USA: NEW YORK'S ANNUAL CHOCOLATE FASHION SHOW WITH MODELS WEARING LITERALLY CLOTHES MADE FROM CHOCOLATE GETS UNDERWAY

Record ID: 753728

  • Title: USA: NEW YORK'S ANNUAL CHOCOLATE FASHION SHOW WITH MODELS WEARING LITERALLY CLOTHES MADE FROM CHOCOLATE GETS UNDERWAY
  • Date: 12th November 2003
  • Summary: VARIOUS FASHION SHOW
  • Embargoed: 27th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment,Politics,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAEUYYDYQHK7V9FXUUXJ1HPTYL3
  • Story Text: In New York it was all about chocolate and couture - at the annual Chocolate Fashion Show.
    At most fashion shows, when you head backstage models are running around changing clothes and the smells are of makeup and hairspray - but not at one packed show in New York on Wednesday (November 12.) At the 2003 Chocolate Fashion Show, the heady aroma of chocolate filled backstage, with models gingerly trying on their fragile and delicate costumes - all of them made with chocolate.
    Famous designers such as Nicole Miller, Betsey Johnson and Joe Boxer, as well as a host of not-so-well-known couture designers, teamed up with some of America's most delectable chocolatiers to create the experimental designs.
    Model Yvonne Roen stripped almost naked before slipping into a gigantic chocolate bra.
    "Double D made of chocolate and the right man to get rid of them for you, that's what I say!" she quipped.
    There were wedding dresses, ball gowns, bathing suits, and street wear - all made with chocolate. As if that wasn't enough of a recipe for mess, hairstylists put their two pounds worth into the mix and created chocolate headgear.
    To top off her outfit model Ciaoli was adorned with a chocolate coated wig, which promptly started melting into her forehead. After complaining the wig was heavy, she laughed, "yeah, but it smells good actually."
    To minimise the chance of all that chocolate melting before the models even hit the runway, many chose to attach the chocolate to a protective layer of cloth, before sewing it onto the flamboyant dresses. Mimicking a Mary Quant style sixties dress, Larry Abel, from Ethel M. Chocolates designed a dress made entirely from velcro. He then stuck on squares of velcro backed white and black chocolate to the dress, while his model was wearing it.
    He got the idea from a fashion magazine showing sixties-style dresses.
    Abel said, "When we saw the checker that kind of inspired us for dark chocolate and white chocolate, and the challenge was trying to get the chocolate to mould and look just like the dress and so that's why we had to marry a little bit of velcro and acrylic and then some magic."
    Not only is there the risk of the chocolate melting, but it is also delicate. Some of the dresses involved minuscule and very fragile chocolate piping on the fabrics - which when dry and the model moves, stands a good chance of falling off.
    Chocolatier Sonya Amaya, from Knipschildt Chocolatier said it is the most difficult task she's undertaken.
    "Chocolate melts at body temperature, so it's really hard to work with chocolate because sometimes it will melt, sometimes it won't and then other times it will crack, so chocolate is a difficult medium to work with" she said.
    Evidence of how tricky chocolate is, came on the runway, with pieces of the sweet stuff flying off the models as they sashayed up the runway. Many of the costumes dripped and melted onto the models' skin as they got hotter and hotter in what was - a true mix of chocolate and couture.
    (QUIRKY)
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