Emerging Fervour

After spending a week touring around London Fashion Week exhibits I saw plenty of emerging talent. For me, Viking Wong certainly stood out among this expansive group. As a young British graduate, originally from Hong Kong, he displayed top notch tailoring in wearable fashion pieces. This is only his third collection and his first Spring/Summer collection but his skill and potential are remarkable. I was lucky to be able to ask him a few questions and can now fill you in on this talented, emerging designer.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background of what got you into fashion design?

I was born and raised in Hong Kong until the age of 15, then I left to study and wandered around the world. I’ve been brought up with a business background, my family is in the garment industry so it’s only natural I go for something similar. Besides I am a free spirit, I can’t work in a 9 to 5 office job. Eventually, one thing lead to another, I got into London College of Fashion doing womenswear and graduated with a 1st class honours, gained some experiences in competitions and got picked up by Vauxhall Fashion Scout to make a debut in London & Paris Fashion Week straight after graduation.

When we went to see emerging designers last February at Vauxhall Fashion Scout, the only annoying thing was, how difficult it seemed to get your hands on their collections as only a few stores and even fewer online shops stocked some of them. 6 month later and this has all changed as the anticipated ‘Young British Designer’ platform has opened its virutal doors and we can all now own a piece from a talented British emerging designer such as Eudon Choi, Charlotte Taylor, Alice Palmer, Ada Zanditon and many more!!

We love the site, not only for itself (it’s beautifully designed and so well thought through) but for someone to take a chance and support these great hidden talents. We just had to find out a bit more on what makes the ‘Young British Designer’ team tick:

We’ve been excited about the launch of your platform since we’ve heard about it months ago, but please tell us a bit more, what is YoungBritish Designers?

Young British Designers: Young British Designers was established in January this year by the four founding members: Debra Hepburn, Stuart Jackson, Julian Whitehead and myself Adriana Wheatley.

Another amazing find from Lebanon. Lara Khoury is my favourite designer at the moment. A country where clothes-making and embroidery are pretty old traditions. In the old neighborhoods of Beirut you can still find small ready-to-wear clothing stores with handmade pieces created by local designers – and tailors on almost every street with workshops as small as your average wardrobe.

If you’re after some serious couture or some super cool cutting edge designers, then Beirut is the place you should visit. But don’t just take it from me, check out this wonderful interview from my favourite designer of the moment – Lara Khoury.

Lara, in your own words…who are you?

Who am I. Well I am a 25 year old Lebanese fashion designer, based in Beirut. I’ve been a part of the fashion industry for the past 3 years, but only opened my own workshop in Gemayzeh in March 2010. My style tends to be very experimental and borderline minimalist. I, on the other hand, tend to be very independent and relatively stubborn (that’s what I’ve been told), but when it comes to my work, I am extremely passionate and always look to immerse myself in the detail.

Did you always want to be a fashion designer growing up?

Taking pictures used to be one of my greatest hobbies when I was a little girl! the gift of being able to capture every days memories and emotions in one piece of paper, used to fascinate me. But when fashion came into the picture, I knew it would be the thing I’d do for the rest of my life.

I see you’re friends with Krikor – how did you guys meet?

Krikor and I were part of the first Starch generation. The boutique’s sole concept, initiated by Rabih Kayrouz, is to create a space where Young Lebanese designers are given a chance (and a space) to shine, experiment, and essentially kick-start their careers. Krikor and I had the privilege of growing in that environment, and share that amazing and eye-opening experience.

Starch

Tell us about your latest collection..

I came across the fabulous Krikor Jabotian through Tanya Traboulsi, who listed Krikor as one of her favourite fashion designers during an interview I had with her. Coming from Lebanon, I’ll jump at the chance to write about anything coming out of the Middle East and Krikor is just one of them.

Krikor Jabotian is a 24 year old Lebanese designer who studied fashion design at the French Fashion Institution ESMOD in Beirut. After graduating, he made it into Elie Saab’s creative team, giving him the experience he needed to make it into the fast-paced world of fashion. And his story begins…

Krikor – fabulous name by the way – tell us a little about who you are for our readers

I am a 24 yr old Lebanese young designer from Armenian origin. That’s where I get my fabulous name from. I am a dreamer, with a lot of dreams to share …

These are pieces from my latest Au Gre d’une Brise collection >

We know fashion has its ups and downs…what was your most life changing moment?

Well, I have been blessed that I have gotten the chance to be able to show my work and who I am at a young age. I think having my own atelier and showroom at the age of 23 was my most life changing moment.

Will you be selling any of your creations over here in the UK?

At this moment we are still very new since we haven’t been open for a year yet, but the UK is surely a place I see myself in the next couple of years to come.

Who is your favourite designer and why?

