‘Future Fashion Now’ is an exhibition in the V&A which displays the works from some of the Royal College of Art fashion design graduates. From 27 designers, there must have been over 50 garments being displayed in different sections, Concept, Form, Technique and Detail. I got to the exhibition quite late in the day after traipsing around London all day, so was very tired at the time, but I still thought it was incredible. Unfortunately I found that some of the pieces weren’t lit as well as they could have been so I couldn’t see some of the detailing as well as I would have liked to, but all the same, there were some incredible pieces of clothing and footwear being displayed. Three designers stood out in particular to me.
The first was Timothy Lee, who had a few ensembles being shown, including dresses, coats and jackets. What I liked about these pieces is that they were different, beautifully cut and made creating quite unusual shapes, but the pieces were made from leather, wool, viscose and neoprene which gave it such a solid structure without looking to heavy or uncomfortable to wear. The areas of neoprene add to the streamlined, structured appearance of the collars, shoulders and waistbands, but where there isn’t any neoprene, the fabric drapes softly over the body. On another piece he made stiff woollen structures which hold the fabric away from the body and it is with this technique that he manages to make the skirt part drape so stiffly yet smoothly. I liked these pieces because it’s a form of power dressing without feeling like you’re in a time warp back stuck in the 80s, its modern and refreshing, and uses techniques that you don’t see that often on the runway.
Another designer’s works I really liked was Murat Kuscu’s. I have always been very interested in working in contrasting fabrics such as leather and fine chiffon, and this is what Kusco did for his graduate piece. He started experimenting with folded paper of mannequins and then developed his ideas from there. The first piece I saw was a bodice made form robust, patent leather and wool, I could really see how his concept and technique of manipulating paper managed to create this garment, and again it was a very innovative piece which, was a little futuristic looking for me, but I found the concept very interesting. His second piece I really liked, I don’t know why for sure, but the contrast between such a heavy duty material like patent leather and the soft flowing silk chiffon, cut on the bias really worked, the leather shoulders didn’t overpower the silk, which is what I have been dubious about and why I have not tried such contrasting materials, but seeing it there, made me realise that there are ways around it.
Gudrun Klo
epsch was the other designer who really stood out to me. I found this work in t
he technique section of the exhibition. I honestly cannot imagine the amount of time and effort it would have taken to create just these two pieces let alone the entire collection. On display there was a black and a cream dress, they were made from a variety of materials from rope to lace, Lurex to wool and rubber to silk. If I just read the list of materials involved in making the garments I would think that they would be a really heavy, too contrasting and just not really work, but when I saw the garments I was in shock really. Concentrating on traditional dress making and fabric manipulation techniques she created these pieces with ruching, folding, gathering, pleating and entwined them with lace panels creating multi-textural layers which somehow just seemed to soften the appearance despite having some quite heavy and rigid fabrics. I left the exhibition wishing that I could have seen more of this collection as I was really intrigued as too what the rest would be like, would it be too ‘samey’ or would the techniques develop along the way?
epsch was the other designer who really stood out to me. I found this work in t
he technique section of the exhibition. I honestly cannot imagine the amount of time and effort it would have taken to create just these two pieces let alone the entire collection. On display there was a black and a cream dress, they were made from a variety of materials from rope to lace, Lurex to wool and rubber to silk. If I just read the list of materials involved in making the garments I would think that they would be a really heavy, too contrasting and just not really work, but when I saw the garments I was in shock really. Concentrating on traditional dress making and fabric manipulation techniques she created these pieces with ruching, folding, gathering, pleating and entwined them with lace panels creating multi-textural layers which somehow just seemed to soften the appearance despite having some quite heavy and rigid fabrics. I left the exhibition wishing that I could have seen more of this collection as I was really intrigued as too what the rest would be like, would it be too ‘samey’ or would the techniques develop along the way? 
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