Dedicated supporters and champions of young British design talent, the British Fashion Council, have set up a fashion film initiative, a platform and a funding system to allow designers to showcase their collections in an alternate way to the standard catwalk or presentation model. Founded in 2012 and in collaboration with River Island, each season during the menswear and womenswear collections at London Fashion Week, films by selected designers are showcased at the BFC venue. On Friday, 16 September, during the SS17 shows, Aries, Dom Jones and Helen Lawrence joined the Fash/On Film alumni, including Gareth Pugh, House of Holland and Lou Dalton among others. Here’s a look at their creations.
ARIES by Ben Sansbury and Fergus Purcell
Set to a slightly haunting, menacing tune by Die Verboten, images of models styled by Jane How and photographed by David Sims glitch across the screen, their faces merged into backdrops of shiny, psychedelic fabric, woods, fire and a traditional English garden. Strange, it is, but incredibly captivating. It could only be ARIES. The brand that made trash culture so desirable again and, well, fashionable, its grunge-y style popular with street kids and fashion big hitters alike is instantly recognisable, easily on its way to become a cult brand. The short film closes with a rocket taking off – a metaphor for the stratospheric rise of ARIES? With a forthcoming book on the horizon, from which the photographs used in their SS17 film were taken, they are set to fly higher up still.
Le Picnic by Dom Jones x River Island
Each season, River Island, apart from being integral sponsors for the Fash/On Film initiative, collaborate with one of the recipient designers on a capsule collection. For womenswear SS17, jewellery designer Dom Jones was the lucky one. In an adorable, silent film style comedy short titled ‘Le Picnic,’ a model is horrified when she finds a fly (actually, one of Jones’ jewellery pieces) on her delicious food. After being pestered by the animal, which takes on the role of a necklace, a hair clip and even appears on a phone cover, the candy-floss-haired heroine, with a Justin Bieber pendant hanging off her neck, naturally, subsequently acquires a giant plush Venus fly trap so that she can enjoy her cupcakes in peace. Super clever and super fun, flies have never been this desirable before.
Beautiful Ones by Helen Lawrence
In her SS17 film, Helen Lawrence takes her clothes for a night out. A group of young kids, clad, how else, in Lawrence’s vibrant knitwear, which is slightly my-nan-made-this-for-me-one-Christmas-chic, are filmed doing what young kids do best. Drinking, dancing, snogging and partying, being silly and having the best time of their lives. Filmed on what seems to be someone’s phone or just a home camera, the casual, relatable style of the film makes everyone, well, nostalgic at first, but also realise that they can be included in Lawrence’s world too. It’s a bit whacky, take the white knitted, skin tight roll neck and a midi skirt with a slash considerably higher than mid thigh with neon bright wool worked into it as an example, but when it looks so much fun, and will undoubtedly keep you warm on a Christmas Eve night out, why not?