Alternative Fashion Week 2010

I was invited down to day 2 of Alternative Fashion Week at Spitalfields Traders Market to view a range of collections by new and emerging designers, who have each fought for a place in the final 60. Alternative Fashion Week 2010 is presented by Alternative Arts, with daily catwalk shows at 1.15pm all this week.

Tuesday’s line up included 4.2morrow, Charlie Chambers, CoolTan Arts, Dorota Damian, Hackney Community College, Hanna Kille, Prilly Lewis, Pavel Merxuz, Georgia Nash, Stacey Richards, Tanya Smith, Kimberley Startup, Hayley Trezise and West Thames College.

I was there to support contemporary designer TANYA SMITH. Tanya graduated from Leeds College of Art last summer and has been interning at high street fashion houses and working on her own collection since. The Natural Look AW 10/11 was inspired by shapes, contours and colours found at Kew Gardens.

Designer Tanya Smith with Amelia Gregory of Amelia's Magazine

Key pieces included an oversized coral jacket with large lapels and an ankle length dress with dolman sleeves, high-waist structured bottle green jeans with top-stitched pleating detail and retro floral printed (by textile designer Anna Maria Horner) side pockets. Jumpsuits were also heavily featured in the collection, shown both on their own or teamed with interesting jackets.

Another collection that caught the eye, though not for the same reasons, was Come On Now Kimi, Grow Up by KIMBERLEY STARTUP, a nostalgic collection including wooden toys and colourful accessories, which sent the photographers crazy.

The final designer GEORGIA NASH showcased her collection The Nut Was Too Strong to Crack, with each model representing a different character from The Nutcracker production. The velvet, satin and silk fabrics beautifully complemented the shapes and layers of the outfits, each teamed with interesting accessories including clutch bags and oversized bows with little wooden nutcracker dolls glued to the models’ heels.

Here's a clip of what went on behind the scenes:

Images & film clip by SAROLTA MARTON

To view Tanya's look book visit http://www.tanya-smith.co.uk/