Words > Jennie Davies
Photos > Emma Bailey copyright Pretty Litter Magazine

Taking the Saturday night spotlight at BFW 2013 was the Showreel show, another new addition to the annual event. Ten costume designers from all over the globe showcased their talents on the catwalk with the addition of theatrical performance. These clothes were not for every-day wear which made it an extravagant and spectacular show!

I’ll try to describe the night’s events as best I can but believe me, Showreel is really something you really need to see with your own eyes. It’s definitely not like any other fashion show I’ve been to which is what made it so special! Not only did we have costume designers from the UK on the line-up but we were also treated to; Mille.Yoko, who flew all the way from Brazil, Uta Bekaia who is based in New York and Katarzyna Konieczka who is of Polish origin and was also our headliner for the evening. How much more international do you want to get?

Tracy Cochrane, Christina A Pistofidou and Max Robinson are just a few of the other designers on display but my favourites of the night were Sarina Poppy, Curve Couture, Jylle Navarro, Uta Bekaia, Louise O’Mahony and Katarzyna Konieczka.

Sarina Poppy is never one to disappoint. This is her fourth showcase at BFW and her ‘Diamonds and Champagne’ collection was a Great Gatsby delight with beaming dancers doing the Charleston down the catwalk around a very charmingly dressed Bride and Groom. The satin drop-waist dresses were in pretty pastels embellished with fringing and lace. I felt like I had been transported back to a 1920s wedding and simply wanted to join in with the celebrations.

Curve Couture brought us out of our 1920s stupor and what came on to the catwalk was extremely very sexy. Lace stockings were teamed with sultry corsets with an aristocratic country twist interpreted with tweed, leather and riding crops. The models’ make-up was beautifully done with shimmering gold highlights paired with deep, smokey eyes, with hair styled into a suave bouffant with double fishtail plaits. They wreaked of sophistication and sex!

Ending the first half of the night was unisex knitwear designer, Jylle Navarro. All of her pieces are one of a kind and put together using hand knitting, machine knitting and macramé techniques. Her ‘Alien Invasion’ collection was a techno, neon and acid ensemble. Skirts that looked like lampshades spun in the most amazing way when the models moved. Modelling some of the wonderful wares was MC Gaff E who performed one of her songs, “Beast Desire”, whilst a group of models danced up and down the catwalk. It was very exciting and energetic and by time it was done I was ready for a rave up!

Launching into the second half was the epic performance from Uta Bekaia and Ideal Glass New York who showcased the ‘Purple Jester’. A man dressed as the titular Purple Jester narrated a story about lost love. It was highly Shakespearean and very dramatic with amazing costumes of monochrome jesters, brides and Siamese twins. It was really quite beautiful and clever how the tale was told with the costumes highlighting key story points.

This year saw Louise O’Mahony’s second showcase at BFW and her new collection ‘Nova’ was an excellent follow up from last year’s Mad Men inspired range. ‘Nova’ was still in O’Mahony’s trademark vintage style but with the additional influence of mermaids and the cosmic. The models wore pastel pink and blue wigs as they walked down the catwalk to Cirrus by Bonobo, adorned in fitted corsets and full skirts that had been embellished with jewels and sequins for a very subtle futuristic look. You could hear lots of cooing from the audience, as it was a really girly girl’s dream.

Last and not least was our headliner for the evening, Katarzyna Konieczka. Her intention when designing is to influence the recipient and to evoke an emotional reaction, and it most certainly did! Her collection was incredibly beautiful but also terrifying, which would explain the title of her collection, ‘La Beauté Terrifiante’. All her pieces were hand made and you could tell that a lot of work had gone into each one. Model’s heads were restricted with surgical looking contraptions whilst the body was adorned in figure hugging metal work or latex. It was very Sci-Fi, reminding me a lot of the artist, HR Giger.

