Jo Cope at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2017

The Language of Feet in the Walk of Life by Jo Cope

Meet Jo Cope, a talent conceptual fashion designer for  the UK. She graduated in 2017 from a Master’s in Fashion Artefacts at The London College of Fashion. She is a founding member of DAP, a London-based design and performance lab. She has been commissioned to design an Aerodynamic Dress for the British Grand Prix by Silverstone Race track and has been funded by the Arts Council to create a solo installation for the Leicester Museum. She exhibits in the National Centre for Crafts, creating concept shoes for the Shoe Museum’s permanent collection. She is currently working with curator Liza Snook from the Virtual Shoe Museum NL and is about to embark on a collaboration which will culminate in a fashion performance at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London in November 2017.

Jo Cope took part at Fashion Makes Sense LAB exhibition during the 9th edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival in Maastricht. She presented her project 'The Language of Feet in the Walk of Life', just one of the project from her striking portfolio. Find more about Jo Cope's work: www.jocope.com

"The inspiration is life, things personally experienced or observed; the relationship with the self, relationships with others, concepts which include: self-loss, self-abandonment, co-dependency, self-discovery, experiences with the internal self through imagination. The research included the act of walking, and how we can become our own action and body language where I focused on reading the feet in social situations. 
The feet are an interesting part of the body because we are often very unaware of their subtle but powerful projection. In the situation of desire the feet point directly towards the object of interest, in the opposite situation the body may continue to point politely forwards but at least one of the feet will be pointing towards the exit. I am materialising the negative or unseen spaces in situations that relate to human cognition, foot and shoe"

Emiliana Pontonutti at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2016

'Unlocked' by Emiliana Pontonutti at Heritage exhibition at FASHIONCLASH Festival 

"Unlocked is a research inside the concept of beauty and fetish via the hair. The reason that leads me to investigate this material comes from the natural properties of hair. It may be a seductive element on the head but at the same time it has the ability to create disgust or perversion when viewed as waste, for example in the mouth, in the bath drain or on the floor. My research into fetishism, artefacts, surrealism and beauty have resulted in a multiplicity of objects and conceptual shoes. Some have been developed into “wearable” shoes while others are produced solely as functional art objects.

My work aims to overturn the classical idea of shoes through the introduction of innovative and extreme materials, creating objects and shoes with specific functions where human hair is the vehicle. The resulting objects serve as an example of new functional possibilities in the approach or in the construction of shoes. Through this process I tried to visualize how objects can become an element on a shoe while others are made to be more sculptural artefacts."

Emiliana is an Italian footwear designer based in London. First she did her BA in Fashion Design in Italy at I.U.A.V and later she specialized in footwear completing her Master degree in Footwear at London College of Fashion in 2016. Emiliana is fascinated by anything that stimulates her imagination and constantly in search of new emotions.

Photography by Team Peter Stigter

SWEN - Menswear

Introduction to menswear label SWEN

SWEN is a London-based menswear label established in 2014 by Swann Amdeo & Steven Jacques, two young French designers who met in Paris before moving to London.
Swann graduated in Fashion Design from Parisian school LISAA - L’Institut Supérieur des Arts Appliqués – in 2012. Steven started studying Fashion Management at Mod’Art International and graduated in 2014 from LCF – London College of Fashion.
Swann places the emotion at the center of his work where contradictory elements meet and give birth to lines combining volume, suppleness and graphic richness. From Steven exudes an eclectic universe nourished by his love of urban scenes and multicultural popular silhouettes.
SWEN is the result of this aesthetical convergence.

The AW15 collection expresses the evolution of a man in a group. Friend, brother or lover, he gives and learns from the other, from them. They all support each other, complete ech other and sometimes clash. Protecting itself is essential because their links are fragile. Finally, one gives up, let go and open up to the other. They become stronger.

A singular energy emerges from their exchanges leaving marks that clothes are here witnessing.
Thus, the low sleeves appear as the mark of support, the mark you leave one someone. Turtlenecks embody protection of identity and from the influence of the other.
The volume of the oversized pants reflects the imposing place that weaknesses can take, preventing from any change and its high- waist tells how retained you can end up. The stiffness of the fabric refers to the intransigence of a decision, either its own or not, that is sometimes hard to leave behind. The proportions are exaggerated, just like feelings. The organic flannel jumpsuit embodies gentle- ness, integral protection. It allows you to feel safe and warm.
The jerseys demonstrate the malleability, the adaptation to another. This malleability is found on certain cuts, on the green jumper for instance, where the lines come to die forward. The rib organic cotton basics show the thinness from the borders of the outside while showing through a part of oneself. Their fits gives an impression of a second skin, the rib reminds notches that allow the grip, the attachement to another.
This collection also questions identity, the image you give of yourself that defines you, or in which you remain locked. The padded pieces take the appearance of an armor, it protects and modifies the silhouette disproportionately. The nylon, borrowed from sports- wear, contains the notion of effort, confrontation.
The woolen coat, major piece of this collection, brings together the two themes by confronting them. The zip allows you to adjust the length and refers to the different sel-images you choose to show. Thanks to it, you free yourself from a weight or you choose to live with it.
It also shows reinforcements on the back that could be considered as a shell. In fact, they are a cuddle-pocket. This shell is penetrable, and allows union, protection of the other, manifestation of love. This is the ultimate expression of their identity.

http://www.sw-en.com

Photography Campbell Addy

'The Party' Aristides Vanis

It's London Fashion Week and next to established designers in the schedule there is the London College of Fashion MA show to look forward to.
On of the graduates that stood out was Aristides Vanis with his fun and colorful collection 'The Party".

"My collection represents the visual memories of my childhood. The collection begins with a family party and you see couples dancing in the living room and then it continues through to the kitchen. Food and animals are important themes throughout as they were essential parts of my life growing up. Carousels and fairground rides are also featured. These are all important, fun memories for me. I also wanted to keep the handmade effect to bring the memories to life so I used real chalk to draw the prints."

source: read more

Photographer: Derrick Kakembo Shoes: Charlene Ong
Make Up Artist: Nina Robinson Model: Jordan Brown

Melissanthi Spei - Beautiful is Just Another Degree of Terrible

"The starting point of the project was the current economic crisis, especially in Greece, which is where I come from, and how we can use our own cultural resourses to create something new which will give a new direction to the future generations. I think there is so much in folklore culture, especially when you look at the Balkans which have not been exploited and it is a same as it is fading away and it is really up to young people to make it stand out." 

The aim of this project is to study how social and cultural everyday life issues can be translated within fashion context to present a fresh point of view, in this case by bringing new attention to tradition. The collection concept is current, personal and helps me evolve through an exploration of my cultural heritage.
Melissanthi Spei recently graduated from London College of Fashion.
http://melissanthispei.com/

Credits
• Photographer: Nikolas Ventourakis
• Model: Claudia Devlin (Premier Model Management)
• Hair Stylist: Stelios Chondros
• Make up artist: Kristina Ralph

Yirantian Guo

Yirantian Guo graduated from London Collage of Fashion in 2012 with this 'UN-’ 2012 S/S collection.

The concept of ‘UN-’ (Unconventional combinations) is to combine every possible unconventional element that presents the reality and illusion.
It was taken from an unusual viewpoint of fashion in terms of garments and accessories.
‘UN-’ collection focuses on the combination of the technique and material.

Inspired by cubism, breaking-up the original object and recombining to shape a new form is the starting point and then developing through the reflection accessories, deconstruction and asymmetric silhouette to achieve the concept.

Words and images: Courtesy of Yirantian Guo

Check this link for more divine fashion ♥'s http://yirantian.tumblr.com/

'Hug me' by Si Chan

photography: Sara Pista

Inspired by the concept that there is a lack in human contact, Si Chan provides a solution with his designs. Coats to keep you warm and a solution to the feeling of loneliness.

Si Ieong Chan graduated from London College of Fashion in 2012 with a mens collection for which he made use of series of hand movement especially 'hug' to express how the (dis) connection between people to people and the loneliness by my experience.

More info here.

Hyerim Hong at FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2012

“The feMALE” by Hyerim Hong

Hyerim Hong is a designer from Seoul, Korea.  She used to study business and work in the business field. However she really wanted to go into fashion design and so she got a master’s degree in Fashion design technology – woman’s wear- in London at the College of Fashion.
In her designs she takes care of tailoring, textile and handcraft. This is clearly the case in her work that I saw at FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2012.   Beautiful textiles and very well made clothing.
She presented her work in the exhibition and also on the catwalk.

This collection is a story of a girl, H. It followed the girl H’s changes from interactions with different types of men. The designs are mixed. Not only her self’s traits but also individual male traits are incorporated into the collection. This is the reason why the title is not ‘a female’ but “The feMALE”.