New Designers 2018
Exploring conceptual design, this year’s New Designers of Fashion and Textiles tell personal stories using tailored techniques that aid self-expression and imaginatively depict the world as they see it. Over 3,000 emerging designers will be exhibiting their work this year.
Lorna Doyle is a designer who strives to push the boundaries of experimental textiles. Her body of work features heat manipulated recycled materials combined with traditional printing techniques. The Circular Economy is imperative in her designs. It is a vision of a world where both making and the using of products wastes nothing. Lorna has sold her designs to New York Fashion labels such as Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole and Reed Krakoff. Her work has been exhibited and published in New York, Paris, Brussels and London. She will be displaying her Picasso collection at this year's New Designers.
Ashminder Sihra challenges conventional knitwear by manipulating yarn, gauge, colour and adding embellishment to create impactful graphic and surface textures using the domestic knitting machine. Knitted on the domestic machine with brass bells that are hand tooled into the stitches. It tells a story of utopia and teases the social aspect of bridal gowns. Pomak brides and every-day streetwear inspired the fit of the dress. Victor Varserley inspires the impactful graphic, by experimenting with raised surfaces of the embellishments. Ashminder's collection this year is entitled All the Bells and Whistles.
Lizzie Hillier Studio produces limited edition screen prints and bold fabric designs. Colour, shape and texture are at the heart of the experimental process Lizzie uses with an emphasis on creating bold statement pieces for the home. Balancing clean abstract shapes with energetic brush marks and textures gives the work its signature style. Printed by hand in Sussex, each screen print is unique and celebrates the hand of the artist. Fabrics are made into cushions, adding an accent of colour to interior spaces.
Adele Catchpole illustrates natural formations using un-natural colour palettes, translating these into a range of surface design-based products. Focusing mainly into fashion design, her vibrant and embellished pieces are a lot of fun. My inspiration comes from a desire to be happy and by doing so I surround myself with music, film, books and nature which make me personally content and I express that through my use of composition and colour in my work. I like to use my phrase 'less is not more and more is not enough' as my work tends to be heavily embellished, heavily detailed and stylised in innovative ways.
Engaging natural fibres in their purest form, Marleen V Haaften's Fiber Landscapes represents applied textile art that fosters the beauty of nature and the materials found therein. Through needle punching, unprocessed fibers such as wool, cotton, flax and bamboo are blended together on fleece, jointly portraying a tangible landscape.
New Designers will be taking place on the 27-30 June and 4-7 July at the Business Design Centre, London, UK.
Exclusive for Selvedge readers: save 20% on Day Tickets to New Designers when you book using offer code: SELVEDGE at checkout. Visit the New Designers website and book before midnight 25 June.