A. Collection by Andy Nguyen was unquestionably about art and had no connection to race. We have not received any comments of this kind,” she told the Citizen in an email. Whether or not the designer intended to draw on the blackface tradition is not the point, said Décoste. An artist should be more aware of how the images used might be interpreted by the public.

“It behooves all of us in this beautiful mosaic that is Canada to show minimal respect for each other without using race as a prop, as blackface is,” she said.

Décoste said the fact Nguyen’s show received a standing ovation on Friday makes it worse.

“Nobody said anything. And that disturbs me even more,” she said. “It’s disappointing to see that this is still going on.”

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/fashion-beauty/Ottawa+Fashion+Week+faces+controversy+over+blackface/6188404/story.html#ixzz1n8i0NciU