Seeing beautiful designs come alive from the minds of young creatives and losing yourself in the sea of originality and self-expression, fashion week is chaotic and beautiful. While we walk amongst the rich tapestry of garments and accessories, admiring how designers continue redefining the meaning of clothing and fashion, it becomes quite easy to get lost in the art without looking deeper into its story. Each button, stitch and buckle tells a story, and MKH wants to focus on these stories and help others understand the true meaning of the clothes. Witnessing a presentation of a new collection is like entering a new world, a world of fairytales and memories. As we wander around the minds of the designers, each new piece shows us the way.

The importance of storytelling in fashion must never be undervalued. We see how the story is reflected in the clothes and begin to see parts of ourselves and our own lives looking back at us through the shape of a jacket or the design of a dress. Although we can spend hours discussing and hypothesising about the meaning of the collection and, more importantly, its meaning to us as individuals, it is important to start at the beginning. And who can better tell us the origin story of the clothes if not the people who envisioned them in the first place?

On Friday, our Head of Social & Content, Livia Vourlakidou, learned the stories behind the beautiful collections of two emerging designers who presented their work at the LCF Graduate Showcase.

Selin Yücel.

Past and present collide in Selin Yücel’s collection. The designer drew inspiration from her Turkish heritage to create a unique blend of contemporary fashion and traditional craftsmanship.

“My collection is inspired by the immigration of my grandfather from Turkey to Germany as a gastarbeiter to escape poverty in the 1970s. There’s a heavy ’70s aesthetic throughout my collection and lots of traditional craftsmanship. Here, you can see the kepenek, which is a traditional Turkish shepherd’s coat. I got inspired by that as a starting point and carried that out in my collection, collaborating with lots of felt makers. Also, housewives that knitted for me for my collection. I talk to them every day and let them know about the collection. So, community building was a big part of my collection to develop a social sense of sustainability as well as material-based sustainability.”

“You could also see a booklet of the maker’s hands. I’m trying to be more transparent with the behind-the-scenes of the making of it and trying to have my customers be a part of the making of the collection so they end up being a part of my brand as well.”

When Selin was asked if she had ever been given a piece of bad advice as an emerging designer, she told us:

“I remember being told to be ‘more European’, to be more acceptable. I have lots of dots in my name, so they were like, “Drop those so that people can actually pronounce it,” and it was just telling me to be less from my culture, less Turkish or less me, basically. I thought that was horrible advice because that’s kind of what I am about, building the Turkish community, so that was terrible advice.”

Morgan Widmer

With Morgan Widmer’s collection, Welcome to Morgania, we enter the designer’s mind, where common objects transform and take on new meanings. The designer’s new and exciting takes invite us to disappear into a world of her own making.

“My collection is called Welcome to Morgania. It’s where I’m inviting you to escape into a world I’ve created called Morgania. I’m from a really small town in the US, in West Virginia, and fashion isn’t really a thing there, so I came here to escape. But I ended up referencing shapes of clothes and what people wear from where I’m from, but then trying to make them more extravagant or Morganify them.”

When asked about the main issues facing graduate and emerging designers, Morgan responded:

“It just feels super saturated. There are a lot of people who are trying to fight for the same jobs and opportunities. It’s kind of difficult and scary to jump into when there are so many people trying to do the same thing. So I think maybe if there was just more collaboration and openness.”

To the question of what she wanted to see more of in the industry, she replied:

“Collaboration and more fun. I guess when I design, I am super playful and not so serious. So I guess just more playfulness and enjoying it.”