Yan Liang, London College of Fashion MA

A culmination of work produced by the 2011 London College of Fashion postgraduates is tonight being showcased as part of their annual catwalk presentation at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Students on the Fashion Design Technology course will once again fight for the attention of the fashion elite with content-hungry press, industry hawks and celebrity coat hangers all clambering to scout fashion’s next “ones to watch”. However, this time the London College of Fashion have let you in on the secret by following in the footsteps of other high-profile fashion shows, such as the ever fashion forward Burberry Prorsum, and live streaming the show on their website to followers around the world. A whole new kind of showcase for these young fashion faces.

Prior to the live video link, there is also a chance to get in early on the action with profiles and imagery of all the collections now available via the website. The catwalk is, however, just the start of the MA showcase for the whole school, which is exhibiting their 2011 graduates’ work at Victoria House in Bloomsbury Square from today until the 9th February.

So far Tout Nouveau favourites include, Menswear designer Yan Liang (illustration lineup above), who’s collection is based around ‘The Mixture’ of substances in natural resources, with particular focus on the malformation and deformation of trees. Wooden materials have been used to create smart tailored jackets and pocket details on button-up shirts – an innovative yet highly desirable collection.

Mio Jin, who Tout Nouveau have been following for some time, once again demonstrates her experience in pattern cutting with intricately woven layers on suit jackets, shirts and trousers. An interesting colour palette of gold metallic, purple and grey combine to make an aesthetically odd yet beautiful construction of garments.

And from the renowned Cordwainers Fashion Footwear course, Chan Jung Kim has created a combination of high-fashion womens and mens shoes in contrasting tan and black leather layers. Reminiscent of Katie Eary’s ‘Naked Lunch’ collection, yet harks the footwear of the late and great Alexander McQueen.

We are already drooling over these faciables, and excited to see more at the exhibition. Don’t miss your chance to be inspired – details below:

MA Fashion Artefact
MA Costume Design for Performance
MA Digital Fashion
MA Fashion & the Environment
MA Fashion Curation
MA Fashion Design Technology
MA Fashion Photography
MA Fashion Footwear

Private View: 03.02.11
By invitation only

Public View 02.02.11 – 09.02.11
Open daily 12.00 – 19.00

Victoria House Basement

Image manipulation is an art form often used by today’s leading graphic designers and digital artists. A technique that innovatively deforms and transforms an image, giving it a lease of fresh life, and often provokes new thought. Yet this commonly known ‘modern’ technique, actually emerged long before the revolutionary wave of computer-generated graphics.

A master, and possibly the commander, of the image manipulation movement, John Stezaker, made the artform his signature style and gained critical acclaim for this work throughout the 1970’s. Stezaker’s work combines photography found in books, magazine and postcards, splicing them to create misshapes that form part of his collage technique. His abstract approach is reminiscent of artist Pablo Picasso, where the image often plays with the fundamentals of cubism.

Chopping and layering images to experiment with the way lines are processed by the eye has created a timeless style that exposes the image to a new light. Stezaker’s signature style often incorporates still life scenarios, layered behind landscape photography that, although may seem non-related at first glance, often follows the same lines and forms of the original image. Ultimately, the build up of layers creates one overall image that can often be described as an illusion to the eye.

John Stezaker’s work has made an astounding contribution to the art world today, with his perfectly executed shape shifting canvases, which can now be seen in his first major exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery. The exhibition highlights his personal techniques of shape play, collage, and image distortion. Along with the ninety-work collection on show, the gallery is also hosting a collage workshop to demonstrate the techniques used by Stezaker himself. A wonderful insight into the thinking and experimentation behind this inspiring and revolutionary artist.

And running concurrently with the exhibition, John Stezaker’s work is also on display at Louis Vuitton Maison on New Bond Street for those who have a love for fashion and art.

Date:  January 29 to March 18 2011
Time:  11am-6pm
Place:  Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
Cost:  Free

By Alice Goodwin

To our delight, we spotted one of the industry’s freshest faces; Hailee Steinfeld of True Grit wearing a couture piece by up-and-coming fashion designer, Prabal Gurung.