When the show finished there was exciting chatter coming from the audience. It was certainly our favourite night of the week and it had left us on a high; what an exhilarating way to end what turned out to be a very quick week. Brighton Fashion Week has once again put on a rollicking fashion roller coaster, and as the carriage grinds to halt, I can’t help but wonder what twists, turns, thrills and surprises will be in store for us at BFW 2014. Watch this space!

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Words > Jennie Davies
All Photos > Emma Bailey copyright Pretty Litter Magazine

Tonight’s show was an ethically minded affair with eleven designers showcasing their innovative eco designs. Say hello to the Sustain show! Brighton Fashion Week have always showcased designers who recycle or use sustainable materials but this year they have dedicated a whole show to the fashion eco warriors.

This show wasn’t as full as last night’s Zeitgeist show but there was still a great vibe and a heightened atmosphere of anticipation of what was about to unfold. It was certainly not how I’d imagined. I suspected the show to be mostly of designers creating garments with unusual objects, instead there were a variety of collections from extravagant garb to very wearable clothes.

A few of my favourites from the night were Henrietta Ludgate, Anna Bykova, Dumpster Design and Rebecca Jayne Taylor. Rebecca Jayne Taylor, who helped design and make the Unity Dress at London 2012 Olympics, opened the night with her uber cool neon sports wear made from up-cycled Gore-Tex. The clothes were paired with extravagant headgear, skiing goggles and moon style boots. It was incredibly fun!

Anna Bykova went down the same route of showcasing padded winter sports wear with a white, orange and burgundy colour scheme, with a twinge of folk about the digitally printed fabric. She mixes advanced technology with ethical techniques from different countries to make her clothes sustainable and the results really speak for themselves.

Dumpster Design was 100% eco friendly. The BFW newspaper, paper towels, bubble wrap, denim and flyers from the show’s PR company The Cult and sponsors, Benefit and Electric Hairdressing were recycled, layered and shredded to create structured dresses using cone and ruffle techniques. Whilst the pieces here weren’t necessarily everyday wear, it was great to see what can be done with recycling and a bit of imagination.

The headliner of the evening was Henrietta Ludgate and she showcased her ‘Supernova’ collection. Her dresses were made to an extremely high quality finish. The body-con and skater style dresses had a futuristic edge with their shimmering fabrics, coils and dipped hems. Ludgate sources and manufactures all her designs in the British Isles, which I hope more UK designers will follow suit with. It’s a great way to support UK businesses and it will certainly help make sure skills and techniques in this country don’t become a dying trade. This unfortunately it seems that at the moment most trade gets taken to other countries that offer cheaper production. Cheap it may be, but so can the finish be.

The Sustain show was certainly a lot more serious than the previous night’s Zeitgeist, but it definitely got you thinking. I believe when people hear the words ‘ethical clothing’, they might think of materials such as hemp and hessian, but what’s so wonderful about BFW’s Sustain show is it has proven that sustainable clothes can be beautiful and wearable like any clothes found in the high street stores and boutiques, and I think that high street brands really need to change their game. But also, as buyers, we too should be consciously thinking about what we’re buying when we’re out shopping.

I really hope this is a show that will stay and I cannot wait to see how next year’s show will evolve.

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Intro Words > Lyssa Rutherford
Main Words > Jennie Davies
All Photos > Emma Bailey Copyright Pretty Litter Magazine

INTRO > Brighton Fashion Week offers an incredibly exciting and dynamic series of events crossing all sorts of creative boundaries, with how they pick their venues and present their shows, the models, the music and of course, the designers, who travel from all over the globe to our wonderful city to showcase their brilliant new collections.

No year fails to impress with the amazing talent, production and sheer dedication to creating such a thrilling experience, whether you are there purely for the show, or to be part of creating it. This year was made even more exciting for us as we were media partners with Brighton Fashion Week. So we packed up over 1500 of our latest issue to be on the seats and in the goody bags, and off we went to enjoy the glamorous event; myself, Jennie Davies (AKA Hooting Miss Owl – Brighton’s coolest fashion blogger – and also our new Fashion Editor) and one of our brilliant photographers, Emma Bailey. This is what we saw!

