As the dust settles in Paris following one seriously celebrity-laden, Romanesque fashion week, it’s on to the next cultural affair that is Frieze London’s 20th anniversary. But not so fast. Before we throw ourselves, arms flailing, into yet more parties, glitz and art, we want to pay dues to some of the independent designers you might have – but shouldn’t have – missed during the madness of back-to-back-to-back shows. After all, when the watchword is quiet luxury, offerings such as Duran Lantink’s upcycled demi-couture, Torishéju’s Catholic girl finery and knitwear maven Katya Zelentsova’s ingenious undie-outie designs are a breath of fresh of air. Thought SS24 was all about a return to reduction (read: commercialism)? Well, these indie labels proved otherwise.
Duran Lantink
These days, anyone plastering the word ‘sustainable’ across their marketing campaigns and copy is in dangerous territory. Industry watchdogs aren’t buying your calls ‘to shop more consciously’ unless the designs really put their money where their mouth is. However, where Duran Lantink’s work is concerned, the term is his to use without fear of reprisal. Sustainable fashion is what he does. Rising the ranks ever since he was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2019, the Dutch designer began his practice with a spliced-and-diced approach, working with deadstock fabrics to concoct his own haute jumble-sale look. By summer, that same year, Duran was working with industry legend and i-D OG, Nick Knight, on a weird and wonderful fashion film.
These days, that rough-and-ready founding aesthetic has become a mainstay on the runways, and, as such, Duran has been pushing something a little more refined – albeit just as salvaged. On the catwalk, he presented his first officially accredited Parisian show. The result was a lumps-and-bumps melange, which from afar, appeared like parts in a modular wardrobe, but upon closer inspection, came in tumescent shapes, peppered with trompe-l’oeil charms and eerie twists. Think ballooning dress shirts cut like crop tops, or padded daisy print vests and miniskirts cushioned as if lofted with styrofoam. Elsewhere, a digitally cut mini vest emerged like a plastic cut-out, deliberately undersized. Sure, it was a little disorientating but highly wearable if you’re after some quotidian kookiness. Anyone looking to make a statement through concept rather than shouty graphics, take heed.
Torishéju
It’s not every day that a Paris débutant opens their show with Naomi Campbell, let alone closes with Paloma Elsesser. Post-show, Miss Campbell went as far as to broadcast her love for Torishéju, the only Black woman showing a collection at Paris this October. That’s a compliment. And quite right, too. Having already garnered attention during her student days on the Central Saint Martins MA fashion course, she’s climbed the fashion ladder, channelling her Nigerian-Brazilian heritage and impeccable hand for craft. In practice, this meant an SS24 collection of offbeat tailoring, occasionwear and fine silk gowns. Of course, with her own skew. Throughout, tropes from her Catholic upbringing appeared in glossy blacks akin to cassocks. Modesty never looked so hot.
Elsewhere, blazers were shredded across the collarbones to form out-of-place armholes and teamed with pleated office skorts. Meanwhile, dresses were swaddled in monochrome, reimagining the Yoruba lappa (wrapper) design. The knotted approach to her draping and cinching was mirrored in the hair, too, which came in sculptural designs by Charlie Le Mindu. Having cut her teeth at Celine, Ann Demeulemeester and as a Sarabande scholar, Torishéju is in prime position, bringing a forensic eye for drapery and anthropological fascination to the table. More to follow!
Ponte
Harry Pontefract had, until 2022, been working under Jonathan Anderson at Loewe, earning his stripes. In fact, the Class of 2016 CSM MA grad turned down gigs with Rihanna and Kim K to do just that. Talk about discipline. Now, he’s well into his stride as an indie designer, marking his sophomore collection this season. He refers to them as ‘series’ rather than using the protocol seasonal terms, it’s easy to see why. This is a designer less inclined to ride the hurtling steam train of capital-F fashion, instead humbly purveying playful, crafty clothes. First landing on the scene when he published an adorable photo book documenting him and his little nephew playing dress up in 2019, the designer embraces the theatricality that comes when you’re repurposing discarded garments.
This season, there was plenty more where that came from. We’re talking gowns that would require a dedicated team to carry and drape the train between events, car coats with obfuscated collars, and surrealist bow-fronted sequin dresses. As for the stretch gown in ivory white, this came with make-believe hips, splaying outwards like a frumpy-dumpy pannier. It’s this awkward make-it-work approach, however, that marks him as one to follow. Few can take fly-tipped clothing and build something this chic.
