Apparel | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

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SUPIMA IN STYLE.COM: All about last night

By Nancy Boyd

NEW YORK—The reception at The Times Center in The New York Times Building was packed to capacity.

The audience at the runway finale during last night’s Supima Design Competition was suitably impressed by the level of innovation and execution in the collections of all six finalists.

And the press has already taken notice.

This morning, on Style.com, the style site of Conde Nast (and especially Vogue magazine), in a story headlined “AND THE SUPIMA DESIGN AWARD GOES TO . . .” here’s what reporter Bee-Shyuan Chang had to say:

Last week, we previewed some sketches from the six finalists for the third annual Supima Design Competition—Nadia Ivanova, Robin Tomas, Michael Venker, Gina DeSilva, Heber Sanchez, and lookalike sister duo Sachika’s To-Tam and To-Nya Ton-Nu—and last night, the finalists competed for their reward. “I’ve never made men’s pants before, and I wanted them to go with the men’s tee. So I stole a pair of skinny jeans from my husband and cut them up,” DeSilva confessed backstage. “Shhh, he still doesn’t know I have them!” Each contestant was assigned to create three pieces of eveningwear and one men’s tee, all crafted from Supima cotton. A judging panel including Bloomingdale’s associate fashion director Chris Frye and New York Times fashion director Horacio Silva would crown one gown and one shirt the winners, the tee to be produced and distributed by Bloomie’s.

Come catwalk time, there were several asymmetrical floor-length dresses, including a draped one-sleeve black jersey number by Robin Tomas. Heber Sanchez opted for full drama, sending a crowd-clearing ball gown of blue and white striped men’s shirting down the runway. Ballots tallied, Tomas ended up taking home the men’s tee prize for his triple-layer jersey design in black, gray, and white, but the stunner (and closer) of the evening belonged to DeSilva. Coco Rocha—who’s been taking tips from designer Zac Posen on her own upcoming line slated for this fall—presented the designer with the Best in Show award for a romantic one-shoulder, trumpet-skirt gown with peplum waist crafted in a surprising fine-wale gray corduroy that had a twang of Nina Ricci circa Olivier Theyskens (pictured). As for those swiped skinny jeans, we’d say the big win just might get DeSilva off the hook.