CubaPLUS Magazine

Fashion A Dream World Runway

By: Marta Barés Gómez Photos: Prensa Latina & Courtesyof Abraham
Fashion A Dream World Runway

Though his name may be old-fashioned, his concepts of the human form, wardrobe and fashion are truly daring. He is simply known as "Abraham," one of the most outstanding Cuban designers and someone who knows how fabric can move. He integrates the material with the body wearing his designs just as a painter uses brushstrokes to create images on canvas.

Fashion A Dream World RunwayWith a fruitful career of almost four decades on the winding road of haute couture, which is his true vocation and interest, this outstanding fashion designer refers to the runway as a "great feast" where he can invent and bring to life a nonexistent man or woman.

His former job as a theatre designer during his younger days left an imprint on his current occupation of dressing up live "sculptures." Abraham's models move up and down the catwalk like felines wearing his offerings, always elegant and glamourous, his distinctive style.

His true specialty is to dress up self-assured, avant-garde men and women because his recherché and obsessive archetypes require a very aggressive attitude to be able to wear them with grace and distinction.

It is not always easy to model his designs but once the challenge is accepted, they turn out to be unique and spectacular shows in Cuba's fashion world and they magnificently compete with the most brilliant international offerings.

Fashion A Dream World RunwayOn occasion, he has speculated that Cuban" fashion" doesn't really exist although there is a Cuban way of making fashion since it is quite difficult not to be influenced by the colours and warmth of the Caribbean along with local traditions and more classical motifs. Nonetheless, in his trips to different European countries, he has learned to appreciate and use more subdued forms and colors, typical of the different traditions of the current international fashion house in Paris, Milan, and Madrid.

Though he can, of course, design for the pret-a-porter industry, he insists that he is mostly interested in creating for the runway or for shows because this is when his imagination can fly. This also allows him to acknowledge current world trends but with changes to allow him to recreate them in his own spectacular way. With a very surrealistic feeling always present in his work, Abraham proposes astonishing creations in a variety of expressions. Where fashion and the runway are the occasion, his glorious moment of joy occurs when his dream models gracefully wear his designs, his whims of fashion, in a constant search for beauty and a celebration of the human form in all its splendour.

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