lfw: wåven

London Fashion Week is a time for emerging and established designers to push the boundaries and showcase their new season collections. In this series we look at some of our fave up and coming designers who are bringing their AW17 collections to the LFW Designer Showrooms. Next up is Anika Islam, founder and designer of contemporary denim brand Wåven.

Who inspired you to get into fashion and launch your own label?

I’ve always carried a deep rooted passion and understanding for denim making. This art has always been at the forefront for me; coming from a family of denim manufacturers. I learnt the processes and technicalities of manufacturing denim, and the attention to detail it requires from shadowing my father from a very young age. I studied Economics at Edinburgh University and after a short stint at Central Saint Martins it felt like the perfect time to start up a minimalist denim brand at an accessible price point. I saw a gap in the market and haven’t looked back since.

You’re London-based yet Scandinavian inspired, how would you say this influences your designs?

London is at the forefront of design, inspiration and influence but when you live in a city that never sleeps, you need to find a balance to the hectic bustle. We find solace and simplicity in the ethos of Scandinavian design which we translate into everyday contemporary clothing.

Talk us through your design process.

The design process is always continuous and ever evolving at Wåven. Travel, landscapes, arts and architecture always play a huge part in our inspiration.
We kick off a season with a concept and colour story; identify our source of inspiration and determine how we can incorporate that with our Wåven ethos. With a few seasons behind us, it’s incredibly important for us to see what our customers are buying and what they love to see from us so we always keep our customers at the forefront of our design process.

Describe your typical day.

Every day is incredibly varied at Wåven! Being a start up brand, I have to be clever about how I spend my time to make sure the whole brand is running efficiently. My day starts with a catch up with my whole team and then my time is split down to sales, design, social media, production, logistics and of course making sure all our existing and potential customers are happy.

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Can you tell us what the inspiration was behind you AW17 collection?

Akihisa Hirata’s concept of ‘pattern in lines’ inspired our collection this season: lines that follow each other, lines that come to an end only to create the beginning of another line, merging together to create a tessellating, triangular and beautifully infinite pattern.

Hirata’s use of geometry and open ended patterns at different scales, heavily influenced the way we looked at objects, landscapes and images. We explored and experimented with the concept of tessellating patterns and nordic winter landscapes. We captured Hirata’s work of angled surfaces and gradations of light and shadow through our ‘geo landscape’ prints and ‘tessellater’ prints in the collection.

Highlights of fig, blush pink and moss green sit alongside traditional weaves and indigo hues to convey a conceptual yet modern approach to denim.

What have you got planned for the future?

Taking Wåven to new heights, expanding our range into other areas such as accessories and home, as well as expansion plans in the Middle East, China and the US.

www.waven.co.uk

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