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By Megan Johnson
Graduates of London’s famous St Martin’s
School of fashion, identical twins Tamara and Natasha
Surguldaze of new upcoming English fashion label Tata-Naka
gave an exciting fashion show at Victoria and Albert Museum.
The show included knits, shoes and garments from their
2002/3 Winter collection shown at the recent London Fashion
Week.
The Fashion Walk
The fashion show held in the marble-floored
rooms of Knightsbridge’s esteemed Victoria & Albert
Museum had a full house of fashion students, designers,
buyers and interested public. In comparison to previous
Fashion Walks, the show was seated and static not roaming
through the galleries, which was disappointing to me as
I loved that in the past. The shows use 8 models including
a 75 yr old woman with striking waist length silver hair,
who raised ripples of comment in a split front revealing
dress the audience expected to see on a model a fraction
her age!
A Collection of Recollections
The 2002/3 Collection comprised garments,
boots and jewellery inspired from Georgia, with two distinct
themes; firstly the faded romance and grandeur of a decadent
nation, and secondly, symbols of communism. The twins
used prints from communist proganda; hammer and sickle
motifs on fabrics made into floaty skirts and dresses.
These printed skirts were teamed with chunky leather belts
suited to a Russian Army foot soldier and flat pointed
toe leather boots with sickle motifs.
In the faded grandeur part of the collection
Tat-Naka showed devine visions of a time forgotten, of
vodkas sipped in floor-length chiffon and Georgian princesses
in delicate sheaths and slips of fairies, ruched up and
hitched to the side and fastened with sickle brooches
in diamonte.
The future
Autumn Winter 2003 holds so much promise
for Tata-naka, after having won the New Generation Sponsorship
from Topshop which enabled them to do the otherwise impossible
task of putting on a fashion show in the recent London
Fashion Week. The collection used a recurring theme of
the Hammer and Sickle from Russian proganda and sold really
well, especially in Japan and Hong Kong. Tata-Naka used
1920s original propaganda brochures printed onto fabric
to create striking skirts and dresses.
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