Obakki Stands for Cool

Photographer: Wayne Mah

Last week I finally started to feel hope for the Vancouver fashion industry. I had the opportunity to attend several amazing events, which demonstrated that Vancouver does know how to put on a good show. The first one, on Wednesday afternoon (yay, an event that takes place DURING the work day) was all about luxury, exclusivity, and class: the Jason Matlo bridal presentation at the Shangri-La, you can read about it here. The second one, on Thursday night, was the Obakki Fall Winter 2010 fashion show, and was definitely the “hippest” Vancouver fashion event I’ve been to so far.

Photographer: Wayne Mah

It was promising from the start, the people waiting to get in were all super well-dressed. Not well-dressed in the sense of classy, well-dressed as in COOL. Not a single bad pair of shoes in sight. I felt like I was in Stockholm, at a party for Acne Jeans. So, the first question is, WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE HIDING???? I don’t see them out enough. I guess that probably has to do with the fact that I’m camping out in the boring, rich old people’s neighbourhood, instead of living in an area where the average age is less than 60.

You are probably thinking, what is so cool about this front row? The fact that there is not a bad pair of shoes. In Vancouver, it is close to impossible to fill a venue fill of interesting, well-dressed people, so this was a first.

It is so nice to see a front row that isn't full of women wearing evening wear because the fashion show is their "big night out."

These girls are both wearing Fluevogs and they looked great.

Anyway… the show was fantastic. Obakki is a bit like Alexander Wang meets COS meets Balmain meets Acne. Its cool, a little bit luxury, and a little bit rock. I am going to visit their studio in June to have a proper look at the collection, but they seem to be really good at cutting a great pair of skinny trousers and a rock’n'roll party dress. It was a mix of casual wear and cocktail, although there was a lack of outerwear. There was one great coat, inspired by the horrible raincoats/trench coats Germans wear when they are hiking with giant storm flaps, which looked amazing. I hope there’s more of that sort of thing when I see the collection in its entirely in June.

Obakki love their seaming, and both the trousers and dresses had lots of interesting-placed seams. There was quite a lot of sparkly, disco fabrics made into edgy mini dresses and little boleros. Leather trims and pants were in abundance, and the oversized, chunky knits looked great worn with tight leather pants. Other highlights included the draping on cocktail pieces, wool dresses with pockets, and skinny pants with jodhpur-style seaming. I would have liked to see more day wear and voluminous pieces, as I felt there was a few too many tight, sexy dresses. My challenge in life is to find great, edgy casual wear, (that’s why Im obsessed with COS) and Obakki can be the go-to brand for exactly that. Hopefully the full collection has got more knits and day dresses and amazing coats.

The biggest disappointment was the menswear, but I am just going to ignore it. It was not nearly as interesting as the womenswear… The styling and model casting were spot on, long, rock chick hair with smoky eyes and great layering of opaque tights, wooly socks and clunky shoes. They looked sexy, edgy, and super cool. This brand has got a great handwriting, amazing collections and major potential. I can’t wait to see what they do next. Yay Vancouver!

I forgot to say, Obakki also does all sorts of “good” things, like manufacture locally and lots of charity stuff. I fill you in more on that when I go and visit their studio. All catwalk images by Wayne Mah.