MARGIN TRADESHOW – EVENT REVIEW

18
Aug

Words by Sandra Falase

Being greeted with cheery smiles and amicable regards was definitely a much-needed warm welcome to a day that had shown the true colours of our beloved British dull weather, with the charming new location of the Hilton London Olympia Hotel, even the weather couldn’t rain on our parade (Sorry I couldn’t resist a pun). As we made our way through to where the event was, I was immediately hit by the essence of an excitable buzz, the room was alive and it was immediately apparent that there was an eclectic mix of different talent showcasing their trade.

We started off with Dream Nation, a young brand that consists of a designer duo based in Poland. The brand creates lines for Women, Children and Men, with their main aesthetic focuses being the utilisation of digital prints on a spectrum of different fabrics such as Bamboo and Cotton. The Brand was unanimously one of our favourites for the day, due to the contrast of simplistic silhouettes with the offset of the bespoke prints.

Similarly taking the idea of bespoke elements but turning the concept on its head was CHEEKLDN. The London based brand created by Charlotte Yamada is a ladies street wear brand that references elements of classic bourgeois style and reworks this in order to appeal to the trend aware and modern female mass, think Chanel’s Tweed Suit meets Missy Elliot circa 2004 (Specifically her Under Construction album), Yes I know – have a look for yourselves.

OS BURGUESES is a Portuguese brand that was birthed by the partnership of creative directors, Eleutério and Mia. Their most recent collection encompasses the use of fruits and demure patterns to form the premise of the collection. The collection particularly reminded me of a hybrid between Andy Warhol’s Artwork and Josephine Baker’s trademark image of the Banana Skirt.

STARs & TART founded by two friends, both with a graphic design background is a brand that creates specialists scarves that have been screen printed on silk before being individually finished by hand. Their most recent collection was inspired intergalactic mysteries and zodiac signs.

Lastly my favourite Brand of the day was CLON8, with the Designers themselves describing the collection as ‘Black Euphoria’ – my own personal (and totally non-biased) irrevocable love for Black on Prozac, and then some, may have had a part in making it my number one for the day. The founder Chilikova describes the spirit of the brand as Modern with an aim to blur the line between gender and the conceptions of the norm, this rang true to form as most of the items were unisex and didn’t have a specific silhouette that adhered to one particular gender.

Amongst the five brands mentioned above, there were other brands that ranged from Swimwear and Jewellery to Footwear and Quirky Backpacks, that all contributed to a very heterogeneous showcase.