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Carlos Miele: "Showgirls"
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
London, Sep 20, 2001/ FWD/ --- We're going to film a really bad remake of "Showgirls," with Melania Knauss in
the lead role as an aspiring dancer.
Well, we've got the costumes department taken care of already -- just use the Carlos Miele collection
presented late Tuesday night in London.
Miele, a Brazilian designer showing in London for the first time, clearly isn't short of money: supermodel
Jodie Kidd graced his catwalks, Swarovski lent him abundant crystals and American Express and DuPont were sponsors.
It's the fresh ideas that were in short supply.
His show was meant to be about the contact between western and indigenous Amazonian cultures - the designer
used native and shantytown artisans' leather and accessories - but what hit the runway was a pastiche of tired
'80s cuts and silhouettes, shimmied up with crystals and feathers.
Miele is admittedly technically accomplished, and showed an inventive series of leather bodices and laser-cut
leather dresses. He also sent out some stiletto shoes with wonderful leaf pattern straps and ties, and some
impressive shell necklaces. And there were a bunch of well-cut denim pants with ethnic patterns and body paint
that will be winners. But too often his outfits were tired reworkings of predictable, even trite ideas.
A new, Brazilian beauty named Suyane opened the show wearing a red chamois body suit and huge tribal headdress,
and closed it arm-in-arm with Miele. We predict great things for the sensual Suyane, but not, we're afraid, for
this collection.
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