The first two days of Pure London at Olympia London showcased the bold and the brave new collections from fashion’s favourite brands and celebrity designers, alongside thoughtful and insightful talks, catwalk shows and trend presentations.
Kicking off on the Main Stage on Sunday, visitors were treated to a vibrant catwalk show presenting a line-up of the key trends for the SS20 season, in collaboration with Unique Style Platform (USP). USP’s in-depth Future Forecast followed, highlighting the consumer attitudes and big picture cultural drivers that will impact the fashion markets for SS20.
Honest celebrates imperfection and the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi, an aesthetic that centres around the acceptance and glorification of imperfection. A blend of raw untreated neutrals combine with vibrant colours of the ocean with yellow tinted bamboo.
Limitless is a brave and rebellious attitude, breaking boundaries and exemplified by activists such as Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the new icons for a new generation. A brave palette of neon’s, pink and lilac mix with bitter chocolate and monochrome feature on elevated sportswear mixed with 80s and 90s style tailoring.
A return to handmade crafts drives Ritual, seeking serenity in meaningful experiences. Modern mysticism has led to an otherworldly mood of soft tailoring and floaty layers mixed with contemporary Western touches and boho prairie dresses in a sun kissed palette of peaches and orange.
Brave is about being maximalist, eccentric, bold and unexpected. It means hybrid combinations and unexpected collaborations, rethinking traditional retail and pushing advanced technology. Digital avatars will be the new breed of influencer. More is more with colour with clashing brights and electric combinations mixed with paler tones.
Returning to traditional skillsets such as sewing and re-building the British manufacturing industry were also touted as crucial for future generations. While discussing his love for clothes, making stuff and nurturing British businesses and manufacturers, British fashion designer, owner of Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons, and keynote speaker Patrick Grant said: “We need to change the overall mindset of how we produce and consume. Our British factories help sustain the local economies, we know what is made, by who and when. We have super simple stable supply chains.” Turning to the subject of school uniforms, Patrick added: “I did a quick back of an envelope calculation, and worked out that if you could get half the UK school kids back in a woollen jumper you could re-employ every knitter that had lost their job in Scotland in the past 50 years.”
Commenting on the UK government’s rejection of all recommendations made by the Environmental Audit Committee report into fast fashion Patrick felt there should be stricter regulations to clean up the industry including stricter labelling. He said: “I don’t think the audit committee went nearly far enough; I think that everything we buy that’s made of plastic should be labelled plastic. Because consumers don’t know what polyester or acrylic or nylon are. Virgin plastics should be labelled. You have a picture of a diseased lung on the back of a cigarette packet. This stuff is as toxic as nicotine. Bad fashion is literally killing stuff. If at the point of purchase, you were presented with something that showed you it, some people just might think twice.”
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