Fashion East SS21 Collections Through A Short Film and Campaign Imagery

September 2020 marks twenty years since Lulu Kennedy staged her first multi-designer talent showcase. Since then, Fashion East has launched the careers of the great and good of the fashion industry (144 designers & brands, and counting), whilst keeping true to its own indelible identity as the upholder of true authenticity, community spirit and the raw, boundless energy at the heart of British fashion.

London Fashion Week will see a four-designer showcase spot-lit through the new medium of film.

‘Looking back over twenty years of helping London’s best designers is wild! I’m incredibly grateful I’ve been able to do what I love doing best. I wouldn’t change a thing. It is an honour to get to work with and present these four fabulous talents this season. I am in awe of their visions, creativity, optimism and the resilience they have shown throughout these difficult circumstances. ’

- Lulu Kennedy, Founder

MAXIMILIAN

In homage to contemporary Carnival costumes, a hammered silk skirt is trimmed with goose biot feathers, bralettes cut with harnessed backs, and Nasir Mazhar’s custom headpieces balanced atop the crowns of models’ heads. Calf suede dresses and jeans are meticulously slashed, their skeletons echoing palm fronds, and ra-ra skirts are pressed with pristine pleats. The dark exuberance of the Blue Devils, a group of paint-daubed men who playfully torment Carnival attendees, prevails throughout.

At the core of the collection appears a reclamation of Black elegance expressed through gently oversized tuxedo tailoring, executed in fluid viscose and bonded crepe to reflect Trinidadian ease, and carefully constructed eveningwear made for movement. “For a long time, Black people haven’t been in charge of their own narrative, and I wanted to see them in a different, regal light,” explains Maximilian.

It is that sentiment definitively reflected within the collaboration with photographer Rafael Pavarotti and stylist Ibrahim Kamara, which presents Maximilian’s distinct perspective on modern Black identity: one rooted in history but directing its own future.

Words by Olivia Singer

GOOMHEO

Inspired by the erotic paintings of German artist Paul Wunderlich, the contours of a nude female figure in moonlight translate to a curvilinear, heavily draped template. Trailing silk chiffon sashes in scarlet and black wind up around torsos into roll neck crop tops, while loose grey gathers puff about trousers like clouds of rising fog. Waistbands swoop deep below the groin, and the hems of tops lurch upwards to reveal the abdomen.

It’s a collection that explores what it means to be watched, and how we respond to becoming the objects of an other’s attention. This is perhaps most obviously pointed out by the eye motifs seen throughout, in murky prints or artfully scribbled embroideries. They’re a reminder that, wherever you are, whatever you do, GOOM is watching you.

Words by Mahoro Seward

NENSI DOJAKA

Dance, the female body and abstract interplays of shapes and shades influence Nensi Dojaka’s SS21 collection that is being showcased as part of the Fashion East digital presentation. “The lightness of movement I witnessed in a Sylvie Guillem ballet at Sadler’s Wells came to mind. During lockdown

For Spring Summer 2021, Dojaka has introduced new capsules of swimwear, bodywear and long evening dresses. The backless bodysuits and swimsuits, made in Lycra, feature asymmetric patterning, deconstructed raw edges on bra tops and eyelet rings that suspend spaghetti straps.

Words by Harriet Quick

SAULNASH

Saul Nash is proud to present Flipside, his spring/summer 21 collection and his third as part of Fashion East. This season, Saul evolves his design signature further, one that is founded in movement, function and transformation. This sense of liberation offers an escape from our circumstances, a chance to reveal our “flipside”.

For the first time, Saul has used quick release zippers to allow for this transformation. What appears to be a regular track top has quick release zippers at the side. When undone, it transforms into a cape, the mesh lining trapping air to help it take volume and shape. The same is true for a hooded gilet with quick release zippered sides, its hood also folding away.

Many pieces flip, such as a 3D-cut tracksuit green on one side, the other side printed with images of a man caught in motion. Also reversible is the body of a polo-shirt cut in the mock eyelet cloth usually found in football kit, the sleeves in mesh.

Words by Charlie Porter

More info on Fashion East here : www.fashioneast.co.uk/