ISSUE 8
A/W 2018
LONDON
RUNWAY LONDON FASHION REPORT
HIGHLIGHTS FROM PURE LONDON THE RUNWAY AT LONDON EDGE INTERVIEWS WITH JUDITH JONES & FRILLY NEW SEASON TREND REPORT
PURE LONDON EDGE In this issue
Letter from the editor RHIANNON D'AVERC
Issue 8 brings us to two of the most spectacular trade shows the UK sees yearround: Pure London and London Edge. The organisers scheduled them both at the same time over the weekend before LFW, allowing buyers to get in and see all of the brands they need in one fell swoop.
In the rest of this issue you can also expect to read an interview with Judith Jones. The designer will be appearing in our next issue when she showcases her work at Fashion's Finest during LFW, so this is a great chance to get some insight into her work and what you can expect to see on the catwalk.
What's up next for London Runway? Three words, of course: London Fashion Week. There are some seriously exciting shows taking place, and we'll be bringing you coverage of shows both on and off schedule.
Whether you prefer mainstream or alternative fashions, you're going to love the looks on display in this issue.
You'll also hear from the founders of Frilly, a new jewellery brand which is shaking things up with graphic style.
Drop us a line via londonrunwaymag@gmail.com if you have a show you think we should see, or a feature you think we should run.
We're also letting you know about the latest trends from the WGSN briefing everything you need to know about the upcoming season and what to wear.
Then there's our product feature, showcasing some of the items we discovered at the two shows. That's not all, so read on for more features.
Enjoy - and remember to follow @londonrunwaymag on Instagram.
This is the pinaccle of the season for us and we couldn't be looking forward to it more.
USE LONDON RUNWAY AFFILIATE LINKÂ SHARE. GETF.LY/ C69N4Q
PURE LONDON MAIN STAGE
What could we see at Pure London's main stage? Clear illustrations of the trends described later on in our trend report. Brands showcased, in order of first appearance: Join Clothes; Dream Yourself, Hoyn, Brokers, Exquise, Villagallo, Christina Brampti, Silvian Heach, Isabel de Pedro, Sugarhill Boutique, Mees, Nissa, Coster Copenhagen, O Bag, Nina Ullrich, Fonem, Bright & Beautiful, Paisie, Attitude 157, Gipsy 2.0, Gama, Into, Nali, Tobams Colors, Choiboko, Siah Howard, Joe Browns, Kiwi + Pomelo, Jalabiye, Christina Karakalpaki, Yana Movchan, Etherion, Fancy Fantasy, Jayley, Compania Fantastica, Pour Moi, Cuscus the Cuckoo, Design Home Loungewear, Kaffe, Elizabeth Harwood, Olivier Strelli, Sogo, Camaro, Thais + Stroe, Michaela Frankova, Menashion, Croisiaux Anais, Alara Sagesen, Fraas, Doriny, Zamback, Setre, Nova Fashion Group, Rosa Pietsch, Brise, Bespoke, A Fish Named Fred, Chrisper, Gama Fantasy, Bird Sunglasses, Mussy, Karma Koma, Zuria Dor, Maze By Bijoux Indescrets, Ubi, Vivian Moawad
PRODUCT FEATURES A few highlights from the shows: products from brands featured at Pure London and London Edge. We're particularly excited about the Mermaid Salon brush - find an interview with the brand owner in our next issue.
