Seven years ago an aspiring young, fly-sunglass-wearing, designer by the name of Walter Mendez was featured in the El Camino College newspaper. He told the writer, “To make it in the fashion world you must constantly reinvent yourself and come up with something more creative and unique than the next designer.”
Walter closed out last night’s runway show at the Taglyan Complex in Hollywood with a vivid new collection and debut of the Ryan & Walter Bridal collaboration alongside designer Ryan Patros. The audience was enchanted, the subtle color transitions popped, and with each transition – a symbol of young Mendez’s ethos of constant redefinition.
Walter Mendez: With every collection we do we get better and better and it’s always about reinventing yourself and I think for this particular collection Ryan was very influential in pushing the brand to the next limit and redefining who we are.
The new Walter Mendez Collection began with a dark blue collection and traversed from a cladly dressed cape wearer, to long traditional dress variations. Soon its sensational attention to subtle detail moved forward with blends of gold and plum red, each with an occasional pit stop back to a genesis of deep blue. The colors built a certain theatrical vibe to the mix, each color consumed the stage occasionally and gave their own aside in cathartic passes back and forth between both minimalist and maximalist aesthetics.
Walter Mendez: We’ve continued to be true to our aesthetics but also give our viewers the next level and not only did we give the next level of Walter Collection but we also introduced Ryan & Walter Bridal
Ryan was no doubt integral in this redefining moment alongside Walter. Once the show transitioned into Ryan & Walter Bridal the dresses dove into a majestic climax and exemplified the sheer time and effort that was dedicated to the final suite.
As the show let out the cameramen dashed off in rapid succession. Writers with both real and prop mics alike pushed to the red carpet, lost in a fiery moment but intent on grasping onto Ryan and Walter – intent on excavating an explanation to what they had just witnessed.
They were radiant in response, clearly entranced by the result of their own delivery.
Walter Mendez: After the high of this fashion show, literally – I have so many millions of ideas for our next collection.
Erik: What does that high feel like? You must be exhausted at this point, though.
Walter Mendez: Yeah! It’s crazy. We were both going mad backstage. There’s so many different factors… hair, makeup, jewelry!
Ryan Patros: But it makes all of those sleepless nights worth it.
While we hope Ryan and Walter get some much deserved rest this St. Paddy’s Day – we can’t help but be excited for what their next set of sleepless nights will bring to the fashion world.
© 2016 Albert Evangelista Photography (Instagram/Twitter: @aarree)
