London Fashion Week Day 1

This London Fashion Week the British Council alongside the British Fashion
Council have installed the International Fashion Showcase, now in its
fourth year. The initiative aims to celebrate emerging designers from
around the world.

The BFC extends the invitation to a curated selection of designers over
four days of London Fashion Week held at the Brewer Street Car Park. The
catch is that it is open to both the press as well as the public.

When we see the shows from Roksanda, Erdem and Astrid Andersen, we don’t
think of them as East European, Canadian or Danish-born, rather we see them
as bonafide London talent. And that is what defines London Fashion Week.
The IFS embodies a certain London fashion spirit that doesn’t exist
anywhere else in the international fashion landscape. It’s a helping hand
for young designers from around the world, who wouldn’t necessarily get a
chance to showcase their work to the industry and an opportunity for London
Fashion Week to scout the diamond-in-the-rough designers, who have always
been the driving force of London fashion.

The inaugural day of London Fashion week saw J JS Lee open the BFC
Courtyard space with the first show of the day, followed by Eudon Choi,
both of whom are not British by origin. J JS Lee, otherwise known as Jackie
Lee, showed a fairly restrained collection in mostly grey tones with long,
lithe dresses and deconstructed tunics as key pieces. Choi showed a strong
collection of outerwear, with leather jackets featuring geometric
configurations inspired by the Japanese architectural movement Metabolism.
These were worn with seventies flares in wallpaper florals of teal and
shocking pink.

Draping, folding, origami-references and plenty of layering was the order
of the day at Jean-Pierre Braganza. The accompanying show notes may have
hinted at the symmetry and beauty of fighter jets, but the clothes were far
from military, instead feeling grown-up, like a leather belted biker jacket
with fur trim worn with a long beige skirt, or batwing top with a black and
white Star Wars-esque print teamed with a simple black trouser. These were
not shocking looks, but neither were they uncommercial.

Molly Goddard is a newcomer to London Fashion Week, following internships
with John Galliano and Meadham Kirchhoff, the former Central Saint Martins
student officially debuted during the SS15 season. For AW15, she
transformed the BFC space into an art classroom, complete with paints and
brushes, still life compositions and a nude life model. In tulle dresses
worn over felt trousers, smocks and 70s corduroy, her street-cast gang of
girls worked on sketches, chatting and interacting with the space. Goddard
is one of the NewGen recipients and is known for her hand-pleating,
smocking and crocheting techniques.

Fashion East is not the home of sophisticated ready-to-wear. In fact,
wearability is rather beside the point. Fashion East is an initiative to
support emerging designers in the early stages in their career, giving a
platform without the restrictions of an on-schedule show and where
creativity can flow. So while these shows may appear student-y at times, we
should be reminded they were also the foundation for many current
successful designers, like Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda and Gareth Pugh. If
there was a common thread amongst the collections it was a working class
inspiration. Track suits, house coats and the shortest of skirts for a
Friday night out were the order of the day. It was disarray, but of the
considered kind. It will be interesting to see where these designers go
from here.
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