BFC announces "Utopia" exhibition for International Fashion Showcase

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Dec 1, 2015

Next year, 2016, marks the 500th anniversary of Utopia, Thomas More's inspirational text.

As part of the celebrations at Somerset House's "Utopia 2016: A Year of Imagination and Possibility", the British Fashion Council has gathered emerging designers from 25 countries for "Fashion Utopias." It is the fifth edition of the annual International Fashion Showcase (IFS).

Somerset House's West Wing will be turned into an imaginary terrain where the designers can share their visions of the future. Among the countries taking part are Nigeria, Indonesia and the Czech Republic, and a winning designer and country will be chosen by a panel headed by Sarah Mower MBE, BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent and Chief Critic at Voguerunway.com.

Mower said: “At a time when it often seems as if we’ve plunged into a dystopian age, it’s a liberating act to think about exactly the opposite: if we could create a Utopia, how would we want it to be? The theme set for the fifth International Fashion Showcase will bring the optimistic visions of over 80 emerging designers of 25 countries to London – a capital known for holding up the ideas of aspiring fashion talent as pre-eminent. From the entries we’ve already seen, this year’s showcase will be a chance to witness a phenomenally uplifting inter-cultural compare-and-contrast."

"Each country’s deeply-felt exhibit is also to be framed with a national curator, a fast-developing field of collaboration on the frontiers between art and fashion. The installations, which for the first time are to be set in the beautiful surroundings of Somerset House, promise to give a flash-forward to the possibilities of multiple happier futures. Prizes will be awarded for both designers and curators, and we expect to see the beginnings of many careers starting right here, in London Fashion Week.”