AW15 PROVISIONAL CATWALK SCHEDULE REVEALED!

It’s time to get ready for the most exciting Fashion Scout yet, as we reveal our Provisional AW15 Catwalk Schedule. 

Fashion Scout will return to our London home at the Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden from the 20^th – 24^th of February with a packed schedule of Catwalk shows, exhibitions and events! 

Exclusively showcasing the best pioneering talent from across the globe, Fashion Scouts’ AW15 lineup includes more than 50 visionary designers from around the world hand picked by a top industry Selection Panel.

Highlights of the schedule include Friday’s Merit Award winner James Kelly, the RCA Graduate who has already received a flurry of press attention. James Kelly will be sponsored by Fashion Scout to produce his first ever London Fashion Week catwalk show. Already a favourite of Hilary Alexander OBE, Vogue UK Features Editor Jessica Bumpus and Sara Maino, Senior Editor at Vogue Italia – we expect a packed FROW.

Also presenting their debut London Fashion Week collections are designers Angel Chen, J Moon, Kim Stevenson and Minju Kim, who together form Fashion Scout’s highly anticipated Ones to Watch show on Saturday 21^st February.

Amongst those returning to the catwalk are legendary Fashion Designer Pam Hogg, SS15 Ones to Watch designer Youjia Jin, CFE Pioneer Mariana Jungmann, in addition to former Merit Award winners Gyo Yuni KImchoe and Xiao Li.

Also running from the 20^th – 23^rd of February, Fashion Scout will curate an exhibition of exciting emerging talent, including designers from around the world; Clio Peppiat, GF Hawthorne, Niro Wang and Typical Freaks.

The full schedule and designers profiles can be viewed on the Fashion Scout website here. 

Follow us on @fashionscout

#FashionScoutAW15

EXCLUSIVE| Fashion Scout Selection Panel for AW14

Yesterday, our Fashion Scout AW14 panel joined together at Beach Blanket Babylon to decide who will be showcasing with Fashion Scout during London and Paris Fashion Week as well as who will be our esteemed Merit Award and Ones to Watch winners this season. 

It was the general consensus of our judges that this is set to be the strongest season on Fashion Scout yet and we're onto a new 'wave' or 'era' of designers. There was a really stong mix of wearability and contemporary design, prompting Vogue.com's Jessica Bumpus to say: "There's a lot of fresh, new designers this season. There seems to be a new spirit of design here".

The Merit Award and Ones to Watch winners will be announced in mid-December exclusively on British Vogue whilst we will announce the individual showcasing designers here on the blog in the run-up to releasing our provisional schedule for our AW14 London showcase in January. 

By Editor Cass Gowing @CassGowing
Photography by Hannah McGee @HannahMcG3e

INTERVIEW| Selection Panel AW14 and British Vogue Fashion Features Editor Jessica Bumpus

British Vogue's Jessica Bumpus returns to the Fashion Scout Selection Panel for another season to give her invaluable opinion to decide who should be part of our London and Paris Fashion Week showcase for AW14. 

Jessica has been part of British Vogue's online team as Fashion Features Editor for five years, has assisted on our Selection Panel for multiple seasons, as well as been an integral part of Fashion Scout's mentoring programmes.

Looking to impress Jessica? For her, it's more instinctual, "you know when you've seen something good, be it a mix of being commercially viable, extremely creative or just very cool", Jessica said when we caught up with her today. "It always helps, though, to see it both in the flesh and in lookbook format. Something on the rail might not work until you see it being worn and vice versa." 

Lucky enough to be picked today to showcase with Fashion Scout during LFW AW14? Jessica advises, "Be prepared and be enthusiastic about it, this is the chance to sell your work and yourself quite literally!!"

Written and interviewed by Editor Cass Gowing @CassGowing

INDUSTRY SELECTS| Martyn Roberts, Hilary Alexander, Jessica Bumpus and Eudon Choi

Ahead of the eagerly anticipated Fashion Scout London A/W13 showcase, we exclusively caught up with Fashion Scout Director Martyn Roberts, Vogue.com's Jessica Bumpus, esteemed journalist and Graduate Fashion Week trustee Hilary Alexander and Fashion Scout alumni Eudon Choi to find out their selection of Fashion Scout designers this season and what they think designers need to do in order to gain global recognition within the industry. Tweet us your thoughts of this exclusive insight @FashionScout. 

