Nubia Williams Makes Her Boston Fashion Week Debut

When happens when you merge Ancient Nubian culture with visual art and conceptual fashion design? Just ask Parsons School of Design graduate and designer Nubia Williams.

Closing out day four of Boston Fashion Week, Williams launched her debut Ready-to-Wear collection which was inspired by her travels to the Nile Valley. We checked out the budding designer’s show last night at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter, at 100 West 2nd Street.

The “Nubia Queen” collection featured breathtaking silks, layered tulle and mesh, and textured fabrics that hugged the body. Warm, earthy tones and alternating colors of rust and black nodded back to a primordial Egyptian aesthetic, while sleek, vertically-lined pants gave the designs a modern flair. Most of Williams’s garments were cut away dramatically at the waist with paneled leather and featured deep side slits to keep the silhouettes free moving. And our favorite? A stand-out rust-hued gown, overlain with green mesh and cascading ruffles, which closed out the show.

Williams utilized different colors and unconventional fabrics to honor the submerged pyramids of Ancient Nubia. Employing mostly earth tones,Williams explained that her green tones represented the Nile, rust represented the rich soil, and blue was meant to evoke a sense of sadness. Textiles were also meticulously selected: “The sheer mesh represents the screening mesh used in the homes,” she said. “It shows a sense of rest and separation, like the dams that were built to separate the two lands.”

Bear in mind, the “Nubia Queen” collection is not for the faint of heart (or the sexually subdued.) Her designs are aimed toward the “very strong, creative, woman who isn’t afraid to be sexual.”