Celebrating 15 years of the ‘alternative’ approach to fashion

I received an invite by email a few weeks ago from a fashion designer, Lenka Padysakova, to come down and check out her fashion show on Monday 20th April 2009 at 1.15 p.m. Her new collection was part of Alternative Fashion Week that took place at Spitalfields Traders Market, in London.

I popped down to Spitalfields Market in the East End to see what was to be an excellent fashion show. It was like a non-stop whirlwind conveyor-belt of designers’ collection after collection. The catwalk (The rest of the world call it the runway) was underneath the glass roofed Spitalfields Traders Market and was a brilliant place for the five day fashion gala. It took place from Monday 20th – Friday 24th April 09.

Alternative Fashion Week is a counterbalance to the London Fashion Week, the British fashion Industry’s showpiece event. Alternative Fashion Week, now in its 15th year, uses new models and young designers to bridge the gap between graduate and designer fashion. The fashion shows were open to the public, free and packed to capacity with aspiring models, fashionistas’ and fashion designers , which makes for very amusing people-watching.

Lenka’s collection was called ‘DandNouveau’ and told the story of beautiful water nymphs and sharply dressed Dandies. It was inspired by Kay (pronounced "kigh") Nielsen’s (1886-1957) illustrations and the shapes and colours of the ART NOUVEAU movement.

I uploaded the Monday Alternative Fashion Show that Lenka's ‘DandNouveau’ collection is in on to my profiles gallery. Her collection comes in on the video at 4.48 - 5.24. All 5 days shows are in my gallery for those that are interested.

What I really liked about Alternative Fashion Week was that it promoted independent designers, recent graduates and student designers from fashion colleges and designers from the worlds of circus, theatre and carnival. Their diverse work from women's wear, menswear, headwear, footwear, leisurewear, underwear; fetish wear and fantasy wear all shared the same runway space.

Showcase your Genius

Bedroom Genius

All photos taken by Mr Man