By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photos
Leah Evans’ playful glam romper is cheeky fun!

The Urban Pacific Fashion Event gets better and better with each season, putting on a show with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a show in the Big Apple.

Showing this year on Oct. 11 at Next Door were La Pistil, Allisonizu, Cut ‘n Sewn by Dan Weaver, Leah Evans and Shanelle Dragomanovich, debuting her new Manovich line called “Painted Threads.” Her garments featured bold graffiti and tattoo-inspired artwork created by her friends Koak and Newkon. I was already impressed by her work when she presented her senior-year collection at Honolulu Community College in April. The girl is fearless and follows no one, so it’s great to see her execute beyond the classroom.

Dan Weaver continues to show his win as one of the Star-Bulletin’s picks for most promising designers at last year’s FACE of Nuuanu event was no fluke. His mini collection showed his great skill with line, structure and tailoring.

La Pistil’s Ashley Ishii paired her casual dresses with boots, prompting New York-based couture designer Michael Kaye to remark, with a smile, “Snow envy.”

Almost topless during Allisonizu’s denim segment, showing the designer must have learned a thing or two about getting attention during her stint in New York. Let’s hope viewers’ eyes were in the right place! Video coming up. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photo
Jewelyn Tamsing, right, and Lovely May Orsino dressed for the White Party, a pre-opening celebration hosted by mixmix. Lovely’s grandmother made her dress.

There was no bride or groom in sight but guests all came dressed in cool white to the mixmix pre-opening party Oct. 10 and the soon-to-open European designer boutique at 1133 Bethel St., across from Hawaii Theatre.

I didn’t know whether or not to go. After going out every night I was ready to go straight home, so wasn’t even thinking about looking for something white in my closet. Well it wasn’t exactly virginal, but by day’s end I figured I could get by with a combination of cream and beige. Of course almost everyone else was in crisp white.

Designer Anthony Muto, visiting from New York, wore a white jacket from H&M with a vintage blue printed scarf around his neck. He seemed so well prepared I asked if knew before packing that there would be a white party. No, he didn’t, but white happens to be one of his favorite colors, or noncolors, for stepping out.

Tomoya Tsuruhara was perhaps the most contrarian dresser of the evening, wearing a combination of white, aloha print and black. There’s always a rebel in the crowd, but it’s usually not the host! (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photo
Chanel Wise models a bias-cut goddess gown created by Michael Kaye, shot against the backdrop of the Pink Palace, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

If you check out the Star-Bulletin Oct. 11, you’ll see my stories on the FACE of Nuuanu Fashion Show coming up Saturday morning on Nuuanu Avenue, and designer Michael Kaye. You can read it all in a minute, though a typical fashion story is a mini production that takes days to pull together.

During a phone interview with Michael last Saturday, I discovered he had a lifelong dream of photographing his work at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I’m not exactly in the business of making dreams come true, but it was certainly worth a shot. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

AP photos
John Galliano leaves no detail to chance in presenting Dior’s Spring 2008 ready-to-wear collection.

You wouldn’t think the Paris shows could be overshadowed, least of all by our own Honolulu, but there it is, bumped a couple of weeks by Honolulu’s first-ever Fashion Week.

We’ll be running a couple of stories from Paris in the SB’s Saturday edition, but sitting at my desk, looking at the incoming photos, I just had to share a few, of course by John Galliano for Dior ready-to-wear, who’s up to his usual crowd-pleasing theatrics, and Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci ready-to-wear, who shows he can match Galliano, though in a more romantic way. In a couple of years his just may be a household name.

Above is another design from Dior’s Spring 2008 ready-to-wear collection. Below, Olivier Theyskens sent out gowns befitting medieval princesses for Nina Ricci’s Spring 2008 ready-to-wear.

By Nadine Kam

Courtesy photo Brent Ching
Hawaii’s latest Cosmo bachelor is 34-year-old Brent Ching, flanked by Kauahi Akina, left, and Danny Matthews on the right. His hobby is skin diving/spear fishing. He loves travel, Spanish tapas, Naruto anime, and a woman with a sense of humor.

Look out Andy Baldwin! Hawaii has a new bachelor and his name is Brent Ching. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photo
Eric Eugene Kamakahai’ai Chandler shows two of his designs, a 1980 ballgown and kimono-inspired wedding dress.

Honolulu’s first Fashion Week opened with a reception at Pegge Hopper Gallery for another first, a temporary Hawaii Fashion Museum.

On view through the week will be designs spanning the 1940s to the present, with two garments apiece from designers that included Jayne Miho, Tori Richard, Nake’u Awai, Amos Kotomori, and Fashion Week originators Takeo and Eric Eugene Kamakahia’ai Chandler.

Nadine Kam photo
Leilani Keough was at the opening hoping to see Nake’u Awai, who made the dress she is wearing. Leilani’s purse is by Hollywood designer Gina Alexander, who used a photo of Leilani and her husband Ed, taken by publicist Elissa Josephssohn. On the flip side is a photo taken by the SB’s John Berger, of Leilani, a former Miss Hawaii chaperone, and a trio of beauty queens. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photo
Valerie Ragaza-Miao put her design skills to good use in creating the interior of her second Valerie Joseph boutique at Ward Entertainment Center. Yasmin Dar models clothing and accessories from the boutique. Many more photos are taken than we have space to run in the newspaper.

Valerie Ragaza-Miao celebrated the opening of her second Valerie Joseph boutique Saturday night, but photographer Jamm Aquino and I were in the store on Tuesday taking photos that ran in the paper on Thursday.

Valerie is noted for service and getting to know her customers, so after the story ran, a friend emailed one of her recollections of working with Valerie. Apparently, my friend had been trying on clothes and she stepped out of the dressing room, hoping for approval as everyone does.

“So Valerie was staring at me, and … nothing,” my friend said.

Now, Valerie is fairly talkative, so that was hard to believe. And finally, she spoke. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Nadine Kam photo
From left are Sig Zane, Sig Zane Designs style director Atsuko Kimoto and production manager Margaret Stanley, and Dr. Taupouri Tangaro.

Sig Zane celebrated his 22nd anniversary with the presentation of his 2008 Wailani Collection at the Outrigger Reef Hotel Friday night.

The celebration had models strolling among guests in an open-air setting overlooking the ocean, in an encore of a show presented earlier on the Big Island, combining Zane’s designs with Tiffany jewelry and hula-inspired hairscapes created by Taupouri Tangaro.

The hair was so elaborate, I asked Tangaro how long he had been working with hair, assuming lengthy training.

“Just since Sig asked me,” said the Hawaiian cultural expert, an assistant professor at Hawaii Community College’s Hawaii Life Styles Program. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Yay, Allison Izu Nagato is coming up with a petite denim line for all the shorties in Hawaii and beyond. We just have to wait about 3 months ’til it hits the stores. It’s kind of hard to wait, but given today’s instant communications, we can’t help but see things months ahead of time. Just think of something and it seems the word gets out.

The word is definitely out about the “notorious” photo session involving a topless Maggie Beach and Rita Blais, as photographed by Russell Tanoue. (more…)

By Nadine Kam

Neiman Marcus photo
Diamond in the Rough necklace of uncut stones, $65,000.

The 81st edition Neiman Marcus Christmas Book debuted this week, so I’m sitting here making my list of what I’d like to see under my tree this year.

I don’t ask for much, so Santa, I’m going with one thing only, the 4-foot-long Diamond in the Rough chain necklace of uncut stones (about 62 carats) set in 18K gold. It’s $65,000. (more…)