Lulu Kennedy, founder and director of Fashion East, catches up with Crane.tv to talk about her latest venture: Lulu & Co. After supporting ten years worth of fresh design talent, Lulu is now ready to launch her new project, focused around creating a series of limited edition collections.
"The idea of the range is that there is something for everyone."
Since the conception of Fashion East in 2000, it has stayed true to its name and ethos of incubating fashion's brightest young stars. Lulu has played a key role in supporting young emerging talent through the difficult stages in their early careers. With assistance from loyal sponsors such as Topshop and The Truman Brewery, the two shows at London Fashion Week and showcases in London and Paris, give designers exposure to international press and buyers with a catwalk presentation. Working with the likes of Gareth Pugh, Roksanda Ilincic and Jonathan Saunders amongst many others, these young designers have gone on to enjoy a glittering path of success subsequent to their work at Fashion East.
Now, alongside the 10th birthday her company, Lulu has taken the opportunity to launch independent label Lulu & Co - named after her personal blog. The first project of the new label collaborates with some of Fashion East's most notable alumni to create a collection of capsule dresses inspired by, and celebrating a decade of philanthropic enterprise. These ten dresses include both new pieces and iconic designs that have either been reissued or re-mastered with different cuts and fabrics. With these limited edition pieces the brand epitomises both the intimacy and the universal appeal of an independent label. Thus the bespoke quality of the pieces is strongly felt through the notion of staying small and not competing with bigger fashion houses. Revisiting designs from Richard Nicoll and Holly Fulton as well as eight of Fashion East's other prominent names; each garment bears their unique signature in its aesthetic.
In this video Lulu takes Crane.tv through the concept behind the label, the creative process and the debut collection. The range is now available from Matches and Harvey Nichols.
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Text by Shekha Vyas for Crane.tv