Disney Fashion with a Pop Diva Twist

The winning designers and their creations

Anyone who knows me quite well knows I'm part of the Disney generation. So when I got invited to attend Walt Street Fashion, a fashion competition mixing today's pop culture divas with classic Disney characters, how could I say no? All they had to do was say "Cruella de Vil meets Lady Gaga" and I was pretty much there.

The entire event was a collaborative effort by fashion students from The Art Institute of Vancouver. Students had three weeks to design and create their looks. The most delicious part about this whole competition is that they weren't allowed to sew! Nothing like a runway full of folded paper, tin foil, foam, tape. To add to it all, the runway was actually the retro LED dance floor of the Vinyl Retro Lounge.

The Runway! Deliciously genius!

Gaga + Cruella designers Trina Cairns and Danielle Yanay gave us a close-up of their fantastic work. Showing a lot of attention to detail, they made sure that I got a shot of their dalmatian-spotted armadillo shoes. The dress itself was (thankfully) not made out of puppies, but had been masterfully crafted out of tape!

My personal fav of the night was the appropriately vibrant Snow White meets Nicki Minaj dress that was made entirely of paper. That design took home a prize, as did Belle meets JLo and Aladdin meets Michael Jackson.

With all the creativity on the floor, I was definitely getting that giddy feeling I get every time they get to the runway segments of Drag Race. Some of the less memorable outfits tended to stick too close to the original pop or Disney design, leaving the other source of inspiration a little lost. But the more successful ones definitely did an amazing job of not only grabbing elements from their two sources, but combining them to showcase their own unique, sewing-free senses of style.

Here's hoping we see more fashion shows like this in the future. I mean, this generation has loads of inspirations sources to choose from! Retro sci-fi, superheroes, children's TV (*cough* Manila Luzon *cough*)... you know, just in case anyone needed any ideas for the next fashion show you wanna invite me to... ;)

Posted by Filipina Colada