It’s amazing what a good Catholic education can inspire you to do. Whenever Kwame Brako, a 21-year old designer who graduated this year from Parsons the New School of Design with a B.F.A. in fashion, sees a nun’s habit, he gets to wondering what the women in those vestments have on their feet. It’s highly unlikely their footwear is anything like what he designed to complement his final-year degree collection, which was inspired by said robes: a sandal composed of sliver-thin straps of black snakeskin affixed to a polished wooden platform, and an ultralong black leather boot with padding and cutouts, both held upright by a pretty lethal-looking cantilevered steel heel.
Brako, who came to New York from his native Ghana via Catholic school in Calgary when he was eighteen, was able to get his slick, sharp designs made so that he could show them with his collection of sculptural suede dresses. For students struggling to complete their collections, that’s an enormous boost. But what’s even better for Brako is that he was able to have them made by Cesare Paciotti. He was the first-ever recipient of an initiative that the Italian company has launched in conjunction with the New York design school. Brako was chosen by Cesare Paciotti himself and Paciotti CEO Marco Calcinaro from a group of five finalists (the others were Ivy Kirk, Zachary Messenger, Georgeana Ortiz, and Edward Lorenz Tan), whittled down from an initial 35 entrants, who all gave unique takes on the kind of shoes they envisaged to go with their collections. For Cesare Paciotti, Brako won because there was, he says, “a perfect balance between beautiful fantasy and wearability.” As for Brako himself, he’s thrilled because he’s been a CP fan for ever. “I’ve loved Cesare Paciotti’s advertising since I was a kid,” he says. “In particular, the one of Isabeli Fontana laughing in a tight black dress. It’s that kind of woman that I want to design for—someone who is really vivacious and taller than everyone else in the room!”
Simon Collins, the dean of fashion at Parsons, hopes that this initiative will turn into a long-term relationship because it gives his students valuable lessons in an uncompromising industry environment. “It’s exposure to real life, to life beyond being at school,” says Collins. “The students have to be 100 percent professional.” Certainly Paciotti sees it being an ongoing conversation. “I admired the exceptional educational resources [at Parsons] and the manner in which teachers encouraged students’ creativity to be unleashed,” he says. “Hopefully [the collaboration] will continue to show amazing results, inspire talent, and create gorgeous relationships with America’s new crop of designers.”
As one of that new crop of designers, Kwame Brako is busy working on his spring 2010 collection, though he isn’t planning to show it during New York Fashion Week, because he wants to get it just right. And he’s already had women asking to wear his shoes—Chiara, for one. Unfortunately, she takes a size 10, and the samples didn’t fit. Still, Cesare Paciotti will start selling Brako’s winning designs from its New York store (at 833 Madison Avenue; 212/452-1222) on Fashion’s Night Out, September 10. No need to ask where Chiara is going to be shopping that night.
(Vogue)
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