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Illustrious audience welcome the next wave of emerging designers at LCFMA18 Menswear

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XUBO for LCFMA18. Image by Roger Dean
Written by
Josh De Souza Crook Published date
05 January 2018

The explosive start to 2018 continued this morning in central London with our LCFMA18 Menswear show where ten pioneering graduate designers showcased their collections to a star-studded audience of fashion royalty like Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, Dylan Jones, Editor of GQ, Sarah Mower and brand and media representatives from SHOWstudio, Maison Margiela, Browns Fashion, Business of Fashion and Dazed to name a few. We look back at the MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear graduates that lit up the show.

Taking place at St John’s, Smith Square, the show started at 10.30am, ahead of London Fashion Week Men’s. The show was styled by Adele Cany, who worked closely with the students to help them shape their garments and delivery a smooth and high-quality final collection. Makeup was provided by Claire Mulleady and the superb M∙A∙C PRO team, who we’ve worked closely with on many of our previous shows. Wilf Petherbridge was the musician, part DJ, part singer and part trumpet player. 

Yixin Zhang

Yixin has created a distinctive look that is easily identifiable with wooden bowler hats and a radiant colour palette that explores the life and habits of hoarders and their objects. The collection and approach is a new and refreshing manner to fashion a final project, and the result is a radiant and attention-grabbing offering of the unique life of hoarders. Read the full interview here.  

Hanni Yang

Shenzhen-born designer Hanni Yang began at London College of Fashion by studying BA (Hons) Womenswear and featured in our BA16 show, paying homage to traditional Chinese aesthetics with her final collection. The technically gifted designer has built on her previous work and developed a creative approach to pattern cutting for her final collection. Read the full interview here.  

Yingyi Lu

Guangzhou-native Yingyi Lu and her Victorian-styled doll boys who turned a lot of heads at this year’s show. She told us “every single doll is based on a certain period and has a style, but in general, dolls are made based on images of children. I observed a pattern that most boy dolls are made in the Victorian style. In the Victorian times, boys would wear dresses until they were ‘breached’. Thus, a lot of boy dolls of that time wore skirts or dresses. Also, in the 19th century, the sailor suit was favoured by young Victorian boys. Thus, the sailor suit is symbolically linked with the image of young Victorian boys.” Read the full interview here.

Han Xu

“The whole project is about the exploration of curve, light, and colour. My project research on light and shadow qualities, light and colour, and use of marginal light in photography is also reflected in the final designs. The 3D curve presented by circus performers during the show was the starting point for the entire collection and made me interested in exploring space curves and curvature and how to combine curves with pattern cutting,” Han Xu told us about his collection. Read the full interview here.

Coline Gauthier

“My final project talks about personal memories and collective remembrance. From an anecdote based on my grandparent’s home and what they own, I have drawn an environment of different textiles that suggests the comfort of a “souvenir.” Coline, who previously worked at JW Anderson and Bettina, told us about her knitwear focused collection. Read the full interview here.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Coline Gauthier at LCFMA18 Menswear. Shot by Roger Dean.

Wenya Huang

“The initial idea of my project revolved around the technique of handmade paper, which developed into focusing on a concept of mythology books, which has dominated the collection. The material of the collection looks like paper and the embroidery patterns represent storylines of books,” explains Wenya. The collection was inspired by mythology and paper, she wanted the wearers of the garments to be able to express their stories and experiences.

Hengmin Lu

“The title of the collection is Interconnectivity. It is inspired by Mao architecture and structure – I explored the functionality and a way of dressing through pattern cutting. It features natural colours like brown, navy, cream and grey-pink. These were applied to the whole collection because I believe the theory of defeated architecture claimed by Kengo Kuma. He asserted that the architecture can be built on low lying land and it can be part of the environment, rather than standing out from nature.” Find out what motivated the collection and spurred him to move to London College of Fashion.

Sohyeon Park

Sohyeon’s starting point was sustainable fashion and his father growing up in 1970s South Korea. He said “fast fashion affects issues like the environment and ethics. In order to resolve the issues, I have personally paid attention to sustainable fashion and turned my eyes to retro or vintage items. As we still keep our old stuff and parent’s items like old jackets and rings containing their memory and humanity, I think that retro fashion could help to sort out the problem.” Read the full interview here. 

Ming Lai Lee

“My final project explores the realm of perfection and imperfection by studying handmade and high technology textiles, which express the illusion of beauty. The idea came from researching the dilemma in fashion about the social body and individual body. I wanted to explore ‘transforming identity’, to express the dynamic of beauty without considering the body. In my practice, I want to capture and extract something which has not been considered as beauty through the design process. I used line drawing and textile making, felt, to form a garment.” Read the full interview here.

Xu Bo

“The collection contains a variety of handcrafts, like hand-weaving technique, crochet, hand-knitting, and fringe-making techniques. Most items are handmade by artisans, so all the pieces are unique and slightly vary in tone, size, and finish. Weaving was a fundamental part of this project. I located a hand-weaving artisan who is a specialist in hand-woven bamboo mats – a skill that is part of her village’s traditional heritage,” says XUBO about the techniques behind the collection. Read the full interview on the blog.

All images were taken by Roger Dean

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