Every year, approximately 3000 new designers enter the London fashion scene. Working against the odds, they join a competitive world where skills and ideas are essential to success.
This display features highlights from the Royal College of Art (RCA) 2008 Fashion MA graduates' final collections and reveals aspects of the design process.
Future Fashion Now marks the 60th anniversary of the inauguration of the RCA fashion programme. Since it began, the RCA has prepared aspiring designers for fashion careers leading to graduates working in fashion houses such as Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Chloé, Dior and Burberry. Others such as Ossie Clark, Boudicca, Julien Macdonald and, more recently, Erdem Moralioglu, Georgina Goodman, Holly Foulton, Aitor Throup, James Long,Katie Eary and Matthew Miller have developed their own succesful labels.
The display will feature 55 outfits as well as accessories and sketchbooks from 27 young designers. Divided into four sections - Concept, Form, Technique and Detail – each explores the design stages the students go through to create their final collection from their inspiration to the finished garment, and will include preparatory drawings, design boards and photographs.
Concept looks at the central ideas and inspiration behind the graduates' work. A military-inspired, crystal-encrusted jacket by menswear designer Katie Eary is shown alongside images from her preparatory sketchbook with photographs which informed and inspired her work.
Form explores how designers transform their ideas into 3-D garments by experimenting with materials and cut. Objects such as Heikki Salonen's sharply tailored womenswear and Nina Hjorth's extreme high-heeled shoes will show how the designers have achieved a desired shape.
Technique reveals the ways in which the graduates create their work using both traditional and the most advanced methods such as laser cutting, bonding, digital printing and sophisticated rapid prototyping. On display will be Siri Johansen's men's oversize cable-knitted jumper which combines machine and hand knitting techniques, as well as a padded silk dress printed with digitally-manipulated images by Iacopo Calamandrei.
Detail illustrates how customised fastenings, decorative stitching, jewelled embellishment or a delicate print can make a piece unique. This section includes Benjamin Shun Lai Ng's crystal-studded footwear and Adrian Sommerauer's beautifully detailed menswear.
There are 27 designers featured in the display:
Elisabeth Borglin; Iacopo Calamandrei; Léa Carreño; Holly Cowan; Katie Eary; Debbie Fletcher; Lisa Hjelm; Nina Hjorth; David Hopwood; Jenny Hortlund;
Liam Jackson; Siri Johansen; Gudrun Kloepsch; Murat Kuscu; Patricia Kwok;
Timothy Lee; Pamela Leung; Benjamin Shun Lai Ng; Eva Nip; Jonathan Penn;
Heikki Salonen; Abbie Shaw; Adrian Sommerauer; Jarah Stoop; Lisa Uhlenbrock; Helen Wilde; Lilia Yip.