Malta Fashion Week 2012 - Vintage Catwalk - Caroline's Fashion Styling

Amidst some beautiful luxury cars, at the Mercedes-Benz showroom in Lija, the Manoel Theatre presented some beautiful vintage and replica costumes.

The most exciting thing about this event is that these vintage costumes have never before been presented to the public, therefore we were very lucky to have this opportunity to view the accompanied by champagne and some delicious nibbles.

16th century woman’s dress – one of the oldest costumes of the Manoel Theatre, the most important element in this dress is the bobble lace around the neckline which evolved from braid making in the 16th century in Italy..

18th century men’s jacket.

Below are some photos from the catwalk. The models sauntered down the catwalk wearing these beautiful clothes, all made with great attention to detail ensuring that they truly looked authentic.

The girls looked like they were really having fun modelling these dresses, and they really stepped up to the plate, with some of them practically dancing rather than walking, the girls were also all beautifully poised and posed very nicely for photographs at the end of their walk.

Natural makeup and elaborate hairstyles, sometimes using extensions complemented the clothes perfectly.

A great attention deal of effort must have gone into the creation of these costumes, from the shoes , to the socks to the lace cuffs around the sleeves. Love the ruffles around the neck !!!

In the late 16th century, shorter sleeves, and a lower decolleté meant that the chemise gained importance, often being adorned with lace at the neckline and sleeves. This can be seen in the next two costumes.

Big curls and fancy updos were all the rage back then, this hairstyle fits in perfectly with the theme of the event.

In the two photos below The Great Farthingale can be seen, this is the evident ‘hoops’ in the skirt. It was designed to be worn at an angle appears to have been worn at an angle high behind from the back and low infront, which elongated the torso and shortened the legs. It was probably made with one or more large hoops with horizontal stiffeners . It was very popular for first few decades of the 17th century.