Katya Zelentsova
Knitwear for summer? Now, that is groundbreaking. In fact, in Katya’s hands, knitwear’s an all-season essential, perfect for the icy winters of Volgograd whence the designer hails, and urban summers, when knitwear gets a skimpy makeover. It’s also ideal for serving mid-aughts-meets-babushka realness. For this offering, Katya stuck by her looms, once again. Here, an otherwise sexless material was made flaunty as ever. Jacquard tights, latticed in gridded diamonds, were finished with a whale-tailing waistband stretched across the upper hips, joining crocheted mini skirts in pastel pinks and greens. You could almost hear the Russian superstars of yesteryear she had lip-synced to growing up.
As far as craft goes, it was refreshingly DIY. Handkerchiefs, bedazzled with home-craft gems punctuated a bodice, suspended from the thighs like a skirt. Alongside these, more demure designs, such as the body-con midis and granny cardis with edges trimmed in brown lace. The nostalgia, no doubt her own, translated across the board, calling to mind the kitschy curtains that shade your granny’s house. Elsewhere, the buttoned and trousered leotards, leg-of-mutton sleeves and triangular corsetry only added to the calculated chaos. And yes, everything you thought banished to the trash compactor of sartorial faux-pas’ – 2010s roll-neck dresses and cadmium-pink leg warmers, for example – reemerged like the ghosts of Disney Channel.
Samuel Slattery
There’s nothing hotter than a guy in uniform – especially when that very ensemble, otherwise used to signal an oppressive, unquestionable masculinity, is softened and prettified. Samuel Slattery’s latest collection was a case in point, tweaking military silhouettes with craft and sensual flair. Impossibly slick sailor pants in meringue white came with cut-away waistbands, while lavender sleeveless overcoats featured raw lapel hems, nodding to the designer’s tailoring expertise. The latter’s waist belt was left half-finished, as if we were witnessing the early toiles rather than a finished prototype. Perhaps, this was sharp sartorialism – or machismo – coming undone.
Certainly, the overlaid tweed panel jacket, replete with roll-neck collar and matching over-knee shorts, felt like the men’s alternative to the Chanel suit. Meanwhile, the tightly folded ribbons constructing that standout blouse – primed with a plunging neckline and rounded and ruffled sleeves – took cues from men’s dresswear, femme-ing them up. Even the painter’s suit, complete with a sash lapel akin to regalia, was cut neat, fitted on the shoulders before hemming at the bottom in traditional shirting style (another speciality of Samuel’s). As a designer originally spurred on by a dearth of positive East Asian male representation in visual culture, Samuel is singlehandedly reappraising manhood as it was told to him, cementing a new proposition on his terms.
VeniceW
Venice Wanakornkul, the girl behind London-based label VeniceW is anything but your typical Parsons grad. Her work’s chaotic, a little bit faerie and a far cry from easy. While the clothing’s accessible in terms of comfort and fit, they’re the antithesis of the contemporary stealth wealth staples. Sharp and polished, they are not. Rather, this is garb for the contemporary alt-girl who spends her Sundays pottering through the local car boot fair and her Thursdays at a gallery opening in the deepest, darkest reaches of town. Of course, even this kawaii druid likes to pull a look.
For SS24, the reference points were unsurprisingly niche, at best. Taking cues from her signature winged swing-tags, Venice continued her exercise in wabi sabi, homing in on 90s sportswear silhouettes or Y2K hot-girl staples – slumpy hoodies, ruffled mini skirts and boho midis – trimmed with lace offcuts and the occasional birdwing appliqué. The embrace of streetwear, however, was not quite the curveball it sounds. After making her name on collections inspired by cotton pads and tissues, the designer has gone on to build collections based on bizarro concepts like sentient hoodies and coats. At this point, her doting audience of absurdly modish squatters lap it up without question. This time round, her punk sensibility felt particularly strong – pin-badges held linen drapes in place while graphics were furiously collaged and hems left raw – but there was also that je ne sais quoi in the frothy, Victorian sleeves and cowboy yokes. And why not? Art girls can do both.
