Untold Season VII

I came across Untold during the summer at Clothes Show London and I was pretty impressed with the work from the designers. Untold Design is a community interest company and social enterprise which offers new and emerging creatives who specialise in various aspects of design a space to show their work. Untold pay a lot of lip service in collaboration and collective showcasing where all the designers work together which brings down the cost aimed at the creatives. The Untold story began in 2007 with just three designers and now three years later the collective has seen over 300 designers and creatives go through their doors. On Monday all doors led to The Design Museum where Untold Season VII took place in conjunction with The London Design Festival and London Fashion Week. There was a pop-up boutique on the old routemaster double decker bus parked outside of the venue where you could buy special editions of prints by Victoria Scott as well as a variety of illustrations. On the top deck there were collections by Eki Orleans and Zanaib Vandu-Chikolo. The designers showing off their collections on the runway were Tijana & Mila Popovic, Ross Paul Keenan, Jasmine Howard-Evans, Eki Orleans, Ricardo Ramos and Karla Sabina.

The idea behind the Tijana & Mila Popovic collection is to unite ethics and aesthetics drawing from new age elements and fashion, graphics and interiors. This was a gorgeous collection with chiffony dresses, leotards and lots of PVC. Despite having being trained on Saville Row Ross Paul Keenan wanted to rebel against this and as a result his collection was based on the concept of football and the Brixton riots. Ricardo Ramos's collection was based on his inspiration of India hence the use of saris, cottons, Madras checks and diplomat stripes. This was quite a dusky collection with flashes of vibrant colours on dresses and pantsuits.

Eki Orleans brilliantly uses West African prints on silk materials and turns them into smock tops, floaty maxi and shift dresses. I loved this collection and it was refreshing to see the prints used on silk as opposed to other materials. With the use of two dimensional and three dimensional design, Jasmine Howard-Evans creates her collections with a holistic approach, creating prints and pieces that interact together. I thought this collection was fabulous and I really liked the way the models were sent down the catwalk with a tiny camera where they pretended to take pictures of the audience and the photographers. Very cute. Karla Sabina's collection consists of handbags and jewelley which tells a story of sensibility, experience and maturity of someone who has learned to trust her senses. The necklaces were very elegant and the tiny shoulder bags were tres chic. Untold created a fantastic evening with a wonderful celebration of fashion and it is great to see so much talent in this country. The evening was topped off with a serving of tea and cupcakes. Well what else?

You can find out more about Untold by visiting their website.

Pics are supplied by Untold. Middle pic is of the collection by Tijana and Mila Popovic, the bottom pic is of Jasmine Howard-Evans. 

Fashion Diversity

London Fashion Week kicked off last Friday with the usual glamourous fashion shows, after parties, celebrities on the front row and various launches. Over six days there has been a huge plethora of designers showing their offering for next Spring and Summer but the catwalk shows have not just been restricted to the BFC tent; other partners such as Vauxhall Fashion Scout and On/Off have been drawing a huge crowd with their shows. However, LFW was given a huge boost with the announcement that the British fashion industry is worth nearly £12 billion (yes billion!) proving to be the one of the most creative industries. The irony of this statement does not escape me  as life in the Brit fashion industry is far from rosey. I was having a BBM discussion with Janice from Mad News about the position of London Fashion Week in comparison with the other fashion weeks such as New York, Milan and Paris. Jan was under the impression that LFW was up there in the echelons when in reality the event is very low down the ranks. LFW is seen as the quirkier and edgy sister and the place to go for ideas and trends but in terms of sales that is all done in New York, Milan and Paris. Most of the top editors skip London after New York and head straight for Milan along with most of the top models. Reason being? Well simply - cold cash or rather lack of. As slick as the British Fashion Council may appear to be there is a serious problem with finances within the British fashion scene. A lot of new designers in this country struggle to get their business off the ground and even when they do it is a constant struggle for them to get the next collection out. Initiatives like On/Off and Vauxhall Scout Fashion were set up to provide new designers with a platform to show their work which would hopefully lead them to bigger and better things and have done a fantastic job and now there are other collectives that are set up to promote up and coming designers.

Fashion Diversity, Fashion Mavericks and Untold are just a few organisations who are showcasing new designers. Fashion Diversity has been running for two years and their objective is to re-addrress the balance of diversity during London Fashion Week by raising the profile and supporting designers and models within the UK fashion industry. This took place in the form of a two day celebration of fashion which consists of a press launch and a VIP gala show, a fashion show featuring the work of students and graduates as well as a fashion show for the public. Last Thursday I went down to the press launch and gala awards which took place at Islington Metal Works. The event was a collaboration between Mahogany Model Management and Untold Design CIC and featured the works of Mong, Nias World, Aaron Purean Khan, Arif Khan, Aamaa Couture, Bibi Grafitti, Chichia London, Blaq by Sasha James and Kevin Patrick. The designs were a mixture of modern designs with shells and embellishments as well as African prints. Designers, Adebayo Jones, Jolaby and Patrick Kevin were rightfully given awards to honor their careers and success in the fashion industry and both Adebayo Jones and Patrick Kevin showed off their collection for us to see. I was really impressed with the quality of the designs as well as the elaborate make up and it is great to see designers with a much smaller profile getting their props.

For more information about Fashion Diversity check out their website. 

London Fashion Week September 2010

I was planning on attending New York Fashion Week but well that didn't work out so I decided to make the most of being in the UK and spend a few days at London Fashion Week. Unfortunately I didn't apply for tickets for the main catwalk shows and I wasn't in the mood to gatecrash so I decided to attend the events I did actually have an invite to. All of these events were off schedule (which means shows that are not taking place at the British Fashion Council tent) and darted across different parts of London. On Thursday there was Fashion Diversity at Islington Metal Works, Friday was The Look Show at The Saatchi Gallery, Saturday was Fashion Mavericks at The Strand Palace Hotel and Monday was Untold at The London Design Museum. I will be covering these events during the next few posts and filling you in on all the details.