By the way, SIMOF, is biggest runway show for flamenca dresses in Sevilla. This year, I got some of my students to come with me, and maybe I will plant the fashion seed of dressing in style for feria. Maybe they thought I was crazy, it was too early to think about feria. It's in May, and we were barely ending January, right? Well, by the end of March, the dressmakers are not taking any more orders because they cannot deliver on time. Yes, this is the craziest time of the year to be a dressmaker, so be nice to your dressmaker, she is probably very stressed (or will be).
This year SIMOF was special, it was celebrating its 20th anniversary so many things, surprises, and celebrations were expected. However, I can tell that these are times of austerity.
The first thing we did, besides the usual picture outside the gates of SIMOF, was to see Seville's feria portal models of the past 20 years, including this 2014 model.
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| Year 1990 |
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| Year 1991 |
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| Year 2014. It'll be fun to see this portal in real life, can't wait. |
Once through the doors of the expo, ahh! the colors … it was like walking on a field of wild flowers. I stood there for a minute, not knowing if I should turn left, or right, then I saw it, not a dress, not a shawl, not even earrings, right in front of me was the castanet stand, with Mr. Vela, the spokesperson for Castañuelas del Sur, he is a celebrity (fro castanet geeks like me). I had seen him many times on internet videos, he did not look busy, and seemed very nice. So I approached him, he appreciated the conversation, he showed us his latest toy, the Castañofono, a board with pegs where you attach several castanets to play them like you would a marimba, but instead of a stick you use your fingers. This "instrument" was recently presented at Cristina Hoyos Flamenco Museum in Seville. Take a look:
Not to long ago castanets were dark one color, mainly made of wood, fabric or black fiber, but now they are fashionable, made with bright colors,. You can find then in black, white, green, red, with colored speck, etc. Beautiful you could match them to your feria dress. I do! For more castanets info check out the site. Ok, I was done playing with the castanets, so now it was time to do what I really came here for… The fashion show...
So many dresses, so little time! We went around quickly, we did not have time to see more, the show was about to begin. A 20th celebration with austerity. I definitely saw it with number of the empty seats. The place was not full. I did not care, I was there and I was very excited. My husband saw an opportunity and had the best idea. With all those empty seats, he asked the security guard for permission, for me, to sit with the press. They said yes, so there I was. Great! I'm in heaven. Now all I needed, was one of those super fancy big cameras. But my phone camera will have to do…
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| Before seating with the press. |
More on the fashion show in the next post…
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