Kiko Kostadinov has grown into a LFWM stand-out. Each season his designs get stronger, his creative world expands, his work feels more assured. He’s managed to gracefully fuse together conceptual inspirations as varied as Martin Kippenberger and Yves Klein, with elegant and edgy and wearable designs. His collections are cross-cultural fusions that draw on India, Japan, his native Bulgaria and adopted home of London. Last season Kiko tried his hand at something new though, a full-on womenswear collection — enlisting just-graduated CSM-educated twins, Deanna and Laura Fanning to help create it. On the eve of their second show (“It’s all done, nearly!” Deanna and Laura explain) we’re delighted to take a little look back at their first, with this exclusive premiere of a Finn Mactaggart-directed film.
“The film documents the lead up to the show and the day of the show,” they continue. “It was really interesting to see how he interpreted our references for the collection. We think that’s reflected in how Finn shot the film. He became a part of the studio, weaving his way in and out of the preparations. We weren’t very involved with the film and Finn interpreted the collection in his own way. It’s great to see the film in retrospect six months after the show, especially the backstage moments which we didn’t have time to reflect on then.”
The film tracks the collection from beginning to end, through stitches, fittings, adjustments, hair and make-up, from first exit to last. It’s a lo-fi, synth-fuelled, glitching and twitching exploration of the show inspired in part by Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World. “We had just finished the MA, we were thinking about leaving school behind to join an industry and I was reading it,” Deanna explained to us at the time. “I think today’s frightening politics meant the book resonated more than ever — it just feels so relevant today.” Seeing parallels between the world Huxley imagined and the world we live in now, they were interested in exploring colour and clothing as resistance.
So what do they have planned for this season? “We wanted to create a modern gothic cave within the venue. We have some beautiful images of stalagmites around the studio and wanted to recreate them.” Are they feeling the pressure yet? Pre-show nerves? “I can’t think about that, it’s a waste of time. All you can do is your best. We work with a great team and this is when we’re all working together, which is great.” Wise words.