A Mixed Bag: London Fashion Week in Review

A few weeks have passed since the fashion week train left London heading over the English Channel to Paris, and I thought there would be no better time than now to reflect on my experience covering the shows down in the UK capital.

After the Bibiy London Launch, which myself, Isabella and Mia attended, I was set to cover the remaining two events alone; the Portal M Virtual Fashion Exhibition and the Ray Chu Studios' Show. I was both nervous and excited in apprehension of tackling two London Fashion Week events by myself, but this sort of opportunity doesn’t come around all too often and I knew I had to take advantage of it.

Arriving in Shoreditch, I made my way over to Protein Studios where the Portal M Event was taking place. The studio was slotted in at the base of an incredibly modern building set seamlessly in the ever-expanding urban jungle of Shoreditch. After getting an explanation of the layout and designers featuring in the event, I made my way inside. The exhibition was structured with a path guiding the viewer through various designer’s collections displayed on mannequins, as well as screens exhibiting virtual designs. The first designer along the exhibition trail was Ray Chu, whose show the magazine was also attending the following day. The designs were sleek and utilised folds and lines to create form, there was a limited use of colour so as to draw attention solely to the outfits composition and not act as a distraction from the rounded quality of the designs.

Following on from Ray Chu’s powerful introduction to the Portal M exhibition, was designer Yi Min. Yi Min was invited from Taiwan to display her designs at London Fashion Week. Her designs were chosen as the ‘best in class’ at Shih Chien University. Out of 24 fellow Taiwanese designers, she was selected to travel over to London to exhibit them at the event. I asked her how she achieved the colour contrast on the dresses to which she responded, “the black material is bleached to create the burnt orange scars across the dresses, it’s a long process but worth it”. Yi Min was very humble about the opportunity to display her work at London Fashion Week, letting the designs speak for themselves. She displayed the dress both on the mannequin and herself, the only designer to do so, offering two differing viewing conditions for her design.

The remaining designs were all digitally rendered displays which after having seen the work of designers in person and having spoken to one of them, had relatively little effect on me. I had seen similar digital displays of this sort at York Fashion Week with Alexander McQueen’s nephew, Gary James McQueen’s designs. Whilst technically impressive to create, they appear clunky and robotic in the digital model's movement on screen; they also simply can not be compared to the real thing. The effort a designer painstakingly puts into creating an outfit from rolls of material, and the methods they use to make them so unique, is wildly more profound than any sort of virtual fashion. It should act as a supplement to real fashion rather than attempt to establish itself as a separate entity within the industry. It did however offer a form of interaction not possible at a catwalk and that was an interactive screen where you could design an outfit - rather lacklustre in comparison. Inaugural thank you’s and a drinks procession followed after which I slipped away. The Portal M event in retrospect acted as a taster for the Ray Chu Studios Show taking place the following day.

Returning back to Shoreditch for the Ray Chu Studio’s Show, I arrived at the event surprised to see influencers and photographers outside, doing a collaborative form of street photography - a trade of sorts. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands photographing in the same style.    

After some warmup street photography, I went inside to find a huge line queueing for entrance into the show, with my camera I took the risk of walking straight past the line into the show in an attempt to get centre spot on the runway. To my surprise it worked and there was an already sizeable mob of photographers in place ready to capture the show. From British Fashion Council, to Getty and Teen Vogue, I knew it was serious when nationally and internationally recognised fashion industry brands were present. I got set up and after a short but exciting wait techno house was being played throughout the venue and the models hit the U-shaped runway. I was placed at the one end of the U surrounded by photographers crouching, standing or seated, all trying to get ‘the’ shot. When camera flashes on the other side of the room finished, I knew a model wearing one of Ray Chu’s SS25 designs was about to come around the corner. This season’s designs were “built on the oceanic themes of the previous years SS24 collection… drawing inspiration from the resilience of the Taiwanese spirit, embodied by the Crinum Asiaticum Flower”. Each outfit referenced the flower either by imitating its form or directly incorporating a metallic casting of the flower into their designs.

Impressed by the designs but no so much by my own runway photography, I felt I was yet to take photos I’d consider good enough, yet to get ‘the’ shot. After the runway finished, it turned into an exhibition allowing the photographers and videographers time to get content. The spontaneous decision to switch the camera to its monochrome setting was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, after which I got just the shots I wanted. Fortunately unique enough to set themselves apart from the coloured high-resolution shots that every photographer including myself got from the runway. Once I finished taking the photos I needed, I thanked the PR for inviting the magazine and scurried away, far too excited for my own good. I had to wait in the tube station for the photos to download, not willing to risk going down the escalators and losing connection to the camera and consequently the 150 photos, taking far too long to download. I rushed back to my Auntie and Uncle’s, where I was staying for the week, packed my stuff and rushed to King’s Cross to catch the train back up to York.

And just like that, London Fashion Week was done and dusted for the magazine, a whirlwind stop of shows and exhibitions. I thoroughly enjoyed covering it, but did not enjoy the extortionate tube fares zipping around London, although I think it was worth it in the end. Reflecting back, I really should have sorted out an Oyster Card.