Trend Alert: Spring 2013 by BLAK-I

By Cintia Lopez de Freitas

Diego Fuchs and Helder Aguiar met at the Academy of Design while studying Fashion Design in 2003. Their brand BLAK-I was created in 2010 and it has evolved throughout the years into a lifestyle for women that know what they want and “don’t really give a damn”.

The new Spring 2013 “#theNüBLAKI” collection was shown on October 15, at Brennen Demelo Studios, a very intimate and cozy venue. While waiting for the show to start, I noticed two ladies sitting patiently close to a wall, quietly watching the excited crowd. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get their take on what was about to happen.

Turns out the two ladies were respectively the mother and aunt of Helder Aguiar. They were happy to tell me a little about their Portuguese background and how proud they are of both Helder and Fuchs’ work. When the show began, I rushed to the front of the runway space to get some photos and as I was leaving, they called and asked me to come back after the show so they could introduce me to the designers.  How cute, seriously?!

The collection was beautiful. It was great to see trends such as asymmetry and transparency in clothes that every downtown girl will need to have in their wardrobes. The fact most looks were quite basic made the collection that much more interesting to me, probably because I find “basic” to be my personal style. In terms of colors, there was a lot of black and blush pink – a combination that can’t really go wrong. What I loved the most was the way the draped dresses and tops would flow as the models walked. Truly stunning.

After the show, as promised, I got to meet both designers. As most students, when Diego and Helder graduated from the Academy, they knew the direction they wanted to go, but decided to work with local designers first so they could build their knowledge in the business before starting their own.

When BLAK-I was created, the target of the brand wasn’t directly on women as it is now, but both women and men. Soon, the designers understood that it would be better to drop the menswear and put all efforts into womens’, at least as a starting point. A smart move, in my point of view, because according to Helder, this decision allowed them to focus on producing and delivering exactly what they wanted to as a brand. So for all desperate last-term students: things can change and evolve! We don’t need to have everything figured out all the time!