First page, clockwise from top: Maze by Bijoux Indiscrets; TUK; Punky Pins; Maze by Bijoux Indiscrets; Mermaid Salon; Andaj London. This page, clockwise from top: Gatsby Lady; Jelly Jolly; Manic Panic; Sourpuss Clothing;Â
NEW SEASON TREND REPORT
what to wear
The WGSN briefing offers us new guidelines for a new season. Collections this season will be more focused, with fewer lines as brands look to stay safe in an unstable climate. This means they will be focusing on key trends like trench coats, prompting fears of a stale market. But there is one big division that is becoming clear in trends. Youthful designs and those for older fashionistas are becoming defined and separated, in a stronger sense than ever before. Coats will stay in classic tailored styles this season,
while jackets are getting a new lease of creativity - velvet bombers and fur trims are to be expected. Dresses will focus on the floral midi, while skirts are down and trousers up. When you do wear a skirt, make sure it's a panelled or pleated, asymmetric, midi-length number. Fitness and active wear are up, and sloungewear is now a massive trend thanks to home workers who want clothing that crosses sleepwear and lounge wear categories. Tailoring will be more visible on catwalks than the high street, with a strong professional slant. Expect double breasted blazers and skirt suits worn as separates, reclaiming femininity in office wear. Sustainability is also on trend and will be a hot topic throughout 2018.
NEW SEASON TREND REPORT Big trend ideas include The Thinker, inspired by libraries with a 70s spin. Think tailoring, knitwear, tank tops, Fair Isle patterns, and geeky chic. Cosy Outdoors is all about camping, nature, and #vanlife. Be comfortable in chunky sweaters and blanket plaids. Add shots of colour for effect.
TOP TEN TRENDS 1. Gen Z Yellow - yes, this yellow 2. Warm neutrals - layer your beige 3. Fashin chinos & cargo - high waist, wide leg, utility detailing 4. Extended shoulder coat - long, tailored, and sharp 5. Twisted dress - ruching, sheering, jersey, silky 6. Shacket - neutral urban brights 7. Detachables - think versatility: sleeves, scarves, ties, 2-piece dresses 8. Wild textures - coloured faux fur, fun and playful, outdoorsy 9. Cord - go bright 10. Dark art - challenging graphics reference religion, animals, faces, with attitude on tops and jackets
To wear Tough Squad, you'll need urban styling. Choose cargo or utility pants, sportswear elements, and a shacket (a jacket that doubles as a shirt, or vice versa). Look youthful! The Sartorial Remix includes tailoring with femininity, cutouts and plasticised finishes. AddÂ
bright shots of colour. Urban Couture is all about going extravagant, but with an urban edge. Hoodies and layers are up. Pair them with a tulle top and utility trousers. Scandi Cowboy is the name of the Western trend with clean lines in beige and darks. Use pared back or neutral colours only. To create the Dark Wonder look, wear glitter and large sequins, over the top 80s styles, and bold plastic. This is for Gen Z, not the older fashionistas - be careful! The Racing Belle wears sporty and orange looks, and is also a young woman. As for Quirky Lady, she loves floral dresses and layers - but she's tired of ruffles.
PURE LONDON FUTURES
Brands featured:Â Glamorous, 1x1 Studio, The Pretty Dress Company, Cutie Socks, Swanndri, Kandumathi, O Bag, Christina Brampti, Two Crows, Sorry I'm Different, A-Wear-Ness, Chevignon, Wal G, Binkevich Jewellery, Amilu, Nova Fashion Group, Gianni Lupo, Goddiva, A Fish Named Fred, Nataliya Couture
THERE'S A CLEAR EMPHASIS ON MENSWEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME AT PURE DURING THIS CATWALK.
FRILLY INDUSTRIES Interview Frilly were present at London Edge and we just had to grab a word with them after spotting their impressive laser-cut jewellery. Hi guys! So, could you tell us a little bit about the brand and introduce yourselves? K: I am Kirsty and this is Adrienne, and we are Frilly. We run two companies, so there’s Frilly Industries which is our jewellery-making arm, and then there’s We Are Frilly, which is our not-for-profit community arts. Because we’re busy enabling everybody else’s creativity, we realised our own had just got a bit stilted. We made some really big public art with some schoolchildren using a laser cutter. And we were like “yeah, we can do this, we can just buy go out and buy one!” So we just went out and bought one, and started. Like, “We’ve just watched that guy press some buttons, we can totally do this, we know what we’re doing now!” A: We thought it would be like a printer, where you just made a nice picture and then just pressed go and it came out – no, no, no. I’d say we’re fairly confident in using it now, two years on. FAIRLY confident, you know! So, we went out and bought one and booked in a craft market two months after having it, without having made any products whatsoever.
