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LFW SS16: 3 Emerging Designers To Watch

London Fashion Week has, and always will be the hotbed for emerging fashion design talent, and this season there was a bumper crop of amazing designer showcasing creative and innovative collections, so I thought I would share a few of my favourites that I’m sure will be household names in years-to-come. 

Narrowing things down to three hot talents is hard, but here goes, we have a touch of quirky from recent graduate Clio Peppiatt, a sporty-yet-playful collection from Moon J, and Malaysian designer YII who showcased innovative knitwear, prints and silhouettes in his first womenswear collection, all of which presented during London Fashion Week at On|Off

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Clip Peppiatt

First up we have the uber-talent Clip Peppiatt, a recent graduate from Ravensbourne University, who basically presented adorable futuristic Barbie dolls in her ‘Kiss the Future’ presentation, which took its initial inspiration as a retaliation against the lack of individualised female characters in computer games. 

This was a fun presentation, it’s hard for models not to look like they are having a good time when they are wearing leather applique kittens chasing a computer mouse across their patchwork skirt, or wearing a jacket embroidered with sci-fi patches or carrying colourful faux-fur handbags, which even had inbuilt technology to keep the Clio Peppiatt girl’s phone charged on the go.

Clio’s tongue-in-cheek humour is what draws you in, but it’s her original concepts and incorporation of a wide range of materials, textures and techniques, including hand-drawn prints, intricate beading, delicate embroidery and gorgeous silhouettes that really make you take notice.

I can totally see Clio’s designs gracing the next generation of street-style stars!!! But first can we please start a petition to Mattel to get a Clio Peppiatt Barbie doll – how cute and fun would that be.

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Moon J

From quirky to the playful and sporty, Moon J is the contemporary womenswear label from designer Jay Jinhee Moon who graduated from London College of Fashion in 2014. In just a year, she has already attracted the attention of Italian Vogue and been named as a One to Watch by emerging talent platform Fashion Scout, mainly for her unusual mix of texture, colour and shape. 

For spring/summer 2016, Moon J’s ‘Don’t Label Me’ collection mixes sporty silhouettes, think netball and tennis with a sexy edge, with some quirky touches like sporty slogans and intricate line printing, which kind of reminded me of what you would find in an indoor sports hall.

This collection is totally wearable, intriguing, as well as being fun, and I basically want to wear it all, especially the gorgeous skirts and retro-style sports jackets. I want it to be summer already so I can do a sporty-themed street-style shoot!!!

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YII

My final emerging designer in the spotlight is Kuala Lumpur-based Yii, who presented his debut womenswear collection, ‘We Never Grow’ during London Fashion Week, but I think you can agree that his oversized and exaggerated style of cropped jersey trousers, long fitted shirts, pattern knits and printed scuba jackets have an almost genderless feel to them, which is probably why they stood out.

Inspired by the concept of a child’s perspective and their ability to dream and imagine without the confines that adult life can bring, the spring/summer 2016 collection was kind of a story adventure imagined through his playful silhouettes that were boxy, loose fitted, while also being clean and minimal. 

With white as the main colour within the collection, many pieces acted as a blank canvas for which the designer applied fabric collaging and quirky graphics to represent imagery from the children’s book ‘The Little Prince’. As well as prints, texture plays a bit part in this collection with hand crocheted spots and fishes floating on mesh and knits. For me, the highlight had to be the boxy scuba printed jackets, I loved the cut of them as well as the quirky statement prints. 

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For more photos of these three amazing emerging designer collections head on over to my Facebook page: facebook.com/FashionistaBarbieUK.