At a mere 14 years old, Haileee looked youthful, yet possessed an air of sophistication beyond her years, the young (won’t disclose age) mysterious Prabal Gurung was a perfect match.

We wont bore you with yet another round up of images and fashion commentary, instead we decided to have a little fun playing stylist and re-dressing the ‘celebrities’ in some of our emerging designer frocks to see how they would have stood up to the fashion elite on the red carpet!

Vanessa Hudgens, switches here from a nude beaded classic, to an edgier silk swirl, fused statement dress by designer Vicky Jolly. This dress retails here at £500. A snip of the price, without compromising on the luxe.

For Actress Kyra Sedgwick we swapped Emilio Pucci for the Sloppy Jo Dress by Jo Whiteing and gave her a more youthful, fashion forward look whilst sticking to the same warm colour palette. The Sloppy Jo retails here at £250.

Megan Fox switches her Armani Privé for a midnight blue silk, sexy piece, again by designer, Vicky Jolly. The blue corset dress retails here at £360.

And finally for Nicole Kidman, we opted for a Kate Atkinson classic sash dress, with snip tuck hem and screen printed detailing. A little more daring than the chic Prada gown Nicole opted for this year, however, a suitable compromise between Nicole’s past daring red carpet looks and today’s more classic. The tribal print sash dress retails here at £650.

We had a little too much fun preparing that for you! So, Emerging Designer Vs. Established Designer? We want your feedback, place your votes now and let us know your favourite looks either via blog comment or join the discussion on Twitter or Facebook.

Creative Boom, the online magazine and directory dedicated to supporting the creative industries, are continually offering exciting and, more importantly, FREE opportunities to support emerging businesses and budding creatives. Today on Twitter they put a call out to redesign their homepage banner in return for free advertising, and not only that, this is a monthly opportunity and therefore is one any fledgling artist/designer does not want to miss with over 60,000 visitors going to the website every month!

For more details, please see below or click on the image to visit the Creative Boom website!

Anna Lee is a Russian born, London based and China inspired fashion designer, whose graduating collection is, not surprisingly, full with culture, depth and skill beyond her short 22 years.

A recent graduate of De Montfort University and the winner of the Zandra Rhodes Catwalk Textiles Award at Graduate Fashion Week 2010, Anna is clearly one-to-watch having also been handpicked to have her collection photographed by Rankin for the event.

Key pieces from the award winning collection are now being sold exclusively in the Tout Nouveau online store. Items include printed leggings and dresses, silk scarves and velvet tops, with each piece hand-made by Anna.

Anna’s collection, titled Tigers Vs Dragons, combines mythical creatures of the orient with traditional Japanese styles and intricate hand-drawn illustrations. Bold graphic prints have been transferred onto opulent velvet and silk fabrics in a colour palette of dark navy, burnt orange and mustard yellow with splashes of vibrant reds and turquoise blues. By mixing typically Eastern illustrations with a Western high-fashion design aesthetic, Anna has created a fresh take on Asian dressing and kept her designs on trend.

Tout Nouveau Managing Director, Rachel Wotherspoon, speaks of her excitement to be working with Anna: “This collection really caught our eye at GFW with the energetic colours and the fabrics that flowed so elegantly down the catwalk. The detail in the print of the textile and the high-fashion craftsmanship Anna has put into these garments makes this collection world-class, and we are delighted to offer these pieces to be enjoyed by followers of fashion.”

Since Anna’s Graduate Fashion Week debut, her work has been shown at the Shanghai Treasury Exhibition and the London Fashion Week pop-up shop at the Design Museum. The garments have also been featured in International press, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Marie Claire and Stylist Magazine.

Anna is currently working on a diffusion-line for the brand, which is expected to be in the Tout Nouveau online store for Spring / Summer 2011 and she also has plans to develop an accessories line, which judging by her textile printed shoes and Dragon motif necklaces for Autumn / Winter 2010, it will definitely be on everybody’s shopping list.

[Image Credits: Photographer: Elena Pirogova, Hair: Shinya Fukami, Make-up: Julia Wilson]

For Tout Nouveau’s latest photoshoot, we hoped to show ethical fashion in its most attractive light, portraying its classic and desirable qualities, and its worthiness to sit alongside other contemporary fashion collections.

