Drama in the designs

LOCAL BRAND BUSARDI enjoyed a resounding success last season when it became the first Thai label ever to show during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. Now the designers are back and in a metaphorical mood as they present their autumn-winter 2015 collection centred on the Epiphyllum oxypetalum, a white flower that blooms once a year in the dead of the night. Also known as “Queen of The Night’, this species of cactus is often used to describe someone who has an impressive but very brief moment of glory.
“The sky before sunrise is soaked with love and light, but she ultimately chooses to see fear and darkness. She’s like the Queen of the Night,” says Busardi Muntarbhorn, creative director of Busardi, as she introduces her dramatic show with a black brocade cape and dress adorned with feathers and Busardi’s signature Guipure lace applique.
This outfit, which embodies fear, sets off the collection with the yet-to-bloom Epiphyllum portentously reinforced by draped feather masks.
Lavish profusions of dark purple feathers on capes drive a subversive romanticism, whilst rich brocade, cloque and duchess satin cocktail dresses with fur trims and lace applique are offered in an array of light and midnight hues, all playing on the image of the encroaching night.
Textural and amplified layering of Guipure lace floral applique over Chantilly lace dresses mimic aquatic weeds spilling across the Gila River in Arizona, by which the Epiphyllum dwells. Echoes of the river return in draped turquoise chiffon over autumn-hued printed jacquard giving an unstructured rippled effect.
The turbid charge of an Arizonan storm is captured by electric blue and black embroidered tulle thorns but soon gives way to elegant pink, peach beige and sky blue embroidered tulle gowns, where fear is discarded for love and light and the Epiphyllum reaches full bloom.
The metamorphosis proves to be fleeting as the ethereal moment created by layering of diaphanous tulle skirts in pale hues is replaced by opulent and opaque fabrics such as heavy brocade and silk. The trademark organza cape returns, black rose applique sprouts alongside a decadent embroidered fur trimmed dress, and a more sinister romance takes hold.
While light recedes and darkness falls again, the vespertinal bloom ceases and electrifying queens materialise. A virtuous queen in a fully-bloomed Epiphyllum lace appliqued Thai silk gown sees a reflection of her stronger wicked manifestation, the Evil Queen, radiant in a Chantilly lace gown with a long organza tail, and embellished with embroidered floral applique and a formidable collar of feathers by Austrian designer, Nora Rieser.
Fear resumes as ravens conquer, nodding to the re-entrapped ‘Queen of The Night’ as it silences itself for another year.
The brand, which was co-founded in 2009 by mother-and-son team Busardi and Tuck Muntarbhorn, is a semi-couture label based in Bangkok. Prior to launching the label, Busardi was creative director and head designer at the family-owned Yoswadee, Thailand’s oldest surviving fashion house, founded by Busardi’s mother. Grounded in couture roots, Busardi’s collections are produced and embellished by highly skilled artisans in the heart of Thailand.
In addition to this dramatic collection for autumn and winter 2015, Busardi has collaborated with up-and-coming Austrian designer, Nora Rieser, to produce unique custom-made showpieces, shown in Paris during Haute Couture Fashion Week. Goose shoulder quill, rooster trim and rooster saddle feathers are all individually cut, draped and shaped by hand before being sewn onto tailor made calf-leather bases.
For the masks, the feathers are attached to custom-made perforated leather hoods, which are closed by invisible snaps at the front. Spanning wild berry red, electric blues, darkest black and virgin white, the pieces are rich in colour, complementing the dresses they accompany.