Images: http://bit.ly/1xxGyLX
The British Council and the British Fashion Council will present 130 emerging designers from 30 countries in the largest public fashion exhibition of its kind. The annual exhibition, now in its fourth year, is free of charge and will take place at Brewer Street Car Park in London during London Fashion Week between 20-24 February.
The first joint collaboration between the British Council and the British Fashion Council is the only BFC initiative which is open to the public during London Fashion Week, allowing you a first glimpse of some of the most exciting new international designers working today.
The exhibition covers four continents and is arranged by country, with each presenting a curated static exhibition. Highlights of the exhibition will include:
- Liliana Sanguino will curate an exhibition for Colombia that reinterprets the country’s traditional basket weaving, print and quilting techniques. The clothes will be displayed in a scaffold installation which represents the processes of regeneration and development in Colombia
- Japan will present collections that explore two extremes of contemporary fashion in Japan: the minimalist sensibility of traditional clothing (wafuku) and Japanese interpretations of Western-style dress (yofuku). The exhibition will work as a durational performance to represent the ever changing nature of fashion
- Five designers from Nigeria - including Lagos Fashion Week Young Designers alumni Kenneth Ize and Adebayo Oke-lawal, the designer behind LVMH Prize shortlisted label, Orange Culture - will present men's and womenswear collections that reinterpret the fabrics, print and shapes of Nigerian traditional costume. The exhibition, presented by Lagos Fashion and Design Week, will be designed by WhiteSpace, a Nigerian based creative agency, and UK based Foxall Studios
- The Poland Showcase will present an installation recreating three scenes, including couture pieces in an apartment setting; ready-to-wear presented in a street scene; and a Polish “night out”
In a prize-giving ceremony during London Fashion Week industry experts will select a country, a curator and a designer awarding them with a trophy designed by emerging Brazilian jeweller Fernando Jorge. The panel is chaired by Sarah Mower MBE, BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent and European Editor-at-Large of Vogue.com. Sarah said: “The International Fashion Showcase is a unique project and the first to promote the work of emerging young designers from all over the world on such a large scale. It builds on London's reputation for shining the spotlight on young talent and celebrating diverse fashion cultures.”
Also running throughout February will be a public programme of talks and events, including a designer mentoring programme facilitated by London College of Fashion. The Designer Support Programme will bring together a network of LCF affiliated academics and researchers, to help designers prepare for the showcase by offering them mentoring opportunities and seminars on business development during IFS. A collaboration with Fashion Scout will offer designers involved in IFS the opportunity to show their work in a group catwalk show.
The exhibition will also feature a ‘Ones to Watch’ area curated by On Off with countries including the Netherlands, Morocco, Pakistan and Thailand.
Over the course of the exhibition there will be programme of talks open to the public. For more information visit: http://design.britishcouncil.org/projects/IFS/
The British Council and the British Fashion Council would like to thank London College of Fashion and Fashion Scout for the mentoring and showcasing opportunities offered to the International Fashion Showcase designers; and Bonaveri for their support in the exhibition.
International Fashion Showcase 2014 images: http://bit.ly/1xxGyLX
Dates
19-24 February 2015
Venue
Brewer Street Car Park
W1F 0LA
For press and media enquiries about the International Fashion Showcase and information about the British Council contact:
Mary Doherty, Arts Press Officer
+44 (0) 207 389 3144 // mary.doherty@britishcouncil.org
For information about the British Fashion Council contact:
Sophie McElligott, PR Manager
+44 (0) 20 7759 1986 // sophie.mcelligott@britishfashioncouncil.com
For more information visit http://design.britishcouncil.org/projects/ifs/
The International Fashion Showcase 2012 was founded in the year of Olympics to celebrate its values of respect, excellence, equality and friendship. Finalists included a group show by Botswana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, as well as Belgium, China, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Korea and USA. Korea was the winning country with their exhibition A New Space Around the Body, which showcased eight emerging designers from the region, and was presented with a trophy designed by Jordan Askill.
In 2013 Estonia was awarded with a sculpture designed by former BFC NEWGEN recipient Dominic Jones for their exhibition The Estonian Ministry of Creative Affairs. The shortlisted countries were Argentina, Austria, Estonia, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), Switzerland and Tanzania.
In 2014 sixteen countries exhibited at a central venue at 180 Strand. The overall Showcase winner was again Estonia with their exhibition Fashion Now: Estonia; and the recipients of two new awards, for Designer and Curator, were Hyein Seo of Korea and Yoshikazu Yamagata of Japan respectively. Each winner was presented with a sculpture created by previous NEWGEN and BFC Emerging Accessory Designer 2010 recipient, jewellery designer Husam el Odeh.
