There will be 70-something designers participating in London’s spring/summer 2025 season, and at least 13 of them will have debuted as part of Fashion East. The capital owes a great deal to this beloved incubation programme, which has for the past 24 years nurtured the careers of – deep breath, because it always bears repeating – Kim Jones, Stefan Cooke, Craig Green, Maximilian Davis, Charles Jeffrey, Grace Wales Bonner, Supriya Lele, Simone Rocha, Jonathan Anderson, Knwls, Mowalola and Martine Rose. Much has been made of these unique discoveries, but Fashion East is at heart a forward-looking institution, and its latest cohort builds on a new and expansive era.
And so: Fashion East is announcing the names of its new cohort – Pia Schiele of the skate brand Loutre, Cameron Williams and Jebi Labembika of Nuba, and footwear designer Kitty Shukman – who will mount collections alongside returning artists Samara Scott and Tayah Leigh Barrs of Sos Skyn and designer Olly Shinder on 13 September at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. It’s the meatiest line-up in a while. “We couldn’t resist supporting five talents this season,” founder Lulu Kennedy and partner-in-crime Raphaelle Moore explain. “It’s a myriad of art, fantasy, queer club culture, elegance and luxury streetwear. But it’s best if we don't try and explain it. We’d rather you experience it, feel it and wear it.”
The golden ticket had been a longtime coming for each of Fashion East’s recruits. Kennedy and Moore had already spotted Loutre’s patchwork knits and hirsute jackets – cornerstones of the German-born Schiele’s deconstructed-reconstructed approach to upcycled design since having founded the brand in 2018 – on the content creator Deba Hekmat and Corteiz’s Clint. Nuba, too, had spent years roosting in their minds. Cameron started the label as a Central Saint Martins graduate in 2020, and his classmate Labembika joined as co-creative director in 2023 with the launch of an elegant and at times imposing collection of felted wool Melton coats, draped cloaks and nylon skirts. As for Shukman: “It’s impossible to miss her incredible creativity and footwear on Instagram,” the duo say of the former Yeezy designer’s strange experiments in 3D-printing. “We met IRL and loved her.”
This season will also mark Shinder’s final collection with Fashion East. His designs – wear them and you’ll feel wrong in a way that feels right – stick big, rubber-gloved fists into traditional working clothes, and have been some of the most impressive to have surfaced on the London catwalks in recent years. “I’m steering clear of reinvention,” he said of his previous collection. “It’s not a sustainable approach for me. My fascination lies in uniforms with an underlying theme of kink.” Shinder will be in good company alongside recent Fashion East alums Standing Ground, Johanna Parv and Karoline Vitto should he make the decision to go solo next season.
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