Updated: May 19, 2013, 12:00 AM
In pictures: Michael Cinco's Fashion Forward
DUBAI , UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Ð April 27 , 2013 : Models getting ready at the backstage for the show of Michael Cinco , fashion designer at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. ( Pawan Singh / The National ) For Arts & Life. Story by James Gabrillo
Backstage, Cinco’s direction could be felt in every detail. He checked on each of the 30 models as they had their hair and make-up done.
Michael Cinco's show was the hottest ticket at the inaugural Fashion Forward event, held during the last week of April to showcase the work of the region’s top fashion designers.All photographs by Pawan Singh / The National
None of the clothes appeared heavy; not even the finale dress, which involved a trail of voluminous tulle embellished with flower shapes and crystals.
The shapes were a lot cleaner than in Cinco’s past work, but the sense of rigour and purity remained. Tiny, flat sequins were hand-stitched on tulle, beads painstakingly embroidered and Swarovski crystals embedded in laser-cut lace.
Cinco’s show dazzlingly demonstrated how to inject modernity into cultural references – in this case, 1940s Hollywood and Russian tsarinas.
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Fashion designers have had a long affair with the opulence of body-hugging gowns and bodice dresses, but Cinco's collection is a rare instance when you know you’re looking at something new.
Cinco thinks that growing up in provincial Philippines pushed him to dream big. “It was a small town in a fishing village, so I had to create my own fantasies,� he said.