"we’re busy enabling everybody else’s creativity"
FRILLY Talk about diving in the deep end! A: We just went straight in! We were so convinced that it would turn up and we would just press go and it would be fine. Then it arrived, and we were doing a market in two months’ time and we were still setting fire to things. But it was fun. We cobbled together some stuff, and our pricing was terrible. But we still have some of our original designs, because they’re our best sellers. Our Bill Murray pin, he was probably our very first thing. Him and the balls of wool, which then led on to us wanting to do more hand painted stuff. We’re very conscious that there’s a lot of laser cut makers in the world. There’s those that are designers that make and get other people to manufacture. But we’re very processdriven, so we need to be able to understand the potential of our materials or what we can do with things. Which is why we’re hand-painting wood, or some of our pieces use reclaimed denim from industry so we’re stitching that in. Or we’re using materials that we potentially shouldn’t
be using, and realise we will never try that on the laser cutter again. K: Kind of half poisoned ourselves! A: But our latest range, we realised we could spray paint onto clear acrylic and then create all new palettes from that. We’ve done our northern lights range which glows in the dark and looks different in different lights. We’ll probably eventually move more towards that. But people love our chains, so you’ve got to to have your key pieces and appeal to a broad spectrum. Where do you get your inspiration from? K: It just evolves. A: I am obsessed with mystically, kind of like tarot and spirituality stuff, so the moons maybe come more from me. The pop culture icons more from Kirsty. But pretty much everything else is just a mix. K: Feminism, issues, things that we care about. One of us will have a theme and the other one brings the ideas or the mechanisms of how we can represent and recreate that. It’s just everyday conversations that
we’ve had or we’ve seen something on YouTube that sparks a conversation that leads somewhere else. A: Sometimes Kirsty will have giant ideas that I have to kind of make more realistic. And sometimes I have an inkling of an idea and Kirsty will go “Well, what about this?” and I go “Yeah, that’s brilliant, let’s do that instead”. Where are you based? A:In the jewellery quarter in Birmingham. Surrounded by lots of heritage industry and proper jewellers! What do they make of you? K: I think they just find us highly amusing. A: We’re very active in the community. There’s another artist who is based in the jewellery quarter who organises open studios, and she’s really keen to unveil all the small makers – not the big jewellery companies
who sell solitaire rings, but the smaller people in their little studios. And so we’re involved in that quite heavily. It is really interesting – I think when we first started working in the jewellery quarter, the old men in their overcoats weren’t sure what to make of us. Now they say hello to us. We’re on first name terms with everybody’s dogs. Where do you see yourselves going? We started this because our nonprofit at the time was driven by grant funding and public sector funding, and that has dropped massively and become much more competitive. We wanted to make sure that we had an overall sustainable business model, so we thought if we could be making commercial products, as well as doing the art with tiny babies, then that might become more of a sustainable business long-term. If we could grow this, that would be amazing – that is the plan. We are heavily involved in other stuff like Etsy – we’ve got a team of Etsy people in Birmingham, so we get support from them in terms of
business development. We read lots of theory around marketing, but then it’s just finding the time – you’re making, and then you’re promoting, and then you’re face-to-face selling, and then you’re making new ideas. We sell on Not On The High Street and they’re telling us to start thinking about Christmas. It’s February still - I don’t want to think about Christmas. What does fashion mean to you personally?
