The four emerging designers of Fashion East 2020

Fashion East has been one of London Fashion Week's most popular events for 20 years. Founded in 2000 by Dame Lulu Kennedy, who is also the designer of Lulu & Co and editor-at-large of LOVE Magazine, Fashion East is a platform for promoting young design talents that, for each season, allows three menswear designers and three womenswear to present their collection during London Fashion Week. Among Kennedy's talents are names such as JW Anderson, Martine Rose, Craig Green and Simone Rocha. This year's young design talents have not been missed either – with the only difference that historical circumstances have relegated the showcase of the four new talents presented this year to the digital world. The four young designers protagonists of Fashion East 2020 have in fact presented their debut collection through a fashion film, presenting collections capable of touching themes as personal as they are topical. 

Maximilian 

Maximilian Davis presented the group's best collection, veiling the socio-political topics he tackled with his creations behind a personal metaphor: the cultural heritage of the Carnival of Tridad and Tobago. In 1834, the slaves of Trinidad and Tobago were emancipated and later transformed the annual Carnival, during which they had been forced to perform in the past, into a gesture of resistance to Eurocentric traditions, celebrating a liberation that continues until now. 

The end result, as it appears in the lookbook taken by Rafael Pavarotti, is as much a celebration of the carnival culture of Trinidad and Tobago, with models dressed as blue devils and the fabulously feathered tiares of Nasir Mazhar; as a pleasant re-enactment of the aesthetics of the early 2000s, with low lives and mini-skirts that evoke the iconic looks of Lil' Kim. 

Goomheo

Korean Goom Heo has created a particular masculine aesthetic for her debut collection, featuring striking drapes and fluid volumetrics, inspired by the erotic paintings of German artist Paul Wunderlich. The eye and the look is the leitmotiv of the collection, declined conceptually in a series of dresses that wrap the body, reveal parts of it but do not leave it exposed: the teaching (if one exists) is that it is the clothes and their way of accompanying the body the real show. The silk chiffon, the bands that rain from the belts contrasted by the high hem of the crop-tops creates an interesting and very refined game.  There is no shortage of androgynous and artisanal touches in the rest of the collection that, in spite of the vaguely noir mood of the lookbook, add a dose of cheerfulness and carefreeness to the collection. 

Nensi Dojaka

Ethereal, dark but no less playful and lively is the collection of Nensi Dojaka, Albanian designer whose sense for deconstruction would lead her, in the 90s, to rival the regal Ann Demeulemeester. The inspiration for dance and freedom of movement, however, lightens the mood of a collection made of dresses that look as delicate as butterflies. Dojaka is the group's most famous designer thanks to the endorsement of Bella Hadid, who wore one of her dresses to the MTV Awards last August.

The care placed in building the architecture of these clothes, which are both impalpable and very structured, would bring the 27-year-old designer back into the realm of avant-garde fashion. The relationship between strength and vulnerability is also the basis of the choice of black as the dominant colour of a collection that also includes bodywear and swimwear as well as a series of evening dresses.

Saul Nash

Titled Flipside, this collection is inspired by the concept of function, movement and transformation. Nash is a dancer as well as a designer and his clothes that, in appearance, possess a distinctly sporty mood but that actually enclose a grace and an inventiveness that nowadays is rare. The clothes in the collection are cut three-dimensionally, without side seams, and equipped with zips that, opening or closing, can alter its function, there are also some bags that can be worn at the ankle or arm. Some classic garments have been added almond cuts that reveal the skin and help the physical movement, a kind of union of aesthetics, statements and functionality while the sneakers of the lookbook were provided by Nike and customized by Hernan Guardamagna.