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The BFC Newgen winners have just been announced which is good news if you don’t believe tribal printed tea dresses or leather strappy sandals woven by children really count as fashion. Flagging up genuinely exciting talent the Newgen sponsorship is consistently won by the country’s best and brightest young designers, this year pushing ideas from pop art to hand illustration to weaving to nauseatingly minimal and chic and everything in between which you can’t find in a big plastic bin on Oxford Street. Selected by a ferocious list of panelists including Fran Burns, Alex Fury and Sarah Mower (Google em babes) this group is as impressive as the last. Now let’s break them down so you don’t get tongue-tied and make an unforgivable prick of yourself next time someone asks you what you thought of the feminist undertones in Molly Goddard’s controversial AW15 presentation.
Ashley Williams
Queen of the Golden Girls (she put it on a jumper two seasons ago, it’s a fashion ref you guys) Ashley Williams has made a habit of decking out it girls in cartoony pop prints and PVC and shows no signs of stopping. Her last show was opened by Georgia May-Jagger (did someone say exclusive?? Oh… I did) styled by Vogue’s then fashion editor Fran Burns and attended by a frow with more instagram followers than breaths you’ve taken in a lifetime. Don’t let that fool you, this is smart, funny fashion for women in the know, not just cocktail dresses for morons.
Ryan Lo
London-based CSM graduate Ryan Lo trained with Charles Anastase before launching his own line and is moving from strength to strength, he’s currently stocked on Net-a-Porter which is a pretty big deal for a young designer. Lo ramped it up last season with an ice-queen fur-trimmed collection inspired by Tolstoy and, ahem, Elsa from Frozen. His girl is glamour meets McDonalds with a heavy dose of Disney Princess and a flourish of Victoriana to top it off. What she’ll be wearing come September we’ll just have to wait and see, though I’m willing to put a wager on it involving diamante.
Claire Barrow
Ah Claire Barrow, there aren’t enough positive adjectives in the world to express my love for her. Originally from Middlesborough, Barrow’s designs are original, political, clever and beautifully executed. You might know her from the trademark painted leather jackets (Rihanna wore one) or maybe the amazing video she made where Skinny Girl Diet covered Dusty Springfield, either way you need to make sure you’re paying attention now. Her last collection was the most sumptuous and precise yet and I’ve got no doubt the next will be even more brilliant. Can you tell I like her? Just a bit?
Danielle Romeril
With an emphasis on innovative textiles and sleek design Danielle Romeril focused on intricately quilted leather and a repeated scale-like detail in her last collection. She got her masters at the RCA so you know she’s not messing about, add that to the fact this is her third Newgen sponsorship and she’s already stocked in 10 countries and it’s pretty clear Romeris is at the successful business end of young London fashion. Keep an eye on her for luxurious, wearable pieces that would look appropriate in a really fast lift in a really expensive hotel that you are honestly never going to stay in.
1205
1205 is the kind of fashion which makes people who only shop in Cos have panic attacks about how cheap they look. It’s sleek, clean, inventive and #lux without being overdesigned or obvious. The influence from Paula Gerbase’s time spent training on Saville Row comes through consistently as does a subtle sense that you’ll never be good enough for anyone and your face is a bit sweaty. Sorry, minimal fashion kind of gives me the fear. It’s really good though. It’s great. Just ignore me and scroll down.
Faustine Steinmetz
Faustine Steinmetz is a designer who actually thinks about where stuff comes from! Gasp. She hand weaves her own denim, refuses to use any leather at all and bases her design on nonchalant Parisian style cut through with a defiant London twist. She took inspiration from artist Matthew Stone for her last collection and the models had paint splodges in their hair. It was utterly fab and the fashion world waits with baited breath to see where she’ll take her trademark woven denim this season. Lol I can’t believe I just seriously wrote that.
Molly Goddard
Another firm favourite, Molly Goddard made her name reimagining the humble prom dress for naughty teenagers with scraped knees and then last season branched out into jumpers woven from beautiful vintage lurex ribbons and some seriously hard-wearing mustard corduroy. Her LFW presentation was a life drawing class where street cast models sat around in front of easels creating their best impressions of a fully naked man sitting on a raised platform in the corner of the room. If that’s not hilarious, subversive or original enough for you then frankly you have no taste.
Marta Jakubowski
Polish designer Jakubowski feels a bit more new school, playing with block colours and voluminous silhouettes in a style championed most recently by Parisian label of the moment Vetements and London’s own LVMH winner Thomas Tait. Cutting her teeth (and probably lots of leather) training with Al Wang and Hussein Chalayan, her pieces strike a balance between slick editorial and actually possible to wear on a human being. Which is quite useful when you’re trying to sell clothes.
Sadie Williams
Sadie Williams’ last collection featured a sort of embossed velvet two-piece space suit which amazingly was actually not at all horrible. Her heightened sportswear aesthetic feels like rave culture met 70’s futuristic the morning after a big night out; wide trousers and a lot of silver are cut through with clean white mesh and T-shirts. If glitter and metallic isn’t your thing then you won’t like it but if glitter and metallic isn’t your thing then you’re probably quite boring anyway.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.