Designed in Hackney: next up in our series of stories about Hackney fashion design is the A-Lu-Ha collection by Lu Flux, combining vintage patchwork with Hawaiian details.
Pastel fabrics are layered up then laser-cut with fringes evoking grass skirts or patterns taken from Hawaiian shirts.
The collection also incorporates silk macramé and images of warrior masks.
Flux uses fabrics she salvages locally and end-of-line materials.
She studied at the Edinburgh College of Art before moving to Paris to work. Her studio is now near London Fields.
See our other stories about Lu Flux »
Here’s some more information from the designer:
For Spring Summer 2012 Lu Flux draws her influences from the expectations of a tropical British Summer and then, the reality. The idyllic Polynesian collection oozes summer fun, complete in candy colours and Hawaiian imagery.
“A-Lu-Ha” clings to the anticipation of a scorching summer in the mind’s eye of Britain. Then, as forecast, there is an interruption with a downpour of British showers.
The hope for paradisiacal blue skies, endless days of sunshine lying on a pure white sandy beach complete with grass skirts, Tiki masks and leis is crushed by rain, to be replaced with jam making and macramé potholders at a car boot sale in a field in Kent.
As expected Lu has incorporated her trademark pastiche of patchwork, which includes a dress made from vintage silk scarves in a collage of round Suffolk puffs – a traditional decorative technique consisting of gathered circles of fabric sewn together at their edges.
A modern twist on the Hawaiian shirt sees crisp laser cuttings of hibiscus flowers and Tiki-masked warriors dancing round campfires teamed with elegant laser cut crepe de chine Tahitian grass skirts. Tiki masks emblazon teeshirts and apron dresses, appliquéd with even more patchwork puffs and embroidered Hawaiian mementos embellish pockets.
The collection sees the introduction of macramé techniques using reels and reels of silk thread sponsored by Alchemy Yarns. Alchemy creates luxury hand painted all-natural yarns which subtleties cannot be commercially re-created nor made by a machine.
Each yarn type responds uniquely to each individual colour value, making nuance, sophistication and intense colour magic. The silken straw in the collection is knotted in complex sequences and echoes the grass skirts of dancers at a luau.
From dresses to raincoats this sugarcoated collection demonstrates at its best the ever-present playfulness to Lu Flux. “A-Lu-Ha” SS12 travels beyond last season’s inky colour palette and heavy fabrics towards a delicate hued potpourri of soft silhouettes and floral fancy.
Lu Flux will be exhibiting the new SS12 collection “A-Lu-Ha” in the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House during London Fashion Week from 16th – 20th September 2011. The collection will also be exhibited at Rendez-Vous Femme during Paris Fashion Week from the 29th September – 2nd October and at the Zeniya Inc showroom at Tokyo Fashion Week from the 18th – 31st October 2011
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Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.
More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.
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