Where shall I start ? Madame Grais , Madelaine Vionnet to Jeanne Lanvin (I love the way her new identity is being elaborated in a very modern way with Albert EL Baz)

In my opinion the older designers made their collections with a lot of passion, with a lot of authenticity along with love for what they do. It’s very hard to see the same these days since everything is so commercial and its more about how much they sell than the actual art. Nevertheless there are a lot of contemporary designers that I admire, Alexander McQueen for example for his amazing conceptual art pieces.

The lovely people at Qype asked Nat and I to be interviewed for their feature on bloggers. If you haven’t checked out our link on Facebook, we’ve got some of the interview here.

Qype: Can you tell Qypers who you are and what you do?

Sara: Hello! I’m Sara and I co-founded Emerging Fervour with Nathalie. We used to work together at a creative agency as project managers (she was my boss) and one thing led to another and our mutual passion for fashion gave us the idea to start our own blog and write about all the amazing things we find.

Nathalie: I’m Nathalie and when I don’t play with the fashion world, I am a project consultant for anything digital. I used to be a developer and then moved into project management but having worked over 10 years in digital agencies, last year I decided to go it alone to see where it can take me as a contractor. A decision I’ve not regretted, and the best bit is, it’s given me a lot of extra time which I am able to dedicate to Emerging Fervour.

Qype: What prompted you to start your blog, and what elements do you think have contributed to it becoming so popular?

Sara: I remember talking to Nat one day about emerging designers, and how it’s really difficult finding them online and how amazing it would be if we put together that information and share it with people like us. We really started the blog to share all the great emerging designers and musicians because they’re just too amazing to be missed – the spotlight needs to be shared between the emergings and established, they need a platform too.

Nathalie: That was definitely the driving force. I think it might also be popular because we write from the heart, we write about our passion which makes it easy to find content and we just have a go at it. We might not have a formal background in fashion, but what we lack for in experience, we make up for in passion! We also have a few bloggers writing for us, so our readers get different views from the emerging music scene.

We’ve covered Beekay before, our favourite Menswear designer from LFW. I met up with him for an interview and a couple of drinks after AW10 to get his thoughts…

Tell us a little about Beekay, who is the guy behind the designer?

I always wanted to be an artist as a kid. Found a way through garments and sketching to bring my creativity out. I’m a dreamer & always looking at a way to make them a reality.

I remember you mentioned that when I saw you at ON|OFF in Feb…How did you find LFW this season?

This season was interesting in a way that a lot of designers came out with collections which you really didn’t expect from them. For me, it was the first time I exhibited/presented with Vauxhall fashion scout. It was a good experience & went pretty good.

Tell us a little about your AW10 collection.

It was inspired by circular shapes & twisted tree branches.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Entering different fashion competitions & working on my new collection.

So have you started thinking about your SS10 plans? Tell us!

Today, I take you on a little journey to my beautiful hometown Hamburg. You might have heard of it and some of you may have actually been there. But it’s not the first place you have in mind, when you think of fashion. Pack your bags, we’re going to change this right now. With a special feature, where I’d like to show you some up-coming designers you should keep an eye on. Cause as we say in our Hanseatic manner: if you make it here, you make it everywhere. So buckle up, here we go!

Our first stop is a studio in western Hamburg, where Janny Schulte and Katrin Weber are currently working on their new collection named High Rollers. In 2008 they founded the label Superhorstjansen and combine the comfortable feel of street wear with sexy designs and fancy details. “We prove that street wear can be fashionable and that a comfortable feel and a sexy look are no opposites.”

I was so looking forward to seeing Bodyamr’s long-awaited AW10 collection during LFW, but it just wasn’t meant to be. When I got to the door, I realised that I didn’t have an invite and because Freemasons was RAMMED, there was no way of getting in without an invite. Even though I didn’t get to see the show, Bodyamr sent through these images that are simply stunning. It’s a little compensation…but the green monster is still inside!

I’m completely in love. I’d probably pop right out of this, but a girl can always dream…∨

I’m completely lost for words with this one…Goddess! ∨

I sent through some questions to Amr about this collection and the SS11 coming up and here is what he had to say…

Judging from your activity over the past few months, since SS10 – it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for you…how’s it been?

Amr: Busy!! We had great press and dressed everyone from Demi Moore to Cheryl Cole to Beyonce. It’s been fun and exciting to see the brand grow so rapidly in the space of a season.

How did you find London and Paris this season?

Amr: We picked up 5 new stores including Bloomingdales and Boutique 1, so I can’t complain…

Tell us a bit about your AW10 collection…what was your thinking behind it?

