JUNE 2007

 

With well-wishers and supporters all around the world it isn’t easy for Fashion Fringe to keep everyone informed of new developments and initiatives.  So we have decided that the best way to keep everybody up to speed with what is going on is a newsletter which will appear as and when we have something exciting to share with you – a situation we hope will happen frequently.


Selection

Let’s begin this first newsletter with a brief report on the selection of this years’ Fashion Fringe Semi-Finalists, which took place on 15th May at the Red Bull British headquarters in Soho.  The judges, chaired by Tom Ford, were Christopher Bailey design director of Burberry, Natalie Massenet Founder of NET-A-PORTER.COM, Anne Pitcher Buying and Merchandising Director of Selfridges, Roy Peach Dean, Postgraduate Portfolio, London College of Fashion & Elizabeth Saltzman Creative Director of Vanity Fair; a panel bringing considerable experience and knowledge to the difficult task of reducing a strong field of ten possibles to a few definites.

It can’t have been easy for the competitors to face such a blue chip panel but, sitting on the sidelines as I do as a non-voting observer, I was very impressed not only with the work they all presented but also with the way they presented themselves.  They all came over as cool, professional and mature and, although they were probably shaking in their shoes, they didn’t let it show.  It was hard for the judges to choose only a few and they all agreed that most of the semi-finalists could probably go ahead and make a living as designers, they were so good.  But sadly, it is not about being good, or even better.  It is about being the best.  And the four finalists were so outstanding that the decision was made remarkably quickly.  The lucky few are:

Andrea McWha, 24, University of Central Lancashire.
Dejan Agatonovic, 28, Central St Martins
Graeme Armour, 27, Central St Martins
Design Duo Maki Aminaka Löfrander & Marcus Wilmont, 30 and 31, University College of Buras, Sweden and Royal College of Art respectively.


The New Silk Road

Their luck doesn’t stop here.  Thanks to the British Council initiative to encourage young British – based designers to work with designers and craftspeople in Asia, the finalists are currently following the New Silk Road, with Dejan in Bangladesh, Graeme in Pakistan, Andrea in Uzbekistan and Maki & Marcus in Kazakhstan.  In the care of the British Council, accompanied by Fashion Fringe project manager Caroline Beresford Jones, Nikki Rowntree, Fashion Fringe Consultant, and Alberto Bartoli, European Sales & Marketing Director IMG Fashion Europe.  We feel very honoured that the British Council has chosen to work with Fashion Fringe in this because we believe strongly that the future of fashion – not to mention other things – must be predicated on co-operation and learning by bringing together young people from all areas of the globe.  We feel it is absolutely in the ethos of Fashion Fringe to be at the cutting edge of this initiative. 


Sotheby’s

We were equally honoured at the beginning of the month when the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s, along with Fashion luminary, Rita Britton, whose Barnsley shop, Pollyanna, is famed, asked our three previous Fashion Fringe winners to provide clothes for a special jewellery preview event in Bond Street on 13th June.  The object was to show quality jewellery, antique and modern, with contemporary high fashion clothes before an audience of jewellery lovers.  Basso & Brooke (2004), Erdem (2005) and Gavin Douglas (2006) provided looks from their current collections which were shown with the top international labels sold by Pollyanna.  It was a great evening and we were very proud to be part of such a special event, the first of its kind, organised and run by Josephine Dickinson.


Royal Opera House

Another unexpected opportunity and honour for Fashion Fringe has been provided by The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden which, each year holds a summer concert in which the members of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme perform.  The organisers saw Gavin Douglas’s clothes on the website and fell in love with their theatricality and colourful style.  The result was a request for him to design the outfits to be worn by the female artists in the singing section of this year's Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Concert on 21 July. 


Mentoring Week

Finally I’d like to tell you about our mentoring week for this years semi-finalists in which top names from the industry have freely given up their time to explain to them the ins and outs of their area of the fashion business.  In a fascinating week we learned about hair and makeup from L’Oréal Paris; fabrics and manufacturing from Uni Desigers owner Eva D’Arche; buying & sales from Gail Sackloff at Saks Fifth Avenue; Fashion Fringe’s mentor Angela Quaintrell took the designers around a number of London stores to help them visualise their positioning; running a business by Jonathan Akeroyd of Alexander McQueen; contracts and legal documents by IMG lawyer Cate Calver; Fashion Fringe Partner CFE informed the finalists of what will happen when the winner is announced; Claudia Croft revealed a few secrets about how to get on the right side of the press and INCA, Fashion Fringe’s production company informed the finalists about the many details needed to have a successful and ease free show. 
Next month, Natalie Massenet will talk about online sales and the international buying market, Cotton Incorporated will be flying in from the USA to give an apparel trend forecast and Christopher Bailey and the Burberry Design Team will take the finalists through the intricacies of designing and creating.  Everybody at Fashion Fringe is overwhelmed by the generosity shown by these key players in the industry in giving up their time for us and we are all exceedingly grateful.  This is the sort of helping hand which young designers need and can only be given by successful practitioners in their fields.  At Fashion Fringe we intend to develop this into a strong element of the help we believe young designers should be given.


Best Wishes,

Colin McDowell
Creative Director, Fashion Fringe


 

STOP PRESS

Everyone at Fashion Fringe was pleased to see the fashion shoot in Hello! Which concentrated on Fashion Fringe and featured the clothes of out three winners (Basso & Brooke, Erdem & Gavin Douglas) modelled by Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and styled by Mohieb at Chiswick House.  Great publicity for them as Hello! is read by everybody, in or out of the fashion loop.

  • Further information can be found at  www.fashionfringe.co.uk
  • The 4 finalists will be given a grant by Fashion Fringe for materials, technicians and living expenses. They will be offered access to technical staff and studio space through London College of Fashion to assist in preparing their collections.
  • Fashion Fringe is supported by: