Menswear at Charleston Fashion Week 2011

Charleston Fashion Week celebrated it’s 5th annual event this year with the company of industry heavy hitters like Derek Blasberg, Anne Slowey, Fern Mallis, and Alexis Maybank.  The week’s main event happens to be the Emerging Designer competition which has been recently expanded.

The designer competition allowed 16 designers(up from 8 last year) to show throughout the week, and these designers came from all over the East coast.  9 states were represented by the 16 designers who ended up as semi-finalists for the competition.

Michael Wiernicki chose to design only 4 looks for his 12 look Fall 2011 collection for his label Mystery School.  The only designer who made it to the Finals designing menswear, Wiernicki’s collection was clearly based on the prints, some of which he created himself.  While he did say that he wouldn’t describe himself as avant-garde, he went on to confess that many of his pieces “weren’t grounded in our reality.”  The funky, dark looks only left me wondering why the menswear component of the brand hadn’t been expanded.  Of course, that does make me look forward to his offerings for next season.