Industry Informer – Lulu Kennedy of Fashion East

Lulu Kennedy – director of UK based project Fashion East – is an unassuming fashion professio. Her style is laid back – the anti-thesis to some over-styled types scattered amongst London Fashion Week. She’s a likeable person – loyal to her cause and void of any potential symptoms of Fashionitis. Therefore it was a pleasure for Michelle Morton-Banks meet the East London darling of fashion and chat about the desires of Brit culture and her ever-evolving project…

To eat, sleep and breathe your job can be painful but sometimes unavoidable. And in fashion, like other difficult sectors, even the most dedicated of individuals can lose sight and hope. Fashion East recognise this and choose to support designers in need of assistance. East London’s Truman Brewery and Topshop also understand the perils of the industry and in turn support Fashion East’s plight. The format is simple – Lulu and her team search for new designers – twice a year sponsoring these designers to present their work. This helps struggling designers to expose their concepts to international press and buyers during the London Fashion Week period. From her modest Brick Lane office, Lulu explains, “We offer a stepping stone for designers… we make it possible for designers to make themselves known to the industry on a national and international scale” You’d think such a platform would hail the support of everyone, but unfortunately, that is not the case.

Healthy Criticism?
Most press are complementary of Fashion East. However, British Vogue has been known to question the projects choice of designers.

“>The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere’ Jurgen suggests a corruption in the public sphere or the community of discussion. The corruption Jurgen discusses is said to come from oppressive medias – small creative projects like Fashion East, and specifically a designer such as Gareth Pugh encourage a buzz new thought, which opens up the public sphere and the discussion within it. As long as Lulu defends her cause then over-powering publishing houses cannot dictate the mode.

Back to Life
Away from cultural theory and back to reality – Lulu has just returned from Paris Fashion Week and has her inbox to deal with. In a flash you could imagine – zillions of Viagra spam, demanding journalists, temperamental designers and fashion liggers, all wanting a piece of the Fashion East cool. But still, Lulu is calm and takes times to find images for the PFSK fashion report. Her aim is to make anyone she represents, move forward – lets hope for fashions sake, people like Lulu continue to populate the fashion industry.