London’s fashion students push the boundaries at LFW
Photography by Portia Kentish
Portia Kentish reports from the runway of the University of Westminster’s latest fashion show.
The fashion industry often treads a fine line between cutting edge conceptualism and absurdity, and Westminster’s BA show at London Fashion Week was no different. Falling on Valentine's day, the spectacle featured 15 collections from final year students, exploring issues close to their hearts and infatuating the minds of many.
University of Westminster is one of London’s top fashion colleges, boasting alumni such as Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Bailey, and Ashley Williams, as well as many graduates going on to work in the world’s top fashion houses. However this is not to say that its students embrace the traditional nor mainstream. Having aligned the academic calendar with the fashion calendar, students were able to exhibit their work in conjunction with the industry greats. The students’ commentaries accompanying their collections articulated both their admiration and subversion of its traditions.
Professor Groves of the University of Westminster reminded audiences of the importance of the show to introduce the next generation of designers. “All the students that showed this week at LFW have already worked for some of the world’s best designers and are now ready to launch their design careers. I am thrilled that we are once again showing their collections at London Fashion Week in front of an invited audience of over 500 of the most influential people in the international fashion industry.”
Photography by Portia Kentish
Held in University of Westminster’s exhibition space on Marylebone Road, crowds teeming with top fashion journalists, buyers, international recruiters and the occasional b-list celebrities decorated the footpath outside, whilst the best in the business were immediately escorted through to their front row seats. Once the immaculately dressed guests lined the runaway, lights dimmed and the show began.
Models flooded the runaway, draped in a kaleidoscope of fabrics, as experimental house music synced to their steps. The 15 collections, chosen by an industry panel including Lulu Kennedy, Charles Jeffrey, and Gordon Richardson, showcased the progressive and spirited voice of Westminster’s fashion students, who left convention at the door as the models moved to a whole new rhythm.
The audience was fixated in awe and occasional astonishment, as students toed the line between experimentation and absurdity (sometimes taking it too far, depending on who you asked).
Photography by Portia Kentish
Notable collections featured minimally coloured fabrics constructed in structured tailoring that took the model’s bodies to the absolute hyperbole. This climaxed in a navy and white fabric which consumed one model from the hat on her head down to her fur yellow thigh-high boots.
Others featured Jean Paul Gaultier-esque tailoring taken to a futuristic degree, screaming latex, studs and bold color palettes. This transitioned into a red-latex themed collection in which models came out more and more covered up, culminating in a handmaid's tale piece that suggested a poignant scream at women's objectification, or perhaps merely aimed to throw the design textbook rules out the window.
Photography by Portia Kentish
An unexpected yet prominent theme of a few collections was clown-esque garments that clashed patterns, hyperbolised tailoring, and even featured a few balloons. Whilst a garden-gnome style balloon hat paired with clown shoes going down the catwalk may seem ludicrous at first, but there is arguably an underlying genius to it all. Students are proving they can push the boundaries by appropriating the absurd.
It is also worth mentioning that elements of these styles, such as the clashing patterns, bold colours and obscure silhouettes, have been echoed across major fashion houses and onto our high streets. From each seemingly normal trend, there is always an nth degree of farcicality.
London colleges have always produced some of the world's top creative minds in the fashion industry, and the city’s youth consistently manages to find its platform, whether because of their environment or in spite of it.
Photography by Portia Kentish
In all their absurdity, these Westminster BA students were able to achieve the exact opposite: a focused and poignant critique of the traditional and institutionalised fashion houses who tend to soak up the spotlight at London Fashion Week. At a time when England’s place as an international foci is blowing away in the midst of Brexit, and more literally, with storm gusts elevating copies of the Evening Standard miles into the air outside, the London night appeared as gloomy and mundane as ever.
Yet inside the Westminster space a different kind of storm was brewing. One of bright young students turning their backs on convention and testing the limits of fashion. While occasionally pushing too far over the edge, their pioneering innovation represents exactly what England needs right now: youthful confidence, boisterousness, and a break from tradition that carves out a new, energetic, and innovative path.