London Fashion Week SS17 presentation round up
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Catwalk shows may still be the driving force for London Fashion Week, but presentation showcases give designers, especially those emerging on the scene to show the full vision behind their collection in a creative and more cost-effective way. This season, 31 on-schedule designers opted for a presentation, and numerous off-schedule designers and FashionUnited has rounded up the very best.
Edeline LeeCanadian-born, London-based Edeline Lee was influenced by the British capital and post-Brexit for her spring/summer 2017 collection, held at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, which has become the hot place to hold a presentation during London Fashion Week.
“This season is about the pleasure I find in the everyday moments of a London life, observing the people walking down the street outside my studio,” explains Lee. “London is endlessly luxurious, yet homely and grimy at the same time. It is abundant and stark, pedestrian and refines, hectic and lonely, polite and rough, formal and colloquial, joyful and frustrating, slow and fast. Everything you need is in London. You can get fed up and escape it, only to come back with a sigh of relief. It’s my definition of fun, and I wanted to make a fun collection.”
Models stood in front of a backdrop of a series of London textures including a Victoria black paint door, the Edwardian bricks of Bloomsbury, as well as the back alleys of Soho all photographed by Switzerland-based artist Kyung Roh Bannwart.
The collection was playful with dresses, trench coats and two-pieces seen in bright colours including red, blue, green, yellow and turquoise, with some featuring graphic colour-blocked patterns, stripes and embellishments, as the designer teamed up with Swarovski this season. The end result was a happy, fun, and feminine line-up of casual dresses, trouser and top combinations and coats.
Isa ArfenLondon-based womenswear label Isa Arfen founded by Serafina Sama was inspired by the body painting and decoration of the tribes of the Omo Valley tribes in Ethiopia combined with the elegance and femininity of Seydou Keïta’s 1950s and early 1960s portraits of Malian women, as well as “dash of Nineties ethnic” for her spring/summer 2017 collection.
The result was a sophisticated and modern collection of dresses, playsuits, trousers and skirts featuring vibrant bold tribal patterns, while other pieces had frilly organza sleeves, asymmetric necklines, bow ties, and feathered trims. A number of pieces you could instantly spot will be coveted by street-style stars such as the bold trench coat, the off-the-shoulder black dress with frilly white organza sleeves, and the khaki-and-white shirt worn with a pair of black cigarette pants painted with bold tribal strokes.
Judy Wu
Raised in Shanghai, Judy Wu first expressed herself through painting, before moving to London to study at Central Saint Martins where she graduated in 2009. For spring/summer 2017 Wu was inspired by neo-futurist architecture with complex structures transcending into streamlined forms to create a sports-luxe collection, which featured the designer’s first handbag collection.
Fabrics in the collection include translucent organza, sculptural neoprene, geometric broderie anglicise, and a twill jersey, which added texture and body to the tops and jackets, while chiffon layers added fluidity to the ethereal skirts and dresses. These sit alongside the first Judy Wu handbag Ling, named after her mother, which features leather and cotton canvas with a contrasting suede lining and the designer’s signature zip-strap.
Steven Tai
Vancouver-born Steven Tai continues to be inspired by his geeky “bookworm” muse for spring/summer 2017, first seen in his 2011 graduate show.
“She’s an old-school intellectual with a sense of humour, an obstinate optimist with a paperback tucked into her high-waist trousers,” explains Tai. “Her wardrobe a more refined, more wearable, yet equally complex update on what she wore in 2011.”
Last season was a collection of nostalgic wardrobe staples, for spring/summer the Tai geek-yet-feminine girl is more refined and flirty, wearing ruffled tops, pinafore dresses with rough-edged hemlines. There is still a sense of innocence in the Tai geeky girl, with the models all wearing round spectacles, while gently swaying on wooden swings in a playground setting.
One of the highlights was the papery texture effect on the clothes achieved by layering panels of fabric upon the other to make it look like pages of a book, which were hand-cut and woven to create the desired effect.
Clio Peppiatt
South London-based designer Clio Peppiatt, who gathered experience from positions at Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson before launching her own label, was inspired by the masculine arena of F1, race car drivers and motorcycle gang for her spring/summer 2017 collection.
Her fun and creative presentations always draw a crowd and ‘Fast Women’ saw the fashion pack immersed into the world of cars with a twist, filled with strong, independent women with a whole lot of attitude rather than the stereotypical men.
The Clio girl for spring will be wearing embellished body stockings with faux fur, lights silks and lace alongside heavy denim biker jackets and leather bustiers, with added humorous embellished and embroidered slogans including ‘Carnage’, ‘Heels ‘n’ Wheels’ and ‘Fast Women’.
In addition to continuing her collaboration with Tatty Devine on the jewellery, this season Clio Peppiatt has teamed up with Skinny Dip to create a bold range of phone cases, stickers and patches that are available to buy now.
Images: courtesy of Edeline Lee