I seem to love confusing the hell out of streetstyle photographers when I spell out the names of what I'm wearing during fashion weeks. They're probably annoyed at me for not wearing the easily recognisable roll call of names (Balenciaga, Givenchy, Acne etc etc) that they can take down on their notepads in simple shorthand. This season, I'll be spelling out the following names as three London College of Fashion MA students have very kindly lent me a few pieces to gallavant around Paris in, proving a) their viability in a situation outside of professor crit meetings and student catwalk shows and b) that if I'm going to be supposedly "peacocking" around the shows, at least let it benefit those where any sort of exposure, be it my spelling out "Nishiyama" to a journalist/stylist/buyer or the pieces being street-snapped may lead to a positive path.
LCF kicked off London Fashion Week with their first ever MA show at LFW, enrichening (not competing as some would think...) that first day in the February A/W season when Central Saint Martins also have their on-schedule MA show. Most people in the know will see that there is a fantastic diversity in British fashion schools with standout London names graduating from schools that aren't Central Saint Martins. Along with the Royal Academy of Art, London College of Fashion has an impressive list of alumni, which include J.W. Anderson, Lucas Nascimento and James Long. Their place at LFW is yet to be cemented of course but this stellar start saw a select edit of ten students showed that they were serious contenders either to start up on their own, go into the business or otherwise. It really makes that first day of London Fashion Week in February, an exciting prospect with LCF kicking off the day and CSM finishing off the night, filling you with a head of names to watch out for in the future. With such a tightly edited student show, you remembered each and every LCF MA grad and in all honesty, I could have picked out all of them. For pure aesthetic pleasure though, here are three that have made their way into my suitcase, which has exploded in my Paris apartment and will hopefully make a visual imprint on a few people's brains.
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Keiko Nishiyama - When Keiko Nishiyama's English gardens fully bloomed on the stage of the sun-filled Royal Opera House, her carefully placed prints were a no-brainer for me. After studying BA fashion and performance in Tokyo, she moved over to London to complete her MA at LCF. She never left behind her Japanese roots though as she married Japanese technical production and printing facilities with the picturesque traditional English garden. Turning to landscaping and horticulture skills, she created that sense of spatial illusion on her garments in the same way a garden might be designed. Flowers start off big and full at the bottom of a dress, jacket or skirt and grow small as they disappear at the vanishing point. We've seen florals time and time again, but t's the hand drawn finesse of these prints that really makes this collection sing as well as Nishiyama's dedication to working with Japanese factories to get the printed textiles just so. On the body, I feel like I'm blooming as I'm walking. I may not be able to keep flowers or plants alive in my house but at least I can legitimately wear some and feel there's something naturalistic about all this flora and fauna creeping up and around a well-formed trench coat and a matching skirt and shirt.
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Min Wu - Fashion courses in London continues to see students from China on the rise and Min Wu, hailing from Suzhou, China, after her BA at the China Academy of Art in Shanghai knew LCF was the place for her. Her collection smacked of technical precision, inspired by the multi-disciplinary artist Anthony McCall and his "Solid Light" series as well as the object "Schizo Vase", produced by Studio OOOMS. So far, so lofty but Wu interpreted those inspiration points by pushing boundaries of pattern cutting so that fabric reinforced by strips of foam would bend and moulded into structures, supported by thin rods, creating both angular and curvaceous sculpture. Eschewing digital print, Wu also painstakingly hand dyed her fabric to have colours of pale and deep blue and aubergine gradiate beautifully into a blanket of white. Wu also got it spot on with her moulded plastic heeled laofers that sparkled like boiled sweets on the catwalk. There's something scarily delicate about the structures built into Wu's garments but at the same time, they put those art references in a context that is ultimately wearable.
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Nadia Scullion - Unexpected fabrics. Check. Unexpected textures. Check. Nadia Scullion's collection is one that needs to be appreciated up close. Using fabrics normally confined to interiors and furnishings and using moulded rubber as a motif running throughout the collection, she creates clothes with a quiet and yet interesting appeal. The rubber panels on coats and dresses and separate collars are actually based on the broken basket weave bases of rattan chairs, something, which underscores the interiors-based theme of the collection. Scullion's collection is probably the most rail-ready of the three with coats, knitwear, separates and even edged socks ready to get people to embrace a touch of rubber in their lives. I'm going to enjoy wibbling/wobbling about with this subtle but effective use of texture.