Our search for the perfect eco-location led us straight to Justin Bere, Founder of bere:architects. Upon discovery of ‘The Muse’ [pictured above], with its green roof and eco qualities we were intrigued to find out more…

bere:architects was established in 1994 by Justin Bere. From the beginning, the practice ”has advocated the principles of sustainable development, and applies strict ecological, environmental and sociological criteria” to all of the projects that they undertake, including the project pictured above – Justin’s private residential home and office space, designed and built by the man himself.

‘The Muse’ as it has been titled, is run by solar energy and features a rooftop meadow full of wild flowers, which has also been the subject of global press and the winner of multiple awards. After talking with Justin and discovering our mutual love of British design and our ethos to support ‘Made in Britain’ we knew we had discovered the perfect location for our shoot.

The new designers collections that we shot at this fitting PassivHaus in North London included rock climbing inspired menswear by Emily Mann, who based the collection on a book entitled ‘Yosemite in the Sixties‘ (read Emily’s story in the Tout Nouveau store Designer Directory for more details). The first image pictured below features Emily’s grey shirt coat made from a re-worked vintage parachute to resemble a modern-day, smart climbing jacket.

And for womenswear, Natasha Wood‘s renewal collection made using materials of old vintage and recycled garments. The images below feature the ‘Coatigan’, as it has come to be known, re-worked from two vintage jumpers to create the perfect winter cardigan, along with Natasha’s  recycled trench coat.

With thanks to Justin Bere and with credit to the following:

Location: bere:architects, The Muse

Make-up and Hair: Stacey Sanderson

Styling: Ashlie Dixon and Rachel Wotherspoon

Photographer: Nicolas Scaife

Photography Assistant: Harry Sleightholme

Models: Tess Geraghty and Elliot Asprey

]]> http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/12/the-muse/feed/ 0 http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/12/official-launch-today-www-toutnouveau-co-uk/ http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/12/official-launch-today-www-toutnouveau-co-uk/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:08:19 +0000 toutnouveau_admin http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/?p=512 This morning saw the official launch of the long-anticipated Tout Nouveau online store! Excitement is in the air at Tout HQ as we can finally offer our incredible designers the platform they deserve, so please support emerging design talent and visit the site today. We also love to hear your comments and feedback so please keep them coming! CLICK TO SHOP.

For those that didn’t make it to the pop-up, here is a look at what you missed…

]]> http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/11/tout-nouveau-launch-preview/feed/ 1 http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/11/my-elastic-eye-to-play-live-set-at-tout-nouveau-launch-exhibition/ http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/2010/11/my-elastic-eye-to-play-live-set-at-tout-nouveau-launch-exhibition/#comments Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:12:12 +0000 toutnouveau_admin http://www.toutnouveau.co.uk/blog/?p=454

My Elastic Eye, the hot new DJ collective who have quickly caught the attention of music professionals and fashion icons alike, (Mark Moore and Princess Julia are huge fans), are set to perform live at the Tout Nouveau launch exhibition.

The band formed in early 2010 and have since gone on to play credible sets at Girl Records and Liverpool Gay Pride, as well as headlining the Camden Barfly for Union City.

Three brothers, Henry, Jack and Louis, form the majority of the group, along with Jack’s girlfriend Geraldine and lead singer Felicity, who Henry met during a night out and instantly knew “she would be the perfect show off for the band”.

Jack describes their sound as orchestra music gone rusty, but don’t let his humour fool you – their electro beats coupled with the band’s effortlessly cool style make for a mesmerising set.

Playing live from 2-4pm on Saturday 27 November at the Real World Gallery in East London – this is a performance you do not want to miss. For those who unfortunately cannot attend – check out the band’s latest music video here:

The Tout Nouveau launch exhibition is a FREE event for all to attend. Address and opening times listed below:

Real World Gallery, 65 Hanbury Street, E1. near Brick Lane, Aldgate.

Saturday 27 November 2010 – 10am till 6pm

Sunday 28 November 2010 – 12pm till 5pm