World Fashion Month 2015 climaxed last month, and some fashion observers look to London to lead in original design, youthful styling and radioactive colors and prints.
The British capital’s emerging fashion labels generate the kind of brand identities, product signatures and sustainable revenues that will attract investors. After all, it is the business of fashion that makes the world go round.
London has also produced a steady stream of rising talent that has gained attention from the media, fashion buyers and clients.
And why not? Wasn’t London the city that started the youthquake in the subversive 1960s, with Mary Quant’s Mod Look worn by supermodel Twiggy who sported a short haircut by Vidal Sassoon?
Carnaby Street saw the explosion of Peter Max psychedelia and acid-trip colors and patterns.
Even men became dandies wearing Edwardian collared suits from Savile Row.
And as fashion is a vicious spin cycle, what goes around comes back to stay. Young consumers want a repeat performance of their grandmother’s mini skirts, hot pants, Baby Dolls and peekaboos worn with go-go boots. It isn’t a nostalgia trip but a rebooted look—slick with techno fabrics, tailored for the social media set.
The young and innocent look is a backlash of the porno couture on the red carpet worn by erstwhile celebs. It is a return to feminine looks, to decent and elegant silhouettes.
Here are seven new designers who are rocking the London fashion world. These new leaders produce fashion that answers yes to the overriding question of shoppers: “Do I look slim, young and smart in this garment?”