Chic, Political and Unpredictable: Inside Flair Fashion’s Unfold

The second of Flair Fashion’s London Fashion Week showcases extended upon the first show’s creative bunch with 7 additional emerging voices and the vision they have for the industry. Whilst Ignite brought abundant theatricality, Unfold embraced chic craftsmanship that contrasted dramatically with political statements, you never quite knew what would strut onto the runway next.

Putting the flair back into fashion, the platform aims to showcase the next generation of designers who sit at the forefront of innovation, sustainability and technology at a global scale. Curating their very own ecosystem that bridges the new era of online shopping with emerging designers by showcasing their e-commerce marketplace in a new format. Imaginative storytelling offers a new way for brands to sell their collections and ultimately celebrate their crafts and unique perspectives.

Designers Belsize25, Nesses Aure and For Poem presented collections that aligned perfectly with the category of chic. Belsize25’s sea of beading radiates soft femininity in transparent delicate fabrics where handcrafted details become central to the evening-wear designs. Corsetry, flowing coats and vines adorning clothing turns models into goddesses; whilst For Poem explores the revived trend of Pill Box hats and fireman jackets in a hyper-polished series of monotonal garments. Traditional details are reinterpreted through the modern lens of Hayal Couture with an exploration of heritage. Sculpted corsetry is crafted in leather with a finishing of elongated fringes where softness sits within structure and delicacy against strength.

Juliene Couture presented a collection laced with vulnerability from the designer’s encounter of witnessing a profoundly and deeply traumatic event in her mother’s life. Chains, bondage references and coverings of model’s faces and mouths illustrated the experience of the designer navigating through her hardships and learning to find the voice that was taken from her as a child. Fabrics draped lengths behind showing the trail of destruction and visualising the weight of her mental burdens, that once lived can never fully be erased from memory. With each look, the mood of the collection shifted from a palette of tender black to promising white, unfolding the designer’s personal journey of restoring inner peace.

Embroidered jewellery is an incredibly underexplored and understated category of design with its intricacies and level of detail to the microscopic level. Brand SSLB Embroidery brought a collection of differentiation with a focus primarily on vibrantly crafted and exotic jewellery. While the craft of sewing remains the same, most of the models are dressed in blank canvas of floor length beige gowns to give the main stage to the earrings and necklaces. Extending to the final few models dressed in flowing capes embroidered in botanicals and tulle high-low skirts adorning larger scales of the brand’s signature craft.

Layers upon layers of tulle engulfed models in GG Chenn’s sweeping designs of soft simplicity in a dramatic closing to the evening. The delicate fabric becomes the visual language and link between each look, from ballgowns fully constructed of tulle to a single delicate layer acting as a veil over tailored silhouettes. Most notably the designer sent a floor length bag made from the constant fabric, cascading down the runway and exaggerating the trend of enormously large bags.