Avsh Alom Gur

Last season Av thrilled us with a collection which literally took rubbish from the streets of London and turned them into amazingly elegant pieces of clothing and for a/w 08, the man has kept with the recycling theme and integrated everyday discarded items into his collection. "For me, working with the given elements and materials available in your territory is an ordinary thing to do" his press release tell us. "Therefore, picking up refuse from the floor and weaving it into my collection seemed only natural." And, as is central to Av's working methods, collaborations are key - this season prints have been created with Daniel Reynolds and there's impressive corsetry courtesy of Ian Wallace.

Luxury and poverty are juxtaposed throughout: there's a strong African influence with lino-graph prints and woven jewellery and luxury silk jersey fabrics appear alongside paper, raffia and chiffon. A few dresses actually featured fur trims which Av had dyed to make it look he told me, like the fur had been graffitied. To give him his due, Av doesn't shy away from questions and was totally upfront when I probed why he had decided to use fur. No it wasn't a sponsorship deal, he said he wanted to experiment with it because he felt that it was right for this collection although I reckon making real fur look fake is a mistake - why not use fake in the first place?

Despite these few dresses (not shown here) you cannot deny the creative force and visual sussedness that is Avsh Alom Gur. He doesn't miss a beat here - oversized jewels are integrated into outfits, there are leather and paper corset tops and Av's final touch is the way he uses brown sticky tape as belts - only a man with confidence and wit could pull that off and he did. In November 2007 Av was appointed chief designer for the relaunched Ossie Clark label, so this season he's had two collections to create at lightning speed. Lagerfeld watch out!

Words: Marian Buckley
Photos: Ian Gillett