EXPO 2010: Czech Fashion Week started

Sanghai, 18/8/2010

Alongside the "Archive of Miracles" exhibit of Czech design taking place in the multimedia hall of the Czech Republic's EXPO 2010 pavilion in Shanghai is also a presentation of Czech fashion. Five leading Czech designers dealt with the topic of "Memory", creating distinctive collections of ten models each. Although they did not consult each other, their work is bound not only by the theme, but also by its creative originality and the way it breaks down existing modes.

Liběna Rochová combines components of regional folk costumes with contemporary trends in fashion. Materials and manufacturing methods over a hundred years old appear on her models. The base for Denisa Nová's models is intimate undergarments from various periods, on top of which she layers iconic items of classic clothing – a turtleneck, men's trousers, a white shirt, cocktail dresses … Pavel Ivančic focused on the influence of cultural and social background on a person's identity and softened or hardened materials from the 1980s in untraditional ways. Klára Nademlýnská confronts the present with her "memories of the future", i.e. how sci-fi designers in the seventies and eighties imagined the reality and fashion of the early 21st century. Monika Drápalová let herself be inspired by the river and its natural play, creating a similarly gentle and flowing collection.

A fashion show of these fifty original models took place in an exclusive building from the nineteen thirties at the prestigious Shanghai address Bund 18, where selected pieces will remain installed as a gallery exhibition until 25 August.