The note on the front of the program announced, “Africa….the land of great beauties”, and prior to the show Zang stated that this season was all about the exotic nature and culture of Africa with a touch of the British Aristocrat. So, it was not surprising to find Zang off on his own couture like safari this season. The collection, comprised of 36 looks, including some menswear, was all about black, khaki, and ivory with luxurious, couture like takes on traditional safari items (there were safari shirts, jackets, blazers, even a mini safari dress), all beautifully tailored and seemingly molded to the body. And naturally, Zang’s fabric of choice was not plain old cotton poplin but rather, silk poplin, raw silk, and beaded silk tweed.

One of the best groups (I guess you could call it, safari “black tie”) featured a beautiful ivory silk chiffon blouse with exaggerated and elongated ruffled cuffs worn with lean black raw silk trousers, and a black raw silk princess skirt with organza lace back inserts worn with a black silk, wool, and cashmere sweater set ending with gigantic sculptural ivory cuffs. This appeared to be a separate blouse beneath but actually, it was organza ‘trims’. And it was accessorized with amazingly oversized and elongated ropes of pearls. Brilliant idea! There were some really beautiful black silk faille and organza evening gowns, some with ruffles, a khaki silk satin organza beaded damask floor length caftan, and a show stopping group of black silk satin dresses whose hems were entirely beaded with vivid wild African orchids. The finale featured black silk chiffon gowns with embroidered raffia and ruby or amethyst native African collar.

Images to come soon!

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