GALLERY: ERKI Fashion Show Displays Local Design Talent
On Saturday, the ERKI Fashion Show once again offered a chance for students of the Estonian Academy of Arts (former acronym: ERKI) to demonstrate their talents on a big stage, some for the first time.
This was an occasion not for cool, calm contemplation, but for fiery artistic temperaments to have their say - a situation perhaps exacerbated by sauna-like conditions, for which no one could have planned, as temperatures soared in Tallinn.
The setting was the Soviet-era Kalevi Spordihall, built in 1962. Though the venue has seen better days, the faded grandeur of the exterior gave way to modern glamor inside, as Estonian art-lovers and fashionistas combined to search for the next big design talent.
From its inception in 1982, when it was the EKA's relatively low-key student show, ERKI has grown to become an important staging post for the careers of Estonian creative talent.
Every year the show carries a theme, which this year was the monitoring of citizens online. This was symbolized by a giant 3D-printed head, which attempted to portray how it is said we leave a data trail detailed enough to create a picture of who we are.
Highlights included an eye-catching and rather fetishistic jewellery collection called "Gallop" from EKA first-year student Darja Popolitova, aiming to act as blinkers would on a horse, and The Dream Man, a dramatic menswear collection from sophomore Tallinn Industrial Education Centre tailoring student Tiina Ree. The first prize of a financial contribution towards the creation of a collection, and a show in Tallinn Fashion Week, was won by first-year EKA student Anja Yelizaryeva for her collection "The Generation of Fear".