London Fashion Week
I had the opportunity to attend London Fashion week for two days this weekend. This was a great opportunity to witness live catwalk shows, brows around the designer show rooms and generally soak in the atmosphere of this dynamic event. It's also possible to watch live shows and event highlights on the London fashion Week website.
This event proved a fantastic source of inspiration for me as a Theatre Designer, both in terms of the live event and as inspiration for costumes. In particular there were so many examples of innovative uses of fabrics to create movement, texture and fascinating silhouettes. However innovative style is not just shown on the catwalk, but largely by the 'fashionista's' who attend. People watching definitely became my favourite pursuit!
Central Saint Martins: Catwalk Show @ Somerset House
This show presented the MA fashion design students from St Martins College and included prises for creativity presented by L'Oreal. The collection on show were as one might expect from fashion students highly elaborate often towards the ridiculous. Although clear innovation was shown with dynamic ideas, shapes, fabrics and styles very few garments actually looked good on the human body. I personally enjoy the wilder side of fashion within the context of a live event and understand this can then be diluted down for the high street, but things still need to look good! Admittedly one of the key things letting down these collections was often the models, many of whom seemed far from being top rank professionals.
Sibling: Catwalk Show @ Somerset House
This was the show I really wanted to see and it proved a fantastic bright mix of colour and heavy music. The event had more of a feel of a music concert than a fashion show. The styles in this collection had a real punk attitude to them and yet still very feminine. The most striking and unique element had to be the hair, which was either styled big or as a mohawk. These styles were created using wigs were made of fine feather material which provided a softness and amazing movement. This material was similar in fact to the sort of material I often use for puppet hair so it will move. It was great to see this incorporated into a very cool human hair design.
Jasper Conran: Catwalk Show @ Somerset House
This collection was by far the most wearable collection I saw on show. It was sophisticated and elegant with rich fabrics, stunning shapes and a autumnal colour palette. There wasn't a single item in this collection I wouldn't want to wear and feel great in. The show itself was also elegant and very well produced with atmospheric music and a catwalk of real brown leaves. As an early morning show this was a relaxing and inspiring start to an otherwise hectic day of fashion.
International Fashion Showcase
This is a public showcase produced by The British Council and the British Fashion Council presenting 130 emerging designers from 30 countries. It is the only free public event as part of London fashion Week and takes place in the very interesting location of Brewer Street multi storey Car Park in London between 20-24 February.
This event is now in its fourth year and is a very exciting opportunity to see new international designers working today. The exhibition is arranged by country, in a dynamic urban setting, featuring a cafe, live DJ and creative workshops. It has the feel of an art exhibition in contrast to the more practical and quite sterile designer rooms at Somerset House.
Each country demonstrated an individual style, like a conventional fashion collection. As young designers the work is suitably creative and often pretty wacky. Again innovative uses of fabrics to create shape, texture and silhouettes was key to many of the designs. The work often took on more of a costume style quality, also highlighted by creative exhibition setting and props.
