BLOG POST 8:
LAWRENCE KIRK
FASHION FEVER
The Teatro Mellia is an incredible theater resting on Linea and B one of the main streets running through the neighborhood of Vedado in Habana. I was lucky enough to receive an invitation from a dear friend who is a designer at the national art institute El ISA to go see a fashion show put on completely by students in the fields of theater, design, plastic arts, music, and dance. The show was absolutely incredible and of standards that meet any quality of international fashion. I was amazed by how professionally the models carried themselves in their various decadent costumes. I was astounded to find out that the majority of these very modern and adorned gowns and conceptual costume designs were fabricated out of crude materials such as cardboard and garbage bags. Making beauty out of limited means seems to be one of the major themes involved in the process of creation here at the ISA. The students are accustomed to a constant lack of supplies and work around these deficits with an extreme vigor. My friend Adriel the designer of what appeared to be the most beautiful costume in my opinion crafted a dress out of what looked like a bronze metallic substance but in truth was a block of cardboard carved and painted. His costume was meant to represent a Madame Bovary from the book someone who has been forced out of romanticism in a cruel fashion and takes out her bitterness by closing herself off to the world in her bronze dress. The depth and theme and design reveal the true quality of the education and understanding of the artistic practice that many students in the institute have.