London Fashion Week 2019 - Li Longwen, Joliydor, MAKOPINK

London Fashion Week is currently underway and I have partnered up with local photographer Gordon Formosa, from GoRaw Photography who is currently in London, to share with you the best of the runway shows from Fashion Scout. Fashion Scout is an international showcase for fashion pioneers and, one of the UK's largest independent portal for emerging and established designers during London Fashion Week. Fashion Scout is mostly renowned for championing, nurturing and showcasing creative fashion design talent from all around the world.

Today we bring you not one but three fabulous designers and their collections for the first season of 2020. Being grouped under the cape Futurology didn't take away any of each brand's distinctive and diverse design ethos as you will all see from the photos. So let's dive right into it and see what each designer has to offer.

Kicking off with Masters of Fashion from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco graduate Li Longwen, we have his LFW debut with his women's wear collection, "Mother's Child". The inspiration behind this collection are the designer's old photographs with his mother. However, despite the inspiration being something old, he definitely did a great job at fitting in the futuristic theme with holographic PU elements and edgy, bold cuts. I particularly like the artistic makeup in primary colours (which we see in all three shows), the pixel-like garment print as well as the dark holographic PU which reminds me of photography negatives from when I was a child myself. 

We see a draping master's work and perfection in tailoring all throughout the collection and while they are not something I would wear, I really do appreciate all the mastery and creativeness behind this collection.

Next up is China native Christine Wang and her brand Joliydor, with which we are treated with a collection that screams summer through and through. Wang trained in Paris and consequently wanted to dedicate her brand's debut collection to this marvellous city, while staying true to her roots - she has referenced unique elements of traditional regional Chinese cultural dresses along with the principal aesthetics that echoes the delicate femininity and power of the discerning Parisian woman in the late 80’s.

Evening and cocktail wear is given a twist in exploring bilateral cultural influences with retro design elements. The process initiative was to work on print development, taking impetus from traditional Chinese painting (guóhuà) in contrast with modern emoji iconography. Fabrics are pleated, over-layered and manipulated in sync with specific garment design. The collection is a diverse range of simple silhouetted pieces in luxurious fabrics, showcasing from silk bias cut floor-sweeping gowns, tiered mix feathered maxi to a line printed and a pleated mini dress. Granddad trousers feature in the finest brocades and are worn with extreme billowing African lace artist smock bomber jackets. This can easily be my absolute favourite collection from the night.

The last collection in the show came courtesy of MAKOPINK by Phyliss Wen. Her collection Points of Soul revolves around the idea of fun - be it the garments, colours and concept and the overall vibe of the collection.

What's interesting with this collection is that each garment is free-size, meaning it gives the wearers the ability to re-interpret ways to wear them accordingly. In this collection we have asymmetric cuts and exceptional tailoring all throughout and the colour palette is strongly reflective of Wen's Chinese background. We have red to represent success, yellow for power, green for wealth to blue for positivity, black for heaven and gold for the nobility.

MAKOPINK is already a very popular brand among Chinese celebrities and the retail networks spans online as well as some of the country's biggest malls.

These three shows were held in collaboration with Milan Creatives Design Academy (MCA), a Shenzhen based academy specialising in fashion and accessories-based design courses. Located in the heart of the city it provides state of the art facilities and inspirational forward-thinking teaching methods with a global directive, delivered by a team of both local and international tutors.  This Season the academy has collaborated with London based International Fashion Creative Director and Educator Joseph Toronka, who specialises in promoting international emerging and independent designers with a showcase featuring three distinctive and diverse labels.

Models for all three designers had their hair done by the TONI & GUY team and makeup using Illamasqua products  by Annistasia Chandler under the direction of Carlos Palma.

  

All photos by GoRaw Photography