Rave Review
Josephine Bergqvist and Livia Schück, the duo behind Stockholm-based label Rave Review, are undergoing quite the ascent, especially after landing a spot as semi-finalists in the LVMH Prize 2020. Together, they’ve made a strong case for Scandi upcycling. Last season, this brought tartans, ribbons and the generous patchworking they made their name on. This season, they followed suit, upping their swatchboard ante and ushering in velveteen harlequin pants, hotchpotch argyle vests and Prince of Wales check coats panelled with offcuts. Aside from the raw edges and slightly new age air – all seasonal hot topics – this Rave Review collection also made way for major tablecloth chintz, worked into dainty slips and poncho hoodies alike.
Less expected were the lacey, if not bridal, numbers that opened the show. Here, a plunging V-neck was lined with Bo Peep frills, while dresses came embroidered with ‘RR’ initials, offering a cutesy, domestic touch. As for the oversized blazer, this had sulky drop shoulders and exposed box stitching criss-crossed across the front. Layers of fine lace only added to the sewing-kit feel. However, despite this ardent maximalism and hyper-femininity, the austere lines and sense of wearability you expect from the Swedes was all there. This was high fashion that didn’t need watering down for street style. Rather, you throw on the ragged intarsia knit and flower-power jeans, and you’re good to go.
Noki
In London, Noki has been causing a scene on the scene since the late 90s when he brought his raucous raver sensibility to the rag trade. Cutting up band and branded t-shirts before it became the done thing, the Aberdeen-born designer – or self-described brandalist – has worked in various formats and indeed guises over the years. Some know him as Dr Noki, a renegade fashion educator that’s been pushing the sustainability manifesto before most and cropping up in culty boutiques from the pre-millenium onwards. Others, enjoying the heady days of Big Smoke’s late noughties fashion schedule, might remember his iconic Fashion East SS08 collection – a greatest hits of sorts. Of course, you might have only cottoned onto the designer this past few years as he’s been garnering a whole new set of fans thanks to his off-schedule shows.
And so it was that SS24 brought both the Noki icons we know and love, plus an even harder approach to the salvage fashion he helped pioneer. Supermarket ‘bags for life’ were re-fashioned as skirts, washed-out nineties tees were artfully sliced at the sleeves to create his own cut-out couture, while 90s Gap hoodies were taped over and marker-penned to read, “TRAP’, complete with epaulettes made from the inner of a cool bag. On their own, these haberdasher relics of late-capitalist consumer culture would be anything but hot. Indeed, some of the items, like the early-teenies Chicago Bulls snapbacks felt too recent for a revival. But here, spliced into bizarro millinery, the peak twisted and cable-tied into place, such cringe-inducing items felt fresh. In many ways, what Noki’s doing might be perceived as bang on trend, but look properly, and it becomes clear that this was his bread and butter long before it was anyone’s quick-buck attempt to look radical. Sure, anyone can butterfly-knife a bundle of charity shop finds to shreds, but only Noki can piece them together and artfully drape them like a Met Gala-ready high-slit dress. Here’s hoping the Noki revival continues.
Sinead Gorey
Few things hold as firm a place in the British consciousness as Kate Moss’ Glastonbury fits. And so, it’s fitting that south London-born designer Sinead Gorey plastered one of these iconic ensembles across a set of cropped trews for her SS24 ode to the best of Britain. Picking out the diamonds in the rough that make this godforsaken island a little less horrific, Sinead took the fabled tale of Britain’s second summer of love as her starting point. This was felt in the Ben Kelly-style stripes that had once decorated Haçienda, here splashed across high-slit and hooded, cowl dresses for the modern party girl. You could also feel it in the bleacher denims, which were sexed up as bikini sets or made quotidian in laced trimmed jumpsuits.
Of course, this homage to Britain’s cultural exports mined other eras and movements, too. Bandage dresses that you and your cheugy mates wore to regional nightclubs circa 2000-and-late were morphed into stretch body suits or midi-maxi column skirts in cacophonies of fuschia, lace white and red. Elsewhere, collaged typography typical of Cool Britannia and punk peppered separates, while the iconic Union Jack Buffalo boots you’ll remember from a young Geri Halliwell got an overdue comeback. Spice up your life, girlies. Developing her USP in club-ready garb, the former squat raver pared back her signature contoured bodysuits this season, looking to new fabrications, as seen in the canvas corsetry and a welcome addition of swimwear. Yep, those body-hugging shepherd skirts and barbel-pierced bikinis are everything you need for a day on the Great British coast.