FAD students featured in Disorder magazine

Menswear Runner-up, Annie Vallis of Nottingham Trent University and finalist Lucy Johnson from The University of East London, FAD students from the February show – FAD Competition – at Vauxhall Fashion Scout, have been featured in the latest edition of UK Mag Disorder.

F.A.D (Fashion Awareness Direct)  is a charity that has been helping budding designers in the transition from education to the fashion industry for a decade now by awarding the winner and two runners up with £2000 and £1000 and unique industry placements. Protégées go on to work in top fashion industry designer roles or set up their own label, testament to the importance of the work that F.A.D is doing.

On their latest competition, they celebrated ten years of supporting young creative talent with a successful show that saw a refreshingly diverse range of womenswear and menswear. The theme behind this year competition, enticed students to design a mini-collection inspired by the concept of escaping. 

Finalist Lucy Johnson got her inspiration from her personality and what she thought about what she wants to escape from, the fear of being alone somewhere. She found the place through travel – looking at mountains, rocks and water to pick up textures and an organic feel, to finally create a hooded brown men’s parka and leaf scarf look

Annie Vallis, the second runner up, presented the new idea of men clothing, earthy menswear. Landscape printed shirts grounded with beige shorts, legging and plastic macs, made for a new breed of eco-warrior. 

Both students will be showcasing at Graduate Fashion Week in London this June, along with several other talented FAD students including FAD’s 2010 winner, Rasa Abramaviciute. 

Read more about the FAD Competition: the winners, runners-up and inspirations at www.fad.org.uk.

To have a look at Disorder Magazine click here. 

Maria Francesca Pepe. People you should know.

Maria Francesca Pepe, On-schedule designer who showed with Vauxhall Fashion Scout, is presented by 10 magazine as someone we should know, and they gave us an insight into the designer behind the name with an in-depth interview about how she works, where she gets inspiration from, and some tips to make your own jewellery.

She defines her self as avant-garde and gothic, she likes luxury when it gets dirty and contaminated. She also confess “I´m rather selective and critical in my choices. But I do have a thing about pink stuff” which she regrets.

At the moment she is analyzing what she has done after fashion week and besides dealing with the industry, she feels the urgent necessity to start designing again, and she starts collecting ideas, inspirational things, and feedback  to be ready for the moment to start over again.

For her, it is easier to design jewels as you don´t have fitting rules and the construction process is much more straight forward. "What you draw in the paper is most likely what the final piece is going to look like" she says. And you can play with elements and tools. As well, she finds funny working on printing for her jersey range, she often use pictures of her jewelry to create prints. 

Maria gives an advice to student-budgeted readers. When she was a student she used to take pictures of expensive things she liked and printed them in cotton stripes to make fabric-jewelry. Now, that she can move into different materials, she has pierced with crystals and pearls the faces of vintage sexy icons such as James Dean, Rita Hayworth, Theda Bara.

She is auto-referential in her work, she goes with her emotions, but she is learning to be more aware of commercial values. She is not only trying to think about her wearing MFP but also about the customers and celebrities who represent the brand, like hugely eye-catching Lady Gaga. 

To know more about Maria Francesca Pepe click here.
To see her show with Vauxhall Fashion Scout click here.


Juan Mora Yanes

Fashion-enterprise Launches the first Fashion Fast-track Bootcamp

Fashion-enterprise Launches the first Fashion Fast-track Bootcamp for London scheduled for 9 - 10 July 2011. 

If you have a new fashion label, innovative  idea, product or service, the Centre for Fashion Enterprise’s Bootcamp can assist to fast-track your business to success.  

It is an intensive start-up weekend programme aiming to give fashion entrepreneurs realistic feedback on their product/service and their launch plan. 

This opportunity is really good for entrepreneurs who might be outside the usual networks and may not be able to access the right experts to get experienced market feedback.   

The main aim is to fast-track beginners to access expert market feedback, matching them with experts who will assist in directing strategies to make sure that business idea is properly researched, developed, planned, funded and launched; increasing its chances of success.

There’s also a chance to win a cash prize of £1,000 for the entrepreneur with the best idea pitched to our experts during the Bootcamp.

Full details are available on the  CFE website click here.

Ethical Fashion Forum opens applications for the innovation awards 2011: The Sustainable Fashion Design Competition

The industry body dedicated to a sustainable future for fashion, Ethical Fashion Forum opens the applications for the innovation Awards 2011: The Sustainable fashion design competition. Deadline for applications 10th June 2011.

The Ethical Fashion Forum's annual INNOVATION competition seeks out and promotes inspirational new talent in fashion design and sustainability.

Winners are selected for awards on the basis of outstanding design and product quality, as well as innovation in relation to social and environmental sustainability.

They have partnered with Pure London which is a trade fashion event for sourcing contemporary, directional and premium womenswear, footwear and accessory brands every February and August.

