With London Fashion Week just around the corner, news is flooding in about who is showing, who is conspicuously not, and what to expect from the city that is famous for nurturing young talent.
Since the revamp of the British Fashion Council’s on-schedule program, which included the return of Burberry, Jonathan Saunders, and Pringle to the city, London has been invigorated and now attracts every high-profile editor from Anna Wintour to Anna Dello Russo. This season will see Aquascutum and Temperley London return to the schedule; the former highly anticipated after the major shake up in the design team that happened last year.
New labels J. JS Lee, Les Chiffoniers, and Cassette Playa will show on-schedule, but the highly regarded Fashion East show is the one to keep an eye on. Each year, Lulu Kennedy and her team of talent hunters choose three young designers to showcase, often to critical acclaim. This season, Simone Rocha will return after her incredibly successful show last season; Elliot Atkinson, whose debut collection was bought by Browns Focus, and James Long, who made waves in the world of menswear and will debut his womenswear this season, will join her.
Rumors of Victoria Beckham taking her show across the pond have been dispelled, but the flock of talent set to show far outshines the rumors of would-be catwalk shows. The off-schedule shows always feature the best and brightest of London’s avant-garde fashion scene and this season’s Vauxhall Fashion Scout is sure to be noteworthy as usual. The four designers showing will be Anja Mlakar, Kirsty Ward, Sara Bro Jorgensen and Tze Goh; all graduates of prestigious schools, the designers have already created buzz amongst the keen-eyed denizens of London’s front row.