It was just a few days ago that I wrote about Emeka Alams, the man behind Gold Coast Trading, and already I feel like I’ve known him for years. He’s definitely my kind of person…Honest and true to himself. None of that bullshit bravado you get with some creative heads…just a cool, down-to-earth guy.

Tell us a bit about yourself, who is the real Emeka behind Gold Coast Trading?

Hmm, I’m still trying to figure that out. I don’t wanna sound like a personal ad in the paper but I love/need to travel! I love to roam around Africa and when I can make shorts pit stops out your way. Since starting Gold Coast, I’ve been chained to the States and I’m dying to get back home to Abidjan but during the time here I’ve been able to learn a lot about myself. The switch from my first brand to Gold Coast has taught me a lot about who I am and what matters the most to me, real friends and family. I’ve learnt that even in unsure times, if you stick to your foundation and don’t let problems or strange situations shake it, things work out. All I really know for sure is I have a very strong passion to design and an extreme love for Africa, those two are my focus.

Great intro…and amazing work, loving the prints…no need to ask you where you get your inspiration from, but I’d love to know who inspires you?

African music played heavy! Afrikan Boy and BLK JKS have been a huge part of the design process for the current collection and the F/W 10 release. Their music is the sound of Gold Coast, when I play “Molalatladi” by BLK JKS, wow things happen! Also the style movements within Africa, like la Sape and the Smartez have been amazing to watch and extremely inspiring! They really blend the world-town culture whilst keeping it distinctly African, which is my goal with Gold Coast. But I think my main source of inspiration comes from other African designers/artist like Rakiyt Zakari, Loza Maléombho, Delphine Diallo, Tunde Ogunnoiki, Cassi Gibson and Yodit Eklund to name a few.

Have you always wanted to be a designer or did it just happen?

Nah, I wanted to be a chef or an architect ha! I have to admit that when I was like six, I would get up at 5am to watch the international fashion report every Saturday morning! I really don’t know why, but the whole fashion world and its process – especially at that time was extremely fascinating to me but being in fashion wasn’t like a dream of mine or anything like that. Honestly, I just kinda stumbled into this whole thing and so far things have worked out very well!

Being a designer isn’t an easy ride…what was your toughest moment and how did you overcome it?

Getting stabbed in the back by former business partners. That rocked me pretty bad! I was too trusting and a bit naive as to how attention and buzz can change people. I’ve been in wars in Africa and all other kind of crazy situations but that cut just as deep. When you trust someone and not only that – you fight, sacrifice and work your fingers to bones for them, its jarring. So I sulked for a day and then immediately moved on the the next one! I took it as a lesson and learnt from it, I got smarter. I let that pain and anger drive me to be even better than I was before! This is my culture! My family is there, my friends are there and I do it to shine light on them. I’ve been through so so much in Africa, it’s my heart! There was no way I was going to let someone who knows nothing of it, try and dictate what it means to be African or what it’s like to be immersed in the culture. Things are working out well!

Learning from your mistakes is the most valuable lesson…I learnt that the hard way! Last question, you have 24 hours to live…what would you do?

Ummmm ha ha, Welll…lets hope I never have to decide! What would you do!? You want to come to Africa?!

I’d gather my family together and tell them how much I love them, and if I’ve ever wronged anyone I’d call and ask for forgiveness, then I’d pray and pray…and pray some more and finally I’d make a trip to Abidjan and eat some homemade fufu!

Last week, I wrote about Tetsuya Uenobe and his amazing footwear…this week I have something even better…words from Tetsuya himself. Check out his interview below.

Tetsuya, I adore your work and it’s obvious passion is your drive. But do you find it difficult breaking into the mainstream fashion market with such unusual creations?

Yes I understand that. My artline is like a performance to show my ability and passion. I hope people like my other lines on my website. At the beginning, I just made shoes that were only slightly ‘arty’, which I exhibited at a few trade shows; however this left very little interest from buyers. There were probably two main reasons for this, cost, and of course nothing was particularly eye-catching. This is the reason why I have changed my train of though and instead, decided that making people smile and ignoring budget issues would be the way forward. And besides, If I did not have my artline, you would not be interested in my works!?

Hmmm, you have a point there…So we know that you worked with Hanae Mori, that must have been a dream come true for you, what did you learn from your time spent with her?

She was an organiser for the exhibitions you mentioned in your previous post (the Open Gallery and the Art Tower Mito). She managed whole concepts and checked the themes and quality of the work on display. I had an interview with her once and the opportunity to have a chat each time during both exhibitions. She was always curious about the work going up. I took a lot from the talks we had; she asked me in the interview if I read newspaper – I think this means I have to be open minded and not just look straight ahead, but all around. She also advised me that I should hire at least 3 employees within 5 years. I took from that, that I should increase my brand awareness and grow it into a respected and stable label.