31st May 2012 - I awaken to what appears to be an average day with the clouds indecisive of whether or not they will rain on us and thinking about what outfit to wear today. Suddenly the words of 'it's Brighton today' pop into my head and I'm overcome with excitement as I remember I will attending Brighton Fashion Week's Zeitgeist Show.
The Zeitgeist show highlights some of the UK's leading young and emerging design talent. The event featured designers such as Lesley De Freitas, Isolated Hero's, Masato and Jess Eaton.
This year's show took place in the beautiful All Saints Church in Brighton. The church itself had been completely transformed and although it looked perfect for a fashion event, it still retained the charm and beauty of the church itself. It was immediately clear that a lot of thought and attention had gone into the design of the show. Upon my arrival I received a warm welcome from the organisers, had a quick snap taken with a gentleman who was wearing an amazing outfit (especially his hat) and was then shown to my seat.
Opening the show was the amazing Pippa Longhorne who was recently a contestant on Britain's Got Talent. The church provided the perfect setting for Pippa's voice as it echoed throughout the church creating a truly exciting and brilliant start to the show.
The first collection to come down the catwalk was by Karin Wuthwich, the collection featured clean lines but also contained an abstract element in that some of the designs created an optical illusion as the models walked down the runway. You couldn't help but stare at the designs as they past by.
The show continued with collections from Taeseok Kang and Octavia Yang featuring sexual human body part Vs Joinery in Jewels. For me this was more of a collection of finely crafted art pieces than a fashion collection but I loved the creativity and minimalist approach none the less.
The loudest and probably the most 'out there' collection of the night had to be "isolated heroes". The collection featured bright colours, crazy coloured hair and incredible prints, I was left thinking that the collection was more festival wear than every day but the boldness of the collection was fantastic.
Following on from isolated heroes vibrant performance was my friend Masato, as with all of Masato's collections the designs are what I consider to be incredibly wearable, had clean lines and were made from beautiful fabrics. In fact after I watched the collection, I placed an order for the long sleeve coat. ☺
The show continued, highlighting an amazing variety of designs; some more interesting to the eye than wearable but the creativity was hugely impressive.
Leslie De Freitas SS13 collection impressed me a lot by showing us a highlight of what's to come next year. The simple block colours and light material made for a perfect summer collection. I'm sure we'll be seeing similar designs on the high street in 2013.
The final collection and highlight of the evening for me had to be Jess Eatons Roadkill Couture collection. I have to be honest, reading this collection on the schedule and being an animal lover I was concerned that I may find this collection offensive, but how wrong I was! The collection opened with a video of Jess explaining the idea behind the collection, the natural source of her animal products and the fact that she doesn't pay for any of the animals used in the collection.
The collection itself was absolutely jaw dropping using feathers, horns and even animal tails to create beautiful jackets, necklaces and headpieces. The fact that Jess could take something like roadkill and transform it into piece of beautiful fashion was incredible. The collection finished with gorgeous headwear made from swan feathers and what I think was bleached peacock feathers.
If you are attending Ascot races over the next few months and are looking for a statement head piece then be sure to stop by Jess's Brighton based store.
All in all I enjoyed the creativity, variety and vibrance of the Zeitgeist event. The show was very well organized and the team very welcoming. I had fantastic evening in Brighton and very much look forward to future Brighton Fashion Week events.
Personal note - I just want to say a special thank you to Vicki Hughes who looked after me throughout the entire evening, making me so welcome. Thank you Vicki!
Videos of the collections are available on my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/lilmissfash