Fashion South East, more like: this season Lulu Kennedy and Raphaelle Moore took London fashion’s hottest incubator across the river for the first time ever. The reason was Manor Place, a free indoor skatepark opened by Palace and Nike late last year in a gorgeous 1890s-vintage Victorian baths. Although lined with slabbed banks and concrete transitions, the central open area made for an excellent runway across which each of this season’s three Fashion East participants displayed their own line and style.
First to drop in was Jacek Gleba, returning after last season’s Nijinsky-inflected collection. This time around he approached his central preoccupation with the dancer through the filter of Salomé, whose portrayal in words by Oscar Wilde and illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley sparked moral outrage in the very same strait-laced decade this venue was built. “Dance wear really freed something in my fashion practice,” said Gleba of a collection featuring draped leotards, corseted jersey, and fitted ballet doublets. There was a barely veiled suggestiveness to the roughly edged ribbons of floral print that fluttered from an olive trench, or the narrower ribbons that served as the body in one of his tunics. Again, we saw ballet slippers elevated atop kitten heels beneath a collection that gently extended Gleba’s range of movement.
Traiceline Pratt’s label Goyagoma was the season’s rookie contender, and the first time in a fair while that such a luxury-facing collection has featured at Fashion East. Highly impressive (props to both lensman and designer) is how convincingly polished and sleek his collection looks here on the Vogue Runway gallery: to the naked eye the slight glitches and roughness that come with self-production were more visible, but easily iron-outable. Equally apparent were some excellent ideas, especially around the polo shirt. Two colorways of polo in shearling were good: highly familiar while stimulatingly different. And a shiny white leatherette midi-length front long-sleeve polo (so a rugby, really), cut full at the sleeve that featured a cutaway vent up the spine to mid shoulder was excellent for its party-at-the back minimalism. The clustered fur, pom pom-esque pieces, said Pratt, were just one product of an approach that saw him build each look as an outfit to do something specific in, in this case cry. He elaborated: “Shelter. Comfort. Using pillows to bury your face in.” This associative instinct saw him combine his functional lens with characterizations drawn from his home neighborhood of Sandilands. It seemed a strong start.
The final run was left to Louis Mayhew, who on his second Fashion East outing produced a ramshackle bricolage gem of a collection. I don’t recall any designer imposing their own underwear into a runway show before, but in look 34 Mayhew did just that: he explained that he’d been so struck by the outline of the pair of pale blue boxers he’d left on the floor pre-shower, it had formed the basis of his brand’s new logo. He added: “This time I delved further into myself and tried to embrace my eccentricity from within, which I don’t really do outwardly.” He added: “It’s about trying to create chicness, but not spending any money.” Let loose and over his first collection nerves, Mayhew’s mudlark mix of scavenged and upcycled materials translated into an unconventional urchin sensuality. An upcycled police jumper featured rope-fastened duffels made from found glass bottle tops. A battered green felt hat was lent shamanic elan by a brim of shoelace, feather, and pebble, while a shearling tricorn was emblazoned with an oyster shell. Mayhew’s instinctively collaged clothes were fantastically styled by Lara McGrath, who deservedly shared his bow. Afterwards, the designer cheerily agreed that turning his practice into product was tough, then shrugged.