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London talent platforms

By FashionUnited

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Fashion

There’s a good feeling in the fashion air. London Fashion Week proved, these past few days, to be an ever developing hotbed of creative talent, and one well acknowledged by key, international bodies. Consistently strong showings

from the likes of Christopher Kane, Jaeger, John Rocha, Richard Nicoll and Peter Pilotto kept the crowd in good spirits.

However, perhaps, integral to the thriving British fashion industry is the support given to young, emerging talent. FashionUnited took a look at some of these initiatives set up to act as a platform for young design talent and the names to register.

Firstly, Fashion East is a non profit organization, founded by charismatic, fashion favourite, Lulu Kennedy, and set up by The Old Truman brewery in 2000. Each season, Fashion East gives to selected designers a bursary, catwalk show production and PR support. Originally off schedule, the initiative has become so well revered by top editors and buyers, as a fashion scout, that FE now holds an on schedule slot. And 2005 saw a new platform, called MAN, set up to act in a similar capacity in the growing menswear market.

“Fashion East is such a reliable next-big-thing barometer that it's no longer an off-schedule quirk but one of the official LFW schedule's hottest tickets,” says Style.com.

The three selected designers, this year, were Simone Rocha (daughter of fashion designer, John Rocha), Elliot Atkinson and James Long. For Long, actually a designer already on the menswear schedule, this was his womens-wear debut, which will no doubt have bagged him a whole new sector of female fans. Focus points were the Patti Smith, Joan Baez inspired sassy silk shirt dresses, belted with loose macramé ties, frayed hemlines, and cable knit ponchos with long fringing. Atkinson, meanwhile, was inspired for A/W 11 by native American culture, and the signature element of his collection was the array of materials – arran knit, leather, snakeskin, ostrich, fur – he mixed into a intelligent show of sharp tailoring. Whilst onlookers were left wondering if Simone Rocha might surpass her father’s place on the fashion stage with her successful textural play – chiffon mixed into fake fur and cable knit over-layed with chiffon.

Another crowd puller, over London fashion week, were the shows on the On/Off schedule. Lee Lapthorne, director, moved the event to Mercer Street, Covent Garden to make it a more exclusive platform and Charlie Le Mindu, Pam Hogg and Julian J Smith were amongst a host of talked about names. On/Off also put on a well received exhibition; note Hasan Hejazi, Andrew Majtenyi and Lee Lapthorne (under his fashion designer umbrella) himself.

And for those designers who consistently perform well under these schemes, there is the chance of future support; Fashion Forward sponsored by Coutts and Co to provide funding to support development on the business side. Meadham Kirchhoff, Peter Pilotto and Todd Lynn received sponsorship for the second consecutive year. And Newgen, started in 1993, is internationally recognised and offers designers the chance to exhibit in the BFC catwalk space. The past roll call of winners, include Christopher Kane, Marios Schwab and Matthew Williamson.


‘Designers can’t do it alone,’ says Kennedy, ‘they need a team and support around them.’

Fashion East
LFW
London Fashion Week
Lulu Kennedy
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