A Suffragette Artist

LONDON, United Kingdom —  Claire Barrow, who spent three seasons at Fashion East before receiving NewGen funding three seasons ago, is just the kind of designer that needs to navigate London and its approach to talent carefully. At her presentation, also held in the Institute of Contemporary Art, attendees were confronted by 15 metre canvasses depicting Barrow's interpretation of ancient Egyptian art. These were mirrored by the collection's conical-shaped ball gowns crafted from paintings in the same series. Some models stood on raised plinths, with gallery-like white cards printed with descriptions of the clothes before them. It was an evocative touch, but in this setting the initial impression was one of unbridled artistic creativity, not fashion.

On further inspection, however, several very wearable and desirable pieces emerged from the tableaux. A series of jacquards and knitwear pieces, created in partnership with the renowned John Smedley mill, captured the character of Barrow’s artistry; their cartoonish depictions of the suffragette movement and female empowerment both sharp and charming. An illustration of a woman burning her bra looked like a 17th Century woodcarving, liberated from some despotic tome on witch hunting.

As both a fine artist and a fashion designer, Barrow sees no reason to compartmentalise her creative expression or the differing branches of her eponymous brand. When asked whether one day she envisaged selling her clothes in department stores around the world, she answered: “Of course I hope my clothes sell. When you see them on the rail, there is a commerciality about them. But why just the clothes, why not art as well?”