Latest news with #Moldavian
Fashion United
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fashion United
Romanian Fashion Week: parisian buyers on a scouting mission
A delegation of six Paris-based buyers, representing renowned department stores, concept boutiques, and consulting firms, travelled to Iași, Romania, for the 25th edition of Romanian Fashion Week. Their mission: to explore the country's creative potential. Invited by the festival's organisers, the buyers – Asano Miyazaki and Akane Tsuchihashi (Isetan), Alex Duarte and Sébastien Gibert (Agora & The Hideout Clothing), Mongue Din Harold Lloyd (Isho Concept), Alan Avenelv (Distelle Paris), and Song Pham (10 Lines Consulting) – discovered a burgeoning fashion scene full of promise, from young design graduates to more established names. All made the trip to the Moldavian region (Romania), invited by Romanian Fashion Week, to discover what local fashion could offer them. They knew nothing about the country and were expectant about what might appeal to them. Parisian buyers unite in Romania to discover creative brands The visitors were well taken care of, as Romanian Fashion Week – celebrating its 25th anniversary – placed a strong focus on the country's emerging talent. To spotlight this new generation, organisers dedicated the programme to showcasing recent fashion school graduates. The shows unfolded on an impressive open-air runway set in the heart of Iași, Romania's cultural and spiritual capital. From Friday, May 23 to Saturday, May 24, 2025, the Paris-based buyers attended presentations featuring graduate collections. On Sunday, May 25, the spotlight shifted to more established Romanian brands. What were their impressions? Did any designers stand out as future collaborators? FashionUnited asked these questions in a series of exclusive interviews. Raluc, Isetan favourite Credits: Romanian Fashion Week Asano Miyazaki for Isetan I went to Kyiv in 2019, as well as to Tbilisi, but this was my first time in Romania. We order from a few Ukrainian brands, such as Litkovska, and are influenced by what Demna Gvasalia, a Georgian designer, has brought to Western fashion. The standard, both of the organisation and the collections, was higher than I imagined. This is probably due to the fact that it is a country of manufacturers. Manufacturing is important to us, as is the choice of materials and the style. Irina Schrotter, Isetan favourite Credits: Romanian Fashion Week We focused our attention on the third day, which wasn't reserved for students. Three brands caught our attention: Raluc, Irina Schrotter and Axente. Axente, Isetan favourite Credits: Romanian Fashion Week Alex Duarte and Sébastien Gibert for Agora Duarte: We are curious. We like to be inspired, to discover new cultures, to understand how things work. This desire to share motivated us to come. We thought: why not bring Romanian brands to the French market? Their autonomy is remarkable. Many produce locally, so they have overall control of the work process, from design to manufacturing. Gibert: I wasn't at all familiar with Eastern European brands. I imagined a rudimentary fashion scene, but I discovered a more accomplished world than I had imagined, in terms of manufacturing and technical expertise. The embroidery work is simply impressive, I had never seen anything like it before. The experience was a pleasant surprise.' I really fell in love with Andrea Tincu and Lenca. Their sense of mix appealed to me: the colour combinations, the composition. It's bold and controlled. The materials give an impression of luxury, with a lot of personality. That's what I like. Andrea Tincu, Agora favourite Credits: Romanian Fashion Week Lenca, Agora favourite Credits: Romanian Fashion Week Duarte: I felt a real connection with Scapadona. The designs seem simple at first glance, but the details – the cuts, the materials, the looks – reveal real craftsmanship. At the moment, I'm drawn to everything that revolves around nature, bohemian style and meadows. I think there will be a real bohemian trend for SS26. From a commercial point of view, it's an easy aesthetic to sell. I also liked Daniel Radu.' This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
Otago Daily Times
02-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Knitting circles helping to warm up cold children
In 2000, Taupo knitter Liz Clarke started Operation Cover Up in response to news reports of children in an Eastern European orphanage suffering in wintertime because of poor quality bedding and the lack of suitable cold weather clothes. She used local media to ask knitters to knit blankets, hoping to donate one blanket per child living in that Moldavian orphanage. The following year, Kaiapoi resident Maureen Braun took up the challenge and called on her friends and associates in the knitting circles she was involved with, to do what they could to help Liz and Operation Cover Up. Now 25 years later Maureen says it has been a wonderful experience being involved with this nation-wide project. ''In the quarter of a century Operation Cover Up has been in existence, they have shipped over 165,000 blankets and half a million knitted garments to the poor and needy in Eastern Europe. That's a wonderful undertaking and one I am proud to have been part of,'' she says. Maureen started sending Operation Cover Up four wool bales full of knitted blankets and clothes from North Canterbury, which joined the others from throughout the country shipped from New Zealand to Europe under the banner of Mission Without Borders, an international Christian organisation delivering humanitarian aid to marginalised communities in Eastern Europe. Now Maureen says around 36 bales of knitted products are shipped annually from the upper South Island to join the bales supplied by the rest of the country. She says the focus has shifted to helping those in war torn Ukraine, but the knitters still support poor families in five other eastern European countries, as most of the children's homes / orphanages have closed. Today, over 90 co-ordinators living all over the country work with small groups of knitters in towns and cities producing blankets, hats, clothes and toys for children in need. Maureen says it is amazing the response she has received from knitting groups here. ''They can be as small as a couple of friends to big community groups - all are keen to help. It just seemed to happen organically through word of mouth and media articles.'' She and fellow member, Anne Murchison, say they have met many wonderful people over the years and are now working towards their June collection date, when they start bailing up all the knitted products in wool bales to be shipped to Europe in July. Anne has been involved for three years and says she has been encouraged by the generosity of people in the North Canterbury communities. ''One of the knitting groups started is at the Kaiapoi Library on Friday afternoons, from 1pm to 3pm. We would welcome anyone interested in coming along. It's a very social group and we have a lot of fun as we knit,' she says. Another is a group of only 20 knitters from the Kaiapoi Cooperating Parish, who have ''lovingly crafted 93 blankets and more than 150 jerseys'', plus dozens of other knitted articles in the past year. ''Being part of a group of knitters is great for social interaction, it gets people out of their houses and improves mental health,'' says Anne. For more information about Operation Cover Up contact Maureen on 021 036 5420.
