Having been busy with other commitments meant that I didn't have much time in the last week to update properly the site.
This also meant that I wasn't able to write earlier about “The Future of Fashion”, an exhibition hosted by global fastening producer YKK and curated by Kei Kagami.
The event - organised in St Martins' Courtyard - opened in February and closed last week, a couple of days after Kagami came back from Paris.
I was lucky enough to meet him there and together we went through the pieces exhibited.
The main piece of the exhibition remained Kei Kagami's zipper dress, a design characterised by a column-like silhouette and entirely made out of fluorescent zips that create intricate motifs when interwoven together (View this photo) or reproduce the effects of rays, opening up and spreading around.
The exhibition featured ten young and talented fashion designers: Aitor Throup's showcased two ninja-like figures entirely clad in black (View this photo); menswear designer Matteo Molinari went for an all black approach with a linear coat that featured an ample knitted collar in what Kei described to me as a “less is more approach” (View this photo).
Rob Goodwin also opted for black, though his piece - a leather cape with winged headgear - would be perfect on the set of a post-apocalyptic film about a tribe of futuristic Amazons, while Martina Spetlova incorporated in her colourful jacket a series of zippers mainly employed to alter its shape.
The accessories featured were also rather strong with Hanwen Shen's neckpiece that focused on the erotic power of a woman's nape (mentioned in a previous post), Char Har Lee's architectural shoes (View this photo) and Yunus & Eliza's eccentric metal structure with headgear incorporated that could be considered almost as a wearable sculpture.
Yunus & Eliza are among the recipients of the BFC/ELLE Talent Launch Pad for the SS11 & AW11 seasons, together with another designer also featured in the exhibition, David Longshaw.
Among the accessories designers featured, the most interesting one from a structural point of view was definitely Emma Yeo.
The winner of the YKK award at ITS#10 with a piece that incorporated wood, leather and a zipper, Yeo is known for her signature “biomorphic” designs, intricate nets and architectural structures in leather and wood that seem to combine together biology, modern architecture, fashion design and surrealism.
From a tailoring perspective, I really enjoyed Mason Jung's “Camouflage IV”.
The piece is taken from Jung's “Camouflage” series and explores standardised customs.
The series also looks at the designer's childhood memories of wearing uniforms in a restricted culture that led the garments to be remembered as a social trauma that suppresses individuality.
“Camouflage IV” comprises a jacket, waistcoat and scarf, yet the pieces aren't layered one on top of the other, but they seem to merge (View this photo), almost creating fossilised forms of men's habitual dress codes in order to reveal the individuality hidden by social agreements.
This summer Kagami will be once again part of the the ITS award panel and I'm sure that his vision will help the other members of the jury to spot very talented designers.
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