Take a sneak peek backstage at Mariana Jungmann’s London Fashion Week show.

Chatting to Mariana Jungmann ahead of her show is like being in the eye of a fashion storm. Amidst the frenzy that is London Fashion Week, Jungmann is the epitome of composure as she talks us through her latest collection. But then you’d expect nothing less from a woman who has a couture-esque attention to detail in her work. The Renaissance lace she uses is handcrafted, for example, meaning that each garment is entirely individual. For this season she’s also introduced new techniques such as pebble jacquard and blistered leather to make this the ultimate touchy-feelycollection that’s all about innovative textures. No wonder that she’s been named as one of London’s “new designers to watch” and has had her designs featured in Vogue, Glamourand i-D. SO read on to get the full lowdown on the collectionin the designer’s own words…

Can you start by taking us through your inspirations for this collection?

Whenever I design I always start by thinking of the woman that I design for. And, for me, this woman is full of paradoxes. Most women are! So the woman I design for is very strong, but at the same time she’s delicate. She’s tough, but she also has a sexy side. Then, thinking about paradoxes, I realised that one of the biggest paradoxes is between being awake and being asleep. And when I was researching that I came across the word ‘hypnagogia’ – which I’d never heard of before – and that became the name of the collection. Hypnogogia is the moment between paradoxes; the moment between being awake and being asleep.

How does that come through in your clothes?

That moment when you close your eyes and you’re about to fall asleep, you have a lot of things going on in your mind, and I’ve translated this through texture in my collection. Continuing with the paradoxical theme, we have a menswear-inspired pinstripe that’s been paired with my handmade lace. We have soft, Merino wool mixed with tough, laser-cutleathers. Masculine shapes styled with feminine shapes. Everything is a paradox.

So that means that when you see the full look from your show it will be very paradoxical, but each piece could actually be worn and styled completely differently…

Yes, exactly. There is actually a jacket that I was going to wear today: it’s a tuxedo jacket and I was thinking of wearing it with just a white T-shirt. But in my show the model will be wearing it with a maxi skirt. I think the pieces are very versatile.

Also, this season, I came up with my own technique of ‘blistering’ leather, where I’ve kind of ‘popped’ my traditional patterns into leather so it looks like the leather is blistered. I’ve been working on it for three months to make it perfect, and I got so carried away with it that I decided to make handbags as well! So there are blistered leather bags in this collection too.

What do you want the mood for the show to be?

The show is going to be paradoxical in itself, of course, so we’re going to start very dark and then we’re going introducecolour and it’s going to get lighter. I say colour: colourful for Mariana Jungmann! Maybe not for Mary Katrantzou, but colourful for me.

And how are you going to celebrate once the show’s finished?

I’m taking all of my team for dinner.