A: Fashion means a lot to me. Kirsty is very focused on fashion and trends, she reads all the high fashion magazines like Vogue. Whereas I could not care less because I can’t afford any of that. So she’s always like “no, no, that’s not going to be on trend, we need to do this.” I’m like, I just want to make some moons! I think that life is too short to be boring, so you should absolutely wear things that represent who you are in one way or another, and that’s the point of it. I like looking at fashion spreads, and thinking, “would I wear that? I like that colour, I like that print” - but I’m not bothered about labels. Any big achievements lately? A:We won an award yesterday – best newcomer! Find Frilly here: Website - frillyindustries.com Twitter/Instagram - @frillyind Facebook - frillyindustries
Image above courtesy of Frilly Industries
LONDON EDGE: FIRST COLLECTIONÂ Brands featured: Collectif, Jawbreaker, Sheen, New Rock, Retrospec'd, GatsbyLady, Hell Bunny, Punky Pins, Get Crooked, Pamela Mann, Frilly Industries, Jelly Jolly, Seamstress of Bloomsbury, Maskadelic, Mad Pax, Choc, Voodoo Vixen, Extreme Largeness, Heba
WHITE WEDDING?
Bridal History
This week, Faith Roswell writes about fashion and the upcoming royal nuptuals. Another royal wedding is coming and I'd bet just about anything that Meghan Markle will wear white. Under so much scrutiny already, looking iconic (read 'good enough') while remaining traditional (read 'fitting in') isn't an easy thing to achieve. Marrying in a dress other than white, ivory or cream is considered 'making a statement';
the press called Gwen Stefani 'rebellious' for her two-toned pink Dior dress back in 2002, descriptions of actress Shenae Grimes's black dress took more column inches than the wedding itself in 2017 and according to Vogue, Agyness Deyn “made the case for a non-white wedding” in 2016, wearing a dress barely tinted blush pink. This year, capes dominated bridal runway shows, and while coloured dresses were shown, coverage still focused on their 'rebel factor'. Yet, the white dress is not an ancient tradition. Historically, wealthy brides wore a variety of colours, including white, but there was no traditional colour for bridalwear until Queen Victoria's iconic
WHITE WEDDING? look inspired the nation. In support of the UK's struggling lace industry, Victoria chose to dress herself and her bridesmaids in white and wore an intricate lace panel over much of the dress. She was so pleased with it that she invited the head lacemaker to her wedding and recycled parts of her bridal outfit over the yearsas was normal for the time. Victoria was even buried with the veil over her face.
Image credits:
Victoria's dress has been in From top of article -Â Milly Bridal Studio storage since 2012 due to its Resources for History Teachers fragility but the Victoria and Mark Jones Albert Museum in London Wikipedia Loves Art UK_FGR houses some fascinating The Royal Collection wedding attire - both traditional and not. The nearest tube station is South Kensington.
Etiquette manuals quickly linked white with virginity and purity, making a bride's choice to wear white appear a moral one. For the women of the age, choosing otherwise made a clear and unflattering statement. With that, a tradition was born. Read more from Faith at http://www.lifeoutthere.co.uk/
Brands featured: Burleska, Hell Bunny, Voodoo Vixen, Vixsen, Hearts and Roses London, Unique Vintage, Collectif, Jawbreaker, Pamela Mann, Phaze, Queen of Darkness, El Costurero Real, Maskedelic, New Rock, Alchemy
LONDON EDGE: SECOND COLLECTION
JUDITH JONES
Interview
This week, we grabbed the chance to chat with Judith Jones of A Touch of Gemstones ahead of her show at ILFWDA, off-schedule during LFW. Read all about her work here! Hi, Judith - how did you become a jewellery designer? Believe it or not, I stumbled into it after a mental breakdown due to several other illnesses & having to close my beauty salon. I used to design jewellery but not actually make it and sell it in my salon. I have always loved learning about gemstones and designing jewellery and just fell in love actually making my pieces. I just zone out and let my creativity flow. I like seeing the images in my head unfold on my jewellers bench right in front of me. I find melting silver, bending and hammering silver so theraputic.
"I just zone out and let my creativity flow" Coming up with so many unique designs can't be easy. Where do you get your inspiration? My designs come from all walks of life. I can be in a church and see gorgeous stained glass imagery, to being in nature and see something to trigger an idea. I also look at fabrics and other countries'traditions and get inspiration.
