London

The designer: Erdem

Erdem
The designer
‘Waxed African fabrics, Celia Birtwell prints and dodgy fabrics from Shepherd’s Bush market’ made up half-Turkish, half-English, Canada-raised designer, Erdem Moralioglu’s graduate collection for the Royal College of Art in 2003 . ‘It was flammable!’ he laughs. In 2005, having spent a couple of years in New York with Diane von Furstenberg, Moralioglu, now 30, won the prestigious Fashion Fringe award and launched his own label. While his silhouette and colour have stayed true to whimsical form, the quality of fabrics (think luscious double duchess silk satins) have naturally improved.

Unlike many London designers, Moralioglu’s label Erdem has also been a commercial success; his covetable dresses are glamorous but they also have street cred. As a result he boasts a stockists list that even the most established designer would be proud of: in London alone, Selfridges, Liberty and Harvey Nichols. The new collection, cleverly fusing romanticism with polished sophistication, includes ‘weird doll-like shapes and impressionistic prints, similar to the effect when you look out the window of a train’. And of course, it’s refreshingly wearable. www.erdem.co.uk
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The photographer: Alice Hawkins

Alice Hawkins
The photgrapher
‘I’m obsessed with Page 3 girls,’ admits Alice Hawkins, who has just completed a short film project with glamour model Danni Wells for art website www.showstudio.com. ‘They’re ripped off a lot and I wanted to do something a bit more honest.’ It’s not the first time Alice has got up close and personal with her subjects; her projects for fash mags like i-D and Pop involve road trips through odd cultural backwaters and dressing local characters in this season’s must-haves.

Since graduating from a graphic design degree course at Camberwell College of Arts in 2001, Hawkins has shot everything from Moscow high society and it-bag toting Essex girls, to J-pop bands and Maggie Gyllenhaal for a recent Agent Provocateur ad campaign (fittingly, Hawkins used to work in the brand’s Soho store). Now 28, she’s preparing a new body of work for her first solo exhibition at new Kentish Town gallery Spring Studios in September.
www.alicehawkins.com

The agent: Murray Arthur

Murray Arthur
The agent
Think of any high-profile fashion shoot or ad campaign in recent months and, chances are, Murray Arthur had a hand in it. His family of young photographers, stylists, illustrators and design consultants regularly work with titles like Self Service, L’Uomo Vogue, Dazed and i-D, and brands like Marc Jacobs and Armani. After 13 years in the fashion industry, Arthur set up a small creative agency last March.

‘I’m more proud of what I’ve achieved in the past year than in the last ten!’ explains Arthur, who’s become the authority on new creative talent in London. Highly esteemed up-and-coming photographer Matt Irwin, stylist Robbie Spencer, illustrator Husam El Odeh (discovered on MySpace) are on the books and even designer Jonathan Saunders is a consultant. ‘They’re all so different,’ says the agent of his clients, ‘with genuine talent. And I know all agents say this, but they’re nice people, too.’
www.murrayarthur.co.uk

The art director: Becky Smith

Becky Smith
The art director
Launching a fashion magazine in a hugely saturated market is a bold move but not one that fazed art director Becky Smith. A well-established Vogue designer who walked out of Manchester University with a first-class degree in graphic design less than a decade ago, Smith, now 31, realised her career-long dream and launched her own fashion magazine Lula in September 2005 with stylist pal Leith Clark (its editor-in-chief). ‘I felt like there were so many fashion magazines out there that were all the same,’ she says. ‘But there wasn’t anything for women like myself. I wanted to create something you discovered softly which didn’t dictate to the reader: very feminine, intelligent but un-intimidating.’

Smith started the mag in her Clerkenwell flat with a group of friends, a computer and a phone. Her aim was to get the same calibre of top photographers, models and designer labels she’d worked with at Vogue but on a minuscule budget. She’s managed so far, with Lily Cole, Kirsten Dunst and photographer Karen Collins just some of the fashion A-listers involved. Lula, now sold globally and readership increasing with each issue, is a refreshing alternative to the rest of the newsstand. And who are the readers? ‘We are talking about everyone from teenagers to women in their late fifties,’ says Smith proudly, who lets slip that Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman is a fan. There aren’t many magazines that can boast that.
www.lulamag.com

The stylist: Stevie Westgarth

Stevie Westgarth
The stylist
‘It’s great that the spotlight’s back on London Fashion Week,’ says 26-year-old stylist Stevie Westgarth. ‘Luella’s back, Vivienne Westwood’s back, and there was last year’s Marc by Marc Jacobs show…’ Westgarth assisted on shoots for titles like Exit, i-D and Jalouse in spare moments during his zoology degree at UCL. He scored an internship at Dazed in 2003 and ended up assisting one of the magazine’s executive fashion editors, Alistair Mackie, for almost three years. ‘Suddenly I was working with people I’d always admired, people who are brands in their own right,’ he says.

Now a full-time stylist, Westgarth is a very busy man. Drawn to the subtleties of adolescent style tribes and street culture, he will style the Hans Christian Madsen and Felder Felder shows at LFW. In the past few weeks he’s also shot features for V Man and for Italian mag Rodeo, and has just dressed high-school goths in Chanel for Dazed.

Future fashion
New names to watch
Thanks to his dark, atmospheric style Aussie fashion photographer Leigh Keily, a student at the London College of Fashion, is already in demand, shooting for the official Fashion Week newspaper, The Daily Rubbish.

Debuting for Fashion East is David Saunders, AKA DavidDavid. The Chelsea College of Art graduate mixes up vibrant, op-art-inspired geometric prints, sportwear and tailoring.

Home-grown creative designer, DJ, stylist and fashion editor Kesh’s fresh take on ’80s vintage will appear as part of the MAN show and has already been picked up on by rappers Lupe Fiasco and Big Daddy Kane.

Miss Bibi, is a new jewellery designer, debuting at the exhibition, who takes inspiration from miniature doll’s-house artefacts including phones, candlesticks, revolvers, picture frames and lanterns.