Fashion

Sadie Williams drew her inspiration from two unlikely bedfellows: the notorious Bōsōzoku Japanese biker gang (their glittery motorcycles are the stuff of urban legend) and Pierre Cardin’s somewhat tamer 1960s A-line silhouettes. The result? A floor-skimming collection of conical dresses, created by sandwiching pieces of neoprene between metallic lurex and tracksuit jersey. Williams also designs textiles for Marc by Marc Jacobs. www.sadiewilliams.co.uk

How the next generation of fashion stars are making everything better and more beautiful

Writers: Katrina Israel and Caragh McKay

James Pilcher won the British Fashion Council’s Burberry design competition while completing his BA, earning him a work placement with the brand. Soon after, he started on the Royal College of Art’s Menswear MA programme, winning 2013’s International Flavors & Fragrances’ competition (the brief, to relaunch Joop!). He is only 24 years old, but his collection shows strength of conviction, played out through converging monochromatic lines in PVC and leather. jmsplchr@gmail.com

California-born Amelia Lindquist discovered her passion for surface experimentation at Parsons’ Paris satellite. Back in the US, her Masters collection, Mark Making Through Light, contrasts fine T-shirt jerseys with heavy denim; Lindquist side-slipped the latter’s traditional topstitching in favour of bonded seams to leave a clean surface upon which to showcase her dramatic chemical erosion techniques. www.amelialindquist.com

Jae Woo Lee studied fashion design in Seoul and worked in the South Korean fashion industry for a number of years before moving to New York to undertake Parsons’ MFA programme. Drawing upon her early art education (she started painting and drawing classes at the age of nine), Lee’s graduate collection unpeels her classical leanings through torn, hand-finished, woollen shapes, joined with web-like, pop-hued topstitching. Each dress hangs from the body with a geometric, 3D form that’s also artfully wearable. jwjw0201@gmail.com

Before embarking on his MA collection, Asim Khan left London to travel the UK in search of traditional manufacturers to produce his graduate menswear range. Scottish tweed was his textile of choice, using the expertise of firms like Harris Tweed Hebrides, while his concept was wired for sound. More specifically, ‘experimenting with techniques to show the process of sound in visual form’, he explains. Titled Sound Series, his collection smartly weaves graphic, audio-wave patterns into heritage cashmere and wool tailoring. asimworks.wordpress.com

That Central Saint Martins jewellery graduate Darunotai Vajrodaya also has a degree in literature comes as little surprise. Her designs are audaciously narrative-driven. Or, as she puts it, ‘My designs can be treasured for special occasions or worn on a daily basis. I like the idea of pieces that not only adorn and decorate, but that can be enjoyed.’ Vajrodaya’s confident use of precious materials, such as silver and pearls, points to a major talent with an innate understanding of what sets the fine jeweller apart: the ability to bring hard metal to life with natural expression and warmth. www.lostatsea.info

You could say Melitta Baumeister’s path was predestined. Her mother was a seamstress and she attended fashion-focused high school Balthasar-Neumann-Schule II in her native Germany, before studying fashion design in Pforzheim. After interning with Viktor & Rolf, she later received Parsons’ prestigious Dean’s Scholarship, which took her to New York. Describing her aesthetic as ‘alchemical and futuristic’, in her Hyperreality collection she ties minimalist restraint with fused, cloud-like fabrications that appear to float on air. www.melittabaumeister.com

‘I focused on the dart seam,’ says Barbara Langendijk, ‘because it is such a simple and widely used principle.’ Her collection, Cloth, hommage à la coupe couture, celebrates the skills of the master couturier, while revealing her own use of hand-finished detailing and traditional tailoring stitch on the exterior of pieces. Her black and white palette contrasts with the vibrant work of Walter Van Beirendonck, where she interned. www.barbaralangendijk.com

Franciska Hjermov joined forces with British textile mill Stephen Walters & Sons to create the bespoke checked fabrications that were the bass note of her MA offering. ‘I wanted the checked artwork woven, not printed,’ she says of her relaxed approach to menswear. ‘It is then just as beautiful on the inside as the outside.’ The collection juxtaposes the bourgeois suit with workwear shirting as worn by 20th-century French artists Marc Chagall and Jean Dubufet. hjermov@gmail.com

Pierre Renaux interned at the house of Mugler during Nicola Formichetti’s reign before starting his Masters graduate collection. This made use of hand-cut magnetic enamel panels as appliqués and saw the development of his own futuristic material. Called Brisé, it resembles a shattered glass panel and he teamed it with power-dressing pinstripes on occasion. www.pierrerenaux.viewbook.com