LCFMA19 Womenswear Catwalk Show Recap

Continuing with our LCFMA19 season, on the eve of London Fashion Week 2019, 10 MA Fashion Design Technology Womenswear graduates presented their final collections at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre. Right in the heart of Westminster, the show focused on the changing future of fashion, inspired by the urban environment of the capital. With striking design and tailoring in distinctive colour palettes, textures and unusual fabrics, the Class of 2019 showcased their collections to an audience of renowned names in the press and fashion industry.

The MA Womenswear show was styled by Rebekah Roy, whose previous clients include Harvey Nichols, Virgin, as well as top models including Kate Moss and Erin O’Connor. The RUSH team for L'Oréal Professionnel, led by Andy Heasman, took care of the hair styling.

Here, we take a look back at the MA Fashion Design Technology Womenswear collections on this year’s London-inspired catwalk.

Photography: Roger Dean

Yingzhen opened the show with her FW19 ready-to-wear collection, titled The Devil's Mountain. Yingzhen created her design patterns from experiments with old clothes and manipulating unwoven materials. The latex used in her pieces is sponsored by Radical Rubber.

With her collection Rise from the Ruins, Huidi wants to portray women's inner strength: "They constantly break free from bondage and rebellion, to finally blossom and heal." Her designs represent a female figure liberating herself from the male aesthetic and becoming an independent individual.

To create the collection You cannot see the forest for the trees, Chao took inspiration from Rachel Whiteread's sculpture artworks and the concept of "ex-formation", proposed by Japanese graphic designer Kenya Hara. His designs pay great attention to details and combine familiar images which, at the same time, recreate unusual and interesting forms.

Missy uses a distinctive approach towards femininity and feminism in her collection. The Silent Ones represent the designer's story as a female, uncovering feminine components and playing with elements of gender identity.

Lingtong's collection, based on an ancient Chinese proverb, gives voice and presence to the 'hidden', those who live away from society and have gone beyond the physical appearance to unlock the power of the mind.

The disconnection of our current society inspired Huiying to create her designs: “This is a project about self-reflection. People use less and less time on social communication, so I’ve created this collection to help people making connections."

The history of African colonisation is latent in Danyuan's designs. The designer explored how African women from those years managed to create a very unique and distinctive style, combining Western Edwardian clothes at the same time as keeping their individual identities.

Unpredictable Contradiction is a collection that uses clothes and garments as the medium to explore the dual relationship between obedience and resistance, restraint and freedom. For this project, Lingni was inspired by the works of two artists: the paintings of Hong Konese artist Firenze Lai, and the book Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue by Japanese writer Yamamoto.

Xiaonan's collection combines the style of traditional British gentlemen with the Japanese wabi-sabi culture: "The core of this project is to maintain the original character, imperfect, mixed with the beauty of the unbalanced incompleteness."

“My collection is about a reflection of my relationship with life: daydream, escapism and finding oneself", tells Subin. For the creation of the garments, the designer used quilting patterns and bed sheets, which combined with lace created distinctive textures.

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