Caribbean Colors Fly at Isabel Toledo

© Fei Hong / MFb

The air might have been a little cooler in Miami on Wednesday night, but inside the historic Moore Building, the heat was beginning to rise.

It was a special opening night for Miami’s Funkshion Fashion Week and especially memorable for designer Isabel Toledo, the trailblazing free spirit who not only received a Lifetime Achievement award along with her husband, collaborator and muse Ruben Toledo. After the award, Toledo wowed with her first Stateside show in over a decade, presenting her Summer 2012 collection.

© Fei Hong / MFbIn typical Funkshion style, the party began fashionably late, but wasn’t one to be missed by fashion connoisseurs and Toledo fans alike (including curvaceous Mexican Telenova stars and Miami's fashion elite). While there might have been moans over the show’s hour-late start, hors d'oeuvres that included fried meatballs, quarter cheeseburgers (oh that’s right) and regular staples such as sushi and fish tacos were served to South Florida’s hippest along with a pre-show cocktails to keep things in check.

When the show finally began, the Cuban-American designer, whose fans include First Lady Michelle Obama, Jennifer Lopez and Madonna to name a few, presented a collection that was heavy on modernist pieces as well as bold, electric colors and soft, feminine mini- and floor-length dresses.

Toledo first became a household name long before she designed Michelle Obama’s “Lemongrass” day dress, worn at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. The Lifetime Achievement Award she received before the show’s presentation, presented by Fashion Group International, was for her decades of work in the fashion and art industries and for being one of the most celebrated Hispanic fashion designers in the United States.

© Fei Hong / MFbThe show itself felt like a Caribbean getaway mixed with Latino aesthetics, as models with dipped pony tails strutted the catwalk in playful pinstriped dresses, lightly accented with sunset colors, including electric orange, blues and pinks. Hemlines and necklines kept the dresses modest, while layers of sheer and lightweight fabric gave them a flirty feel.

A few standout pieces explored the feminine side of Avant-Garde with electric-colored floral prints and chartreuse Mary Jane contraptions in colorful hues, as only Toledo can render them.

The show then took a combined futuristic and romantic turn with models wearing oversized shades, hues of meshed gold, silver pieces accessorized with oversized clutches and footwear from Toledo’s own Payless Spring 2012 collection, which is scheduled to hit stores early next year.

Footwear standouts included the casual-chic Beach Boot with “sand escape holes” for walking on the beach, and the Espawind shoe, which is an aerodynamic take on the classic espadrille featuring striped and cobalt blue canvas uppers atop a stacked platform sole with alternating cobalt patent and jute rope striping, as well as Toledo's signature wrap-around ankle strap.

But the accessories that stood out most had to be the straw hats, gorgeously painted by Toledo's husband Ruben. 

© Fei Hong / MFbAnd so the show was not only about the fashion, but about the marriage of art and invention. It's fitting that the pair were honored together, as each play muse to one another. The couple met when they were only 13-year-old students in New Jersey, him falling in love with her at first sight, her falling in love with his art. Nearly forty years later, and still very much in love, the dynamic couple is still making innovative creations with their fresh designs that include a great appreciation for geometric intricacies and pattern shapes.

Toledo says that her inspiration for this season’s look comes from futuristic Caribbean women. “I’m Cuban and I was inspired by the sensuality of Caribbean style, the coloration,” she says.

“And a romantic Vango-type feel,” Ruben, who helped inspire and create the collection, adds. “We create pieces for the modern woman. It’s not about looking into the past or to the future, it’s about pieces that fit a woman now, and what she needs now.”

Fit is something incredibly important to the designing couple, who, according to their collection, know how to compliment the female body. Toledo’s pieces not only look striking on the runway but in real life.

“I create clothes for women with hips,” Isabel says, adding, “My clothes are for everyone, and for every shape and women like me.”

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