Fiji fashion designer inspired by, promotes culture

GAX: for FestPac got once last fix of the Festival of Pacific Arts on June 8 with a fashion show featuring the work of Fiji delegate Epeli Rakai Tuibeqa.

Local models donned the fashion designer’s traditional Fijian-inspired couture, transfixing audience members who trickled into the temporary second floor gallery at The Plaza in Tumon. Tuibeqa brought about 25 pieces from his collection, exhibited down the main stage runway during the FestPac fashion show.

Just a few hours before boarding a plane back to Fiji, he presented five pieces from his Kuiviti line. The draping vest, peplum tops and shawls were made from Fijian tapas, a traditional cloth made from the bark of mulberry trees.

Tuibeqa is a 28-year-old designer who began his career prom dresses 2016 contestants in pageants, and is the stylist for Miss Fiji when she attends the Miss South Pacific pageant, now Miss Pacific Islands.

Although he’s been designing for years, he only put a collection together last year, which Fiji Fashion Week wanted to take to Los Angeles, California, for L.A. Fashion Week.

“That was insane,” Tuibeqa says. “I thought it was just a small fashion show but it was L.A. Fashion Week where Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson also were attending. But my work has always been around cultural preservation and being inspired by culture, and legends, and stories and promoting it through my artwork.

“I feel like we don’t appreciate our work or wear them with pride. We opt for regular T-shirt from the stores, all the Mark Jacobs, the Givenchy, the Chanels — they’re big, but what about the Pacific work? What about my work? It can be like that, too. We got to put us out there. We need to promote the Pacific all the time in what we do. Even though we’re from all different islands, even though we’re scattered all over the Pacific, when we do our work, it speaks volumes.”

In a few weeks, he says he’ll be jetting to Papua New Guinea to sit in as a guest judge for the show “Project Runway.”