Review: London College of Fashion MA show

The splendour of the Raphael View gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum played host to the London College of Fashion’s MA Fashion Design Technology 2012 catwalk show.

Beautifully named 'Poemtry', the show consisted of 23 young designers who have been living and breathing their designs and dedicating every day over the last fifteen months to this collection. The students finally saw their designs come to life and form the hugely anticipated event that creates such a buzz amongst the fashion industry.
 
The MA show, held just a couple of weeks before London Fashion Week gets under way, was an array of glorious new talent coming out of one of London’s finest fashion schools. Recognised for stirring the industry into a fashion frenzy the show attracted well known names including blogger Susie Lau from Style Bubble. The catwalk was streamed live online from the London College of Fashion website and created much excitement with the online twitter feed constantly bombarded with comments.
 
After an introduction of eerie music bouncing from the walls of the pitch black room the lights flickered on and the audience were presented with an array of colourful, innovative new designs.

Getting off to a slow start, the collections were full with androgynous, monochrome designs creating loose, soft silhouettes. The first few collections saw a running colour theme of red, blacks and golds arranged in asymmetric patterns on oversized blazers and delicate tailoring.

The collections soon began to pick up and so did the atmosphere as the catwalk became awash with vibrant colours and exceptionally crafted pieces. Tsz Fung Kwok showed models in Darth Vader inspired headwear, while Chika Ito referenced scarecrows from The Wizard of Oz with lemon yellow designs and shoes filled with straw.

There were a few obvious designers to watch and some clear favourites from the reaction online. Beatrice Newman branched out from the tailored androgyny, presenting us with gothic glamour in the form of black lace gowns, with sheer panels and glorious embellishment. Seul Ki Uhm provided us with our first glimpse of real colour; suits with strips of greens, slivers, pinks and blues and cut out panels replaced with sheer strips. Charlotte Simpson rocked the show with elegant dresses in gold and pastel pinks which floated down the catwalk, glistening underneath the lights and creating the perfect soft silhouette.
 
Concluding the show Lauren Laverne and designer Christopher Raeburn announced the winners of both the Menswear and Womenswear collections to two very deserving talents. Tina Elisabeth Reiter was crowned winner for her diverse Menswear collection and Hana Cha went home with the title of Womenswear designer for her beautifully designed asymmetric patterns.
 
Once again the bar has been raised and I'm sure it won't be long before we see some of these names become to show regularly at London Fashion Week.

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