Cozy. Asai AW19

February 15, 2019February 15, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

London born and based designer A Sai Ta launched his label Asai with Fashion East in February 2017. After graduating from his BA at Central Saint Martins, he gained experience at The Row – and was headhunted for a position at Kanye West’s Yeezy a year into his MA. However, the designer didn’t end on resting on laurels, and continues his own path in London. Today, he presented his first solo fashion show, and it was pure brilliance. Asai takes the familiar, and reimagines it iconoclastically by entering into nuances of his British-Chinese-Vietnamese cultural heritage as a second generation Londoner. Taking the craftsman’s spirit from his parents – a seamstress mother and a carpenter father – ASAI often employs surface decoration and fabric manipulation to create intricate textiles, which mirrors the designer’s appeal to disrupt familiar visual codes. For autumn-winter 2019, the designer went into something more cozy, even highland-ish. Ecru knits, beige puffer coats, brown, ruffled maxi-dresses, flurry slip-ons and fleecy crown-beanies felt like ready for high altitudes. The patchwork looks were insanely good, just the label’s already-cult Hot Wok Top, this time around kept in an earthy colour palette.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Chopova Lowena

January 6, 2019January 6, 2019 | Design & Culture by Ed

Meet Chopova Lowena, one of the most fascinating, emerging brands in London. Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena‘s Central Saint Martins MA graduate collection began with them looking at Bulgaria’s mountain dwellers, particularly the women, and the way they dressed. There, they found all the contrasting elements they felt so intrigued with, like intricate handmade folk costumes worn with secondhand western sneakers and sunglasses. The same spirit of new and old, rare and mainstream, was reflected in their autumn-winter 2018 look-book shot by Charlotte Wales (with whom the designers worked on Kukeri – Chopova Lowena, a photographic portfolio focusing on Bulgarian culture and the traditional fur-clad masked Kukeri).The label is already known for its harmonious juxtapositions, subtly combining modernity and nostalgia, luxury and kitsch, craftsmanship and humour. Skin-tight layers of brightly printed mesh are paired with their signature Bulgarian pleats in wool and nylon. Big, punk-ish belts double as mini-skirts underneath delicate harnesses made from metal hardware – very Vivienne-Westwood-gone-ethnic. Chopova Lowena has an anthropological approach to design, observing traditional customs and revisiting them through a contemporary lens. Their design ethos stems from a desire to work with niche and forgotten techniques, and to collaborate with craftsmen in small Eastern European and English communities. By working with artisans, they aim to preserve disappearing crafts – that is quite a t to praise in today’s fashion industry. Take a look at the designers’ works, from 2017 and 2018, below.

Chopova Lowena’s latest offering is actually a mini-collection of three, hand-knitted sweaters. With this project, which launched on their website just now, the Emma and Laura “sought to take this one step further by attempting to create knitwear with the sole purpose of highlighting the manufacturing processes behind it”, as Another puts it. The process behind the sweaters spanned across borders. The works began with wool from Yorkshire mills, which was then knitted into the pieces by three skilled craftswomen from a village in Bulgaria’s remote mountain region. The knits look more than lovely – it’s visible that they’re warm and will serve for years, years to come.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki. Photos by Charlotte Wales and Laura Lowena.

The Look – Erdem Pre-Fall 2019

December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

Vogue‘s Sarah Mower rightly stated in her review: one day it would be wonderful to see Erdem costume a movie. Erdem Moralioglu‘s pre-fall 2019 collection has that quality of being beautifully dramatic, yet at the same time alive. This gorgeous pink gown with billowy sleeves is the perfect example.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Look – Vivienne Westwood AW18

November 5, 2018November 5, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

November’s spookiness. Worn with a distorted pinstripe blazer and pencil skirt from Vivienne Westwood‘s autumn-winter 2018 collection.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Drama. Richard Quinn SS19

September 21, 2018 | Design & Culture by Ed

Although the Queen didn’t attend Richard Quinn’s show this season, the front row at his spring-summer 2019 presentation sparked interest. Art students from Quinn’s high school in London and Central Saint Martins, where he earned his degree, were all here, absolutely stunned and impressed by the British designer’s creations. In recent years, arts programs have been dramatically underfunded in British schools, and this was Quinn’s admirable way of drawing attention to that problem (cutting out art programs is a short-sighted action – it’s the fashion industry, for example, that plays as a very profitable export for Great Britain). Speaking of Quinn’s collection. ‘Dramatic’ is the word that fits it perfectly. Models in velvet ski masks opened the show in black tutus and heels, with a storm clouds projection in the background. Three looks in, and we’ve got 50s cocktail dresses in the boldest florals, gowns with feather trimmings and meticulously embroidered pyjamas. That major sequin work is just ‘wow’. The leopard print that appeared on the ladylike coats and drop-waisted frocks in the end brought the collection proper spice. Quinn conquers the evening-wear niche, that’s for sure. And proves he’s not a one-season wonder.