BA MEN'S WEAR
DATE: 7th January 2019. PLACE: St Georges Church Bloomsbury. TIME: 19.00
The London College of Fashion MA Menswear Class of 2019 didn't just walk a runway; they staged a takeover of St. George’s Bloomsbury, turning the historic aisles into a laboratory for the future of masculine identity. Ahmed Sorour led the charge with a collection that was as political as it was playful. By leaning into his Egyptian roots, Sorour used a "kitschy" and gender-defying aesthetic to dismantle rigid perceptions of class and heritage. His work served as a vibrant middle finger to tradition, proving that cultural storytelling is at its best when it refuses to play by the rules.
The intellectual weight of the show was carried by Jialin Chen and Chao He, both of whom treated fabric like a psychological medium. Chen explored the concept of "psychological distance," translating abstract British scholarship into physical layers that seemed to insulate the wearer from reality. Meanwhile, Chao He showcased a sophisticated grasp of construction, balancing the tension between movement and stillness. Their collections weren't just clothes; they were meditations on how we inhabit space and how the world perceives our boundaries.
Adding to this atmospheric shift were Zhuti Pan and Bongseok Gwon, who brought a sharp, technical edge to the presentation. Pan’s work delved into the intricacies of detail and texture, while Gwon’s contribution highlighted a masterful understanding of contemporary tailoring, blending streetwear sensibilities with high-fashion rigor. Together with the rest of the cohort, these designers turned the "darkness" of Freud and the "light" of the chapel’s stained glass into a cohesive, avant-garde vision that remains a benchmark for graduate fashion.
NAME: JIALIN CHEN.
Always the years between us. Her designs aimed to demonstrate how fashion design can embrace emotions through aesthetic values and bring personal experiences to life, developed from the concept of “psychological distance” as expressed by Edward Bullough (1912).
NAME: BONGSEOK GWON.
Bongseok Gwon has tried to express the struggles that we all experience to find out who we are and define what we want in life. “This project is an expression of myself in the quest to find the meaning of life”, he told us.
NAME: ZHUTI PAN.
Zhuti took inspiration from her time commuting around London on the tube, where she observed passenger standing closely with their personal space being constantly invaded. As she explained: “proxemics is a main clue for the collection, which helped me to developing my own design methodology: folding and overlapping.”
NAME: CHAO HE
Chao He plays with textures, colours and patterns in his collection, in an attempt to go beyond our understanding of fashion and explore new possibilities, as he explained: “My project is inspired on how to extend our awareness, in order to have the opportunity to explore parallel universes where we might exist.”
NAME: AHMED SEROUR
Presenting a multicolour and joyful set of designs, Ahmed Serour found his inspiration in male belly dancers, merging traditional Egyptian kitsch aesthetics with trash couture.
NAME: DAOYUAN DING
Aiming to express the vagueness of the objects and human identities, Daoyuan’s collection, titled Migratory Vagueness, tells the story that there is nothing really defined, represented by The Uncanny, in which the familiar is unfamiliar.