Martyn Roberts, director and founder of Fashion Scout:

Out of the showcasing designers for Fashion Scout February '13, who are you hotly tipping for global recognition? 

Merit Award winner Yifang Wan and Ji Cheng have both been getting lots of publicity in China.  I'm also looking forward to our two international showcases - Runway Collective from Istanbul and Kiev Fashion Days

What is your advice for designers in regards to international recognition?

They need to think big and ensure that their vision is global.  The models and styling they use need to appeal to different markets.  Its an exciting time for designers who want to conqueror the world

What shows are you looking forward to the most this season?

 I love Pam Hogg's shows - they're always so crazy and have a fantastic celebrity audience


Jessica Bumpus, Fashion Features Editor at Vogue.com and Fashion Scout Selection Panel member:

What Fashion Scout shows are you most looking forward to this season?

I'm looking forward to seeing what all of the designers have in store but I think I'm especially looking forward to Patrick Li from the Ones To Watch and Yifang Wan, the Merit Award-winner.

In your experience, what qualities do designers need to in order to gain international appeal?

Well international appeal is quite a large and expansive term and you have to think globally and about your markets - and each is different. So I would say designers need to be flexible about their vision and realise that it has to be just as commercially viable and covetable as it is creative. What works for one market doesn't for another. Think big, be pragmatic and open to suggestion

Hilary Alexander, former Fashion Director of the Telegraph, Graduate Fashion Week trustee and Fashion Scout Selection Panel Member:

One of my favourites to watch from Fashion Scout, is Stephanie Kitchen, from Bath Spa who will be showing as part of the FAD show on Tuesday.

Fashion Scout alumni and former Merit Award winner Eudon Choi:

Out of the showcasing designers for Fashion Scout February '13, who are you hotly tipping for global recognition and what shows are you most looking forward to? 
Heo Hwan (Heohwan Simulation) for his immaculate tailoring and precision. Again, I have to say Heo Hwan as he is a dear friend and very talented.

In your opinion, what qualities do designers need to have in order to have international appeal? 

I think that if you are true to your vision and work hard then sooner or later you will succeed. 

By Editor, Cass Gowing

Images by Natalia Ilina, Asia Werbel and Industry London.

INTERVIEW| Vogue.com's Jessica Bumpus on VFS's Sabina Bryntesson

Interviewed as part of the VFS x Browns Blog Takeover, Fashion Features Editor of Vogue.com, Jessica Bumpus picked CSM MA grad, Sabina Bryntesson as one to keep an eye on. Having presented in the Freemasons Vestible this evening, Bryntesson more than lived up to the acclaim; we caught up with Jessica post-presentation, who had this to say:

VFS: Hi Jessica. When we interviewed you for the Browns Blog, you identified Sabina as a one to watch. What made Sabina's work stand out?

JB: I really like her austere, clean aesthetic and I love the way it's very contemporary with the hats and the way it's styled. There's something really interesting and different about her and I feel like I haven't seen that before. I kind of feel like there's a controlled feeling about it and it's quite calm as well.

VFS: It's really intelligent the way that the music interacts with the collection.

JB: Exactly and I think you can really tell the kind of girl that she is and who she is designing for. It's really interesting and I really like what she's doing.

Interview by Katie Agar (@katie_agar), intro by Sara McAlpine (@sara_mcalpine)

NEWS| Browns Blog Takeover Day Two - Jessica Bumpus

Day two of the Vauxhall Fashion Scout Browns Blog Takeover sees an exclusive interview with Vogue.com's Jessica Bumpus. Jessica has worked closely with Vauxhall Fashion Scout through our selection panels and mentoring events for the past five years therefore it was vital that we chatted all things VFS with her. 

"What is the importance of Vauxhall Fashion Scout as a platform to emerging designers to the fashion sphere – and particularly British fashion?

Vauxhall Fashion Scout is a bit of a fashion gem really – there’s so much great talent there and if you trace back various designers’ fashion history, you’ll see they showed with VFS. I think they’re very supportive in a very down-to-earth way and that’s important for young designers starting out who don’t know what lies ahead."

For the full article, please head to the Browns Blog. Don't forget to follow us and Browns Fashion on Twitter all this week for exclusive updates. 

By Cass Gowing, Editor