W: Maximiliano Dubois
DATE: 16th February 2023. PLACE: East Bank Campus . TIME: 19.30
The London College of Fashion (LCF) MA Graduate Fashion Show 2023 was a high-stakes demonstration of "Fashion Design Technology" at its most cerebral. Staged at the Truman Brewery as an official fixture of London Fashion Week, the show signaled a departure from mere aesthetics toward a rigorous, almost scientific exploration of what clothing does for the wearer. This wasn't just a collection of garments; it was a series of intellectual manifestos that addressed the "male gaze," human-animal duality, and the physical constraints of the digital age.
The runway was dominated by a sense of protective surrealism. Designers didn't just dress the body; they re-armored it. Xingyu Ren’s collection, The Beast, was a visceral highlight, using tailored suits punctuated by wispy, animalistic hair to explore the friction between humanity and our primal instincts. This was mirrored in the work of Min-Ji Kim, who took a political sledgehammer to the American Pin-up aesthetic. By distorting the proportions of the "idealized" female form, Kim reclaimed autonomy for the female body, turning the runway into a space for feminist reclamation rather than passive observation.
Technical innovation remained the backbone of the LCF identity throughout the show. We saw textile manipulation that defied traditional categorization—Yangyang Li’s "Pattern Writer" used intricate, data-driven structures, while Jiabao Wu’s The Birdcage Effect utilized rigid, architectural layering to comment on social confinement. The show also pushed into the sensory realm, with students like Yuya Xu presenting "Tactile Vision," a collection that prioritized the haptic experience over the visual, an essential move toward a more inclusive and neuro-aware design future.
What the Class of 2023 successfully proved is that "Graduate Fashion" in London has evolved past the "shock for shock's sake" era. Under the leadership of the School of Design and Technology, these postgraduates showcased a tangible entrepreneurial spirit, with collections that felt ready for the showroom floor despite their avant-garde leanings. The LCF 2023 show was a reminder that the future of fashion lies at the intersection of social consciousness and high-tech craftsmanship—a future where clothes are not just worn, but are used to navigate the complexities of modern existence.
Zhongzhi Ding
Collection: Male Enhancement
The collection is about creating garments that accentuate masculinity for the men or trans gendered who wear them. The objective here is to identify indicators of homoeroticism as a vehicle for design adopting characteristics of hyper masculine archetypes. Size, bulk, length and girth are developed as prosthetic inserted to pocket construction on the chest, shoulder, and crotch. Details in form such as the nipple, shaft and glans are accentuated by the tension and cut of the cloth.
Ruyin Tian
STRIP STRAP STRIPE’, is inspired by her grandmother and the chaos of memory loss through Alzheimer’s disease. The collection explores aiding memory through cutting patterns and folding strips of fabric, forming zero-waste garments. Ruyin designs for low impact by selecting materials such as organic cotton and recycled fibres from end-of-rolls and cut-and-sew waste. The garments are durable and versatile, with multiple ways of being worn via removable parts. Secondhand cotton ribbons are spliced into the garments to elevate their style, including a zero-waste vest made from a single piece of ribbon.
Collection: Strip, Strap Strip
Quanrong Jian
YangYang Li
