Fashionista Style: Joke Taiwo

Showing posts with label Joke Taiwo. Show all posts

A Note From The Canadian War Museum

Greetings to all Calgary Fashion readers,

If you have missed Tuesday episode, you can catch the encore presentation of Project Runway Canada’s first episode on Saturday, January 31, 9 p.m. ET/PT on Slice.

The very first challenge faced by the young competing designers was to create a groundbreaking garment out of camouflage fabric. Ms. Taiwo’s winning design will be exhibited in the Canadian War Museum’s upcoming summer exhibition, Camouflage, which starts on June 4. So if you happen to be in Ottawa, come check it out.

This exhibition explores the military art of concealment and deception, both as battlefield necessity and as artistic and commercial inspiration. It also shows how camouflage patterns have evolved into a phenomenon of popular culture, now as likely to adorn children or fashion models as it is to mask soldiers or battleships.

Jean-Philippe Deneault,
Canadian War Museum

Calgary's Adejoké Taiwo Raises The Bar!

PRC 2 aired the first episode of the season last night and viewers were thrown instantly into the nerve-wracking process of what it takes to make it as a fashion designer in Canada. The designers on the show are all up and coming with a few on the scene designers who have already began to create a name for themselves. For the other designers who are new to the scene, the show displayed the intensity of what lies at stake for any designer hoping to make it.

Unfortunately for two contestants last night, the show proved to be more of a challenge than originally thought. Last night we said goodbye to Jaclyn Murray, 26 from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Murray suffered a severe anxiety attack and after being rushed to receive medical attention, Murray decided to pull out of the show.

We also bid hopeful Danio Frangella, 33 from LaSalle, Ontario, whose health issues were a major concern for the promising contestant after a 7-year battle with cancer.

For the first challenge, the designers were ushered into the Canadian War Museum and set the task of creating a camouflage outfit to be displayed. “The idea was to create an outfit for the war museum that represented war and the goal was to create something inspired by the 1st and 2nd World War with an Asian influence ” said Adejoke Taiwo this morning.

Taiwo is Calgary’s winning designer of the first round, which protects her from elimination in the next round of the competition.

Taiwo’s dress received great appreciation from supermodel, host and judge Iman as well as her guest judges.

“I assimilated a mandarin high collar and the front of the dress has a shield detail. I used neutral colors to incorporate the camouflage theme,” said Taiwo on her winning design.

The dress definitely was an eye opener on the talent of the young designer and has pushed the competition to another level. Taiwo presented a high fashion piece that captured the essence of what fashion means and what Canadian fashion can present when faced with a challenge.

“I was really shocked actually, they didn’t show my expressions much last night but I was really surprised that they liked it so much…I used two materials, ultra suede and I think it was a stretchy knit,” said Taiwo.

Even with the short time provided and with the help of PRC2 mentor, Brian Bailey, Taiwo’s dress shone on the runway.

“When I found out we only had a couple of hours to make a dress I was kind of thinking why am I here? I can’t make a dress in two hours!” said Taiwo.

“Working with Brian is good, I’m happy to be on the show, I think Calgary will have a positive reaction to me. Everyone in Calgary is pretty nice and just to have a person from Calgary, the only one from Alberta on the show I feel like the Calgary audience will accept me and I don’t do anything malicious or mean so I think the viewers will be proud.”

To get up close and personal with Taiwo's craftsmanship and talent she will be featured at the 2nd annual Collectively Eclectic Legacies Show February 13, 2009 at MacEwan Hall.

What did you think of Taiwo’s dress?

Links

Project Runway's Interactive Website! Designer Blogs Now Up!!!!
Article on Iman and her Project Runway designers.
Q + A With Project Runway eliminated designers.
Brian Bailey dishes some dirt on the Project Runway contestants.
Erin Balser's take on the PRC contestants!

Adejoke Taiwo Launches Website

If you would like to take a closer look at what Adejoke Taiwo has to offer, check out her new website which features her label Álalá Dreamer.

The word Álalá is a noun in the native Yoruba language of Nigeria which is where the young designer's roots lay. Álalá is defined as dreamer and according to Taiwo, the collection is designed for the "optimistic woman." Her collection is full of rich colour, texture and materials from around the world.

Her main objective with the label is to create pieces that "the modern woman can wear easily."
Her mission: To take on retreats as well as mix and match her designs into everyday wardrobe while allowing the wearer to maintain individuality.

Álalá Dreamer Website
Álalá Dreamer Facebook Fan Page

The Contestants according to CF!

