London College of Fashion Centenary MA Show

Thursday January 18 was a day of celebration for the London College of Fashion. Marking one hundred years since its birth, the LCF staged a fashion show and exhibition showcasing the work of graduating MA students.

Despite 70-mile-an-hour winds effecting all forms of transport across the country, there was a packed house for the 4pm show which we attended. Organisers had done an amazing job creating an atmospheric exhibition at the Royal Academy in Burlington Gardens. Amongst the photography on show, we were knocked out by Gavin Fernandes' series of contemporary Pearly Kings and Queens dressed in Judy Blame attire - these oustanding black and white portraits were fixed to the wall with pins and his understated choice of display perfectly juxtaposed with the commanding images. Also impressive is Joseph Kale's Made In England - sixties wallpaper, lads playing football and snapshots of couples fused to create a striking work. Sadly for those who've worked so hard, these images were on display for just one day.

The catwalk show had been put together by MA course director Darren Cabon. Darren and composer Philip Neil Martin are a formidable force. Entitled Asylum and featuring menswear, womenswear, footwear and accessories created by 16 students, the show somehow seamlessly linked all these elements together. The backdrop and large square catwalk were all white and the show began with three women and a man taking position - one in each corner. Philip Neil Martin created a soundtrack entirely based on the human voice. Pre-recorded sounds played and the singers - one of whom is the UK's human beatbox champion - sang live. It was other-wordly and helped lift the show.

Despite having seen most of the collections in our preview a few weeks before, seeing how the outfits worked on models in this live setting was very different. Umar's Basket Womb collection uses baskets handmade in Pakistan and integrated them into clothing, Xia J Mao's The Calligrapher features black and white pieces which, nutty though it sounds, really did looked like letters manifested as clothes. Bert Clayton's 100 focuses on the idea of interactive clothing, with pieces integrating with one another. While his menswear was extremely powerful and stylish, he disappointed us enormously when he sent out two suits accessorised with real fur stoles.

There are many students from this MA who look like they have a great fashion future - not all though have been as lucky as Yoni Pai, the Korean designer who has already designed a collection shown at Fashion Week (Kisa) and has launched her own collaborative label with partner Steve which will be heading into Topshop next month. February will also see Yoni showing off-schedule at London Fashion Week supported by her homegrown sponsors Samsung. As tutor Darren told us: "Yoni is one of the lucky ones".

Read our preview here: http://www.fuk.co.uk/news/lcfs_asylum_ma_show

Fuk.co.uk's video report on Asylum will be online shortly.