Models Ferns Francois and Joel Sanchez Launch Modern Advocates to Boost Boston Fashion

           There's a void in Boston's fashion community. Talent is plenty and the passion is strong, but very few have come together to make the industry bigger. After TheTents at Boston Fashion Week collapsed this year, two male models decided they needed to rally the city's fashion people.

            Ferns Francois and Joel Sanchez just launched a fashion production and networking community called Modern Advocates. Their goal is to exhilarate Boston's fashion industry by bringing designers, models, stylists, buyers, media, actors, and the like together at weekly mixers.

             I met up with Francois and Sanchez to find out exactly what Modern Advocates does and what they hope to accomplish. From revitalizing Boston Fashion Week, to getting more menswear designers in Boston, here's what they had to say.

             Their kickoff event, LA x Tokyo, took place last Tuesday at Naga in Cambridge. Tomorrow will be their last event of the month until their relaunch in January. Starting at 10pm, fashionable Bostonians can connect, drink and dance while making strides for the industry. So go to Naga tomorrow night, meet new people and start a new future for Boston fashion!

To get all the details on tomorrow's event, go to the Facebook page HERE.  

And make sure you check out Modern Advocates on Facebook, Twitter (@ModernAdvocates) and Instagram (@modernadvocates). 

Boston Fashion Week's Emerging Trends: Naomi Davidoff

           The next designer I met at BFW’s Emerging Trends press day was a young designer, who is launching her company to success, only months after graduation. Naomi Davidoff is a costume designer who has a way with fabrics and technique. She studied fiber with a concentration in experimental fashion at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Juggler - photo credit: Ron Davidoff

          Davidoff creates couture garments for performances and special events. “I am not only interested in fashion, but also wearable art, costume, and blurring the lines between the two and working with a lot of performers, dancers, circus artists, musicians, theater people, and actors,” she said.  

Madeline - photo credit: Ron Davidoff

          Part of her love for costume design is because of the people she works with. “They’re really half of what makes my work really special, I think, is working with them,” she said. She loves bringing her clients’ ideas to life. “That kind of leads me to want to work with different people and to want to make clothes for them and get inside their heads and think about who they are as personas and characters,” she said.

Siamese Twins - photo credit: Ron Davidoff

          Her most recent project is costume director for the Baltimore Rock Opera Society back home in Maryland. “We are a volunteer organization that’s a community theater and we are dedicated to making the most innovative, original, crazy rock opera you could ever imagine,” she said. For their last show, Murder Castle, the costumes were inspired by the Victorian era and The Chicago Worlds Fair. “They were experimenting with electricity and people putting that into garments,” she said. So she created glowing ballgowns with LEDs in the hoop skirts.

Mermaid - photo credit: Ron Davidoff

          Her collection this year, called “Phantasma,” is inspired by “surrealism, freakery and circus arts, and living nightmares.” She took a special interest in making a lot of the textiles in this collection. “So not only am I using found fabrics, I’m also using hand dyed, hand screen printed, over dyed, resisted fabrics, shibories, so experimenting with all different techniques,” she said.

Check out her SS13 collection video below!

Phantasma from Naomi Davidoff on Vimeo.

To see more about Davidoff and her collections, visit her website at www.naomidavidoff.com.