At the Royal College of Surgeons, the 2016 London College of Fashion MA womenswear catwalk show took place, consisting of ten selected graduate designers and accompanied by a live music performance by Haelos.
Upon arrival, one was greeted by the creative designs of Zhixan Wang, whom used voluminous layers and bows to create an extreme opening that enraptured everyone in the room. Her collection was inspired by a Taiwanese poet and writer Sanmao’s Stories of the Sahara. The designer’s white theme gradually began to grow coloured with bursts of orange incorporated, reflecting Wang’s inspiration.
Contrary to Wang’s work, Lauren Lake used a wide variety of cool-toned bright colours such as pink, yellow and blue. She used fur as a statement material in her modern designs filled with patterned textures, giving the collection an eye-opening and vibrant feel.
Yawen Qian’s show, featuring heavily layered garments, was based on hospital gowns and clothing for disabled people, meaning oversized garments. Each look was made from one piece of material with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flooring and memory foam created into layers. The inside layer was all white and inspired by her doctor parents.
Up next, Ning Xu’s baggy and oversized creations came with an Asian twist. Similar to Yawen Qian; Xu is a fan of layering. The designer didn’t explore any colours other than the continual blue and yellow presented in her collection. However, as they are contrasting colours, it created a bold captivating feel. Bags complemented the garments, reflecting the overall baggy notion.
With short length items and a dainty innocent feel, Kirim Yun’s pastel pink and white collection repeated designs of flared A-line dresses. Moreover, the detail of frills and ribbons used gave a romantic atmosphere.
Pelin Isildak researched the history of uniforms between the 16th and 19th century for her collection, in which she used patterned and plain fabrics along with leather and suede. The outfits empower the notion of looking at hierarchies in societies throughout time, where changes in status were obvious. She managed to develop her collection in a trendy and modernised manner.
Based on cherry plywood to form panels, outlines and full skirts, Sui Yiru’s garments represented geometric clean shapes with a simple black, white and natural wood mixture of colours and textures. The wooden sections were attached in a very unique and contemporary way: by bondweb.
A very distinctive collection created by Desirée Slabik featured hand-stitched garments of fluffy organza pieces forming voluminous structures, such as trousers, sleeves and large outerwear. The colours used on the organza were bright and floral such as pink, yellow and red that was hand-dyed to create an ombre effect. All other materials came in white, developed and inspired by architectural characteristics.
Closing the show was Ysabel Lee with a dark-coloured collection based on how Western culture impacts Eastern. Lee believes that the life-model we currently live is box-like and thus created sculpted squares of material to form hats. Drapery, pleating and double hems featured bright yellow stitches to supply further detail to the whole looks. Her use of squared buttons and magnets were keeping the lines on the garments as clean and straight as possible.
Overall, the futuristic and innovative designs brought by the selected graduates show wide creative talent and portray great sets of trends that could be seen in the future. more to be found on the MA 16 page.
Menirah AlSuhaimi