New initiatives for 2015 include: a partnership with On Off who will curate Ones to Watch and are producing a fashion film installation to be shown at IFS featuring previous and current IFS designers and international scouted talent; a designer support programme organised with London College of Fashion offering IFS designers an intensive series of talks, visits and workshops covering topics including business development, sustainability, PR and digital; and catwalk showcasing opportunities for IFS designers through
The jury for the International Fashion Showcase 2015 is:
Chair: Sarah Mower, British Fashion Council Ambassador for Emerging Talent
Anna Orsini, British Fashion Council
Barbara Grispini, British Fashion Council
Kendall Robbins, British Council
Niamh Tuft, British Council
Alexander Fury, The Independent
Alistair O’Neill, Central Saint Martins
Anders Christian Madsen, i-D
Duro Olowu, Duro Olowu
Katie Dailey, Time Out
Lee Lapthorne, On Off
Mandi Lennard, Mandi’s Basement
Marie Schuller, SHOWstudio
Oriole Cullen, Victoria and Albert Museum
Robb Young, Business of Fashion
Stavros Karelis, Machine A
Zowie Broach, Royal College of Art
The International Fashion Showcase is directed by Anna Orsini, Strategic Consultant British Fashion Council and Niamh Tuft, Programme Manager British Council.
About the British Council
The British Council global arts team works with the best of British creative talent to develop innovative, high-quality events and collaborations that link thousands of artists and cultural institutions around the world, drawing them into a closer relationship with the UK.
The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. We are a Royal Charter charity, established as the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Our 7000 staff in over 100 countries work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year through English, arts, education and society programmes. We earn over 75% of our annual turnover of nearly £700 million from services which customers pay for, education and development contracts we bid for and from partnerships. A UK Government grant provides the remaining 25%. We match every £1 of core public funding with over £3 earned in pursuit of our charitable purpose. For more information, please visit www.britishcouncil.org
About the British Fashion Council
The British Fashion Council (BFC) was set up in 1983 to promote British fashion internationally and co-ordinate this promotion through fashion weeks, exhibitions and showcasing events. The BFC now supports designers beginning at college level and extending to talent identification, business support and showcasing schemes to help British designer businesses develop their profiles and business globally and promote British fashion and its influential role in Creative Britain and Creative London. The BFC Colleges Council offers support to students through its MA Scholarship, links with industry through Design Competitions and Graduate Preview Day. Talent identification and business support schemes include the BFC Fashion Film sponsored by River Island; BFC Rock Vault; BFC Headonism sponsored by Wedgwood; BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund; BFC Contemporary sponsored by eBay; NEWGEN sponsored by TOPSHOP and NEWGEN MEN sponsored by TOPMAN. Showcasing initiatives include London Fashion Week, London Collections, LONDON show ROOMS, the BFC/Bazaar Fashion Arts Foundation, International Fashion Showcase and the annual celebration of excellence in the fashion industry: the British Fashion Awards
About On Off
On|Off launched in 2003 and is the independent, global fashion showcase. On|Off provides a platform for young, talented creatives and the designers of the future, offering designers the opportunity to showcase their talents with no commercial constraints. On|Off is a hotbed of newness, innovation and artistic risks.
About London College of Fashion
London College of Fashion’s rich heritage and responsiveness to changes in design practice have positioned it as a leading global provider of fashion education, research and consultancy. The College’s work is centred on the development of ideas: its staff and students use fashion alongside historical and cultural practice to challenge agendas and explore innovation. We redefine Fashion as a discipline as academic, ethical, sustainable, political, social and art and believe that it can be used to better lives; to drive change, to improve the way we live. Fashion is an industry; it does not live in isolation, and behind every designer is a supply chain, a business plan, a partnership. We nurture enterprise and support our students to gain skills in business and management so that they have an increased understanding of all the ingredients to create a sustainable design business in all senses of the word. Our focus is always the long term. London College of Fashion’s history in craftsmanship, beginning in the early twentieth century with Shoreditch Technical Institute Girls School, Clapham Trade School and Barrett Trade School and the later additions of Cordwainers, gives us an unparalleled understanding of manufacture and quality, yet we are constantly refining and searching for cutting edge technique, with research centres such as the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. This, combined with a forward-thinking media and communications portfolio and a relationship with the global fashion and lifestyle industries, underpins our mission to “Fashion the Future”.
About Fashion Scout
Fashion Scout is the leading international platform spanning London and Paris Fashion Weeks. Scouting the most exciting new designers from across the globe Fashion Scout presents them to the top international press and buyers generating great media awareness and sales. From showcasing the UK’s most promising graduates to hosting shows for IFS countries Fashion Scout is at the forefront of the international fashion scene, including recently pioneering the discovery of the incredible talent from Kiev.
The belief that fashion is truly international is the driving force behind Fashion Scout. Its founder, Martyn Roberts, is a regular guest at global fashion weeks scouting new talent and mentoring designers, preparing them for the international market and helping them build sustainable business.
www.fashion-scout.co.uk
About Bonaveri
Established in 1950, Bonaveri is the world leading manufacturer of high quality mannequins.
The ability to combine manufacturing excellence with visionary research on forms and shapes has allowed Bonaveri to participate in and influence the birth, definition and growth of the fashion industry in Italy and around the world.
The company is based at Renazzo di Cento (FE), Italy, where the manufacturing facility combines craftsmanship with automation. A tour of the plant takes you from the laboratories that use sophisticated digital scanning techniques, to those where sculptors - working with clay, chalk and resin – give life to the figures that then make their way through to the windows of the most famous world's fashion streets. This dual creative approach has a single goal: to reach a timeless aesthetic which is the underlying soul and identity of the mannequins.
The support of young talents, as well as the cooperation with fashion schools is part of the Bonaveri DNA, which has developed specific programs to spread the culture of good shapes and together with helping new designers to emerge onto the market.