Dreamy, Deconstructed, Diverse – Sitara's 'At First Sight' Launch
By Lucien Willey
Unless you’ve been living under a rock – or in Dundee – you’ve seen that St.Andrews is a well-dressed town. From the runways of the university’s many fashion shows to the queues at any given coffee shop, some measure of taste and style is omnipresent here. At the forefront of this is Sitara, the largest Asian charity fashion show in the UK, with their 2023/23 launch show ‘At First Sight’ placing them in the vanguard of original style in St Andrews.
One of the smaller-scale shows in our already small university town, the Sitara community has developed a reputation for a sort of worldly earnestness and representation of diverse cultures that contrasts with the comfortable insularity that some of the larger shows can slide into. Their most recent endeavor, the ‘At First Sight’ launch, went well beyond the usual par-for-the course nature of a St. Andrews fashion show. Themed as “a love letter to the softer desires” in the words of Hanna Sabu, their PR director and chief photographer, the show was meditative and enthralling in equal measure.
This begins with the staging itself. As opposed to a massive event space, the launch show had a far more intimate staging in Lupo’s, an Italian restaurant and cocktail bar on South Street above the New Picture House Cinema. The runway was demarcated by electric candles placed along the floor, with the audience and committee alike tightly packed in on whatever chairs fit between the runway and the wall. A bit cramped, yes, but not unpleasant.
Source: Hanna Sabu for Sitara Charity Fashion Show.
And then the launch show itself. With more female models than male, there was far more diversity in the women’s collection on display than in the men’s – although the men’s collection did have my single favorite piece of the show… more on that later. The majority of the men’s clothing at the show was simple, a sort of austere preppy look that could be described as “democratizing exclusivity” that focused mostly on the way the fabric draped around the models. A characteristic piece was a classic blue striped oxford shirt with contrasting white collar and cuffs, seemingly both slim and billowy, but with the shirttails cut so long it was practically a robe.
Designed by Tamilarasee Cumarasamy. Source: Hanna Sabu for Sitara Charity Fashion Show.
The women’s collection, however, went with a different sartorial approach, with standout pieces that were ornate and dramatic, resembling something out of a fairy tale. I had the privilege of speaking with one of the designers of this collection, Tamilarasee Cumarasamy, who described the inspiration for her regal pieces as “divine femininity”, working to merge traditional pleating and fabrics with modern, more western influences. In my opinion, it was done close to perfection, with the pictured piece above, for example, adding a golden gravitas to the show.
Designed by Aidan Ideker. Source: Hanna Sabu for Sitara Charity Fashion Show.
My favorite piece of the show, however, was in the men’s collection. Designed by Aidan Ideker, a relatively local designer who had three pieces in this Sitara show, this aggressive deconstructed suit called to mind Thom Browne’s recent couture collections – taking a traditional charcoal double-breasted blazer of the sort you might see on a late-eighties Tory and turning it into something unique. The shirt and blazer were cut so that the sleeves, shoulder pads, and collar were separate from the main body of the blazer, which became a skirt in this fascinating, midriff-baring demolition of arguably the most traditionally conservative pieces of menswear.
The Sitara Team. Source: Hanna Sabu for Sitara Charity Fashion Show.
The real standout feature of Sitara, though, was not the clothes, but the people. Again and again, as I spoke to designers, models, committee members, and members of the audience, they mentioned community as part of the reason they loved Sitara. From people looking for a more inclusive embrace of body types not normally seen on the runway, to a connection to one’s heritage, to just the plain opportunity to be a part of something cool, the eclectic group of people that make up Sitara drove this launch show’s brilliance. I couldn’t have described it better than their finance director, Amy, who called it “a show with soul”.
Traditional and authentic yet contemporary and avant-garde, relaxed and ornate, broad and worldly in scope yet inclusive and intimate in execution, Sitara’s ‘At First Sight’ embraced contradictions and emerged with all flags flying. I could write on and on about their Afghan-inspired dresses, or the clothes made out of flotsam and jetsam from the storm, but my editor would have my head. In a dandy town where just about everyone plays at fashion to some degree, Sitara is the real deal. I look forward to seeing what they have in store for us at their main show this spring.