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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Fantazia International



Fantasia International photos
Well, there are no c-thongs, but new band Fantazia International brought some Carnaval elements in their launch of A Taste of Brasil! Particularly with the orange & tourquoise costume, which I really like. The cute looking green flower cage bra provides more "coverage" than the golden greenish wire one. In fact, the wires & strings that make up that bra just look so uncomfortable, however, the backpack's certainly impressive. I just want to say to anyone wearing a wire cage bra for Caribana, Go Brave!
From Fantazia International band launch photos, the costume with the mauve colour mix appeals to me. The large bright feathers and curly cues on the headpiece look good. Bikini tops rather than real bras are not my choice though. The light blue frontline section with the cage bra is certainly Rio styled. The backpack, which looks very heavy for the model, is outstanding. There's a lot going on with the bright blue costume, maybe too much. Could be all the body paint, makeup, face jewels, feather eyelashes and big jewelery though. Sometimes at launches too many accessories can work against a costume. It's certainly vibrant enough on it's own.
The bra on the red costume looks sturdier to me, & I was instantly drawn to the way it's simply, yet stylishly decorated.
Solid white and solid black costumes rarely say "Wow!" to me, but the studded headpiece for their white one is a little different with soft looking feathers.
What I noticed was that adjustments can be made on the waistbands for the red section and the white section. IMO, more can be added, fill them in more, as what you mainly see are the bikini bottoms, and it looks best when you see very little. What makes a spectacular costume is the illusion created that there's no bikini bottom.

A presentation based on Brazil/Carnaval is no easy design undertaking, and I will be anxiously awaiting Toronto Revellers, the next band who has taken on this challenge.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to agree, the accessories at the launch seem a little excessive. Especially all that body paint. I feel like I can't get a true feel for the costumes because I'm distracted by all the crazy body paint designs!!!

Anonymous said...

It is almost expected to SHOWCASE costumes loaded with accessories, body paint, airbrushing and more at Band Launch time. Its a simple phenomenon called MARKETING - Dress it up to as much as you can to create maximum appeal to the buyer.

For a true sense of what the costumes really include, I always recommend a visit to the mas camp after band launch.

C Junk

Karabana said...

The last few years some Caribana bands discovered body paint & IMO, some went a bit too crazy with it. Distraction, yes Anon. Often when showcasing & marketing a costume, I feel less is more.
Launches are opportunities to see how the costumes look on people, but yes, C Junk at the mas camps, you can inspect the quality (& I always do. ;-))

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