The spring/summer edition of London Fashion Week, ran from September 12 to 17, 2024. After some years at the Old Selfridges Hotel, the British Fashion Council’s NewGen catwalk this season returned to its former home at 180 The Strand. New designers presented their collections as part of the NewGen scheme: including Karoline Vitto, Steve O Smith, Pauline Dujancourt, Kazna Asker, and Yaku Stapleton.

KAROLINE VITTO



Brazilian-born and London-based designer Karoline Vitto celebrates the most controversial and overlooked aspects of the female form. Subverting narratives about shape and size, Vitto celebrates the curves and accentuates the folds, placing the body in the centre of the design process. Inclusivity and responsible use of resources are at the forefront of her namesake label founded in 2020, with all pieces made on demand, ranging from sizes UK8 to UK28.


STEVE O SMITH



Steve O Smith is a London-based designer that makes drawings. This process, developed while completing his MA at Central Saint Martins, uses creative construction and fabric appliqué to transform his drawings on paper into wearable objects that embody the gesture and emotion of his mark-making. In this circular technique, pattern cutting becomes an extension of the drawing process, scissor and stitch are re-framed as drawing tools, and the resulting garments are drawings in their own right.


PAULINE DUJANCOURT



London-based, Pauline Dujancourt was founded by its eponymous designer, a graduate from Central Saint Martins. The brandaims to redefine womenswear through intricate textile processes like crochet and hand knitting, embodying the designer's contemporary approach to knitwear. Striving for singular and sensual silhouettes, Dujancourt blends knit elements and woven strips into her own fabrics, infusing movement into the drapes and lightness into the clothes. Moving away from vintage aesthetics, the collections explore the deconstruction and disheveling of knitted pieces in contrast with delicate metallic crochet trims, perceived as “jewellery knits”. Collaborating with skilled female artisans around the world, the brand aims to empower them, nurturing independence and freedom.


KAZNA ASKER



Kazna Asker is a fashion designer that has created a brand encompassing the values associated with community, activism and charity. Kazna won the Debut Talent prize at Fashion Trust Arabia, representing her home country Yemen. Her work combines traditional Middle-Eastern fabrics with nylon tracksuits and outerwear. All designed and hand-sewn by herself creating one of one pieces. Asker graduated from Central Saint Martin’s becoming the first designer to showcase a Hijabi collection at the CSM’s MA Fashion show 22'. Alongside her political activism through fashion, Kazna has contributed to community projects in her hometown of Sheffield, UK, including the fight for POC teachers at the Sheffield Town Hall. She has experience in volunteering with refugees in the Netherlands, working with rural communities in Nepal and co-organised community fundraisers for Yemen and Palestine.


YAKU STAPLETON



Yaku Stapleton is a London-based designer from St Albans making sculptural forms infused with fantasy and viewed through the lens of Afro-Futurism. At the heart of the brand's philosophy lies the ethos: explore, self-reflect, exchange, evolve, enjoy, which guides every design and interaction. The brand welcomes all who appreciate clothing that tells a story and provides an opportunity for wearers to revisit the feeling of childlike discovery, reconnect with the pure joy of self-exploration, and experience nostalgia for times of great freedom.

Photo Cover: Backstage Karoline Vitto SS25