London-based international showcase for emerging talents Fashion Scout recently announced its winners of The Ones to Watch award for London Fashion Week A/W18 - Maddie Williams, Zhi Chen's I Am Chen, Susan Fang and Kristel Kuslapuu (their show will take place on 17th February, and it will be followed by a showroom presentation the next day).
Knitwear-wise Zhi Chen's label I Am Chen, seems to be the most promising among them. Zhi Chen has so far displayed a playful approach to knits: she has used colourful yarns to create light and fun designs. Yet don't be fooled by the rich colour palette as this is not mere eye-candy, before graduating from the London College of Fashion Zhi Chen studied indeed engineering in China.
Inspired by art, but interested in creating a functional and practical product and considering herself a creative mind and a technician, the designer started spending a lot of time in the factories working with her to study the potential of the machines for what regards fabric-making and came up with sosphisticated designs, elaborate patterns and complex textures.
Her A/W 17 collection was characterised by architectural grids and squares, broken patterns and blocky shapes derived from American sculptor Alexander Calder that were seamlessly merged in her knitwear patterns.
Zhi Chen's S/S 18 collection moved instead from David Hockney's palette and the fabric patterns she created this time were made by juxtaposing reflective and matte patterns.
The designer used STOLL machines to create her pieces and she hopes to study STOLL programming for knitwear in Germany to learn new techniques and come up with fresher designs.
There have been designers working on new knitwear approaches also for what regards menswear: in Paris the starting point for Angus Chiang's A/W 2018 menswear collection was Taiwan's favoured means of transport - the scooter.
High visibility colours prevealed in the utility jackets inspired by safety wear, but the knitwear seemed to reference raves as well with bold colours and mixed textures.
At times the final result looked amateurish, while things were more successful when the designer looked at his references in a fun way: a bright yellow sweater featured for example the designer's name blurred by speed and a nice wavy edge, while his glittery tops in sparkling silver and gold yarns have the potential of becoming hits among young people. Mind you, there was a major faux pas in the clown-like shoes, updated versions for grown-ups of first steps baby socks with rubber soles.
Still in Paris Beijing-born Sean Suen tried to provide a knitwear interpretation of the history of China's last emperor Pu Yi. The designer watched Bertolucci's 1987 iconic film, and then proceeded to reinterpret the story using the language of fashion.
Pu Yi succeeded to the throne as a child of two in 1908; he was allowed to keep his title when the country was turned into a republic. Reinstated as emperor in 1917 for a few days, he was then removed again. A titular emperor through the Second World War, after a series of vicissitudes, he ended up working part-time as an assistant gardener at the Beijing botanical gardens.
Sean Suen's first looks on the runway seemed to be characterised by a controlled royal grandeur symbolised by the felt helmets and the shoulder capes donned on coats and jackets, but as the catwalk progressed the designs moved from the tailored to the functional and the palette transformed, going from warm earthy tones and terracotta shades to ominous deep black. There were references to martial outfits and traditional Chinese costumes, but many pieces seemed to be filtered through a Western sensibility.
The coats (and suits) with richly textured removable knitted panels anchored on one shoulder were among the best pieces, while the East meets West mood at times verged towards Dries Van Noten and the armwarmers were reminiscent of Raf Simons' A/W 17 menswear collection.
Looks like the fashion industry may be in a mess, but at least knitwear is in good health and hopefully these young designers (and in particular, determined people like Zhi Chen who seems genuinely interested in developing her technical knowledge) will have the time to grow up and take their ideas to the next level and they won't be swallowed by the cruel and relentless rhythms of the fashion system.
Comments