Grace Moon loves to play around with fabrics. Fabrics are the inspiration that sparks her creativity, as is evident in her various collections. Her colours and patterns stand out and she has a penchant highlighting heritage with a twist. And she brought this passion to the ramp in Dhaka.
At the fashion show, ‘Frozen in Time,’ held on 27 December at the Amari Hotel in Dhaka, this internationally renowned fashion designer of Korean-American origin, did not just display ‘hanbok’, the traditional dress of her own ethnic background, but also presented the Bangladeshi panjabi with an interpretation of her own.
Organised by the lifestyle magazine ICE Today with support from Korban, the fashion show began with a modern and mixed presentation of clothes from both countries. The fabrics, designs and patterns displayed in the first part of the show had reflections of her New York venture. She brought a similar feel in her collection at the 2017 New York Fashion Week.
Fashion show: Frozen in Time, 27 December, Dhaka
Here too she used silks in her creations. She deconstructed the traditional hanbok to give it a new look, reconstructed as tops and bottoms. The intricate work at the hems was eye-catching. And Grace Moon was liberal in her use of varied hues for the tops – brown, beige, yellow, green, purple, grey and more. She set these off with off white bottoms. Her commitment to her roots is overt in her collections.
She has been inspired by the big names in haute couture too. Yves Saint Laurent’s influence is evident in her use of certain colours and geometric designs.
Panjabis have been given a new dimension by this designer who showcased her work at the Paris Fashion Week last year. The cut, pattern and value additions to the panjabis in Grace Moon’s collection have given the panjabi an added pizzazz.
In the second part of the Frozen in Time fashion show, Moon collaborated with model Azim Ud Dowla’s brand AZ. The difference in styles was starkly discernible. Moon crafted her skills in metallic, silk, velvet and various fabrics, each with a distinct silhouette.
Her use of metallic fabrics was varied – in elegant long dresses, smart pants and trousers, skirts and tops, blazers, jackets, hoodies, long coats, dresses, panjabis and panjabi-patterned dresses and more.
In the midst of this, Azim’s brand AZ came to life. The show was basically to launch the new brand AZ in a big way. The AZ collection included shirts, leather jackets, pants, trousers and so on. It was clear that this brand was intent on creating a mark in menswear. And Azim has no intention of restricting his brand to the country but is determined to go global. And this fashion show couldn’t have been a more appropriate beginning. He has big plans for future and this collaboration with an internationally renowned designer was more than a broad hint of his ambitions.
Azim has been a model for over a decade and last year he actually started up his fashion brand during Eid last year. He began with ethnic wear like panjabis, sherwanis and so on. Later he expanded to western wear.
Speaking at the end of the show, Grace Moon said that this event was not to showcase her collection, but to share the joy of collaborating together, to create a happy memory amidst the adverse and unfortunate times. And that is why the show was named ‘Frozen in Time.’
Grace Moon’s presence has been a support and a boost for the young and enterprising designer. As a designer of international repute, she had no qualms in sharing the show with a ‘newbie’ in the trade. When she walked the catwalk with Azim, she won more than admiration. She won respect for being an example and inspiration in paving the way for the generations to come.