From Fashion East, An Independent Designer Incubator In London

As one of the four international fashion weeks, London Fashion Week is famous for its extraordinary creativity and commercial value. This fashion event of global attention has always been one of the most important cultural feasts in the city.

Compared with the other three fashion weeks, although London Fashion Week is always slightly low-key, it occupies a place in the fashion industry with its "unique, avant-garde and avant-garde" style.

01、 Pioneer designers of fashion East

A total of 105 designers and brands participated in the spring and summer 2022 London Fashion Week, of which 69 were held in the form of online publishing, and the remaining 41 events would have offline activities. However, according to the official website's real-time schedule and the final results, only about 26 shows appeared in the form of walking show, barely reaching a quarter of the scale.

Burberry and Alexander McQueen chose to miss fashion week this year, while Vivienne Westwood, who best represents the spirit of "avant-garde rebellion" of London Fashion Week, still decided to hold a digital fashion show.

Such a lineup is a further blow for London Fashion Week, but it also gives new designers a chance to show their strength.

Where do the most talented designers in the UK come from? of course, From fashion East, an independent designer incubator in London. Prominent independent designers like Kim Jones, Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson and mowalola ogunlesi all come from the hotbed of fashion East.

Fashion East was founded by Lulu Kennedy in 2000. It was originally designed for designers without financial support to show their works. But over the years, it has become a highlight of London Fashion Week's agenda. At a time when London Fashion Week is getting boring, Fashion East's show has become particularly interesting.

In addition to Yuhan Wang and nensi dojaka, who just won the prize in LVMH prize, fashion East's special show has brought fresh blood to fashion week, such as Jawara Alleyne and Maximilian. Their design has also brought a lot of topics for London Fashion week.

Maximilian

When you think about the brand of black designers, you have to mention Maximilian Davis, a new designer.

Maxilian Davis, from Manchester City, UK, graduated from London fashion school and founded her own fashion brand during the outbreak last year. Within a few months, Maximilian was on the fashion East show, presenting the fashion East 2021 spring and summer series with goom HEO, Saul Nash and nensi dojaka.

The debut "jovert" was Davis's tribute to the black lives matter movement, and the designer went back to his Trinidad tradition Inspired by his late grandmother and the world-renowned Trinidad carnival, the most famous Carnival in the world, elegant clothing and tailoring, To get people out of the stereotypical Street image of black people.

Maxilian Davis's brilliant debut soon drew him to the attention of the London fashion industry. In the autumn and winter series of the second season, Maximilian looks for inspiration from the space futurism of the 1960s, and once again carries forward his grandmother's life experience in Trinidad, reinterprets her traditional holiday costumes, such as round shoulder suits and column skirts of the 1960s, and endows them with modern sexuality and strength.

Abstract psychedelic patterns appear on the tight one-piece swimsuit, which is regarded as the "second skin", with the dramatic female style feather headdress and snorkeling mask designed by Nasir MAZHAR, which makes the whole series perfect.

The inspiration of Maximilian's design is also rooted in the blood of black people to celebrate the elegance from the West Indies.

"Black people have to speak. I see them with a serious and solemn look. My style of dress has elegant tailoring. I want people to get rid of the idea that black people have to wear street clothes because that's not what I see." this is the message I want to convey, which I've been insisting on in my career. "

At the just concluded London Fashion Week, Maximilian introduced a new collection, "pose wear.". Photographer Nadia Huggins photographed a teenager swimming off the coast of the Caribbean, which brought him memories and Inspiration of the same year.

The sailor jacket's smooth and natural cutting is inspired by the Navy diving suit. The long skirt made of red nylon fabric actually expresses the nostalgia for the old sofa in grandmother's home. Each piece has strong narrative and poetic emotion, which is why his works are so popular.

Jawara Alleyne

Jawara Alleyne, 29, is a late bloomer. He just graduated from the MA course of fashion in central St. Martin last year and joined fashion East's team since last season.

Growing up in Jamaica and the Caymans, Alleyne's rich experience has given him a wide range of vision and ideas. In Alleyne's design, the prototype code for men's wear is explored and redefined in a sensitive way.

"As a designer, my research considers the concept of identity to give men a new life and bring a new perspective to men's wear. My job is to explore the intersection of masculinity and conscious design for men who choose to define themselves."

In the aw21 collection, Alleyne, inspired by the legendary Cowboy brand Sean John in the 1990s, has upgraded and recreated jeans and simple cotton tailoring. The twill sleeveless silk shirt is stuffed into the loose double waist trousers with rainbow beetle wing luster, forming a strong contrast and contrast to show the story of "a new man" in the new series.