For the first time they launch an INNOVATION USA  category in partnership with Nolcha Fashion Week: New York 2011. Winners of this category will be showcased at the exhibition at Nolcha Fashion Week in September 2011. 

Nolcha Fashion Week, consists of runway shows, exhibition and networking events showcasing independent fashion designers, now in its 5th year and held simultaneously with New York Fashion Week.

Winners benefit from a stand at either Pure London or Nolcha Fashion Week, as well as promotion to the EFF's huge network of press and buyers through all of their media channels.

INNOVATION UK winners benefit for the first time from a professional photoshoot of their collection courtesy of Green Lens Studios.

For further information click here. 

Applications for September 2011 will be closing Monday 23.

Just 1 week to end the search for the best innovative designers as Vauxhall Fashion Scout, London’s leading independent showcase, closes its applications for London Fashion Week September 2011 and Paris Fashion Week October 2011, next Monday 23rd.


Over 200 applications requested and applications still coming in, full of innovative ideas and young talents, hurry up!

Taking place in our permanently location Freemasons´ Hall, Covent Garden, the event runs for the full length of LFW featuring multiple show spaces including 2 Catwalk halls, Exhibition halls and a media lounge. 

As well you can apply for Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s Paris Showroom, located next to the Picasso Museum in the heart of the Marais. 

Remember that applications are open to womenswear, menswear and accessory designers for

·       Catwalk

·       Presentations

·       Salon Shows

·       Exhibition

·       Paris Showroom

We are also receiving application for VFS’s acclaimed awards - Merit Award, Ones To Watch and the newly launched Ones To Watch MEN.

The Merit Award offers a fully sponsored catwalk show and specially tailored mentoring and business support to winning designers for three consecutive seasons. Attracting leading international press and buyers, the prestigious Merit Award has previously launched William Tempest, David Koma, Hermione de Paula, Eudon Choi and Georgia Hardinge into the fashion spotlight.

Ones To Watch is a highly acclaimed platform designed specifically to launch the freshest new talents to the market in a collaborative back-to-back showcase. Providing designers with their first opportunity to show to a UK and international audience and with dedicated exhibition space in London, Ones To Watch has quickly become the leading showcase for the next generation of design talent.

For further information please visit www.vauxhallfashionscout.com and to request an application form please contact show@vauxhallfashionscout.com.

Remember the deadline Monday 23 May and Good luck!

Pina in 3D. Dance, dance or we will be lost.

It is the time to start creating and designing the collections for next season, finding some inspiration is always good. From Vauxhall Fashion Scout we will like to help.


Pina is a feature-lenght dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheatre Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique, innovative and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009.


Wim Wenders, the director takes the audience and place it straight onto the stage, on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery. “A film for Pina Bausch” is the result of using the choreographs which had been carefully selected, and using some images and audio files of her life as well as 3D recordings of individual ensemble members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal who in spring of 2010 danced personal memories of the precise, critical and loving nature of their great mentor.


You find yourself starring at individual dancers while you hear their voices, their thoughts about Pina, and their learning processes with the main character of the film who is present on the dialogues, and only physically visible dancing.


In all the pieces - “Cafe Müller”, “Le Sacre du Printemps”, “Vollmond”, and Kontakthof”-there are several elements that create the idea, or help to communicate the feelings, which might give you a hint about the sense the piece should have, or the understanding of what is happening.


Architecture and natural locations have been carefully chosen to create an intense atmosphere, jumping from the theatre to the street, where the dancers perform in the middle of the road with the cars passing trough, in the tube or dancing in a glass box in the middle of the forest. This dimension of the space, in which movement and dance take place, is only depicted as a sensual journey with 3D technology.


Natural elements have a huge role in the choreographs as well as in the movie as they form part of Pina teaching and the understanding of the human and its movements. Dancing in the water, soil or blowing fallen leaves.


As well as architecture and natural elements, the garments the dancers are wearing, help to embody the concept. Flowy dresses that give lightweight to the dancers, who sometimes fall to the floor as stones. Or pure white dresses that turn into another piece as the dance goes on and the performers were dragging on the soil. Even the dresses were the constant element in a piece where there is a play between ages, dancers turning from teenagers to grown up individuals.


All this elements helped to create the scenography, and communicate what words sometimes can not.  This movie is a delicious journey onto the innovative dancing that Pina created, as well a close up on the self teaching manners that Pina used to educate the dancers. “Dance for love” she only said to one of them.


You find yourself trying to give sense to a scene, with the unique capacity of your knowledge, understanding what is happening and tidying up your feelings. This is inspiring in the way you try to mix different thoughts, as well it is inspiring how the dancers self-learned and found their way.


Dance, Dance or we will be lost.


To see the trailer click here.


Juan Mora Yanes.