In Iraq, Sahar Alsammraee operated a clothing design studio out of her home. Her stock-in-trade were elaborately embroidered designs for traditional Arabic/Islamic dresses called abaya. That all came to an end when the 55-year-old designer fled to Syria at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. When conflict escalated there she returned to Iraq, then migrated to Vermont in 2014.

Alsammraee provides home care for her mother. And it's taken her some time to save up for sewing machines and fabric. But this year she has returned to the practice she loves: designing and sewing abaya.

And now, she has an outlet to show those designs: The Karibu (Welcome) International Fashion Show. Staged by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, the show takes place on Thursday, April 13, at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.

Aslammraee is one of three designers preparing garments for the show. The others, Pamela Tshilemba and Virginie Diambou, are from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, respectively. The show features 21 models from far flung countries such as Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Iraq, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, China, Nepal, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo.

CVOEO associate director Sandrine Kibuey, formerly of the DRC, cohosts the event with Alex Hirsch from WCAX-TV.

Alsammraee was preparing four pieces for Karibu in her Winooski apartment on Tuesday afternoon. The designer doesn't speak fluent English, so Houda Musanovic, formerly of Morocco, translated.

One red evening gown with long sleeves not yet sewn to the bodice was draped on the couch near a small sewing machine set up on a folding table. She'll be making two dresses in that style.
The other two, which she has already finished, are abaya in seashell pink and turquoise. One is adorned with glitzy rhinestones, the other bearing an appliquéd band of silver lace trim down the center.  The dresses are composed of two parts — a loosely fitted, ankle-length sheath dress in poly-blend satin topped with a layer of sheer chiffon.

The designer says she gets her fabric at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts in South Burlington, but that it's more expensive than the material she used to work with in Iraq. She's also using machine-embroidered fabrics from Jo-Ann. In Iraq she designed embroidery patterns and commissioned area seamstresses to fashion them either by hand or machine, depending on the complexity of the design.

Alsammraee and Musanovic explained that the light, flowing abaya are typically worn "the day just before a wedding, henna day." On that occasion, women dress up and gather to adorn the bride-to-be with temporary henna tattoos. "Just girls," Musanovic says, adding, "sparkle is very important."

Aslammraee is excited for people to see her designs. "It's just the beginning, she says." She hopes to grow her business here and be successful with it, as she was in Iraq. She adds, "It helps to be known in the community."

As most Vermonters surely know, Ed Koren is the state's second-ever cartoonist laureate — but is known and beloved far beyond our borders. Koren, who has lived in Brookfield since 1987, made his name with a fuzzy, sometimes furry, and always funny comic aesthetic that has graced the pages of the New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the Nation and many other publications. This holiday season, Koren has another feather (quill?) to stick in his cap: the video "A Holiday Haven With Hermès." 

It is one of a series on the label's website. You might call it "a haute couture Christmas with Koren."

Neri Oxman’s creations look like they’ve emerged from a 1950s science-fiction film. Multicolored, alien crenellations bend into weird but oddly recognizable shapes; weird textures evoke deep-sea creatures or weird insects. They’re extremely difficult to figure out.

But that inscrutable nature is by design. Just as Oxman’s projects look both bizarre and familiar, she resists easy categorization herself. Part artist, part scientist and part designer, Oxman works in a field that’s she’s dubbed “material ecology,” the goal of which is to study how new techniques of design and fabrication can transform the creation of everyday objects and structures. As she put it on her blog, her overall project is to investigate the ways that design intersects with “architecture, enginerring, computation, and ecology.”

Many of Oxman’s most striking designs draw their inspiration from natural materials: internal organs, insect carapaces, seashells. Oxman, a professor at MIT, is at the cutting edge of the 3-D printing revolution, and has used the technology to design and build everything from bike helmets to high-fashion dresses to carpal-tunnel wristguards.

Neri Oxman will visit the University of Vermont this Thursday to deliver the George D. Aiken Lecture, “Material Ecology: A New Approach to Nature-Inspired Design and Engineering.” By email, she answered some questions for Seven Days in advance of her talk.

For the past two months in West Rutland, the Carving Studio & Sculpure Center's artist-in-residence Alasdair Thomson has been at work on a stunning series of marble sculptures: dresses.

The Scottish-born, Italian-trained master sculptor says he's "exploring the way fabric hangs and folds," and is attempting "to capture that lightness and gracefulness in stone."

The articles of clothing in the series, called the Identity Collection, were donated by friends and family — and by a popular bridal designer and television personality, Pnina Tornai.

