A lisbonner take on a fashion event: Ubuntu Creation Fashion Show & Afterparty
Lisbon, July 22, 2023
I just came from a fashion event. It was organzed by UBUNTU CREATION, recently founded by the duo Alisa Tierhold and Chanel Deuring. The event was held in the hidden Lisbon gem of Ninho. This event was a launch party for UBUNTU CREATION and was composed of three acts. The guests were a mixture of white, asian, fashion, and other status privilige.
- The first act was a speaking act.
- The second was a fashion show.
- The third, a party.
The copy for the event at instagram reads:
…a hell of a celebration. A celebration of beauty in all its forms. Where passion bursts and creation happens. But… What else to expect when artists, designers, entrepreneurs & models come together?
My take is that it completely failed the objective. I conclude that these folks have no clue what happens when artists, designers, entrepreneurs come together in a fruitful environment. The schedule was 7pm-2am, and I left the space after 2 hours, and after spending 25,00€ and realizing that entering the property happened pretty much unchecked (i.e., the event was an unsafe experience). You know, what is fashion today besides a nonsense hobby for the privileged ones?
1 Nothing wrong when you and your best pal come to the conclusion that it is time to launch your dream idea. The problem is when you lack everything rather than connections and money. At least it was evident, money and connections were abundant. I may be wrong though. During my practice I have watched hundreds of pitches and UBUNTU CREATION’s was somehow below average. However, there is nothing wrong with launching an idea that lacks potential, originality, innovation, etc. After the UBUNTO CREATION’s pitch, it follows a motivational speech by Claudio Tibunga, a 27 years old model, followed by three other fashion brands’ pitches — PERFECT RUNWAY, TRENDI, and VIZBON. Claudio is not mature enough to assume he is a life coach as he said, and his speech was like unnecessary in the scope of the event. The idea was like to show that he is one of the models being promoted by the newly formed network. The pitch from Irina (the founder of TRENDI) was pretty much focused on herself and nothing on the brand, nor the idea, nor its potential; as she said: “this is about me”, with that egocentric tone that is pretty much useless unless you are surrounded by a soundy network. And she is. VIZBON, founded by Vitor Wang and Marcelo Zhang, was like watching undergraduates performing a midterm presentation to a lazy teacher: at the end the audience clapped and they got a high grade.
On the other hand, PERFECT RUNWAY is the only project with potential and traction; I will follow this project and the next steps of Julied Estelle since if fashion needs an intermediate step before the total and necessary pivot, PERFECT RUNWAY mays have a shot.
2 The fashion show was lame and short. The average quality of the catwalk is perhaps an enunciation of the value proposition of PERFECT RUNWAY, since the focus is also to find and potentiate new models. Immediately, I had the thought that the true models were in the audience and the girls and boys who were walking by the pool were like casual people (again, nothing wrong with that). I understand that the catwalk needs a shift but if you remove the special, the inspirational feeling from it, what would be left? If you remove the entertainment and the fun from fashion, in a weak tentative to democratizing it, it will become a commodity. I don’t believe that this is the way forward for fashion. Who were the fashion brands on the catwalk? I truly don’t know. The names of the fashion brands being showed were not clear. The communication was poor, and the space was innapropriate for the show however nice it is. Most people were at the bar, not facing the catwalk, so maybe the show should had been hosted inside the venue and not outside. This is the reason why big names like LVMH and KERING hugely invest in fashion shows — the taste must be immaculate.
3 the party, dunno, I did not stay. I heard UBUNTO CREATION flew a South African DJ to Lisbon, but not sure. I can speculate that the same privilige (white, money-powered status, and non-feminist european colonialism) continued throughout the night. All the stuff the fashion industry does not need.
This critic presents a hard say on events that does not presents any sort of progress to the sector, nor to the territory. I wonder what Lisbon has to gain from events like the one UBUNTU CREATION just organzied today, and then I ask the same question for Cape Town and Munich. Nevertheless, I believe that fashion needs a radical turnaround, but not like this. One quote comes to my mind and it says:
If it does not serve for anything else, it serves as a bad example.
Finally, I come in this way to express that, as always, I am available to help this network to build its own place in the Portuguese fashion and creative ecosystem. However, it is necessary to introduce the nature-based values to the entire network UBUNTU CREATION is developing, since the environment was totally absent from the event, unfortunately…
About me:
Multidisciplinary researcher in the fields of life sciences and design. My three main professional areas are: science x creativity x management.
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