All eyes on Fashion East. What would London Fashion Week look like without it? The talent showcase has shaped the London scene for two decades and is a major springboard for international fashion talent. Last year’s LVMH Prize winner, Nensi Dojaka, was a Fashion East alumnus, and this year its rising star, Maximilian Davis is also nominated for the LVMH Prize. Davis showed his most sophisticated collection yet. Honed, precise, clean, confident, modern, knowing, sexy: his work, which focuses on cut and meticulous tailoring, has evolved from the brief-but-brilliant night crawler looks of his early collections, to something with a real sense of modern style. Think Halston or Calvin for Gen Z. He’s remarkable and he’s only just getting started.
Chet Lo is also in the ascendant. His exuberant 3D knits were joined by fun-fur minis and plushy-toy bags. He has also been looking at skiwear, melding it with a clubwear aesthetic for cropped quilted puffers which came with matching boots. The plastic pastel colour palette, imagine a rampaging My Little Pony added to the cartoonish, carnivalesque, atmosphere of the Chet Lo world.
Jawara Alleyne made his runway debut (last season he showed a static presentation) and used the opportunity to work his upcycled, deadstock fabrics into sensual draped pieces for women and men. This designer puts the body at the centre of his work – his clothes are about movement and flow and they slinked down the catwalk.
Photography courtesy of Fashion East.