London Fashion Week comes to a close today (19 September). The festivities seem to start earlier every year: the 26-year-old creative director of Nina Ricci, Harris Reed, showed his eponymous label’s spring/summer 24 collection on the evening of Wednesday 13 September – two days before the shows were due to start. The intimate presentation at the Tate Modern art gallery on London’s Bankside featured a live piano player accompanied by vocals from south London singer Cosima.
A jam-packed timetable swiftly followed, with plenty of shows both on and off the official schedule taking place across the capital. Double Woolmark Prize-winning designer Edward Crutchley took us to church (St Cyprian’s church in Marylebone, specifically), Drapers 30 Under 30 alumna Priya Ahluwalia to the British Museum, Ukrainian designer and owner of retail and talent incubator space WRHS13 Natasha Zinko on a camping expedition around Soho Square, and design duo Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons behind it-brand Chopova Lowena to a cavernous west London skate park – and that was all just on day one.
London has a global reputation as being a hotbed for new talent, and this season was no exception. Drapers 30 Under 30 alumna Tolu Coker made her label’s catwalk debut on Monday morning, as did rave-inspired Sinead Gorey’s eponymous brand on Sunday afternoon.
Ex-Topshop heads of design and buying, Camille Perry and Holly Wright, brought their brand Tove back for its second season, and the BFC-driven Newgen space at Old Selfridges Hotel was a revolving door of hotly tipped emerging designers including menswear brand Stefan Cooke (who debuted a pre-loved collection of handbags with Mulberry), womenswear label Di Petsa by Greek designer Dimitra Petsa, the eponymous brand of Ukrainian born womenswear designer Masha Popova and Central Saint Martins Knitwear MA graduate Chet Lo.
Noticeably missing from the schedule, however, was Turkish-British…
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