Yesterday: Day 1 – London Fashion Show: 1st ever Sustainable Catwalk
Tomorrow: Day 3 – Best of EstEthica.
An open secret be repeated: Competition in fashion is brutal.
And competition in and around London Fashion Week is no exception to it.
While some designers might strike upon a lucky chance and conquer the press, the critiques, the magazines, and – importantly – the buyers in a whirlwind, those cases are the exception. The way to have your own dedicated catwalk is long and arduous. And for many young, budding, ambitious designers a dream that is over before it even began.
It’s not only the lack of funds that makes it hard for them to get an opportunity at all, but notably also the tightly knit networks in and around the LFW organisation. Without a patron, catwalks and even exhibitors’ stands are out of reach. With this also potential buyers … and the vicious circle of waiting and hoping for an opportunity starts from the beginning.
Not all is lost however – assuming that an aspiring designer’s creations are outstanding and at least some basic funding is available. Several organisations either dedicate themselves to trend hunting, the promotion of young or ‘side-lined’ designers etc., or offer opportunities to designers to access LFW.
Exemplary, three of these organisations by name:
- Vauxhall Fashion Scouts
- Fashion Mavericks
- Ethical Fashion Forum with their Innovation Awards
For the remainder of today’s insights – let the pictures speak for themselves.
First of all, the Innovation Award Winners 2010:
- Olga Olsson: Pure prize
- Feng-Ho: Pure prize
- Ada Zanditon: Fair trade foundation prize
- Lu Flux: EstEthica prize
- Ahilya: EstEthica prize
Ada Zanditon, Ahilya and LuFlux are currently exhibiting at EstEthica.
Feng-Ho and Olga Olsson have successfully exhibited in early August 2010 at Pure, the UK’s larges womenswear show.
Images from today’s Fashion Maverick catwalk by ambitious, bespoke designer Angy Morton:
My favourite exhibiting Fashion Maverick designers were:
- Ekaterina Kukhareva a knit wear designers with beautiful garments – and a lot of hands-on work by the designer herself.
- Lizzie Dunn: Particularly impressive. I’m by no ways a shoe lover at all – yet, Lizzie’s designs caught my eye right when entering the room. And her shoes’ design impressions stay with me even now, hours after I’ve left the venue.
- Rinda Salmun
- Fabryan by Samantha-Jane Agbontaen
Tomorrow: Day 3 – Best of EstEthica.
Yesterday: Day 1 – London Fashion Show: 1st ever Sustainable Catwalk
