As expected, Central Saint Martins has nurtured some fantastic talent this year, showing
here in the Vauxhall Fashion Scout space; including Aisling Farrell with her all in white collection that is a treat on the eyes.
Exploring unconventional materials, Aisling's collection makes use of trapped polythene balls inside fabric that are free to move creating a frenzy within the garments;
“I was inspired by static electricity, that force that is all around us all the time. I noticed that PVC got attracted to a lot of things so I looked for materials that would react together.” The collection celebrates an abundance of feathers, PVC and polythene that combined together are constantly changing through movement.
The collection from Charlotte Helyar also features white, though via blank canvas garments- impeccably cut- printed with fascinating, optical illusion prints that play tricks on the eyes;
“I am really inspired by analogue graphics, 80's album artworks and early iD magazines”.
Although the garments are cut in a very modern way, the prints give a nod to previous decades through their colour use and psychedelic nature. Charlotte hand-prints using the CMYK colour system and dots that overlap eachother and consequently create some beautiful effects, allowing the young designer to play with print in a way that you cannot digitally
Caroline Minar also makes use of print in fascinating ways with her designs; inspired by an exhibition on visual sound artist, Ryoichi Ikeda- which translated music into barcode patterns- Caroline creates similar patterns and exposes them to fabric through print, and laser cutting;
“Even though it was a really hectic environment; people were lying on the floor asleep and there was almost something meditative to it.”
Caroline's collection reflects the hectic, modern world we live in via prints that look like woven fabrics, using contemporary processes on [contrastingly] traditional fabrics. The garments are designed to be loved and worn- hence the heavy-wearing leather and denim that only come to look better with age; proving longevity in Minar's work.
Text by Katie Agar- VFS Contributor (@katie_agar)
Images by Alice Luker