courtesy of: The Morning News
written by: Rosalie Klein
The Aruba Tourism Authority sponsored fashion week ARUBA IN STYLE announced at their headquarters in Renaissance Mall the name change to ARUBA IN STYLE/SALON. This also marks the expansion of the four-day event into a festival showcasing not only fashion, but the creative and artistic elements of clothing design in a multimedia art show that will bring artists from around the world to participate for ten days of “artistic interventions” at various venues on Aruba.
Gijs Stork, co-founder of The Salon Initiative” with Manon Schaap and Cathal McKee, explained the purpose of the program is “to demonstrate how Fashion transcends borders and cultures by showing how these disciplines are in fact an attitude and a vision not defined by a generation or a certain style.” Participating artists and designers have created extremely intriguing and stimulating expositions for past Salons, which reveal the process of realizing their vision and how the various influences of environment, politics, social change and pop culture effect fashion design, done with creativity and “passion for their work.”
Co-founders of Aruba In Style/Salon, Ronchi de Cuba, Eva Wever and Damalice Mansur expressed their extreme excitement in having The Salon as a part of Aruba’s inaugural fashion week, which will take place November 3 through 6; the Salon events will continue for ten days, until the 13th. The organizers have already staged six very successful such events, five in Holland and one in Cape Town, South Africa, and already have been contracted to conduct more in other cities, such as Istanbul.
Presently, 24 Aruban artists, designers, filmmakers and performers are confirmed to participate in the upcoming event with a tribute to Aruba’s most famous international fashion figure, the late Percy Irausquin, tentatively scheduled. Percy was at the precipice of worldwide fame and already in demand with Dutch elite and royalty when he died from an aneurism at the age of 39.
The Aruban roster includes: Ciro Abath, Ronchi de Cuba, Telka van Dodewaard, Nelson Gonzalez, Rob ter Haar, Pricilla Lacle, Michael Lampe, Elisa Lejuez, Elvis Lopez, Osaira Muyale, Ryan Oduber, Hugo Palmar, Pink catwalk, Rebecca Roos, Claudia Ruiz-Vasquez, Alydia Wever, Jess Wolff, and Ken Wolff. The six participants from South Africa are: Darki, Stiaan Louw, Chris Saunders, Athi Patra Ruga, Paul Ward, and David West and there will be over 20 from The Netherlands who are veterans of The Salon experience.
Aruba In Style/Salon interventions and expositions will be conducted at various venues around Aruba: the home of Elisa Lejuez, House of Mosaic, Westin Aruba Resort, Aruba Archaeological Museum, Arends House, now Papiamento restaurant, De Suikertuin Restaurant, which is a landmark building, Ateliers ’89, Renaissance Resort, Renaisance Mall, BLEU Lounge in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel. Renaissance Convention Center, Fort Zoutman (tentative), VNO offices-Dutch Delegation to Aruba, Cas di Cultura, Studio O, Reina Beatrix International Airport arrival hall, landmark home of Maria Teresa, and various locations around San Nicolas.
The Salon maintains a website with some stylish chronicles of past events: http://www.salon1.org/ and a Facebook page for the Aruba In Style/Salon Fashion Week, which FB subscribers can “like” to receive updates on the upcoming event.
