Looking Back On Brighton Fashion Week

With Brighton Fashion Week over, DASH are delighted to tell you that the showcase event truly kept its promise of exhibiting innovative new talent. Hosting a week of creative celebration, the exhibit included The Zeitgeist Catwalk, presenting emerging new talent, The Sustain Catwalk, illustrating sustainability, and the final Showreel, which projected theatre costume and art.

Catherine Hudson was the headliner of the Sustain catwalk with her collection entitled ‘Raw Canvas’. Inspired by the bold and graphic works of Francis Bacon, the menswear collection had a timeless and simplistic quality as the foundational aesthetic. Standard staple pieces were its canvas, but were imprinted with art in the form of brushed paint and graphic prints, which either heavily featured in matching suits and pant combos, or in miniscule details such as pockets and collars embedded on a base of black. The balance between bright patterns and her simplistic tailoring proves that conservative structured pieces and creativity can indeed co-exist remarkably well. The collection successfully embodies the trail of current trends whilst also holding a dosage of unconventional creative allure.

During The Zeitgeist Catwalk the audience had the privilege of experiencing Elisabeth Connor’s collection ‘One’. It felt elegantly restrained and romantically chic with soft fabrics and feminine silhouettes. The standout piece of this collection was the long drape silk kimono with matching white silk bracelet and salmon, dusty pink shorts. The back detail of the kimono ignited a powerful reaction from the audience as the intricate detail slinked across the floor and the stained pinks and purples and centre pleats effectively flowed out as the model drifted past. Connor’s entire collection portrayed understated glamour with an oriental feel depicted in certain shapes and pairings.

Sculptural and experimental costume / performance artist Patrizia Ruthensteiner was the second collection during the Showreel. An evening one was not quite prepared for. The collection entitled ‘The Folly Of Mankind’ felt like the substance of a dream verging on a creeping nightmare with its bewitching ambiance. Ruthensteiner’s aim was to question the natural order of life. The dominating theme of naturalism, linked with the animalistic symbolism found in the horns and tails, and the usage of inanimate objects which are made to wear, (impressively in one instance a model made use of a spinning wheel attached to her body as means of transport), are all to question the very definition of beings and objects, and their identity. Amongst wheels and pinecones there are references to historic costumes in the Elizabethan ruffles and Gothic styles. Fashion, art and theatre are all brought together here in a cumulative exploration of innovative beauty and wonder.

The collection felt like a cryptic, dark fairytale being pulled onstage to transform the building into a parallel world with the help of eerie music. Ruthensteiner used sound rather than music, which amplified the ominous atmosphere perfectly. She recorded a soundtrack entitled ‘Costumesonics’, which involved heavily emphasised sounds deprived of the movement of her 12 costumes dragging on the floor. It contributed appropriately to the naturalistic feel of the embellishments and, now and again, there was an intense ringing noise which gave each model a haunting presence, making her collection all the more menacingly and indisputably powerful.

Vingi Wong‘s collection depicts the theme of illusion, focusing on silhouettes of the human body. This is reflected in the synthetic tubular material used to emphasise these lines in the human body. Her pastels and rainbow embroideries gave a joyful interlude to the dark Gothic collections that had just preceded. Wong’s shapely dresses evoked an almost childlike innocence with their wide-open skirts and primary colours, inspired by Arabic architecture and art. Every single embellishment followed the creative invention, right to the 1990s jelly-strapped shoes teamed with fluorescent coloured socks, adding a charming, playful quality.

Aimee O’Loughlin