april-2011

62 metropolitan
~ insider people ~
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS
From London, Paris and Brussels, Karen Chung hails three hot new designers to watch
LONDON: LEE ROACH
Lee Roach featured recently as one of
the bright prospects in Selfridges’
now-iconic window display of 20
up-and-coming UK designers. He
started learning the craft at Savile
Row tailor Kilgour, before graduating
from Central Saint Martins. His new
pieces for Spring/Summer 2011 are
available alongside his graduate
collection. It’s menswear, but not
as we know it.
The 24-year-old’s designs are defi ned
by an androgynous fl uidity, and have
been sported by Romy Madley Croft , of
Mercury Prize-winning, indie-electro
group The xx. Intriguingly, in an
industry which persistently plunders
the past and the future for inspiration,
his starting point for the Now collection
defi nes a rigorously contemporary
aesthetic. His graduate collection was
entirely in black, perhaps unsurprising
for a designer who claims to be inspired
by personal uniforms and people who
wear the same thing every day. Spring/
Summer 2011 is all about minimal,
ultra-wearable pieces, which combine
feminine shapes with angular tailoring,
all available in black, of course. Bright
Young Thing, indeed.
À suivre: trois jeunes créateurs de Londres, Paris et Bruxelles
Lee Roach
Roach était récemment parmi les
jeunes couturiers britanniques dont
les créations ont été exposées dans
la vitrine désormais mythique de
Selfridges qui mettait en valeur vingt
jeunes talents. Formé chez Kilgour à
Savile Row, il a aussi étudié à Central
Saint Martins. Ses nouvelles créations
printemps/été 2011 sont disponibles de
même que sa collection de fi n d’études.
Et oui, c’est du menswear, mais pas
comme les autres. Les créations de
ce jeune designer de 24 ans se ca
ractérisent par leur fl uidité androgyne.
On les a vues sur Romy Madley Croft ,
du groupe électro indépendant The xx,
lauréat d’un prix Mercury. Dans une
industrie puisant sans cesse dans le
passé et le futur, l’esthétique de Lee
Roach est au contraire rigoureusement
contemporaine. Sa collection de fi n
d’études est entièrement noire. Logique
pour quelqu’un qui dit s’inspirer des
uniformes personnels. Minimaliste et
très portable, sa collection printemps/
été 2011 combine des formes féminines
et des coupes angulaires, en noir bien
entendu. Parce que gaieté et jeunesse
ne font pas toujours bon ménage.
PARIS: MAXIME SIMOËNS
The fashion fi rmament has been rocked
by 27-year-old Maxime Simoëns, who is
cutting a swathe through the hallowed
world of haute couture. Lille-born
Simoëns is the fi rst-ever designer to be
handpicked to join the couture calendar
without ever having staged a hautecouture
show. Having trained with Elie
Saab and Jean-Paul Gaultier before
launching his own label, his style has
been sported by the likes of Blake Lively
and Leighton Meester in the popular TV
series about high society and high jinks
among the Manhattan glitterati, Gossip
Girl. A brooding, almost militaristic
elegance, and unabashed luxury (satin,
leather, gold prints, as well as a vaguely
gothic fi xation with crosses) is
Lee Roach
Maxime Simoëns