"Goddess." Daniella Helayel was unequivocal in her description of the woman who inspired her new collection. With Malcolm Edwards orchid-wrapped hairstyles and Val Garland s glossy-lipped maquillage offering sterling support, Helayel s female deity could have slithered straight off one of those Roxy Music covers that defined sophisticated womanly allure in the seventies. That was both a strength and a weakness. As seductive as the vision Helayel presented on the catwalk was, it was essentially one note: entrance-making va-voom. Though the designer was quick to say there were more workaday looks back in the showroom, the suspicion will always linger that Issa is fundamentally about that one note. That s because Brazilian-to-the-last-pore-of-her-honeyed-skin Helayel nails it so convincingly. As she herself said with a gust of laughter, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can t take the country out of the girl."
Issa s first foray into the digital world covered floating georgette caftans with huge prints of an Amazonian Garden of Eden. Tiered full-length smocks could pass for rain-forest hostess wear. A gown draped over one shoulder and a halterneck jumpsuit were edgier—Sharon Stone in Casino, say. Another gown, also halternecked and printed in a negative image of dark green leaves, hinted at dramatic shadows in the eternal sunshine of Helayel s Edenic Brazil. It was all the better for such depth.
