Brighton Fashion Week Coverage – Behind the Scenes
Brighton Fashion Week
People say that Brighton is like London by the sea, and in many ways it does live up to that reputation. But while these two South East cousins share a sense of diversity, culture and creativity, Brighton always seems to do everything with more of a smile on its collective face. However, as laid back and happy-go-lucky as Brighton is, it has always fallen slightly behind London in the serious style stakes – that was until a group of uber-creative Brightonites decided to so something about that.
Let me take you back to 2005 – Twitter doesn’t exist, the Labour party won an election and in the fashion terms London still very much has the upper hand as far as the UK was concerned. Not wanting to be outdone some of Brighton’s most creative souls set about showcasing the very best seaside style and Brighton Frocks Fashion Show was born. Fast forward to 2010 and Brighton Frocks has grown into Brighton Fashion Week, a week long extravaganza of the city’s eclectic fashion talent and some of the very best up and coming UK designers. I was lucky enough to be there at this years event, even doing a spot of modelling.
Here’s my behind the scenes review part 1…
The Couture Show
Part one of my Brighton Fashion Week round up reviews Friday’s Couture Show (one that I was lucky enough to be able to model in), and takes a look at some of the highlights and key trends from the high end menswear collections.
Andrew Bannister for studio_805
Progressive menswear and unisex design label studio_805 is driven by Andrew Bannister, who showcased three collections at the Couture Show. My favourite was Andrew’s graduate collection – 9t?, which was first launched at London Fashion Week back in February 2009 as part of Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s ‘Ones To Watch’. I love how this collection really showed off his signature style, fusing cunning cut and clever colour to convey a powerful silhouette, which was then backed up by stunning attention to detail on every piece.
Here are the highlights of Andrew Bannister’s Brighton Fashion Week show.
Show 1:
Backstage with Andrew Bannister:
[Can anyone spot our very own Duncan in these pics? - Ed]
Nikolo Bertok
UNLIMITED is a brand new collection from 21-year-old fashion starlet Nikolo Bertok (one that’s set to be launched at LFW later the year) which showcases mainly womenswear garments but a couple of amazing menswear pieces. Nikolo isn’t afraid to take risks with new-fangled ideas and experiment with unusual fabrics, which is evident in my favourite piece – his cropped blue patent jacket.
It may not have the super skinny supermodel egos, the column inches or the a-list guests, but what Brighton Fashion Week lacks in celebrity it makes up for in passion, talent and creativity. Watch your back London – Brighton’s coming to get you
Brighton Fashion Week Day 2
Welcome to Part 2 of my Brighton Fashion Week behind the scenes review. After the high end frolics of Friday’s Couture Show, Saturday saw some more contemporary styles take centre stage in the Ready To Wear show. A mixture of up-and-coming graduates (being introduced by Spindle magazine) alongside more established designers who showcased their latest collections while hundreds of lucky punters could browse the fashion market – a much more laid back affair than the glamorous events of the previous evening, but an incredible fashion party none the less.
Here are my picks from Saturday’s show (it’s kind of like Match Of The Day but a LOT more stylish).
The Ready To Wear Show
Brett Le Bratt
First off Brett didn’t even look old enough to have finished his a-levels, let alone put together a collection this strong – yet he announced himself to the fashion world with the confidence of someone twice his age, and what a nice guy with it. His clothes were really impressive in the flesh, and some of my favourite from the whole weekend. I love the way his whole collection had a really fun, almost Miami Vice feel to them (and that’s a compliment by the way!) yet they were also really strong individually. Most of all though, I really liked how current his collection felt – so bang on trend, so accessible but at the same time unique to him.
Another 7th Day
Dark, serious and very, very black, I thought the Another 7th Day collection would be ‘nice, but seen it all before’. However it turned out to be great and a real pleasant surprise. There was some amazing detailing, particularly on the knitwear which made the pieces really stand out from a lot of similar styles making their way into our consciousness. Having tried on several items they were without doubt some of the most comfortable and best fitting of the weekend. A testament to the strength of this collection was that a number of models said (and I whole heartedly agreed) that they’d be happy to walk out onto the street in any of the outfits – a glowing review.
And here are some images from the Another 7th Day look book which you can view by clicking the image below:
Kerry Knowles
The lovely Kerry Knowles brought her smart, elegant tailoring to the Ready Wear proceedings, but rather than standing out in the relatively casual line up, it turned out to be one of the day’s highlights. The ‘Permutation Autumn/Winter 2010′ collection featured a number of unisex garments backed with soft, luxurious fabrics and it worked really well. Again, the attention to detail on this collection was superb (theme of the day perhaps!?) while the interchangeable nature, simplicity and comfort of the collection really stood out. When I was speaking to Kerry about her collection she expressed a dislike for using the word ‘formal’ to describe her collection, but I think with ‘Permutation’ she has redefined ‘formal’ altogether.
And here are some images from the Kerry Knowles look book which you can view by clicking the image below:
So that’s it from me and Brighton Fashion Week for this year! There were some superb collections over the 4 days and if this display is anything to go by, Brighton Fashion Week will be going from strength to strength for many years to come.
Source:fashionbeans.com
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