Byline: Nilgin Yusuf
The collar is a quilted, bejewelled confection fit for an empress. So it comes as little surprise to learn that the designer, Alexander McQueen, spent two weeks on this detail alone before presenting his silk coat dress at London Fashion Week, which ends today.
McQueen is one of a new breed of British designers strong on craftsmanship and with a developing business sense who herald a renaissance in the much maligned British fashion industry.
British designers, while bursting with creative ideas copied the world over, have often let themselves down with poor business practice and second-rate workmanship. Similarly, the flagship event in the industry's calendar, London Fashion Week, has run into trouble. Last year, Jasper Conran's show was the highlight; this year, he didn't even present a collection. Betty Jackson, too, opted for a video, believing that London no longer constitutes the same kind of stage as Milan or Paris.
To give our homegrown designers a boost, the British Fashion Council has, for the first time, sponsored six new talents Abe Hamilton, Alexander McQueen, Copperwheat Blundell, Sonnentag & Mulligan, Lisa Johnson and Paul Frith to exhibit at the Ritz. These fledglings have sat through seminars on exporting and will have their orders monitored to ward off the attentions of bad payers. Backing this up, the organiser of London Fashion Week, Annette Worsley-Taylor, has sent a paper to the Department of Trade and Industry calling for an advisory body to be set up to inform young designers on everything from manufacturing to cash flow.
The Sunday Times photographed three of the six. Working within tight budgets, they have produced strong autumn/winter collections that span pure simplicity to quirky originality.
Alexander McQueen trained with Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard and Gieves & Hawkes, as well as Romeo Gigli and Koji Tatsuno. Pamela Blundell worked as assistant designer and pattern cutter to John Flett, who died two years ago.
Displaying the sheer wearability which characterises the collection innovation fused with commercialism Lee Copperwheat and Pamela Blundell have produced a brilliantly cut range of men's and women's wool and gaberdine tailoring. Barbara Sonnentag and Tracy Mulligan, friends since college days at St Martin's, produce simple, feminine garments including rich velvet Nehru-collared jackets, boleros, palazzo pants and long wrap skirts.
Nicholas Knightly not one of the six, but one of the most self-assured of young designers since his debut last season demonstrates the same strength of cutting and construction. His luxurious pieces were one of the most impressive sights at London Fashion Week.
Peta Goodman, the office director of AGAL, a buying house that talent scouts for large American stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, attended Fashion Week and registered the change: ``They are more professional, more aware of good production and more commercial in their design..''
The new generation look fitter than any of the previous young pretenders to the throne of British style.
Copyright (C) The Sunday Times, 1993