Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large
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| Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle at FEAL HQ |
This post has been a long time coming. Ever since the autumn,
Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle have been regular visitors to FEAL HQ, coming to show us how they were progressing with their AW12 collection and getting advice from the FashEd who always loves to see what new designers are up to. We've seen the evolution of their ideas from experiments with their quite astounding textiles techniques, into the formation of the collection which was shown at Vauxhall Fashion Scout on the very last evening of London Fashion Week.
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| A FEAL favourite- the reverse appliqué jacket |
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The Leutton Postle studio where knitters are constantly hard at work
I'm only in my second season working in fashion, so it's been great to see young designers at every stage from initial thoughts and experiments to showcasing the finished collection in the VFS showroom in Paris. They also helped me out with a talk I recently did about knitting, and how young designers like themselves are pushing the thinking about what can be done with what is sometimes seen as a 'traditional' technique. In fact, that's what Sam and Jenny are all about- they use crafts and look at making them new and right for now. They are sort of the antithesis to the girls who hand knit vintage 1950s patterns of cutesie little jumpers and cardigans. |
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Up close: the reverse appliqué technique which runs through Sam and Jenny's work.
 | | Another of the techniques used by Leutton Postle: E wrapping |
For AW12, a face motif became the anchor of the collection. There were 3D knits, with chunky plaits popping out and cascading towards the floor, as well as more abstract reverse appliqué dresses and trousers. On close inspection, you see the faces peeping out at you, and it's a little bit haunting and very clever. For the show, some of the models even wore face masks, just to hammer home the strong theme. On a visit to their studio a month before the show, Sam and Jenny showed me the mood boards they were working with. There were images of tribal crafts and patterns, face painting as well as colour palettes and scraps of hand knitting experiments. Among their 'inspirational women' were Princess Diana and Camilla Batmanghelidijh. Camilla would look amazing in a piece of Leutton Postle. |
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| Mood boards in the Leutton Postle studio |
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| Shoes by Chris Delapena for AW12 |
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The face masks used in the show, which was styled by Ellie Brown (image from www.retoxmagazine.com)
The absolute best thing about what Leutton Postle is the creative potential of their pieces, which makes them perfect for visually stunning editorials. If we were doing shoots, we'd be calling in Leutton Postle knits, trousers and dresses all the time. As the images below show, the tufts of wool, beautiful fabric combinations and off beat decoration (we loved that they combined gold tinsel and pom pom yarn in their AW12 knits) photograph fabulously. We're pretty sure that all the coolest, most creative women in London will be wearing Leutton Postle before too long. |
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| This image and above from Idol magazine SS12 |
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| Leutton Postle in Phoenix, March 2012 |
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| Leutton Postle in Bstore magazine |
Browns obviously think the duo are onto something too because they've bought pieces from Leutton Postle ever since Jenny's graduation collection from the Central Saint Martin's MA course a year ago. If you're not sure about going all sugar sweet, girly pastel for SS12 then Sam and Jenny's super bright, hand crafted pieces could be a just the cool alternative you've been looking for...
