CHILDREN IN HAUTE COUTURE OUTFITS

It is unlikely that the little girls proudly striding along the catwalk are familiar with the words of the Russian classic. For the moment it is not important to them. What is important is how pretty they look in the outfits designed for them by novice designers providing entries for the "Children's wear fashion show".

The presentation of works by young Baku designers is devoted to the Year of Azerbaijani Culture in Russia. The event is the brainchild of the members of the "Constellation" youth club attached to the Russian information and cultural centre almost a year ago. Ten aspiring fashion designers aged 17 to 35 submitted their designs for the audience to judge them and to the high court in the persons of Azerbaijani couturier Faxriya Xalafova [Fakhriya Khalafova], the fashion designer and director of the "Natavan" gallery, Natavan Aliyeva, and the chief designer of clothes at the Baku textile mill, Matanat Zeynalova. The pieces were assessed by the jury in two categories: "National ornaments" and "Modern costume".

National ornaments

Why does a person need clothes? Adults would say that they are needed for everyday, social and aesthetic purposes. Little girls simply like dressing up in pretty things and bigger girls like to feel that they look exceptionally beautiful. It is very important to instil in children a taste for beautiful things right from childhood.

Clothes are a special language in people's contacts with one another. The question of how to make them beautiful, comfortable and fashionable has long occupied people's minds and the imagination of artists and fashion designers. Whole ranges of ready-to-wear clothes are designed, which give a feeling of the pace of modern life, but reveal a person's individuality to such an extent that he or she stands out from the crowd in an advantageous way. You see, clothes are yet another way of telling the world about your own individuality! And what, if not ornamentation, has made clothes look original in different parts of the world since time immemorial?

Let's take, for example, the Incas, the inhabitants of Tibet, India, the ancient Britons, the Slavs or Oguzes [Turkic speaking people]. You get a very varied and attractive picture. It is hard to find similarities in the national ornaments of Azerbaijan and Russia, if you look at the ethnic peculiarities of the design as it has come down to us from the ancient Slavs and Oguzes. The delicate and large drawings of plants and leaves are typical of the people of the plains, where masses of wild plants are growing, while the symbol of fire (the stone) is typical of the inhabitants of the mountains and deserts.

Designers creating clothes for children have tried to exploit these ethnic peculiarities in their work. The artistic aim is to combine the cultural traditions of the peoples of Azerbaijan and Russia into a culture-related effort with a humanistic ring. Three people took the prizes in this category.

They were Camila Malikova, the youngest participant, a pupil in the 10th class at school No.1 in the city of Baku. From the point view of the jury, she created a splendid ethnic ensemble consisting of a long check skirt, a white jacket with a pattern on the sleeves, an apron sewn into it with an amusing composition of a wreath with a red plait on top of it. The jury gave this work first place and awarded the winning designer a package tour round Russia's Golden Ring [of ancient towns encircling Moscow].

Dilara Mehtiyeva took second place. She created a smart dress with a Gzhel-type [traditional Russian blue and white pottery produced by the Gzhel factory] design combining blue and white. The blue flowers printed around the waist and on the collar, the wonderful blue birds flapping their wings along the hem are for us reminders of the fairy stories that were read to us when we were children. The wreath of blue and white daisies against the dark, free-flowing hair of the little girl crowns the composition, giving it a romantic touch.

Parviz Hasanov was awarded third place. His little model enjoyed displaying the white dress, dotted with occasional round red flowers like clover in full bloom along the hem, with these flowers lightly intertwined on the bodice in a crimson gamut of colour. On her head she wore a crown of rosebuds with white tassles woven from silk hanging down onto her shoulders. What more does a girl of nine or ten need to make her feel like a princess?

"Modern costume"

In the jury's second category the works were examined by designers offering the following concept of design: "Russia and Azerbaijan. The friendship between the two peoples." The fashion designers submitted smart modern outfits to the jury, which exhibited motifs from both countries. There were three winners in this category too.

Ilaha Mirhuseynova took first place. She submitted a long red dress, with a gold trim around the neck and hem; the dress was complemented with a bright-coloured short-sleeved jacket called arxaliq bearing the flags of the two countries. The composition was completed with a belt, the buckle on which was formed of the two country's coats of arms. 

Asfana Zahmati was awarded the second place. Her design was created in the traditional style of Azerbaijani costume. This was a short skirt with a floating cut: an arxaliq (a light little jacket with semi-circular slits on the chest, with a white top (don) underneath it. The composition was completed with Aragcin headwear, in the same mustard colour as the arxaliq jacket. This is a splendid outfit for a fashionable young girl! 

The third place was awarded to Nadia Taziyeva. She submitted a short white dress with long sleeves, which were decorated with a delicate plant pattern in pink and green tones. A crimson waist coat, sewn in the style of the arxaliq jacket, but sleeveless, was worn over the dress. Both beautiful and feminine!

Beauty saving the world

The festive event lasted a long time and nobody wanted it to end. This is the first time in 10 years that such a large number of young fashion designers have got together, in order for modern children to submit their own view of the world to the audience of judges, to give one another encouragement and discuss the problems and trends relating to the designing of contemporary fashion. 

This is a good beginning so that similar events can become a tradition and not only at the "Constellation" club. But a tradition for the fashion designers themselves, who would like to convert their creative mutual contacts into ongoing professional dialogues. And may events like this become something bigger for our little Baku residents! And in getting a taste for the aesthetic world of self-expression through clothes, may they learn to transform the world according to a formula of happiness, peace and spiritual beauty. Then the words of the once great Chekhov will become an everyday reality for us. 

It is pleasant that there is a young man like Parviz Hasanov in the team of fashion designers who are trying to transform the world into something aesthetically splendid through the medium of clothes. What is upsetting is that only clothes for girls were submitted in the field of home-grown design. Boys also like to be fashionable, stylish and smart. It only seems as if fashion for little men is not interesting. For an artist with imagination this field offers unlimited possibilities! But perhaps this will become the reason for continuing the creative dialogue among professional designers? One would like to think so…