The hopes of Fiji’s fledgling fashion industry rest on the slim shoulders of a 25-year-old from the village of Muaninuku named Laisiasa Raibevu Davetawalu.
The young designer has done what so many in the Pacific country have dreamed of but haven’t had the opportunity to do.
Sponsored by the entire Fijian fashion community, who recognized his promise and raised money to pay for fashion school fees, he completed his training at the Fashion Design Studio in Tafe NSW in Australia., making him one of the few designers in Fiji who has been able to access professional training.
The power of his recent graduate collection, a sultry wardrobe of summer womenswear with nods to Fijian design traditions, landed him in the pages of Australian Vogue and a job as a junior garment technician at Zimmermann, one of the Australia’s most successful fashion brands.
“I am proud of my heritage and want to represent Fiji on the world fashion stage,” he says.
Laisiasa Davetawalu’s latest collection, for her brand Elaradi, on the runway at Fiji Fashion Week 2022. Photography: Asvin Sing
In addition to his work at Zimmermann, Davetawalu has his own Elaradi label, a play on his initials, LRD.
In May, he brought an expanded version of his Sydney graduate collection to Suva for the Fiji Fashion Week closing show, where he was greeted by ravenous fans, well-wishers and well-wishers.
“Lai showed promise from the moment she debuted her first collection as a design student,” says Hosanna Kabakoro, a fellow designer, who makes resort use under the Duatani brand, Fijian for “something different”.
“Promise is something that we see a lot of here, but rarely gets a chance to grow beyond that potential.”
And it grew, showcasing diaphanous chiffon, intricate corsetry and hand-knotted gowns that would look right at home on a yacht anywhere from Ibiza to Barbados.
“He may be our first Fijian designer to really appeal to a general foreign market,” says Kabakoro.
by Davetawalu the designs made subtle nods to Fijian cultural influences. A fringed, high-neck gown, photographed for Australia Vogue’s annual portfolio of new fashion graduates, featured intricate hand-knotting that took four months to complete. It was the antithesis of fast fashion.
Davetawalu uses a hand-knotting technique that mimics magimagi, a hand-woven rope made from coconut fiber. Photography: Asvin Sing
For Fijians, the knots and fringes on the dress mimicked magimagi, a hand-woven rope made from coconut fiber used in fishing nets, canoes, and traditional architecture.
Other floating pieces of silk chiffon seemed to nod to traditional Indian dress, commonly seen in Fiji due to the large Indo-Fijian population.
Not long ago, Davetawalu drew designs and read fashion magazines while other boys played rugby. at Queen Victoria School, a rural boys’ boarding school recognized as a bastion of indigenous masculinity that has produced many iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) leaders.
“I was very intimidated because I’m gay,” says Davetawalu. “They would say, ‘Why are you always designing dresses? Why not do something masculine? One morning I ran away and never came back.”
Davetawalu took a two-hour bus from rural Lawaki to central Suva, where he went to find the office of Fiji Fashion Week, which had announced a design competition for students.
He entered the contest but did not win. With the support of his relatives, Davetawalu found a local school to go to and then presented the first complete collection of his.
Several fashion industry insiders, including Christine Evans, an Australian fashion designer then living in Suva, and Ellen Whippy-Knight, the indomitable founder of Fiji Fashion Week, noticed Davetawalu’s talent and they took under their wing.
Laisiasa (Lai) Raibevu Davetawalu, who now has a job with Zimmerman and her work has been featured in Australian Vogue. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian
Veteran Australian fashion educator Nicholas Huxley, who first met Davetawalu when he was running a mentoring program in Suva, calls him “the real deal.”
“He’s quite extraordinary and has an innate ability to look beyond the normal idea of putting a garment on the body,” he says.
Whippy-Knight aims to put fashion at the forefront of the cultural conversation in Fiji. She has pushed for local fashion education and other initiatives to benefit the industry, such as the establishment of a fashion council, an incubator for budding designers, and increased state support.
It has staged annual shows since 2007 as a platform for emerging designers like Davetawalu to showcase their craft and find buyers. As a result, several local designers, such as Samson Lee, Moira Solvalu and Michael Mausio, who specialize in bold prints, have gone from appearing at Fiji Fashion Week without formal design training to developing viable, albeit small, businesses. .
Ellen Whippy-Knight, founder of Fiji Fashion Week, at her home in Sydney, Australia. She has supported Davetawalu’s studies and career. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
The country’s fashion scene has also become a safe space for LGBTQI+ people to find community and express themselves without fear of reprisal.
Colorful indigenous prints are what make Fijian fashion unique. To the Fijian and Pacific Islander wearer, they signify culture, identity and belonging, but local designers have been less successful in adapting these patterns for the Fijian tourist market, which receives close to a million tourists a year. .
Prints have global potential; that has already been exploited by strangers. A decade ago, sportswear giant Nike introduced a line of women’s print leggings inspired by tattoo designs from Fiji, Samoa and Maori; and in 2013, the now-defunct New York womenswear brand Nanette Lepore came under fire for cultural appropriation after using a masi design from Fiji (and mislabeling it ‘Aztec’). Both companies recalled these products in response to protests from Pacific communities.
For Davetawalu, the path from design student to budding professional who dreams of one day owning her own brand hasn’t been easy.
Fiji Fashion Week has run annual shows since 2007 as a platform for budding designers to develop their craft and find buyers. Composer: Asvin Singh
There was the matter of paying for design school as an international student in Australia, which cost A$70,000. Fiji’s fashion community pitched in: Whippy-Knight provided Lai with a place to stay at her home in Sydney, while the Fiji Fashion Foundation organized annual fundraisers to pay for her school fees, raising approximately 15 AU$000 per year for four years.
Today, he is one of the few Fijians with formal training in fashion design. This is despite a local clothing manufacturing industry valued at 100 million Fijian dollars (US$50 million) that produces general clothing, from sportswear to uniforms for Australia and New Zealand.
Several Fiji-based factories also make fashion garments for brands like Kookai, the trend-oriented women’s label co-owned by a Fijian-Australian; Bimbi and Roy, a women’s intimate apparel brand founded by two Australian sisters who grew up partly in Fiji; and Scanlan and Theodore, an established high-end womenswear brand with more than a dozen boutiques in Australia.
Despite local fashion manufacturing capabilities, there is a deep disconnect between the garment industry and Fiji’s nascent fashion design industry. The latter faces a number of constraints, including lack of access to formal education and training, incubation and mentoring, quality fabrics and funding, as well as increased state support for the industry.
“Our people are naturally creative,” says Whippy-Knight. “We have a strong tradition of craftsmanship and making things with our hands. What we need is a proper fashion school for designers from Fiji and the Pacific.”
Source: www.theguardian.com