LONDON – This London Fashion Week marked a new era for Istituto Marangoni with its debut show and a patronage with the British Fashion Council.
The private school’s new principal, Valerie Berdah-Levy, said the BCF patronage provides students with visibility so they can become professionals in the fashion industry.
“Sense Datum,” a Latin synonym for enriching and expanding the senses, was the theme for each of the 10 students who showed this season, each with six designs.
Russia’s Arina Vartanova, winner of the Best Designer 2022 title, aimed to illustrate the theme by commenting on her “current position as a Russian living abroad” towards the Russia-Ukraine war.
Her collection, which was originally inspired by Soviet cookbooks, hence the chef’s hats and fruit-patterned oven mitts, later turned into her way of “speaking”.
A standout from her collection was the blue jacket cascading down the runway, which read “No War” in Russian.
The lineup also included Italian designer Guia Dell’osso, whose colorful designs told the story of a futuristic fairy tale about a prince who swallows a mushroom and then has visions of him searching for his princess.
Ho Hong Chang’s designs stole the show, referencing “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and the story’s messages about happiness. The extravagant oversized jackets of metallic leather and velvet fabrics acted as a metaphor for how people often seek to present the most exaggerated version of themselves to impress others, while many things are still missing from their lives. .