A TOUCH OF GEMSTONES Tell us all about some of your LFW designs. The collection I am showing at ILFWDA are a mixture of tradition, abstract, mythology, to putting gemstones you generally never see together out on the high street jewellers. I have one called my medusa collection - a peacock freshwater pearl and amethyst necklace, bracelet & earrings that the silver I have shaped into a snake formation. Creating fluidity of the piece but a nice modern twist with classic dark gemstones. Then i have my kunzite and blue opal abstract set, which I formed silver into shapes and blended together captioning an abstract-like design. Then the more rare and harder gemstones to get, Russian Diopside and Tanzanite both getting harder to source and rarer as Russian diopside mines in Serbia are only open 3 months of the year due to the temperature in weather. And tanzanite one-source gemstone, they have been getting hardly any out of the ground and several mines have been exhausted and closed down.
What's unique about your jewellery, compared to other facets of the industry?
to me for a commission to be made, or how thrilled the reciever of my piece was.
The difference between mine and other facets is I see all genuine gemstones and want to use them, where most places will stick to the big 5, emerald, ruby, sapphire, diamond, tanzanite. I like to use everthing from abalone from Australia/New Zealand, to unknown bronzite, quartz, obsidian, chalcedony and many others - the list can go on! And as for my designs they are completely unique, like the gemstones. I usually only create one-offs or very limited amount of a design, say no more than 30. Making my clients feel unique, special, one of a kind, and stopping the mass production industry in their tracks.
So, you're really inspired by gemstones - what other materials do you use in your work, and why?
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far? The proudest moment so far was last year. I was a finalist in the 2017 UK beauty and fashion awards. That and pleasing every customer that comesÂ
I love the history of gemstones and hearing the backgrounds, and I'm amazed by the look of them and how they can be cut and set. I mainly use sterling silver, but do from time to time get my hands on gold when a commission or repair job comes in my workshop. I love working with silver as it's strong yet can form easily into the design i make. I'm still in my infancy so cannot wait to experience white gold, titanium and platinum. What does 'fashion' mean to you? Fashion means to me to show
peoples' personality and how they see fashion. Whether you are young or old, petite or curvaceous, you have the right to show your flare of fashion in the world. We are all equal and allowed to be fashionable in our own way. And create our own trends and fashion styles.
What's next for you?
of fashion designers to work with, sell and leave and imprint on the fashion world so I can say "I created that" or "I started that". To carry on building both my gemstone business and my jewellery brand. And get A Touch Of Gems Wirral brand out on the celeb red carpets and put on the map.
or message for a comission on our website, www.atouchofgems.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atouc hofgemsjewellerywirral/
Thanks for chatting with us - lastly, where can we see your collection online?
Instagram @a_Touch_of_gems_wirral
Twitter @atouchofgemsj
To carry on learning, meet all kinds I am on most social media, you can buy Photo credits from top of feature, left to right: Photo: Nick Mizen; Model: Jessica Jane Taylor; MUA: Shannon Keegan at POWT Liverpool Photo: Ian Williams; Model: Carla Jade; MUA & hair: Ellie May Beesley & AliceMarie Rouillon Photo: Ian Williams; Model Jamina Angeline Wittke Photo: Alan Taylor; Model: Sarah Emily Shaw; Dress: Shanyu Xuan at Cherry Blossom Boutique Liverpool Photo: Alan Taylor; Model: Kim Sherbrooke; MUA: Anika Ahmed at Enhance by Anika Middleton Photo: Alan Taylor; Model : Melanie Franzoni; Hair : Kathy Griffiths; MUA Jeanette Flynn Photo: Alan Taylor
LONDON RUNWAY Editor: Rhiannon D'Averc Editorial Assistant: Vikki Dee Photography and words, except where stated: Rhiannon D'Averc Feature Writer: Faith Roswell Special thanks to Judith Jones and Frilly Industries Find London Runway: https://issuu.com/londonrunway instagram.com/londonrunwaymag twitter.com/londonrunwaymag londonrunwaymag@gmail.com
A/W 18
Front cover:Pure London Main Back cover: Pure London Futures