Even if you've never heard of her, you've probably seen one of Tornai's dresses. The Israeli designer makes regular appearances on TLC's reality TV show "Say Yes to the Dress" as the exclusive designer of Kleinfeld Bridal in New York, and her designs are frequently worn by celebrities and featured in fashion magazines. (In 2008, the New York Times summed up her style as "patently vixenish.")

Until the end of September, visitors to the Carving Studio & Sculpture Center can get a look at Thomson's sculpture of a Tornai dress. After that, it's headed to the Big Apple to be featured in the designer's runway show during New York International Bridal Week, according to Carving Studio executive director Carol Driscoll.

The Montpelier Fashion Show has been a popular early-summer community event since it was first launched by local clothing store Damsels in 2004. Each year, hordes of people have turned out to watch models of all ages, shapes and sizes strut their stuff on a makeshift catwalk, often showcasing fashions from downtown businesses including The Getup. And each year, the show's proceeds have benefitted a local nonprofit.

But this year's event, held on June 7 at the Montpelier Senior Activity Center on Barre Street, is likely to be the last. Coordinator Anne-Marie Keppel is leaving the stage and, so far, no one else has stepped up to take her place. 

Seven years after she took the reins of the fashion show, Keppel is leaving it and other event planning — including Strut!, the fashion show of Burlington's annual South End Art Hop — to focus on her work with the elderly. She's currently a residential care assistant at the Gary Home and Westview Meadows, and coordinates the Meals on Wheels program with JUST BASICS, inc. 

Revolution, White River Junction’s most ecologically conscious clothing store, will host a proudly biased Oscar party this Sunday evening. Captain Paul Watson, known for his role on the show “Whale Wars,” as well as for his own Whale Warriors academy, will be in attendance to present the “Big Splash Award” to Manny Oteyza, producer of the film Blackfish.

Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, documents the consequences of keeping orcas (“killer whales”) in captivity at such venues as the SeaWorld theme parks. Highly controversial upon its release last year, Blackfish caused ripples in environmental and animal-rights communities.

In being denied an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, Blackfish continues to stir up controversy — precisely the reason for its being fêted at Revolution’s event. A press release refers to the Whale Warriors being “incredulous” about the film’s exclusion from the list of nominees, and speculates that unbecoming financial transactions are part of the reason.

Why celebrate this film (and its message) in Vermont, of all places? As Kim Souza, owner of Revolution, put it in an email, “Vermont may be landlocked, but we all still need a healthy ocean.”

Revolution’s Oscar party will take place both in the store and at the Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, beginning at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 2.

So many goings-on with Vermont artists, so little time to note them. I've been stockpiling news and announcements all week and now it's time to let them fly. Here's the first one.

White River Junction jeweler and Scavenger Gallery owner Stacy Hopkins was one of five designers chosen by Amusingold to show her work (pictured right) during the recent Milan Fashion Week.

Amusingold.com, "the independent jewellery spy," has a series called the Jewelry House, in conjunction with Italian Vogue Jewelry. Hopkins' bronze and citrine work can be seen on it currently — about which the site has this to say: Dalla biologia alla gioielleria contemporanea. La vita animale in versione metal.

Right on. Hopkins' nature-inspired work can also be seen at her gallery, as well as in a house exhibit she'll share with fellow Upper Valley artists Ria Blass and Jenny Lynn Hall this Sunday, September 29, in Lyme, N.H. For more info about that, contact Hopkins at the gallery, 295-0808.

 

 

What Vermonter has not gone to Montréal in hopes of clothes shopping, and then didn't have a clue where to start? OK, me. But I'm willing to bet plenty of others could use some help, too.

Janna Zittrer offers exactly that. The 29-year-old lifestyle journalist launched Montréal Shopping Tours just over a year ago. The "shopper-in-chief" is a native of the city and bilingual, though raised anglophone. Her passion for fashion came early in life when, she says, "my lack of artistic ability inspired me to convey my creativity through my clothes."

But it was in journalism school that she discovered she could combine her love of writing and fashion. Since then, Zittrer has written for numerous print and online publications, has appeared on "ET Canada" as a fashion expert, and has been a trend presenter at stores such as Banana Republic.

With her knowledge of and connections at boutiques in Montréal, Zittrer hit upon the idea of helping others "shop like a fashion editor." Since April 2012, she's been leading customized shopping expeditions, for approximately four hours each and a maximum of six clients at a time. She fine-tunes the trips according to themes such as active wear or special-occasion outfits. Her clients span ages from twenties through sixties.

Zittrer discussed dressing and age, body image, shopping with guys, and who's the most fashionable: Vermonters or Quebecers. Read on.