Yesterday inside 3 Rue Portefoin the conveyor belt of shows and presentations that parade Paris’ own design talents down the catwalks was paused and the fashion industry was invited to celebrate the opening of the BFC’s new London Showrooms in Paris.
For autumn/winter 17, i-D partnered with Sarah Mower MBE, BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent as 15 of London’s brightest of talents were toasted and their collections celebrated all over again. A mix of firm i-D favourites and familiar, friendly faces with fast-rising, future stars, the space flexed London’s design muscles once more.
Launched in 2008, the London Showrooms was an instant success and has grown season on season. Not only has it helped establish London as fashion’s capital of creativity but as a fast-growing centre of commerce. Against a backdrop of market difficulties, industry shifts and turbulent politics, ready-to-wear sales are estimated to rise to £32 billion by 2020. £32 billion. Each season, the art of fashion meets the business of fashion and the London Showrooms are helping our designers excel at both.
“The London Showrooms in Paris has thrived since 2008, which was right in the middle of the economic crash. London designers have this crazy counter-intuitive flair for doing brilliant things in bad times. If you hadn’t come to LSR in the days when banks were crashing, you would’ve missed the start of Erdem, Mary Katrantzou and JW Anderson – designers the world wanted to see, buy and know about immediately. History is repeating itself now – there’s Brexit and gloom all around, so what does London give you? Michael Halpern and his disco-glitter! Tons of variety and character: Nabil Nayal, born in Aleppo, raised in Sheffield, designer making breath-taking Elizabethan influenced clothes; Richard Malone, Irish, selling brilliantly colourful ethically sourced clothes – and these are just the new ones.
I’m thrilled that i-D with its daily, sustained support of the creativity of young people is joIning us to intro this band of friends this season. London Showrooms in Paris was the very first one-stop selling and talking shop for a band of young designers; many have copied it since, but these London kids are the unmissables if you want to see a slice of the future, right now.” Sarah Mower, MBE Ambassador for Emerging Talent BFC
The full line-up consists of Alan Crocetti, Ashley Williams, Astrid Andersen, Caine London, Dilara Findikoglu, Eudon Choi, Halpern, Marta Jakubowski, Nabil Nayal, Richard Malone, Roberta Einer, Ryan LO, Sadie Williams, SAMUEL Guì YANG and Fashion East’s Mimi Wade. Check back on i-D.co tomorrow for our inside scoop from the designers themselves.
Credits
Text Steve Salter
Photography Elise Toïdé