Karine Laudort Despite the pandemic, London Fashion Week still went ahead digitally, after the success of last year’s virtual event. London Fashion Week took place Friday 19th February until Tuesday 23rd February, and in case you missed it, we are here to give a round-up of some of our favourite international indie brands highlights that you may not have known about over the weekend.
The Nairobi X London Sessions
Creative DNA partnered with Fashion Scout to launch a film, showcasing 11 Kenyan designers at t London Fashion Week. On Saturday 20th February and Sunday 21st February Fashion Scout Digital presented an exclusive new film and a series of 3 virtual panel discussions, as they celebrated the conclusion of the year-long Creative DNA Kenya Programme.
The Nairobi X London Sessions gives fresh perspectives of conversations on creativity during a crisis, the influence cities’ infrastructure has on fashion, plus the ever so important impact designers have on social change.
The film titled “Looku” captivates us with the essence of Nairobi’s style and street culture, delivering an energetic and powerful film that celebrates the work of the 11 designers, who were part of the Creative DNA Programme. It is not just a fashion film, it tells a story about a city, its culture and creativity and the emerging East African fashion scene.
Hanacha Studio
The international womenswear label, headquartered in Korea, showcased post-show imagery and video on Saturday 20th February at London Fashion Week with Fashion Scout. After graduating from the London College of Fashion (MA course with the title of “Collection of the year in 2012”at V&A), Hana started dedicating her time to fashion design. Under this uncertainty in the world, the approach of Hanacha Studio‘s film is to highlight behind the scenes of timeless, yet modern design in the concept of interdisciplinary “art-meets-fashion” mindset. The AW21 collection consisted of timeless pieces, wearable yet elegant with hand-crafted embellishment and classic silhouettes.
Slovak Fashion Map Council
Slovak Fashion Council is a professional non-profit organisation that has helped to support and develop the Slovak fashion ecosystem since 2011.
Since 2013, Fashion Map has presented emerging designers in London and continued to do so this year despite the influence the pandemic has had on the fashion industry. Slovak Fashion Council believe nothing can stop fashion thanks to new online opportunities and are happy to introduce three fashion designers showcasing with Fashion Scout Digital during London Fashion Week AW21:
Kristína Šipulová
Founded in 2018, studio Kristína Šipulová focuses on slow pace fashion with fewer pieces being produced with patience, investment of time in production and interdisciplinary collaborations. The main vision of the studio is taking inspirations from people who are dedicated to craft techniques and to bring these fascinations into the modern world to enrich our everyday life. With the help of local craftswomen, each garment is built from yarn, the garments are versatile and made to last for generations.
Buffet Clothing
Buffet Clothing design high-quality apparel for those who seek pleasure in life. In a fast-paced world full of drama and chaos, the brand uses its craft to produce clothes that inspire people to stop for a moment and appreciate the smaller things in life. Whilst in design, the brand believes in minimalism, they also want to maximise pleasure for all of their customers.
Petra Kovacs
For AW21, Petra Kovacs is presenting ‘Lobster Party’, a collection inspired by the magical underwater world and the world of natural virgin beaches. It is also inspired by the environmental problem associated with Sea world. The main concept in the new collection is Coral bleaching, where the materials themselves and the colour scheme of the collection point to the fading of the coral due to climate change. These problems are highlighted, for example by a lightbox bag with the question “Shell we?” and “Be Moral and Save the Coral”.
APUJAN
His latest collection “In Dreams, We Investigate” showcased on Tuesday 23rd February with The British Fashion Council, APUJAN debuted his men’s designs for the first time in this film through the two actors, including jacquard suits combined with different combinations of shirts and knitwear. In response to the pandemic, APUJAN switched to online films to present his designs, but the goal is not to simply advertise or produce a music video, but to use the medium of film to illustrate themes, tell stories and to explore the concepts of clothing, accessories, makeup and hair, with the focus of the video remaining on the clothes.
In the film, the actors and the models featured in the story, showcase more than forty sets of new designs. A wide range of original fabrics and techniques are used in the clothes, including the unique jacquard, embroidered and printed fabric, exclusively developed by APUJAN, and these can be seen not just on the clothes, but also on the covered buttons and hats.
The story features a detective who can dive into other people’s dreams, travelling through them to solve puzzles, however, it becomes difficult for him to distinguish between memory, dream and nostalgia. Every scenario in the film echoes the physical fashion show. The detective, for example, represents the guests of the show and the manager is the brand representative. The echo resonates through every aspect. It reflects the invitation, the scan entry for the show, the live performance from the music producer as well the social aspect of the show.
Tribal ëyës
Founded in September 2020 by US-based designer Ona Utuama, the brand continues to embrace its cultural values. It appeals to a person who is bold, confident and unrepentant about style, bringing together a community of people who are not afraid of colours, patterns, and diversity in eyewear fashion.
Tribal Eyes prides itself in infusing ethnic patterns, neutral designs into acetate and Asian chakra art. It is a novel concept in the eyewear industry, with each displaying a very wearable plumage of colours and traditional patterns. These eyewear looks are inspired by motifs from the West African roots of the designer, Ona Utuama, who says “I want the world to see people and their culture through their own eyes”.
The brand spirit’s animal is the peacock, which is home to Congo (Africa), India/Sri Lanka and Myanmar in South East Asia.
Patrick Joseph
The Patrick Joseph brand was launched in 2011 by Patrick Mhlanga, after his debuts during London Fashion Week in 2009, where he decided to turn his passion for design and tailoring into a business. Patrick Joseph is a lifestyle originally offered tailored menswear which later expended to women and men ready-to-wear with a few signature Couture pieces, exclusively made as one-off pieces.
Heavily inspired by his grandparents, Mhlanga remembered his grandfather wearing suits 6 days a week, which is what sparked his interest and passion in tailoring. Patrick Joseph infuses British elegance and traditional Italian flair, mixing British and Italian carefully hand-picked materials.
The limited edition collection takes inspiration from the history of the LGBTQ community, particularly the struggles they faced during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The collection was purposely created to be gender fluid, reflecting its core inspiration to bring down the barriers of sexism and homophobia. The garments are thoughtfully designed to redefine the limitations of ready to wear fashion.
Although the pandemic put a spanner in the works in terms of fashion shows, London Fashion Week found a way around it, showcasing shows online. This is great for the public as it was available for anyone to view, and in case you missed it you can visit the London Fashion Week website and watch on ‘Catch Up’ OR on Fashion Scout Digital, here!
