We coming baring sad news. William Tempest has decided to move his Spring/Summer 2011 show to New York in September for fashion week. The 24 year-old has been showing at London's Vauxhall Fashion Scout, after receiving their Fashion Merit award for his debut show, for the last three seasons but is ready for a change.
"Showing on-schedule in New York is a fantastic opportunity for me to present my collection to the press, buyers and stylists in the US. New York has such an amazing and positive energy and I can't wait to show my collection there," he told Vogue.com.
We can't say that the move was a surprise. After the critical acclaim of his recent collections, it was only a matter of time before the designer began thinking about potential opportunities. According to Vogue.com, the designer's show will take place on Monday September 13th at the new Mercedes Benz IMG venue at Lincoln Centre.
Since Jasper Garvida won Project Catwalk in 2008, he has gone from strength to strength. This couldn't have been more obvious at his show last night with celebs gracing the front row, Sophie Anderton and Beverley Knight being among them.
We managed to catch up with him beforehand to see how things were going and to have a sneak peak of the collection. "Two of the models cancelled on me last minute!" he said. "But apart from that, it's going fine." As sweet and relaxed as ever, he explained what we could expect from the collection and his ideas behind it. He said: "Well, I was at the National History Museum, and I saw a green malachite and thought this is it, this will be the pattern for my collection."
After days of running from show to show in unscrupulously high heels, there becomes a lot of aching feet, and admittedly, sometimes energies can start to lag with the tell-tale sign of the increased appearance of flats. However, upon entrance to the Romeo Pires Spring Summer 2010 show, guests were greeted with well-needed cosmopolitans and mojitos, and there was no doubt the room was spirited with a vibe of anticipation.
In May, Vauxhall Fashion Scout - now in its seventh season - began the search for this year's young, creative designers to showcase with London’s largest independent catwalk event. Last season's designers included Cooperative Designs, Emma Bell, Louise Amstrup, William Tempest, Alexandra Groover, Horace and Ioannis Dimitrousis.
And for S/S 2010 the four womenswear designers making their debut have been announced as Ada Zanditon, Dean Quinn, Hermione de Paula and Marko Mitanovski, providing the young hopefuls with perfect platform to spearhead a career in fashion.
Paris is known for theatrics and art, Milan is where the money is, and New York is all about commercialism, but when it comes to emerging design talent, London is the place to be. Initiatives such as Topshop's New Generation Scheme and Vauxhall Fashion Scout are responsible for the success of designers such as Christopher Kane, Danielle Scutt, Richard Nicholl and William Tempest. But they are not alone. Year after year, Graduate Fashion Week continues to produce a new generation of design talent that go on to shape the landscape of the British fashion industry.
With that in mind, over the next month The Fash Pack will present some of the best talent that we spotted over the three days at GFW this year.
If you want an example of the talent on offer, look no further than Yatri Pabari. If the response to her graduate collection was anything to go by, she definitely has a bright future ahead of her.
The Fash Pack managed to bag a quick interview with the designer to talk inspiration and where next from here.
Geometry mixed with soft silhouettes seems to be the strategy of late for designer Nico Didonna, who's been getting his fair share of buzz the Vauxhall Fashion Scout side of London Fashion Week. The Italian designer, who moved to London in the '80s, is stocked at boutiques worldwide but has his main shop and studio right here in the UK capital.
Nico D, whose autumn/winter catwalk video is here for your viewing pleasure, opened up his studio to The Fash Pack. He filled us in on everything from his iPod selections to his favourite foods to eat on-the-job.
Hot-ticket designer William Tempest delivered a collection of gorgeously architectural, Tudor-inspired dresses just a few hours ago (full review later), and like the members of Fash Pack, Emma Watson and Sophie Alexander seemed pleased. Assumably, so did the reps from Sass & Bide who were also sitting in the packed house at Vauxhall Fashion Scout.
TodayHeymca showed why they are one of the the hottest tickets on the Vauxhall Scout schedule.
If there's one thing you will be wearing come fall, it's a statment jacket. Let me rephrase that; a Heymca statement jacket. They were padded at the shoulders and on the hip, emphasising the waist and creating a powerful but feminine silhouette. Their autumn/winter offerings included angular tuxedo jackets with a strong sci-fi aesthetic. It's hardly suprising that the pair did a stint at Roland Mouret who is the king of all things stuctured and archetectural.
Helen and Myra, the design duo behind Hemyca, proved that Central Saint Martin's isn't the only place churning out strong design talent. The fashion industry should pay attention to London College of Fashion alumni.
Nico D is all about wearability - and we love that. Chunky knits in classic shapes were styled with oversized leather bags, trilby and khaki trousers for ultimate comfort.
Tailoring was a strength of the show. Jackets, with oversized collars in satin, were boxy and structured with angular shapes at the front, drawing on Didonna's interest in geometry this season.
Evening wear was strong, tied in by a theme of sequins that adroned black turtlenecks, mens tuxedos and floor length evening gowns.
Geometric shapes was the source of inspiration for the show but was not clear in the collection. Individual looks worked well, but toverall the show lacked cohesion. The designer served us with a bit of leather and grunge, some sequins a la Ashish and some casual urban wearable looks rather than committing to one theme and seeing it through. Styling was also inconsistent, starting off very strong and losing it's punch towards the last few looks where a beautiful black knee length dress was teamed with pink fish net tights.
Have just gotten back from Ashish, have just sat through another fashion show (already running 45 min late), have just eaten two mini bananas as Naomi (The Kaiser) had not allowed me to stop for food. Need complex carbs soon or an insulin drip.
Alexandra Groover, the LFW first-timer who designed the last set of clothes we saw, seems to be feeling the recession a bit more than Ashish or Eun Jeong. In all black - literally - Groover sent out about a dozen looks that all used texture, rather than colour, to add interest.
One of her most unique bits came at the beginning, when she experimented with a technique that neither Naomi nor I know what to call. (Rivkie, perhaps you are wiser.) Dresses were cotton jersey tunics, slightly draped and cinched at the low waist. But with slashes every inch or two, the frocks were anything but simple.
Will the newbie complicate her colour palette as much as her construction next season? Too soon to tell.
