16 - Sunday, May 2, 1993

inners experience
‘pure thrill of living’

THE PRESTIGIOUS Smir-
noff International Fashion
Awards Competition, an
annual national event which
promotes up-and-coming
fashion designers, _ recently
had its western finals in
Vancouver.

By Carol Crenna
Contributing Writer

On April 7 at the Vancouver
awing Club, the’ fashion press,
several designers and parents
gathered at a cocktail reception
and fashion show to experience
“the pure thrill of living’? which
was this year’s theme. .

The theme was designed to
allow the contestants a free-flow-
ing imagination, to create some-
thing that need not be wearable,
simply to. show ‘‘a return to the
natural elements, with the aim of
the designers ‘to create their ideal,
a pure vision of reality.”

With that kind of vagueness, it
was amazing the competitors took
similar directions in their designs
toward world peate and ecology.

Judges: in’ the competition in-
cluded. Ron Leal, designer for
JAX; Stacey Dallyn, fashion edi-
tor of Vancouver and Western
Living magazines; Norma Wick,
host of -U.TV’s 23/30 show;

i

offers brides
ideas and inf
TODAY, SUNDAY May 2 and
tomorrow, May 3, the official
opening of Lightheart &..Com-
pany’s Tabletop Fashion Boutique
will take place, featuring a new
style of bridal-show, both inside
and around the boutique. |
“More than 300 brides- and
grooms-to-be will participate in
the event which will feature. bridal
wear by: well-known Vancouver
‘designer Catherine Regehr, and
over: 200 dinnerwear, flatwear and
crystal patterns from, Lightheart
and Company.:

Estee Lauder. will present For
Brides Only makeovers. ©
The event runs from 2 to 5 p.m.
Sunday and .from 6 to. 9 p.m.
. Monday, and is free of charge.

Call: 684-4711" for more: infor-

mation. Lightheart and . Com-
pany’s Tabletop Fashion Boutique
is located in. Gastown. at. The

_ Landing, .375 Water St.,  Van-
couver, ©

. Spring is here and that wonder- *
ful sunshine is making us. feel
“good all over again. We think of |
- weddings and summer night par-

tties-to comes Picnics and
barbecues. Whatever the occa- -
sion, we at Coriander love to
emake you look ‘good.

Phillip Clarkson, the Vancouver
Playhouse’s costume designer; and
Virginia Leeming, fashion editor
of the Vancouver Sun.

First-place winner Mong Phu
designed a long, hooded robe
which was hand screen-printed
with recent news magazine covers
depicting the atrocities in Eastern
Europe and Somalia.

This gracefully draped robe was
then removed to reveal an iden-
tical robe, but in pure white, with

a white bodysuit beneath, sym-

bolizing his . vision for peace.

The second winner was Gina
Nykoluk, who created an exquisite
human butterfly by wrapping a
model’s torso in thick swathes of
white silk and securing huge
hand-dyed silk wings to each side.
The intricately detailed wings
spread. several feet, revealing
many translucent pastel colors.

Both competitors are Helen
Lefeaux School of Fashion Design
students.

The awards, which have the
reputation of launching many new
designers into successful careers,
select’ 10 semi-finalists from
across the country to compete in
the grand finale.

The final show takes place in
Toronto on Friday, May 7,

The winner will compete in an
international event in Brazil in
October. ‘The grand prize is a
$10,000 grant. °

ALFRED SUNG SPORT * DEPECHE MODE ¢ PORTS * STUDIO J * JONES NEW YORK # NIPPGN BOUTIQUE @

he newest
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f

HELOWNA
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(The Banks Centre)

860-3339

VANCOUVER”
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Cat Thurlow)
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