One of the reasons I love Modavia Fashion Week is that the process of preparing a collection for a show is far different than preparing weekly or monthly releases. Releases can stand on their own and how one outfit relates to another is immaterial. A collection however demands that the pieces work together to form an integrated whole. Strangely enough, by adding the constraint of making the clothes work together as a while, we get more innovation and imagination from the designers, not less. Sometimes, it take limits to free the imagination. That’s why we often get such fresh and extraordinary designs in runway shows. The designers’ imaginations have been set afire by the need to create 12 designs that express a singular vision.

Monica Outlander, the genius behind MiaMai, is perhaps the best exemplar of this at work. Her runway shows are highly anticipated and filled to capacity because everyone knows it will be a show,  an extravaganza of art, music and design coming together synergistically.  Synergy is such an overused term, but only because people use it recklessly as though cooperation and coordination were synergy.

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