ZEITGEIST
Brighton Fashion Week always takes place in a Church, somewhere in our fantastic city. This year’s event was set in St. Bartholomew’s; an incredibly opulent building with epically high ceilings where the roof is visible for miles around. It was a perfectly gothic venue for this year’s fashion event. The opening show for the week was Zeitgeist. Zeitgeist has historically been the Saturday night headlining show but this year it was chosen to kick the event off. The 13 collections on show included excellent the work of Faye Baldwin, Brian Chan, Francis O’Leary, Dioralop, Rebecca Pearson, and Hyung Tae Kim. All that showcased blew us away (as you’ll see in the pictures), but here I will focus on the designers that stood out for me:

We’ll start with Tata Christiane. Her collection had psychedelic kaleidoscope prints of tigers and horses and the lightweight fabric she chose to use with the chunky knits worked perfectly. All delicately decorated with fringing and pom-poms. The contrast of the techno-tribal threads, and inflatable Dora The Explorer accessories against the setting of the cavernous church made it a really fun start to the night.

Aimee Matthew-John’s collection was very different to the above, consisting of elegant tailored trouser suits styled simply with plimsolls and wide-rimmed hats. When the models turned on the catwalk, backless bolero jackets were revealed, adding a little twist to the simple yet effortless garments.

Icelandic designer, Magnea Einarsdóttir, showcased her Scandinavian craft techniques, translating them beautifully for the catwalk. Finely weaved panels of rubber and lambs wool were intricately layered together to fabricate simple, delicate dresses and trousers, almost gossamer or iridescent. It was a very monochrome ensemble so bold undergarments in metallic blues and golds added a splash of colour.

Ending the first half of the show was Nav Bains, leaving the audience on a high with her hip-hop inspired collection. You could see a huge amount of work had gone into each piece with denim being re-worked using bleach, dye, applique and spray paint. A huge eye for detail, Bains has captured a look that I can only describe as Bayeux-Tapestry-Meets-Street-Art. The colour palette was kept very girly by using shimmery pastels paired with colourful chains, topped off with similarly detailed wedge shoes.

The second half swung into action with pieces by Jovana Markovic. A very fairy tale inspired ensemble with large peter pan collars and leather capes and a touch of delicacy added with lace and floral embroidery detail. There was definitely a dark side in the colour scheme of ox-blood red and black, which added a bewitching effect, especially with the eerie wind-up music box sounds that were playing as the models walked up and down the catwalk.

The next collection quickly brought us careening out of our fairy tale daze and brought us screaming into the colourful world of knitwear designer, Katie Jones. Mexican Day of the Dead skulls were combined with granny square heaven, a rainbow hued South American Stitch ’n’ Bitch! The colours were fun and bold and instantly got me dreaming of sunshine and festivals. Brighton’s own ‘La Choza’ restaurant would have been proud!

The headliner of the show, Jess Eaton, I can imagine her collection was everyone’s favourite of the night because as always it was immaculate. This year her collection was inspired by and called ‘Air’ and was split into four sets. The first to come out on to the catwalk was quite a wearable look with khaki dresses, given a pop of colour with bright red feathers adorning shoulders and the head. The second set had 1940’s style dresses paired with brightly dyed feathers in primary colours, resulting in a ‘modern vintage’ look. The third set featured two samurai inspired outfits that seemed to represent Yin and Yang in opposing blacks and whites. Then the final set (the jaw-dropper), was upon us; beautiful evening and bridal wears tailored from old parachutes, birds and antlers. Parachutes were a wonderful material to use as the fabric drapes and moves beautifully on the body, coupled with Jess Eaton’s trademark RoadKill Couture this made for some truly wondrous garments.

Read PL Editor Lyssa Rutherford’s six page interview with Liz Bishop, founder of Brighton Fashion Week, in our current issue where she heads our entrepreneurial series, South Side Up > http://www.NewsStand.co.uk/PrettyLitter

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