Ritienne Zammit steals the spotlight with Je Suis at #MFWA2016

Day 6: This is the first time I have experienced one of the Maltese fashion designer Ritienne Zammit’s fashion shows. I have read articles and seen photographs of her quirky concepts from previous years and how she tackles controversial subjects through her collections. Fashion Week 2016 collection is in fact entitled “Je Suis” (meaning I Am in French) and is based on the theme of obsessions and addictions including money, religion, sex and drugs.

The Ramp

Ritienne, very much in her signature custom of shocking her strong followers, is the only one at this year’s edition of the Mercedes-Benz Malta Fashion Week who dared to chose the most challenging catwalk platform for her show, a 45 degree angle ramp with steps on one side. This would make any model cringe with fear but they all strut their stuff like heroes and heroines, especially the lead lady of the pack, who also held a quirky cat in her arms down the ramp and throughout the entire show.

Photo by Jason Spiteri

I personally took this ramp to represent the highs and lows of obsessions. There’s nowhere in between when you are addicted to something.

The Je Suis Collection

Her collection and show literally puts a spotlight on sex, money, religion and the limitations that addictions bring with them. Her high quality print-based collection serves as an observation of what happens when people take things to extremes. To Ritienne, it is unacceptable to judge others, when they are already in pain and to inflict one’s thoughts and opinions upon others. That is why I think they had black tape stuck over their lips. It’s kind of her way of saying “People have to learn to live and let live!”.

Photo by Jason Spiteri

Photo by Justin Ciappara

In keeping with the fluidity of her collection, Ritienne does not stick to one colour or black and white but it involves several colours including warm orange and purples, based on thoughts and energies and characters of human beings which are all different and all have their own problems to carry.

Photo by Justin Ciappara

We saw print-based trousers and tops, waistcoats, pencil skirts, suits for men and woman, flowy dresses with interesting cuts. We were also treated to some faux fur pieces in black and white. In the pieces that represented sex addiction, we saw leather touches mixed with gold metallic and large statement necklaces. For men we saw tight leg trousers, t-shirts and suits. There was a dedicated print to each addiction and I also noticed cute white hoversacks with little messages on them such as “Sex is emotion in motion”. Loved it all!

Photo by Jason Spiteri

Photo by Justin Ciappara

Make-Up & Hair

Makeup work by Elaine Galea and her team was awesome. Orange-coloured eye shadow and bronze on the eyes and excellent highlighting and contouring techniques used on the hand-picked models’ brows. Hair by Chris, Matthew and Lindsay Galea was styled sleek and pulled back most of the time with plaits and in some cases bob style wigs.

Photo by Jason Spiteri

The pictures I chose to share all throughout this blog are my favourite pieces in particular the very low cut jumpsuit, the and the flowy dresses which seem so easy to wear.