This season continues the western style of the previous season. It is full of bold imagination in fabric selection and clothing cutting. Alleyne uses leather and jeans to make the clothing look more deliberate and powerful. The decoration of details can also reflect the "rebellious spirit" of the brand, The whole collection has caught the eye of the younger generation of viewers and is in line with the avant-garde style of London Fashion week.

Chet Lo

Chet lo, an Asian American born and raised in New York, graduated from Ba knitting major at central St. Martin's college last year.

At 17, Chet Lo was still dithering between music, art, fashion and career planning options for veterinarians. When he realized that fashion is a perfect combination of realism, fantasy, mathematics and science, he decided to study in the field of fashion.

At the graduation show of Central St Martin 2020, lo, who is only 23 years old, launched his knitting graduation series with "cindiaria's wife" as the theme. With strong sensory stimulation, provocative and beyond the traditional boundaries of knitwear innovative design, he made his reputation in the fashion industry.

Chet Lo is fascinated by the exploration of knitting techniques. The material he used could be understood as a very thin translucent fishline, which was extremely difficult to weave. Because this material is very different from the traditional wool, it is difficult to predict its direction, and the weaving shape often deviates.

But Chet Lo has worked out how to weave this material. He can turn this translucent fishthread into a high, erect spinel that looks like a Durian shell.

Chet Lo is good at combining retro silhouettes with futuristic technology in his works, and embodies the blending of Asian traditional culture and Western aesthetics, He defined his design DNA this way: "Interesting, experimental, breaking boundaries."

His brand-new interpretation of classic items such as corset, dress and high collar sleeveless top has become his signature style, and he has also continued this style into the new season's works.

Goom Heo

Goomheo is the men's wear brand of the same name by South Korean designer goom HEO who lives in London.

HEO studied for Bachelor of Arts and master's degrees in Central Saint Martins and won the prestigious L'Oreal professional creative award in February 2019 for his final master series.

Since 2019, she has launched a number of series that are subversive, bizarre sensory experiences and are at the forefront of new things. HEO draws on the elements of fear in many films and sculptures. She believes that this kind of fear is not the fear of human beings facing the unknown, but the visual element that emits an unknown and strange smell.

HEO's autumn / winter 2021 collection marks the first time that she has combined women's and men's wear, a natural evolution in which she thinks her clothes are neutral: "my focus is more on the personality and style of the wearer."

HEO condenses the essence of this terrible and fragile era, combining precise tailoring with smooth fabric. Goom HEO has made some clever design breakthroughs in the fall collection. A cape, a half scarf jacket and a Pink Knit miniskirt that almost droops like a sari are all more ingenious.

In the spring and summer 2022 series, designer HEO's work series is mainly in its own chaotic way: sci-fi clothing and disproportionate cutting mesh, bulging silhouette supported by subtle sexy details, washed indigo denim imitating the effect of wrong vision wrapped around the leg, which is refreshing and amazing.

02、 The role of fashion East

As a perfect incubator for independent designers, since fashion East was founded jointly by Lulu Kennedy and the old Truman brewery, almost all the fashion school graduates and young designers who want to set up their own homes in London but have little money can get support.

When they hold their first show, they can get a considerable start-up capital provided by fashion East, a full set of show teams (including professional show directors, models, makeup artists, stylists, etc.), spare no effort in professional public relations publicity, and high-level business guidance like expert consultation.

In order to win the favor of fashion East, designers must be outstanding, because a team of senior experts in the London fashion industry will screen candidates layer by layer. Because of its strict selection, people attach great importance to their final choice.

Fashion East has funded designers every season, and almost all of them will become the focus figures in London Fashion Week and even in the international fashion industry, such as JW Anderson, roksanda illincic, Jonathan Sanders, house of Holland, etc.

The outbreak of the epidemic has made people tired of the fashion industry, but London Fashion Week has never failed to present unique works.

This phenomenon is supported by fashion East. After nearly two decades of operation, fashion East has become a weathervane of London's fashion industry. Fashion East is undoubtedly the synonym of London's leading and epoch-making fashion scene.

Fashion East and London Fashion have never left the public view, and have been leading the pace of the world. Its huge creative power promotes designers to advance in this wonderful group. The fresh blood carries great ideas, and harmony and extremes coexist. This year's high attention to fashion east also shows that the world is eager for the return of physical fashion shows. As a marketing method, entity fashion show is still irreplaceable for a long time in the future.