#LCFMA17 opens London Fashion Week Men’s

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend the opening show of London Fashion Week Men’s. Nine graduate collections from the MA Fashion Design Technology Menswear course at London College of Fashion, UAL, were showcased in the grand surroundings of converted church St John’s Smith Square, kickstarting four days of menswear shows. My favourite collection was called 5 and was designed by Shu Yao (see image below). I was partly drawn to it because of the beautiful shapes and colours, but mostly because of the excellent use of a very striking fabric.

The fabric was buried in the river bed, this is what created the colour. There are only ten dye workshops left in China. I got the fabric over the summer when developing my idea. Normally double-sided fabrics are quite thick – mine isn’t though. It’s very thin and slippery. It also sounds like rubber brushing against each other when you walk or move, which is interesting because it’s actually silk but doesn’t feel like it. To be honest it’s quite a difficult one to explain. Paper silk is probably the best way to sum it up.

Here are a few of my own images from the show. You can see more shots of the collections from the professionals, and read interviews with each of the designers, over on the LCF Blog.

Soo Jin Cho