A Fashion Story That Needs to Be Told
Design by Maame Baryeh
As season five of the Untold Collective reaches its climax at London Fashion Week 2009, Catch a Vibe explores a story steeped in diversity.
‘Untold gives up and coming designers and creatives an opportunity to be visible in the fashion arena,’ claims founder and designer Maame Baryeh. It offers them a platform with which to step their fashion-savvy feet through the door – onto the other side.
Established in 2007, with one distinct mission statement in mind, this design collective is destined to break the barriers of fashion and art with their fifth fantastic season. The Untold team encompasses ethnically diverse individuals from the fields of textiles, fashion, art, and entertainment. 36 designers work together – along with photographers, stylists, and make-up artists – to showcase their creative talent to the British public ‘as the story is told…’ Being the fiercely competitive arena that it is, young designers and creatives alike struggle to succeed in the fashion industry as they battle against financial constraints and a lack of industry contacts. Untold offers them all of these things, and a whole host more.
Print by Saffron Knight
Britain is renowned for its diversity, its multicultural background, and its design talent. Yet there seems to be a severe lack of ethnically diverse names showing at London Fashion Week each season. Surely it is about time we celebrate our colourful English make-up? Untold is set to do just that as the vastly growing collective hosts an off schedule catwalk show at LFW (21st September), as well as taking part in the Fashion Diversity event at the London Museum (17th-19th September), and debuting at Clothes Show London earlier this year. They are thrashing their way through ethnic barriers ‘leaving no story unheard’.
Names to look out for include BARÜCH – synonymous with intricately handcrafted pieces from self-taught designer Angela Knowles, MA:LE – the menswear collection by Untold’s founder Maame Baryeh, and Saffron Knight’s artistic textile prints, which represent a cultural exploration into her Jamaican background.
Design by Angela Knowles
The Untold collective will continue to shake up the British fashion industry as long as they persist with their dreams and ideals. By ‘creating an aura of inspirational, directional and creative genius’, the nearly-40-something-strong team are generating opportunities that never before existed to unknowns. Their fashion story needs to be told.
