For more than the past 18 years, David Szeto has done only one thing: concentrating on what he does best and that is making feminine garments of elegance and non-vulgarity. Mention his name and your memory repository cannot recall his familiar scent. The Chinese-Canadian who this year moved his atelier to Brussels from his long-established base in Paris has not had it so easy. After finishing his studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, he embarked on a precarious, yet brave discourse initially creating a fashion collection that appeared out of sync with the times. His focus on the pure and most impactful silhouette and lines conjured categorical names including minimalism that the public and press were not accustomed to.
In his youth, David had an unbridled talent for sewing clothes which lead him to take upon studies in fashion design. Much of his influence that he cites came from Calvin Klein. The objective of linear, asymmetrical and sensual silhouettes created only by the cutting and drape of fabric struck David’s love for American sportswear. Much to the expectation of a high-scale rise in a fashion designer’s career from graduation to business label and eventually the runway show, David disregarded this direction. Without the assistance of press or large financial backing, he moved to London assisting a designer enabling him at the same time to devour, experiment and find his niche.
The spirit of Haute Couture lives within David’s past and current collections. The intricacies of tailoring, dressmaking to the cut of a flattering shape and of course on the bias are the reasons to denote his craft and skill. He works exclusively on the mannequin, rather than by spending endless time intervals sketching and drawing. He finds it counterintuitive to the forming the skeleton of a dress and by working with his hands, his tireless hand fiddling makes an elucidating drape more desirable.
The longevity and his strive to create self-effacing women’s clothing is a reflection of a modernity that appears to not age. Whilst the imprint of editorials have diminished, they in-turn surface an essence of beautiful and enriching fabrics such as wool angora, lame, and silk satin. A garment of which has continuously resurfaced and re-cut is the GENEVIEVE dress. One of his most diffcult constructed dresses, the sleeveless front ruched was done by hand and a woven special fabric of Japanese kimono polyester crepe. Apart of his Automne collection this year, citing old Hollywood glamour actresses such as Katherine Hepburn, the coats were voluminous as they hug and fitted the shoulders like buttery leather gloves – to the raw hem edges David leaves and do so his gold laméleaf epaulets on this Stanwyck dress made of wool voile.
The heralded fashion editor Diana Vreeland who in chief for Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue once stated, “The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.” David has always shared and has high admiration for the visionary Parisian and to purport this, the touches of dramatic Marrakech and ethnic colours elevate his feminine wearer’s gestures and mannerisms. That is what he aim to flourish in his Printemps collection. A thread of a liberated spirit lingered throughout both Grecian and men’s tailored pieces. Never constricting the body but rather to flatter natural body shapes, necklines consists of beautiful sailor ruching, a perfectly cut navy wool voile jacket with meticulous detail at the mock collar; a deep blue jersey crepe dress with twisted shoulder line and a red jersey dress with a draped hemline creates assertive and enriching silhouettes.
In 2008, David moved his operations from Paris to Brussels. Paris was is and still is the epicenter of fashion that draws the unprecedented flock of media and buyers around the world. It was the best way for him to gain proper press where press agencies established open days to view collections by designers. Similarly to Belgian designer Christian Wijnants, who also worked in Paris then to move back to Belgium, the red-tape and paper formalities restricted the ability to run and manufacture a business successfully. Being less fashion-centered, Brussels proposed a more liberating environment, David now having the freedom to both design and manage his brand and the immediate access to manufacturing resources in Belgium and in France. The latter country of which David uses mostly for his garments had only been possible after a successful translation of patterns that his French factories could understand, at this point David own maestro hands had constructed everything.
In November, David has established a dual collection and e-commerce website for the wider public to become immersed in his modus operandi. Upon visiting the website, flashes of red and a spacesuit explorer appeared to hint at Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey than a prêt-a-porter designer. Venturing to the website, both his Autumn and Spring collections are viewable, using an image display system that sequences animated garments revolving them 360 to see a virtual fitting. It has more then helped his buergoning brand moving in 2011 and beyond, distinguishing his contemporaries that leave a void in personal captions and excitement which David does. Not only this but ‘Miss You’ by Danish music artist Trentemøller creates a liver browsing experience.
Upstairs in his Brussels’ atelier, old wooden panels are the backdrop to pinned paper paint experiments, contextualising a possible new colour paliette with printed A4 copies of textures you would find from coral oceans, pillars and tombs of fabrics and an image of western model wearing a kimono, symbolising an union of beauty and constriction. After his eventful, nomadic move from flat to flat back in Paris, a grandeur studio is not want he needs. Now with several pretigious clients accounts – Barneys New York, Dover Street Market London, Blake Chicago, RA13 Antwerp, Scotties in New Zealand, they expect David to be solely working on the construction, fitting and architectural inner-workings of the placement of buttons, shape of a coat’s collar and flaps, how a dress will drape from the shoulder to the hemline to envisage an emodiment of gracious elegance.
David Szeto – www.david-szeto.com
Inside David Szeto’s working atelier:
