Navigating Fashion Week

While the official London Fashion Week schedule used to begin on Friday, an increasing number of shows and presentations have taken place the previous evening, with Thursday evening now becoming the de facto start of Fashion Week. 

One presentation that took advantage of this timeslot was hosted by the London-based multi-disciplinary fashion incubator Fashion Crossover. A platform that connects emerging global designers with international fashion buyers and industry professionals, for their A/W 24 event, they curated an evening that brought together a trio of designers from across the world, giving them the opportunity to showcase their creations before a London Fashion Week audience.

All Photos Nicky Sims - Getty Images

Aptly titled "Sailing to the World", this triumvirate was drawn from three continents: Pipatchara from Thailand, Melbourne-based eponymous designer Sullivan Kovacs and Swim with Poppies from the USA. All three share a similar sustainable ethos, design ideology and meticulous attention to craftsmanship. Qualities that Fashion Crossover and their CEO, Selina Wang, are equally passionate about, with their remit being to promote those designers who share the platforms' philosophy.

Held in the opulent splendour of Home House, a private members club in one of Marylebone's gorgeous Georgian squares, the designers' collections possessed an easy elegance that was perfectly complimented by the location. These were clothes infused with the power to dazzle. Clothes imbued with a symbiotic traceability that allows us to see where the fabrics and materials have come from, and that environmentally ethical standards have been met

Swift was delighted to be invited backstage before the show, and we had the pleasure of speaking to Pipatchara, Sullivan Kovacs and Danisha Brown, the designer and Creative Director behind Swim with Poppies.

Pipatchara

Swift spoke firstly to Pipatchara Kaeojinda, who, along with her sister Jittrinee, founded the brand. When asked her what had motivated them to start the label, she explained, " I've been doing a lot on the fashion side, and my sister has also been studying fashion and doing a lot for the UN. She's studying at Columbia, New York, and works in the field of sustainability and community, and that's why we’ve combined fashion and community together to create Pipatchara. We work with the local community in the north of Thailand and tell those communities that we want them to be part of what we do; that's why, as you see, we use their craft and craftsmanship. We send them the piece, and then they connect it and send it back to us, so that's why it's Pipatchara with the community. So all the pieces that you see here are made by those local communities, and we’ve been doing that with them for about four years. With this latest collection, we have used recycled plastic forks, spoons and water bottle caps. Since 2020, we have worked closely with a trash company in Thailand. All these things have been used in the looks you see tonight, so it's all recycling and upcycling”.

With the brand focusing on handbag design, I asked why they had chosen that particular area, and Pipatchra said, "I previously worked as a junior designer with  Chloe and Givenchy and used a lot of knowledge from studying fashion to decide on bags as something that we use every day, and it's easy to introduce, and it's not necessarily luxury or non-luxury it's the way that you express yourself through the bags and what you carry. I feel that Pipatchara is for everyone, and that's why I chose accessories"

Pipatchara

With the Pipatchara ethos being one that's committed to giving back to the Thai community, she told me, " I give all the credit to my sister, who’s the one who goes into the communities and flies to all parts of Thailand and surveys the different communities and teaches them how to make the bags. She is the joint designer with me, and she creates the patterns and then flies out to tell the people how to create them. We have to maintain happiness and ensure the communities feel part of what we are doing, and that's been as important as the fashion side of things"

Theirs is a partnership where each of the siblings plays to their strengths. "I’m the main designer, and she's more like the CEO and has the main focus on ensuring our sustainability. With plastic recycling, she’s the one who sets out what we need to do, and I follow her lead. She leads the marketing and how I portray my collection. For her, it's about knowledge and the main theme of Pipatchara, which is sustainability".

Pipatchara

Integral to the brand DNA is ethical intentionality, which extends to their supply chains, with the co-founder explaining, "We have a lot of leather in our collection, and we use leather from Italy because it is certified, and we can monitor that to ensure that the supplier we use is also considerate about sustainability.  We also want to use Japanese leather because the standards there are high. I feel that the supply chain is very important to us, and from time to time, I go to visit the factories and tell them what we require them to do or else it won't be possible to work with us in the future.

With film royalty Anne Hathaway having used one of their bags, I wondered how she felt about that movie icon endorsement and what type of discussions they want their bags to generate " We didn't know that she'd been studying our work with the community, and she tagged the brand, and we were shocked. The feedback that we get from the customers is that they like to talk about our products and the plastics that we use. Pipatchara is not just about fashion; it's bigger than that".

As the models prepared to take to the runway, I asked Pipatchara what had motivated them to show at London Fashion Week and what they hoped to gain from the exposure. "London is such a mixed culture, and I want to spread the word of what we are all about. London is a place that I didn't feel I was ready for, but now I feel that I am. The people of London have been really supportive and appreciative of what we do”.

Swim with Poppies

Speaking to Danisha Brown, the designer behind the evocatively named brand "Swim with Poppies", I first asked her about her fashion background, and she told me that " I went to design school and after getting my Batchelor of science, I then started my brand upon graduating. I did swimwear for many years and showed at Miami Swim Week and then decided it's time to do Ready to Wear and did Paris Fashion Week in September, and I'm now at London Fashion Week".

Elaborating on what had motivated her to move from swimwear to RTW, she said " For me, swimwear is like the socks of fashion. And I felt that I needed to give a full wardrobe to my customer. I had proven myself with swimwear and my business model, and it was now time to expand and offer a range to my customers. She was asking for it, so why not provide it?

Swim with Poppies

Regarding how the designer wants the person who wears Swim with Poppies to feel about themselves and the world about them when they wear her creations, Danisha explained, " I want them to remember their brohood. we grow up, and we can become such serious robotic women and are all about making money, and our kids, so remember, there's still a joy to be had, and there's still life to live, so have fun; I want it to be an atmosphere of swimming in this ethereal place, and that's what swimming with poppies is all about"

For Danisha Brown her commitment to fashion extends beyond the design and creation of garments to also being an educator: "I'm a fashion professor, I teach at Miami of Ohio University in the States, and I also taught at the University of Cincinnati in their fashion department so I teach fashion journalism, fashion business classes, some design courses, fashion is in my blood so I teach it and I do it, and I live it"

Having arrived at Home House straight from the airport, the Swim with Poppies Creative Director had had no time to explore the capital; however her hopes for London Fashion Week were that they would " Build more relationships with buyers, gain more recognition.... and my goal is to be in a lot more physical doors as I sell online at the moment, so I'm looking to work with different retailers"

Sullivan Kovacs

The final designer Swift spoke to was Melbourne-based Sullivan Kovacs, who explained that she founded her eponymous label in 2022 after graduation. "I studied “Fashion,Design,Arts," which is really quite a unique degree that encompasses design, arts, and fashion design. I started posting and sharing before launching my brand in Paris and now London."

That grounding has shaped a design aesthetic, which she describes as " very intuitive and very non-conforming and intensive. My pieces are trans-seasonal, and I feel they fill the conceptual couture art space. I use natural draped fabrics and have fun with it". Those fabrics are sourced with an ethical intentionality, with Sullivan telling us, "As a lot of my pieces are one-offs, a lot of my fabrics are deadstock, and so I will buy the deadstock fabrics, and so my designs start from sourcing fabrics, so everything comes from recycled fashion, and I'm not generating any waste".

Sullivan Kovacs

The intuitive sensibility which lies at the core of her design process is one that she wants those who wear Sullivan Kovacs to also experience: "When they get dressed in the morning, it's how do I want to feel and show that emotion, do I want to feel magical today, do I want to feel masculine or feminine, what sort of space do I want to exist in and how do I want to present myself to the world"

This freedom that she wants her customers to embrace is very much a characteristic of the Melbourne fashion milieu, and we asked how much of that influence from Australia's fashion capital had percolated into her more couture-driven design scape.  " My space has always existed more in the European market whereas in Melbourne people love to dress and it's out there, and there's this sense in Melbourne of let's just wear it, and it's ridiculous and it's fun and people are really out there with it. I’m happy to come from that design space where there's no judgment. Melbourne Fashion Week is so conceptual and so rebel art, almost installation pieces on the body, like adornment".

Sullivan Kovacs

Asking Sullivan what she hoped to achieve from her London Fashion Week debut, she told Swift, " Because I'm a very much a starter brand, this is more about connecting with people and seeing what other people are doing. It's really just a big inspirational trip; I love London and seeing what the independent labels here are doing, how they're projecting, and what productions they're coming up with. I've got a lot of inspiration in terms of small batch productions as my ethos is made to order, small fashion, circular pieces, so I'm going to keep doing that"

Gilmoet

Identifying three designers whose fashion footprint and globally minded social consciousness align with their own, Fashion Crossover introduced us to a trio whose appearance on the official London Fashion Week schedule was richly deserved. Those designers chosen to figuratively sail across the world and share their work with us did not disappoint with collections that were breathtakingly beautiful and underpinned with ethical intentionality. Witnessing these cross-continental creative forces showcase their work in the sumptuous splendour of Home House was the perfect start to Swift’s London Fashion Week.

 Many thanks to Selina and all at Fashion Crossover for inviting us.

Credits:

Producer: @fashioncrossoverlondon
Fashion Crossover London Designers:
@pipatchara, @sullivan.kovacs, @swimwithpoppies, @cristinagrecudesigns, @arunhaili, @francescarowlandjewellery
Official Drinks Sponsor: @gilmoet_berries
Official Makeup Sponsor: @oulaccosmetics_official
Venue Partnership: @homehouselondon
Creative Team:
Show Director/Stylist: @chalisaguerrerostylist
Styling Assistant: @adrianxtoala
Dressers: @louiseo_stylist, @ggmz.x, @stylebysims18, @harperwisestyle, @tanyathakore__, @styles.by.ayla
Lead Hair & Makeup: @larisa.mua
Hair & Makeup Assistants: @artistrybysneha, @marydaliseugc, Raluca Moldovan Photographer/Videographer: @kushagraanandofficial, @gettyimages
Models: @kittyxdixonn, @_augustatownley, @forbes____, @rheannacartier, @aliciamui__._, @hashtagrania
Shoe Sponsor: @maxine_shoes