Amelia’s Magazine | London Fashion Week S/S 2012 Showroom Review: EcoLuxe London

'Ecolooks' EcoLuxe London Exhibition LFW SS12 by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

‘Ecolooks’ by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

I was hugely excited that during this London Fashion Week I had the opportunity not only to go and see but also exhibit at the EcoLuxe London exhibition that took place in a beautiful space on the ground floor of the Kingsway Hall Hotel almost next to the Vauxhall Fashion Scout’s Freemasons’ Hall. Ecoluxe London takes place twice a year during London Fashion Week and is a non-profit platform that promotes fashion related ecoluxury brands and aims to raise awareness of ecological issues with the public. Its organisers, information pills Stamo and Elena Garcia, who are sustainable womenswear designers themselves, featured over 40 brands this year and EcoLuxe London is growing every year – here’s only a few examples that took my fancy!

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Lucy Harvey Ethical Stylist

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Ethical Stylist Lucy Harvey and Hetty Rose

Ethical stylist Lucy Harvey styling shoe designer Hetty Rose with a Plastic Seconds headpiece and necklace.

Upon entering the exhibition visitors were greeted by superbly talented stylist Lucy Harvey and her assistant Charlie Divall, who offered to upstyle them with various pieces from the exhibitors’ tables and then photograph them and tweet about it. I thought in this way Lucy offered a really fun, interactive introduction to the exhibition and a great way of promoting both the designers’ and the visitors’ work.

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Lupe Castro wearing Supported by Rain and Plastic Seconds

Stylist Lupe Castro styled by Lucy Harvey with a Supported by Rain coat and a Plastic Seconds headpiece, photo by Charlie Divall

Walking further into the exhibition the first thing to catch my eye was a series of gloriously colourful raincoats by Maria Ampatielou’s new brand Supported by Rain – seen above. Made of recycled umbrellas and end-of-roll waterproof fabrics, these raincoats are not only beautiful but also cleverly fold into their own pockets or hoods, whose insides have remained dry, so that you can put them back into your bag without any soaked diary dramas!

STAMO EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 by Celine Elliott

By Stamo S/S 2012 by Celine Elliott

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 STAMO belt

By Stamo, which featured in Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, is another brand I enjoyed especially because of the theatricality in the designs and the extensive use of found and recycled materials whose original form is often retained – as seen in this bullet belt.

INALA LONDON EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 by Caire Kearns

INALA London S/S 2012 by Claire Kearns

My neighbour exhibitor Alani Gibbon of INALA London showed some designs which were a natural hit with me becuase of their bright colours, but they further impressed me with their cleverness and versatility. For example a hooded short dress could be turned around and worn as an all-in-one playsuit! Not to mention the use of pulped eucalyptus fabric which felt amazing to touch.

OUTSIDER Ecoluxe London LFW SS12 by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

Outsider Fashion S/S 2012 by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

I was thrilled to see the brand Outsider winning the JP Selects womenwear award at the end of the show as they stongly promote the notion that ‘ethical’ fashion should just look like very good fashion with their range of classic but very stylish designs.

HEMYCA EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 by Celine Elliott

Hemyca S/S 2012 by Celine Elliott

Hemyca is a multi award winning brand and I was most attracted by this beautifully tailored matching dress and coat.

LFW SS2012 Agnes Valentine Ecoluxe London by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

Agnes Valentine S/S 2012 by Maria Papadimitriou aka Slowly The Eggs

Along with Hemyca above, whom I was not aware of, it was great to discover my dream swimsuit designer Agnes Valentine! The brand sources fine italian eco fabrics and their designs are minimal and classic but with bold colours and very feminine indeed.

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Hetty Rose shoes

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Hetty Rose shoes worn by Alice Wilby

It was an honour to meet another ACOFI designer Hetty Rose whose fun bespoke shoes are made using vintage Japanese kimono fabrics, Alice Wilby from Futurefrock modelled this pair and did not want to take them off!

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Golden Grass Company clutch

Next to Hetty Rose I found the friendly couple behind the Golden Grass Company who design jewellery and accessories for native artisans in Brazil to make out of a naturally golden, light and durable fibre, which is grown without chemicals or pesticides, under fair trade standards – LOVED this clutch!

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Monique Luttin headpiece

Sharing a table with me was Monique Luttin who makes intriguing headpieces using offcuts or vintage fabrics and found objects – I particularly liked this bird scull one which has a tribal, ritualistic element to it.

EcoLuxe London LFW SS12 Palstic Seconds printer packaging pendand

And finally a piece from the Plastic Seconds recycled jewellery collection I exhibited made out of the plastic, colourful bits one finds when unpacking a new printer…

As Hannah Bullivant pointed out in a previous post on EcoLuxe London, hopefully sustainable practices in fashion design will become mainstream and the brands that are still termed ‘ethical’ will no longer have to exhibit in separate showrooms and sections such as EcoLuxe or Estethica. Hopefully soon.

