High heels and red carpets

On Saturday, we went to the annual Fashion Salon in M'Gombani. Except that this year, we didn't just go round the stalls outside which were selling colourful African printed material and bamboo sticks: we stayed for the fashion show itself.

It started off with a contest: take a typical Mahorese material called chiromani, which is used for a lot of traditional salouvas here, and turn it into something wearable. Five judges will say what they think.

 

    

 

Number 2 won. Very disappointing.

Then came a series of catwalk models showing off various creations from different designers all located in the Indian Ocean: Seychelles, Rodrigue, Mauritius, Comoros, Mayotte, Madagascar, Reunion Island and so on.

Silk from one, lace from another, satin from a third, more or less colourful depending on where the designer was from. What amused me was the models' behaviour, though: some had obviously done this sort of thing before and waltzed up and down the catwalk wiggling their hips, whereas some were in a hurry to get it all over and done with, as they either walked the plank at lightning speed or only went half-way before turning back. A third category - my favourite - seemed to be having a little trouble with the high heels :-).