What went down at Dazed and Fashion East’s ICA takeover

Over the weekend, Dazed marked the 25th birthday of Fashion East with a two-day programme of public events at the ICA. Taking in panel discussions, film screenings and a magazine drop for our autumn print issue, on which Fashion East graced the cover, the weekend was a celebration of the past, present and future of British fashion. 

Every year since its launch in 2000, Fashion East has worked with a handful of talented young designers in the months leading up to LFW, culminating in a show which is invariably a highlight of the season. This year, Fashion East’s Jacek Gleba and Louis Mayhew made their debut, with Nuba founder Cameron Williams returning for a second year, in a trio of shows which became one of the week’s most raved-about events. Under the close mentorship of Lulu Kennedy and Raphaelle Moore, some of British fashion’s biggest names have risen up through the programme, including but not limited to Jawara Alleyne, Ashley Williams, Jonathan Anderson, Simone Rocha, Kim Jones, Maximilian Davis, Martine Rose, and Craig Green. From cutting-edge streetwear to high-end luxury, Fashion East’s influence cannot be overstated, and it’s difficult to imagine what the London scene would look like without it today.

A retrospective exhibition – US LOT: 25 YEARS OF FASHION – ran across the weekend, sponsored by Nike and co-curated by Kennedy, Moore and creative consultant Patrick Waugh. This featured artworks and sculptures commissioned especially for the event, with Simone Rocha, Craig Green, Richard Malone, Jawara Alleyne and Claire Barrow all contributing new pieces. It also offered a glimpse into Fashion East’s vast archives, from never-before-seen imagery to work by some of the world’s most influential photographers, including Wolfgang Tillmans, Joyce NG and Jamie Hawkesworth.  

On Saturday afternoon, Dazed’s Fashion Director Emma Davidson co-chaired a panel discussion – ‘Off the Rails with Fashion East and Dazed’ – with some of the incubator’s most acclaimed alumni, including Karoline Vitto, A Sai Ta and Olly Shinder. The panellists shared some of the most chaotic moments of their careers and time at Fashion East. “During my first show, Lulu found me and my stylist underneath the rails doing the lineup just as the show was happening,” recalled A Sai Ta. “For me it was my second show. A lot went wrong beforehand: we were finishing outfits and hand-stitching five minutes before the models were getting on the runway,” said Karoline Vitto. Arguably winning the prize for most chaotic anectode, Olly Shinder described staging a show where one of the model’s heads was caked in mud. “It didn’t go down well with the other designers because it was quite a small backstage. I heard that some of the mud makeup got on one of the really minimal, beautiful dresses by Standing Ground – but he seemed OK with it in the end,” Shinder said. 

As well as admitting their messier moments, the panellists paid tribute to the transformative effect which Fashion East had on them both personally and professionally. As A Sai Ta put it, “Fashion East really allowed for my chaos to exist. Not having to think about it being an end product [...]having the space and being able to create without any anticipation what it needed to be allowed me to be more experimental with fabric manipulations.” He added: “There’s a real sense of family, there’s a lot of community and connections and talking and figuring out together. You always feel like it’s the first time, they approach you with that newness. That’s what made it feel very personal and freeing.”

People could then get their hands on the Fashion East anniversary issue at a magazine drop hosted by Dazed’s editor-in-chief Ted Stansfield, art director Ester Mejibovski and photographer Thurstan Redding, who shot the cover and signed copies for guests. Later that afternoon, Nowness screened a curated series of short films, Fashion Film: The Language of Movement, which explored how movement brings clothes to life, and the interplay between dance and fashion. A stellar cast of creative talent took part, including photographers Campbell Addy and Harley Weir, choreographer Holly Blakey, and director Fx Goby.  

The following day, a second programme of short films, Unscripted: Designers on Camera, offered a more stripped-back, intimate approach, featuring top designers and Fashion East alumni like Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson, Andreas Kronthaler and Jawara Alleyne discussing their work and creative process. 

On Sunday evening, the weekend was topped off with a final panel discussion, Making It Up As We Go Along: Fashion East 25 special edition, hosted by Dazed Club creative director Jack Sunnucks and featuring Fashion East’s Lulu Kennedy and Raphaelle Moore, photographer Thurstan Redding, executive producer Claire Burman and model Alva Claire.

While much of the programme looked back on a quarter century of fashion history, the weekend was just as focused on the present. As its latest crop of talent makes clear, Fashion East is as vital and innovative as ever. Here’s to the next 25 years.