LFW: 16th September

This is the day that LFW came to a close and all the bloggers, models, press packed their bags and headed to Milan to begin a whole new fashion week the next day. Fortunately this day wasn't all dull and full of bag organisation and last minute boarding pass printing for all the people lucky enough to be going to MFW as there was a few brilliant shows, two of which I'd love to talk about as they stood out the most to me.

Fashion East

The previous Fashion East designers that have been gathered by the founder - Lulu Kennedy, and then carefully selected by Fashion East's "high profile panel of industry experts" have always turned out to be amazing and so season after season, there is more and more pressure to the designers that are chosen. This year Helen Lawrence, Louise Alsop and Ed Marler, 3 bold and experimental designers, were selected to show case their collections as a part of Fashion East. The Fashion East scheme helps emerging designers break into the industry by presenting their collections at LFW and receiving guidance and mentoring support professionals. The designers are given a bursary, a runway show and are "taken to Paris to hold sales appointments with international stores" in order to progress their careers after what must be a dream catwalk experience. Although I wasn't a huge fan of Marler's (that may get me a few sighs as his work was the 'show stopping closer' but I just didn't like the fussiness of it all), the other two collections really did dazzle me.

Helen Lawrence is a textiles designer who played with textures (latex layers on top of printed and deconstructed jackets and jumpers) and a mixture of colours whether they be bold or subtle pastels. She also plays with the idea of DIY as the tops look like they're falling a part, with the hems of tops being connected by huge stitching. 

Louise Alsop incorporated fringing and raw edge cut outs in her collection bringing back a 90s tone. Her collection mainly featured black and white, with many of the garments being similar but in the two contrasting colours and also yellow was a big favourite in this collection. I'm excited to see what these new designers will bring in the future. 

Kingston University

There was a hell of a lot of collections that show cased at LFW as a part of the Kingston University show but a few have caught my eye, wish I show below. Unfortunately I don't know the individual designers names so can not give full credit where credit is due but I love how every collection is so very different, it amazes me how different people's brains are inspired by different things and the different ways of thinking to get to completely different outcomes. 

The first collection reminded me somewhat of Maison Martin Margiela's collections with the face masks and the daring surrealism take, but also Gareth Pugh. I love the boldness of this collection. This is the kind of fashion I love. It's so exciting. 

I love the contrast between the beautiful bright red 3D floral appliques on the second collection I chose to show you and the matte khaki. Something about that collection just spoke to me and it managed to catch my attention.

Finally, I loved the final collection because of the structure and deconstruction of the garments. The collection felt like it fit together like clockwork.

(all photos courtesy of Vogue.co.uk)

Gee xxx