So the second season of Project Runway Canada starts in a week and a half and the anticipation and excitement for Calgary is brewing.
Nothing can express how excited I am to see some fresh new faces in the fashion scene not only in Calgary but Canada as a whole.
Viewers are being fed tad bits of the show through the Project Runway website which launched just five days ago. If you can stand the scary pre-soundtrack for each audition then you will see that the contestants seem promising. Audition videos sent in by the 14 aspiring fashion designers are cute, funny and really show the passion driving each contestant's desire to win the show.

Here's my review of the contestants so far:

Who better to start our review than with Calgary's very own Adejoke Taiwo.

Adejoke Taiwo started sewing before she was knee high! When you and I were probably engrossed in our own hobbies like stamp collecting and Barbies, Adejoke spent her free time taking sewing lessons. After graduating high-school, sewing on of course, Adejoke spent some time in theater which "was just a little derailment" she says in her audition tape. She went on to graduate from Ryerson University and has checked onto the Project Runway plane, I can't wait to see how she flys on the show.

Baylor is from Montreal and loves competitions and also loves to win.
He has been focused on wedding dresses and evening gowns.

Christie's audition tape comes from her showing of her portfolio done in a week to the judges with live models. She works...alot and sounds like a hard worker. Her audition tape is actually really touching and she feels "awesome about being on TV!"

Don't let Danio's looks fool you, his audition tape reveals some interesting facts about this Windsor native. He has always been a sketcher and passionate about drawing new trends. He began studies at the International Academy of Design and has studied in Florence, Italy.... ooh I say!

Brandon applied last year but didn't make the cut unfortunately. However since the last auditions Brandon has showed at L'Oréal Fashion week and has been published in several fashion magazines and featured on television. He claims he knows what it takes to keep the show entertaining and how to get to the very end.

30 year old Genevieve's audition tape is a viewing of her portfolio with the judges. Her idea's stem from freedom and movement.

Jaclyn rolls in literally with rolling carts in hand and stands before the camera with this beautiful black and white layered dress. She goes to school at Parsons and just got back from New York a week before her audition. She plays around with textures and presents a tubular dress created with one yard of fabric. She speaks about versatility and shows so many different ways to wear this garment. Why leave New York? I wonder. Jaclyn says she's used to the fast paced life and also likes to win but is she really? The pace of New York is one of the fastest anywhere, lets see if she can handle the Canadian scene and judges.

Jeff is from Toronto and he sounds interesting, his audition tape really is original in terms of his excitement and anticipation shining through for him on the first video he has ever recorded and edited himself. He's been in the fashion industry for over 15 years, went to Ryerson and has a degree in fashion design. He has worked for Brian Bailey and has worked with Wayne Clarke, Dean Hutchinson and Ravini bridals. He's so cute and loves taking photographs, the dress he shows looks like something I would wear! So simple and different, a fresh take on a black dress!

Jessica is a funny girl! She gets the judges laughing the minute she walks in and i'm smiling! Good start! Her audition stopping piece is a black feather dress with an accentuated waist. She calls it an older piece but I can just see it walking into Factory Party 4 next week!
She is in sales, lower management and oversees visual at a flagship store on Yonge!
The judges challenge her talent and question her ability to bring variety, she's strong willed and keeps things positive. She's funny and I'm interested! She put on a great act/audition lets see if it really is just all an act!

Kim loves living life as an artist and is an artist and thinks PR can help her live that life! Her audition is "short and sweet". Her tape is cute, she sure is ready and packed for the Project Runway experience!

Margarita, comes in with high-waisted skinny pants and a striped tube top with white and black stilletoe pumps. Very cute, street cute. She takes street pieces and makes them high end. She says she wouldn't put her audition stuff on a runway but wins the judges with her attitude and sass I believe. She's confident she can create winning pieces from scratch to win the competition. Will this happen? I guess we'll find out! Sooner or later.

Sunny has a Mohawk and a pink t-shirt on in his audition and presents a piece from 2006. He hasn't shown since that year and Rita questions his thoughts on how he would have fared last year and what he can bring to the show this year. Sunny is positive and shows confidence.

Jason and Camille don't have their audition tapes up on the website. But Jason is an established up and coming designer having just recently shown at L'Oréal Fashion Week and took part in the Fashion Takes Action show in December.

I can't wait to see what all the designers have to offer. I will be doing weekly recaps of the show and will have an episode review every Tuesday evenings!

Visit the Project Runway Website