By Erica Abrams

(1/19/2010-NYC) Supima is a collect of cotton growers who wish to market their product in the best light. Last week they hosted their 3^rd annual fashion show to showcase burgeoning young designers, seeking to create using their cotton as the common denominator.

While surprisingly fast for a runway show, there were some very solid designs and talent. Also amazing was that this talent was amassed using an open casting call at Bloomingdale’s for the competition, and little more than three years of history to attract such skilled, if amateur designers. Surely it illustrates of New York’s depth of artists in the fashion industry.

One major flaw for this show was it’s rhythm. Because these are fairly unknown artists , with no established signature to their work, there was little to no way for a casual viewer to distinguish when models were coming to the runway and whose clothing they were wearing because there were no announcers or even a change of music to separate designers. After a while it became difficult to keep track of four designs per person and switch names of designers in my head.

The winner, Gina Desilva had extremely good detailing that my camera did no justice to, but her items had a complete couture look. Each piece spoke slightly differently, but with a contest like this, showing more use of materials took precedence over cohesiveness. Each model she picked wore her dress designs very well, which can be a challenge for a designer. Gina clearly nailed this.

The tee shirt winner, Robin Thomas went for design simplicity. His triple layer shirt fit beautifully. That his shirt will be at Bloomingdale’s may be a bit of luck on his part.The reality is, men will not want to wear any of yhe other men’s designs that were showcased; too much finesse. In this case, men dress men better because simple always works.

One thing that stood out tonight was distressed cotton. We have seen it done often with denim, which is of course also cotton, but many of these designers are doing it with a thin jersey knit and in a more decorative way, to go along with the insane necklaces and jewelry we are seeing imbedded into our clothing lately.

For this particular event, the focus was more on materials then colors or patterns, I noticed very muted colors with attention paid to detailing and showcasing the various cotton pieces. Muted colors always show off details and when using cotton, detail is king.

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