DATE: 24th June 2024 PLACE: Frameless. TIME: 20.00
I: Vianney Le Caer
Define Identities” was the theme of the collections from the Class Of 2024 at Istituto Marangoni London’s Fashion Design fashion show, They have delved deep into their identities a the collections offered a stunning display of hand-worked finishings, hand-made fabrics, innovative pattern-making, and delicate trims. Their work showcased the university’s top-notch education with designers who can easily balance creating beautiful, wearable garments and applying the Haute Couture savoir-faire foundational to the successful curriculum at the Istituto Marangoni Paris campus. The designers each created high fashion pieces perfect for a high fashion couture show whilst still making pieces you would want to wear. Each design showed a key eye for detail and expert craftsmanship.
If fashion shapes identities, then these emerging designers are certainly heading in the right direction to define their unique styles. In an immersive experience, the public was captivated by the courageous creativity, innovative use of upcycling in designs, technical prowess, and individuality of the 10 finalists at this degree show.
The zeitgeist collection, As the Solid Meets the Fluid, designed by Theo Moraes Garcia de Campos, addresses fabric waste by transforming it into an upcycling fashion statement. Inspired by the rough texture of rocks and the delicate movement of water, this new designer repurposes fabric scraps from London garment manufacturers and dead stock into oversized designs to exaggerate proportions. In Theo Moraes Garcia de Campos’s graduate collection, flowy draped trousers in lightweight fabrics contrast with a bold bomber and dark cape featuring crunched pleated fabric manipulations, raw edges, and heavyweight fabrics styled with a Brazilian fisherman hat.
Peter Thanaphon Barker-Bennett’s collection titled Somewhere is a heartfelt tribute to filmmaking and photography, capturing the disillusioned emotions of coming-of-age through his garments. Using soft pastel hues and sheer silks, this up-and-coming fashion designer presents delicate and ethereal homoerotic menswear. Drawing inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation,” he explores themes of sensuality and homoeroticism with loose silhouettes, delicate rouge applications, and shimmering fabrics. Much like a cinematic frame, Peter Thanaphon Barker-Bennett embeds a Tokyo night street scene onto a shirt, seamlessly blending underwear with sportswear. This fusion artfully portrays the complex struggles of youth, encompassing loneliness, sensuality, and femininity.
Punn Viravaidhya’s degree collection, The State of Being Distinct, translates his passion for modified Japanese car culture into a unique sense of fashion design. For this young designer, deconstructing and composing garments is akin to assembling the mechanical parts of a car. His innovative designs use unconventional fabrics such as car seat materials and carbon fibre, incorporating harnesses, seatbelts, gloves, and reflectors into silhouettes inspired by traditional Japanese workwear, merging them with contemporary design.
Tara Adineh’s collection, The Absurd Hero, interprets human existence by transitioning basket-making into garments that wrap the body like cocoons. Inspired by the Myth of Sisyphus and Albert Camus’ philosophy of the absurd, this rising talent transforms the concept of the absurd hero’s basket of rocks into design pieces that metaphorically turn the body into stone. Tara Adineh’s basket-weaving innovation involves transitioning knitting to flat, rigid stitched ropes, transforming a traditional craft into fabric, saving waste, and creating a sense of unity with the task.
