Silja Manninen; Vauxhall Fashion Scout Exhibition; Freemasons’ Hall
I have never googled someone to this extent and found such generous a number of page results, all of which contain nothing substantial about the designer. Then of course, Google starts asking what year did Silja Manninen graduate from highschool and would I maybe like to print out a missing person’s ad… (I KID) No, I’m absurdly behind with these LFW posts, so I’m skipping the scenario of adding Silja Manninen as friend on Facebook and going through a lengthy So who are you again? Remember me, girl with the blue coat. No…? Anyway can I have some information? No…?, I will just cut to the chase by posting what I saw and felt. Unprofessio…what?
Shows at the Freemasons’ Hall was running over a little on the 20th so we had some time to burn at the Vauxhall Fashion Scout exhibition; this is where I found Silja’s AW10. Remember the craze about body chains, chainmail bras and leather cages? Here’s the rope equivalent. But this Finnish-Ukranian designer has been doing this since her student days at CSM 7 years ago, her MA pieces at LFW AW 2003 had been a series of parachute bondage, complete with ropes and body restraining knots. Her designs are now considered as (erotic) underwear, but you can see how beautiful the ropes render the hand dyed yellow satin, I personally think it should always be worn as outerwear, maybe minus the butt-wedge.
