SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 24, 2005/ FW/ --- Jacques van der Watt, designing under the label Black Coffee paid homage to Africa for his Spring / Summer 2006 collection. ‘A deeply personal collection,’ according to his press notes, it is deeply referential and at times derivative.

With silhouettes and construction reminiscent of Japanese designers Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garcon and Issey Miyake, it was a little hard to see the early Afrikana influence. But it was there, in the layered dresses, empire gowns and voluminous floor length frocks.

Jacques van der Watt’s attention to details is impeccable and his tailoring techniques are wonderful. Beautiful as the collection is, there were no groundbreaking fashion show. Rather, it was a rehash of what had been done before by the Japanese designers mentioned above.

That said, it is only fair to say that Black Coffee wowed the audience with this collection that are within the trends for Spring 2006. Using earth tones as his main color palette, van der Watt added orange and reds to the basic black, white and browns for excitement.