Hidden Treasure

Discreetly placed amongst the museum’s historical artefacts, you’ll stumble upon a selection of work showcasing some of the best design graduates the UK has to offer – if you can find them that is.

In the midst of the British Gallery in the V&A, British-Ish, an exhibition that is part of the London Design Festival, was well under way this morning. Attaching myself to a crowd of camera-clutching press, I scurried along to scout out the pieces and snap them just for LOOKK.

Coming across Flaminia Saccucci’s lovely latex garments placed on a platform in front of a grand, gold mirror was the first pleasant surprise of the morning. After speaking to the gorgeous designer, it was obvious the Central Saint Martins MA Fashion graduate was already moving onto bigger and better things and is a definite one to watch out for in the future.

Saccucci’s graduate collection of floral, printed-rubber dresses and tyre-track leggings was awarded the L’Oréal Professional Young Talent Award for best student collection of the year. Not long after, the collection was snapped up by esteemed London-based store, Browns, where she is now stocking a selection of rubber garments, alongside jersey and leather replicas, which are exclusive to the South Molton Street store.

Flaminia Saccucci

The second surprise was finding Matthew Nicholson’s outfit created entirely from paper. The bespoke suit, Rolex Submariner 5512 watch and a Leica M3 camera (which is a working pinhole model), were all created using an A4 printer. “Making the desirable accessible through an A4 printer,” refers to the exclusive status symbol that can be obtained if you own one of these three universally desired objects. An intriguing concept and a fascinating final result, Nicholson is another graduate who is likely to crop up time and time again for his innovative work.