All photography by Maria Papadimitriou unless otherwise stated.

Categories ,Agnes Valentine, ,Alice Wilby, ,By Stamo, ,Celine Elliott, ,Charlie Divall, ,Claire Kearns, ,Classic, ,Coat, ,design, ,designer, ,Dress, ,ecodesign, ,Ecoluxe, ,Elena Garcia, ,estethica, ,Ethical brands, ,fashion, ,Feminine, ,Freemasons’ Hall, ,Futurefrock, ,Headpiece, ,Hemyca, ,Hetty Rose, ,Inala London, ,jewellery, ,Kingsway Hall Hotel, ,London Fashion Week, ,Lucy Harvey, ,Lupe Castro, ,Maria Papadimitriou, ,minimal, ,Monique Luttin Millinery, ,Outsider, ,Outsider Fashion, ,Plastic Seconds, ,Pulped Eucalyptus, ,Recycled Materials, ,shoes, ,Slow Fashion, ,Slowly the Eggs, ,Supported by Rain, ,Swimwear, ,tailoring, ,Vauxhall Fashion Scout, ,vintage, ,Womenswear

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Amelia’s Magazine | Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration launch party illustrations: meet Andrea Peterson

ACOFI Lily Vanilli cake by Andrea Peterson
ACOFI Lily Vanilli cake by Andrea Peterson.

Over the past few days a steady trickle of fabulous illustrations from the ACOFI launch night party (read my review here) have been flooding into my inbox… and I’ve been wondering how best to put them all together. In the absence of a better plan I have decided to plow through them alphabetically… So without further ado I present to you the wonderful artwork of Andrea Peterson, pharmacy prescription also known as Artist Andrea, seek also responsible for the cover art of ACOFI. She travelled all the way from Arizona to be with us on the launch day and I think that everyone was absolutely awed by her ability to create beautiful images from just a few dabs of watercolour, live, in front of a huge crowd.

You’ve already seen this image of Jessica Bumpus from Vogue but why not show it again? I think it’s absolutely beautiful… and I love the way that Andrea has made her a Vogue cover star. Bring back illustrated covers indeed! So elegant and glamourous. You can read Jessica’s wonderful blog about the event on the Vogue Green Style Blog here. Thankyou so much Jessica!

Jessica Bumpus of Vogue by Andrea Peterson
Jessica Bumpus of Vogue by Andrea Peterson.

The lovely Alexandra Haddow very kindly provided us with Pukka teas and helped out all afternoon: she is rather fittingly illustrated with tea cup in hand. She also managed to do a lovely write up of the event on LDNfashion online, and we hope she will be joining our little fashion team soon as well.

Alexandra Haddow of Pukka Teas by Andrea Peterson
Alexandra Haddow of Pukka Teas by Andrea Peterson.

Then there’s Lupe Castro: fashion stylist and freelance writer. I love her colourful vintage Pucci outfit.

Lupe Castro by Andrea Peterson
Lupe Castro by Andrea Peterson.

Francesca from Forward PR looks so demurely wonderful holding her copy of ACOFI, which she did so well in selling on the night. I loved her energy, so positive. What a lovely girl.

Francesca of Forward PR by Andrea Peterson.
Francesca of Forward PR by Andrea Peterson.

Here’s Nyla of Ethical Heaven – she writes a blog about sustainable style and beauty, and you can read her fab write up of the launch party here.

Nyla of Ethical Heaven by Andrea Peterson
Nyla of Ethical Heaven by Andrea Peterson.

And lastly here again is a reprise of The Pipettes: who unsurprisingly inspired more than a few illustrators to get their pens and paint brushes out. Ani Saunders is herself a very talented illustrator, and she has her own blog called The Lovely Wars, where she has written about the book, complete with her own unique rendition of Andrea’s cover. Take a gander here.

The Pipettes by Andrea Peterson
The Pipettes by Andrea Peterson.

Thankyou Andrea so much for coming to visit us in the UK and showcasing your incredible talent live! I look forward to working with you for many moons to come. You can follow Andrea on twitter on @ArtistAndrea and don’t forget you can buy Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration here, with a special 10% if you use the discount code ACOFI LAUNCH up until the 28th February 2011. Lastly, here’s my interview with Andrea on youtube, accompanied by rescue chihuahua Frida (I had to heavily edit out all the bits where I was cooing over the chihuahua). Enjoy!

YouTube Preview Image

Categories ,123 Bethnal Green Road, ,ACOFI, ,Alexandra Haddow, ,Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration, ,Ani Saunders, ,Artist Andrea, ,Bunker Cafe, ,Chihuahua, ,Ethical Heaven, ,Forward PR, ,Francesca, ,Frida, ,Green Style Blog, ,Jessica Bumpus, ,Lily Vanilli, ,Lupe Castro, ,Nyla, ,Pucci, ,Pukka Teas, ,The Lovely Wars, ,The Pipettes, ,vogue

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