LCF's Asylum MA Show

This year marks the London College of Fashion's centenary and the organisers of its MA 'Asylum' Show which takes place on January 18, let us have a sneak preview.

There are 19 collections by graduate designers from the UK, Germany, Pakistan, China, Korea and Japan. The overall standard is extremely high - students are given just a few months to create their collections from scratch and the expert techniques employed are incredible. Xiao Yu aka 'Venice' has painstakingly created a series of sculpted origami-style outfits which work as artistic statements as well as garments. Hours and hours of work went into each piece and the results are commanding. Mary Wing To was inspired by saddlery and horse riding and the resulting 'A Horse's Tail' collection features handworked leather waistcoats interlaced with horse hair, quirky plaiting, bridle details and Victorian-esque charm. Georgie Ichikawa seems to us to design menswear for a psychedelic Barry Manilow - there's genuine showmanship in his double collar and cuff shirts and doubled waisted trousers.

The most commercial collection we spotted at this preview though comes from Yoni Pai. This lady has got spade loads of talent. She's already showed at London Fashion Week as the chief designer for KISA, has her own design label, SJ which based in London and is a collaboration with Steve J and she's also about to launch a range for TopShop. Her collection is ostensibly menswear but looks like it could easily be translated into womenswear. Funky blue leopard print linings and tapestry-like embroidery are just two of the details which stand out.

The MA show will also feature an original soundtrack 'Voices of the Asylum' written by LCF's Composer in Residence Philip Neil Martin.

www.steveyonistudio.com

www.fashion.arts.ac.uk