This Wednesday saw the latest crop of fashion design talent taking their turn to showcase MA graduate collections at the Royal College of Art. Having nurtured the likes of Erdem, Holly Fulton and James Long, we knew that we should sit up and listen to what this year’s 36 RCA graduates had to say. We went front row for a head’s up on the trend movers and shakers of the future.
Top of our list was Philipp Schueller whose collection spanned the breadth of the neon rainbow whilst experimentally bringing together fur, plastics and chiffons. Topped off with clear trucker caps, floral motifs peppered the garments adding texture and models donned lunatic shades. The look was 50% seventies kids TV presenter on acid, 50% pimpin’ ghetto girl. Schüller proved the future’s bright and tapped into commerciality by paying homage to the neon trend we featured here in early May.
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Knitwear graduate, Maria Kamper, jauntily sent her models out to surf music, with rolled beach towels under their arms and black knitted bathing caps on their heads. The garments however were far from beachy, with floor-skimming dresses in muted pastel shades, their scalloped and betassled edges dancing around the wearer’s ankles. One particularly pleasing number in faded green, swept to the floor at the front but was cutaway at the back – reversing the current trend for dipped hems. Kamper will do well to keep to these lengthy scales in coming seasons; as we previously revealed here, our trend science shows them continuing to be a big hit.
The menswear on offer also made a strong impression; most notably from Fah Chakshujev, who drew inspiration from the Greek messenger Hermes. She sent out her male models in hues of pink, gold, silver and cream sporting gold, winged headpieces and armlets. Her well-cut tailoring was embossed with mythical creatures and trimmed with plastic laser cut ‘lace’.
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Amelie Marciasin showed heavily tassled knit bombers and jumpers paired with metallic jeans in shades of lime, turquoise and violet, showing that the coloured denim commercial trend we talked about here on Wednesday is still getting designers inspired for next season. Itziar Vaquer engineered plastics, in the form of oversized outwear embraced our futuristic Rejuvenate forecast in it’s cleanly executed finish. Trompe l’oeil fastenings and pockets embossed or melted into the plastic added depth to the forms.
Overall, the event was a visual feast – these kids sure know how to dazzle. With their fine tailoring, mind-boggling knits, innovative fabric use and sartorial wit we’re predicting big things.
Katie Smith
