Feeric Fashion Week 2023

From July 19 to 23, we travelled to Sibiu, Romania, to attend a new edition of Feeric Fashion Week. The event led by Mitichi Preda has brought together young fashion talent from different countries, specialised press, and international experts after fourteen years providing the catwalk for some of the world's most creative emerging and established fashion designers. Promoting many initiatives to boost young fashion graduates and betting on incredible locations for the fashion shows, the event’s latest edition has once again proven why this project has made a name for itself.

Far from the format that other fashion weeks opt for, in which the vast majority of the shows are held in just one location away from the city centre and which inevitably causes a loss of identity for the works presented, Feeric Fashion Week offers a very complete experience that gives us hope in an industry that should keep promoting the talent of young designers. This is what this project, which emerged in Sibiu, Romania, does. Through the Feeric Hub, it has allowed students from universities from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia and North Africa to show their work.

We highlighted it a few days ago: Feeric Fashion Week is the first one in the world to join the #FurFree initiative by Humane Society International. Quite an achievement that demonstrates the project’s contemporary vision, which also has an impeccable organisation and a very dedicated team.

Before the presentations began to take place in different parts of Sibiu, one of Romania's most culturally lively cities, we attended lectures provided by various international experts. Mira Postolache, MA Mentor and Lecturer at Moodart Fashion School of Communication Verona; Landiana Cerciu, the Vice President of Feeric Fashion Week and Editor-in-Chief of Modic Magazine; Donald Gjoka, founder of Coeval Magazine; and Giovanni Ottonello, Global Creative Director of IED, Istituto Europeo di Design, shared their thoughts and led workshops throughout a day that invited to reflection on the present and future of fashion.

The following three days, the presentations of the different participating universities were included in a complete programme of activities in which there was also time for leisure, achieving a balanced and very well-resolved experience. Within the Feeric Hub programme, Ana Farîma opened the Feeric Venue presentation series at Cine Gold with her Metamorphosis collection; Camelia Ienciu, from the Faculty of Arts in Oradea, presented the pieces of a collection inspired by Ricardo Bofill's famous architectural work, Muralla Roja, and the last presentation was a collective one by students from the New Bulgarian University.

We then moved to the external stairs of the Promenada Mall, a perfect place to hold a fashion show and where we were able to see first-hand the creations of the students of the Faculty of Arts and Design of the Western University of Timișoara. This collective presentation showed the issues that matter and concern the young talents of today's fashion, addressing topics ranging from mental health and the feeling of belonging to female empowerment or environmental responsibility. One of the designers participating in the show, Alexandra Crista, showed exclamation marks in her pieces in a clear plea to react and take urgent action within the fashion industry.

In the Festival Lake hall, we had the opportunity to see the works of the two winning students of the Idea Moda competition launched by New Bulgarian University, Teodora Chifutis and Annie Hadzhieva, as well as the latest project by Sophia Katsimicha, representing Athens Fashion Club. But if there was a location that left us speechless on this first day of presentations, that was the Prodial sorting station in Tălmaciu, where the students of the University of Arts in Belgrade presented their works.

The second day began with a presentation in the Feeric Venue by the students from the University of Krakow and the International Balkan University. After the presentation of a new edition of the Synergia collection in the above-ground parking lot of the mall, Hooldra and Alexandru Fediuc from the University of Arts in Iași presented two new collections at Festival Lake. These were two of the best shows we attended, showing quite complete projects with a recognisable identity.

Then we went to Colț de Rai for an equestrian presentation, which was the icing on the cake. Interspersing the traditional presentation with models with horses, the pieces of the collection made by students from the University of Arts and Design in Cluj Napoca were shown. The creations of young designer Corina Caravasili deserve a special mention as her looks demonstrated a very well-executed pattern-making exercise and study of silhouettes. We must also highlight the work of Matis Raul, who managed to shape his own style with very well-made garments that contrasted with the dream setting in which the presentation took place.

The third and last day began with the presentation of the students from Unarte Bucharest, showing the largest collective collection in the geometric setting of the Boromir factory. Afterwards, we travelled to the past, to the Warp of Times, in an event that turned into a manifest journey, in the footsteps of the textile heritage of Șara Făgărașilor and took place at Cine Gold Sibiu. The last individual presentation of this edition took place in the pedestrian walkway that connects the courtyard of the Brukenthal Museum to the Împaratul Romanilor Hotel, where the public saw the collective collection made by the students of the UFEG Faculty in Ukraine.

The Feeric Gala hosted the collections signed by Georgia Chioni from Athens Fashion Club, Kimono & Me, La blouse Roumaine, Bujra Al Hajar, and the students of the Faculty of Textile Technology of the University of Zagreb and the Academy of Music and Fine Arts in Chisinau, and thanked all attendees for their support, emphasising the need to continue supporting young talents in the fashion industry.

Feeric Fashion Week has managed, thanks to its non-stop work and determination, to become a platform for promoting international young talent worldwide. Being the greatest fashion week in Eastern Europe, the project continues to generate excitement and many professionals do not hesitate to travel to Sibiu to see where fashion is headed by young creatives.

Athens Fashion Club - Sophia Katsimicha