The first day of the Bipa Fashion.hr show was all about young upcoming designers, who debuted at the Croatian most famous runway. The new generation including Helen Kelen, Vicko Racetin, y/Gia & SSYYNN opened the three-day-long fashion event and presented their latest spring/summer collections. I previously kept up with the work of the aforementioned designers via their socials and pop-ups, but their latest desfiles exceeded all of my expectations.
The show started with Helen Kelen, a young designer based in Zagreb who set a fast techno pace and presented her signature colour palette. Once again, Helen stayed true to her colours – black and red, but the male collection’s innovative jackets and pants cuts have completely changed the game while she played with materials and layers. Besides her black cotton dresses with red border cutouts, she presented an interesting line of skirts introducing sheer materials that are in trend now that stayed within her aesthetics. The whole show was complete with futuristic visuals and a fast-paced tempo of techno produced by Insolate, including the tracks from her newest album Full Disclosure.
The mood switched when Vicko Racetin took over the runway and presented his latest ready-to-wear men’s collection inspired by maritime motives and, as he states, nostalgia. From shorts and tops for daily wear to power suits, Vicko’s idea of the typical summer motives was fresh and modern, introducing light net-inspired scarves alike cover-ups and a modern graphic implementation of sea reflections, sailor stripes and knitwear with an edge.
Jelena GeÅ¡takovski, known as y/Gia was a third designer who debuted Bipa Fashion.hr, and her first look was an absolute show-stopper. The model wore a coat that resonated with every 1990s kid in Croatia – made of cartoon-like carpet of a small city that every kid (including myself) has played on at home, kindergarten, or friends’ houses. The whole room was in awe and delivered massive applause while the carpet coat announced the upcoming collection inspired by the 1990s and 2000s – bright colours, signature ruffle bags, metallic materials, zippers and finished with a lace veil-like see-through wedding dress – all combined in a fun, wearable and modern interpretation with a twist. The music and visuals also added up to the show, mixing electronic music, 2000s & 2010s hits and Balkan-ish sounds that completed the whole collection idea.
The show finale started with a short film, a different, aesthetic showing with elements of comedy teaser for SSYYNN‘s newest collection inspired by the human body, skintight tops, zipper hoodies with a twist, black volumized coats, and coverups. In a fast-paced hard-techno rhythm, the models carried out the artist’s vision – presenting underground Berlin-like fashion to a ready-to-wear collection of statement pieces that can be combined in everyday occasions.
Overall, in my opinion, all of the designers have successfully managed to tell their stories and show their vision. Their collections were well conceptualized and the designers cared about every detail of their desfile, leaving the audience with a clear image of their idea of modern fashion. It was a great debut and, more importantly, a bright future for Croatian fashion design.
