Brighton Fashion Week – SUSTAIN
Immediately after a 30-something hour journey from Sydney to England I was really looking forward to Brighton Fashion Week’s day two show. The show was aptly named Sustain. I drank my bodyweight in coconut water and stayed awake for the entire thing. Go me.
The night’s program featured designers that used eco-friendly or re-cycled materials to create their garments. Before you snark, “Oh, I bet it’s just a bunch of old plastic bottles gaffa-ed together”, or, “Wow, it’s a skirt made of train tickets”, everything on the runway that evening was impressive and could be worn without any hint that materials may have lived in the tip for two years.
Rebecca Jayne Taylor’s range, “Gore-Tex Up-Cycle” was an impressive opener, flamboyant neon ski outfits paraded, there were awesome plaited capes and more pom poms than you could ever feel the need to poke a stick at. I wanted to get all touchy feely with the garments that were sashaying down the runway because of all of the layering of different textured fabrics.
Anja Crabb’s futuristic “Past:Present” collection had impressive embroidery and a nice motif of contrasting fabrics, (again, i’m focusing on textures) of leather and lace throughout. There were scores of neon throughout, which accented the lines of the garments. A particular standout of the range was the jacket with a spiderweb detail on the bodice, with bold, patterned shoulder pads.
We then observed the intricate handiwork of Daisy H-B’s “Dumpster Design” range. The origami-like dress was impressive, somehow she had fashioned rigid materials to fit together in a tessellating manner, creating the pointy bodice. It was the ultimate sexy haute couture, futuristic fancy dress costume.
Anna Bykova’s collection was inspired by a trip to Portugal’s Boom festival. With ideas of sleeping bags, resourcefulness and adaptability circulating in the designers brain, “Esoterica” was born as a reaction to festival fashion. An interesting piece was a convertible dress, it looked something like a sleeping bag backback, it was un-rolled to be revealed as a stylish printed dress (seen above on the right).
Finally, Henrietta Ludgate’ s “Supernova” closed the show. We loved the modern chunky piping details added to the feminine gowns and that cute, shiny green skater dress.
For a collection of designers who are hardly pushing thirty, the garments featured at the Sustain show were impressive, and it was a good way to be introduced what is in store for British fashion in the future.
For more photos of the event see the Facebook photo gallery and to find out more about Brighton Fashion Week, see their website.
Words by Carol Bowditch.
