Stylist Abbyke Domina’s foray into fashion design has been a cycle of sub-par collections with occasional flashes of brilliance. There are many probable reasons why this is so; it is somewhat common for stylists to struggle with creating clothes purely for the conceptual and aesthetic value of design. There is also the false intuition that suggests that a great stylist will automatically make a great designer (that rarely ever happens). Whatever the answer is, it has meant that Domina has struggled to make a collection that balances critical reception with commercial appeal.
Domina’s Flygirl collection is the second capsule collection she is debuting this year, the first being the Luxe Lace collection with a campaign fronted by Anne Idibia. With faux fur stoles and a singular silhouette repeated in several colours and out of place sequinned lame dress, the Luxe Lace collection was more of an unfinished thought than a fleshed out idea. Fly Girl continues in this thread.
Taking the concept of contrasting sheer vs textured, Domina sends out a six look editorial that is quite simply six echolalia of the same dress built by numbers, only bothering to change the texture of the skirts. She does lace, geometric and sequinned skirts. There is not nearly enough diversity in form, construction or silhouette to convince us that a lot of work went into conceptualizing the Fly Girl collection and that is a shame.
It feels almost disdainful to the buyer for designers to create many variations of the same dress and try to pass it off as a collection. This is especially disdainful coming from a stylist. Why insult us this way?
