Backstage with FLAIR

Two catwalks, 15 designers and a whole lot of high fashion drama going on backstage. Flair Fashion returned to London Fashion Week last month with IGNITE and UNFOLD. Two incredible shows that proved emerging fashion is a lot more fun when everyone does their own thing.

IGNITE was the louder of the two. Gashani brought golden-hour couture and butterfly drama, Quarez went oversized and wonderfully strange, while Berth gave us a hit of ’70s bohemia. VELESPACE x The Kong Is Dead mixed wearable tech with slashed-up streetwear, Une Enfant revisited Y2K futurism and El Khemie made corporate dressing considerably less corporate. Psy Lau explored the art of letting go, before Trashy Planets arrived with feathers, fantasy and enough drama to make subtlety feel slightly overrated.
The 9pm show, UNFOLD softened the mood, but not the ideas.

Belsize25 floated in with watery chiffon and Roman-bath romance; Juliene Couture, Nesse’s Aure and Hayal Couture turned heritage, memory and home into something deeply personal. SSLB went intricate with nature-inspired embroidery, For Poem brought painterly florals and soft textures, and GG CHENN played with sheer layers, metal and the complicated business of inherited femininity.

Different moods, different stories, very different wardrobes. Which is exactly the point. Flair gave each designer space to make their own noise, and from backstage, where corsets, feathers, embroidery and last-minute adjustments all collided, it looked even better.  