Supported by fashion trend forecasting megalith, WGSN, this week has seen the third consecutive season of the Who’s Next Paris / Arts Thread collaboration devoted to promoting new fashion talent.
The showcase is a great opportunity for new designers to showcase their collection at WHO’S NEXT PARIS to the worldwide fashion industry.
Last year designers received orders from around the world, being invited to show at international events, such as China Fashion Week and making important international PR and press contacts, so let’s wish the same success to this year’s contenders.
To make the grade, the top 2012 graduate designers were nominated by their fashion schools with institutions like the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Central Saint Martins, Parsons Paris, London College of Fashion and Hong Kong Design Institute taking part. From the nominations the final 10 designers were selected by an international jury of fashion luminaries including Olivia Richardson (Head of Womenswear, WGSN), Kristina Szasz (Design Director, Karl Lagerfeld and Tommy Hilfiger), Françoise Seince (Director, Les Ateliers De Paris), Jacob Valdemar (Commercial Director, Henrik Vibskov) and William Tempest.
The selection this year looked just amazing representing menswear, womenswear and jewellery from across the world. Here are some of our favourites, so make sure you watch out for these names in the fashion future.
Evelien Van Pruissen
Recently graduating from the Royal Academy Of Fine Arts in The Hague, Evelien’s menswear design is based on personal experiences and childhood memories. Always looking for an underlying mood or a tone, Evelien’s images explore the boundaries between fashion, performance and art.
Ichiro Suzuki
Japanese-born, London based menswear designer, Ichiro recently graduated from Royal College of Art via London College of Fashion and Savile Row bespoke tailors Henry Poole & Co. His major influences are rooted in traditional British bespoke tailoring, displaying a classicism and eccentricity alongside luxury craftsmanship, and breathtaking originality. His designs revitalise English traditional tailoring with an artistic approach, whilst embodying the luxury that the highest end of the industry still offers.
Chloe Reynolds
Chloe graduated from the Fashion Design BA at University College Falmouth. Now based in London, her womenswear designs experiment with new approaches to pattern cutting. Influenced by in-depth research into Japanese style, her graduate collection is a futuristic crossover between clothing and jewellery design based on armour and protection, and inspired by armadillo shells and fish scales.
Stephanie Oliver
A Fashion Textiles graduate from Ravensbourne, Stephanie is based in London working as a freelance print designer. Her collection, ‘The White Cloth Makes Her Invisible’, was influenced by an exhibition of Balinese dance and drama from the 1930s, and the research gradually became more focused on the significance of masks worn for dramatic re-tellings of the Ramayana. Distinguished by a vibrant colour palette, heavily detailed prints (which are hand-drawn or painted and then digitally edited) the garments are both beautiful and comfortable.
For more information see www.whosnext.com, www.artsthread.com or www.wgsn.com