At the Mobile Fashion Week finale on Saturday, Sept. 27 at Hargrove Engineers
+ Constructors on S. Royal St., show-goers will watch Destani Hoffman's cool and
defiant designs conquer the catwalk.
And some of the looks will be looking right back at them.
A couple of the rule-breaking artist's dresses are spattered with spooky-chic
plastic eyes. It makes perfect sense for a designer with a deliciously skewed
view of style.
"Love it or hate it the girl's got vision! Fashion Week is giving her a
platform to show her own point of view and we are so enjoying seeing that on the
runway," said MFW founder and creative director Richard McGill Hamilton. "When
you see a designer with such a distinct point of view hit the runway there will
be chatter, but if people aren't talking then you are not the center of
attention."
At last year's MFW finale, Hoffman, a graduate of Spanish Fort High School
and The Savannah College of Art and Design, presented an alternate fashion
reality filled with velvety and outrageously frilly pieces of surreal and
crazily proportioned eye candy; not very wearable, but highly watchable.
This year's collection, although still avant-garde, will be easier for
show-goers to add to their wardrobes.
"It's a little more wearable than my collection was last year. Instead of
doing a lot of showpieces I did a lot of separates that you can build with when
you put them on," she said. "When you put them on a hanger they look like a
salable item, but on the runway I can style them so they're crazy. I'm trying to
toe the line of acceptability but still spit in the face of what people think is
right. "
The basics behind menswear were the jumping-off point for the collection.
"I drafted everything according to menswear techniques, with a ruler on
paper," Hoffman said. "Really, I tried to play on the strict rule that society
has put on wearable fashion, and a lot of that has to do with tailoring to the
body and clean lines and trying to be simple. I just wanted to kind of throw it
in their face, like this is whatI'm gonna do."
Hoffman's MFW show will be a mind-expanding mini style revolution sure to get
tongues wagging and jaws dropping.
The runway will rock with sexy, slick and shiny pleather, PVC and vinyl
layered with tantalizing textures and dominatrix-like details including metal
collars, chains, spikes and buckles. Ultra-modern accessories will include hard,
clear acrylic box purses and oversize vinyl envelope clutches.
Hoffman has enlisted both male and female models as her brave style
soldiers.
"The guys are wearing kilt-like skirts and other androgynous looks to up the
ante a little," Hoffman said. "The looks are just less feminine than the the
rest of the collection."
In contrast to the exaggerated, in-your-face fashions, the collection's
colors are cool and understated.
"There aren't a lot of warm tones. It's mostly white to a really dark grey.
And I have pops of lilac," Hoffman said. "A lot of designers are focusing on
blue and indigo this year, but I'm all about lilac."
One of the great things about the collection is people can adjust the attire
to fit their own fashion persona.
The collars, chains and other extreme embellishments, are "all for show. If
someone's not quite as fashion forward as someone who would like to wear a metal
collar, they can take it off," Hoffman said. "I'm taking my ideas and giving you
no reason at all not to be able to wear them. "
There is also another dimension to the collection that MFW audiences won't
get to experience.
"My collection is actually twice the size of last year's and half of it is
going to be in Mobile Fashion Week, and the other half I'm entering for
Charleston Fashion Week," Hoffman said. "The Charleston part is more focused on
evening wear."
Building her brand
Between the last and current MFW, Hoffman has been channeling her talent and
creativity into promoting her own clothes and a cause close to her heart.
"Since last year I've really just been trying to expand my portfolio," she
said. "I've done a lot of work with Eye Heart World, because when I met them I
was so inspired and I had to get that out."
Eye Heart World is a Mobile Fashion Week charity that raises awareness about
human trafficking and raises money for victims through putting on events and
selling original apparel, purses and other accessories.
Hoffman was strongly drawn to the cause when she learned about it at last
year's MFW, which was the first time Eye Heart World participated.
Right after last year's MFW, Hoffman and Eye Heart World co-founder Season
Russo met for coffee and brainstormed collaborations between the non-profit and
the daring designer.
A fulfilling partnership was formed, and Hoffman devoted herself to spreading
the word about Eye Heart World with her own inimitable style.
"Destani Hoffman is not only one of the most passionate individuals about her
work, but I've been blown away by the support and involvement she's put in to
Eye Heart World," Russo said. "When we first talked about Eye Heart World, I
could see her wheels turning in regards to how she can use her design talent to
spread awareness and help others. I'm inspired by her drive to do something
great not just for her gain but, for others in need."
Hoffman conceptualized Eye Heart World's spring 2014 fundraising gala at the
Centre For The Living Arts. She created an emotionally evocative series of
charcoal drawings depicting the struggle of a victim of human trafficking which
was displayed at the event.
She also produced a promotional fashion shoot featuring Eye Heart World
items.
Hoffman has the resources of Mobile's Six Degrees Marketing behind her. She
works there, and her mother owns the agency. Six Degrees has taken Eye Heart
World on as a charity client.
"We wanted to feature their products in a more fashionable way, so we did an
editorial shoot and I directed it. I was also their stylist," Hoffman said.
"They're really into up-cycling so we only bought re-used clothing for the
editorial."
During the past year Hoffman also devoted a considerable chunk of time to
creating a dramatic and decadent editorial spotlighting her 2013 MFW
collection.
The editorial, shot at Fort Gaines by local fashion photographer Kathleen
Clipper, is an artfully audacious twist on a red-hot pop culture craze.
"We took my clothes and did this crazy hair and crazy makeup and I told the
models, 'Guess what? You're in the 'Hunger Games' and you're in District 13 and
I want you to sip tea on the ruins of a society,'" Hoffman said. "We had them
crouching in old tunnels, lounging on Victorian furniture on top of broken and
cracked rubble and posing against cracked walls."
Hoffman submitted the photos to several magazines, and they were snapped up
by an edgy international publication.
"A few of the pages got published in a Berlin-based web and print magazine
called Superior Mag," she said. "I feel like I'm all over the place."
The rise of a runway rebel
Ideas like post-apocalyptic fashion shoots come quite naturally to
Hoffman.
She's been somewhat of an avant-gardian ever since she sewed her first piece
in a Spanish Fort High School home-ec class.
"I did a lot of art stuff in middle school and high school," she said in a
previousAL article. "I've always been really into craft fashion design; making
fashion out of trash bags and paper cups."
Prior to her memorable 2013 Mobile Fashion Week debut, Hoffman sharpened her
skills as a student at New York's Parsons, The New School of Design and Savannah
College of Art and Design in Georgia.
With a solid fashion foundation and the experience of creating two full
original collections and a series of innovative editorials, Hoffman is poised to
become a wildly influential force in the fashion world.
And of course, her strategy for world fashion domination includes a turn on
Lifetime's popular fashion reality competition, "Project Runway."
"I tried out last year and didn't get in," Hoffman said. "Next time I will
have such a crazy big portfolio to give them it's going to be awesome. I will
give them no reason to say no."
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