LFW’s newest rising star – Nabil Nayal
Nabil Nayal’s debut
London Fashion Week presentation was one of the hottest tickets this
season, as his “design practitioner” approach to fashion, combining
research with fashion design, is not only refreshing, but highly creative
and in the setting of the British Library, his Elizabethan and contemporary
womenswear collection for spring/summer 2019 brought a dash of decadence to
fashion week as well as emphasising the importance he places on research in
fashion education and practice.
Nayal has been on the fashion radar for a while, winning various
accolades including Graduate Fashion Week’s Best Womenswear Award in 2008,
and the British Fashion Council MA Scholarship Award, enabling him to study
at the Royal College of Art, which led him to pick up the Royal Society of
Arts Award. He was also a finalist for Fashion Fringe, and in 2017, he was
a finalist for the prestigious LVMH Prize.
But it seems 2018 is Nayal’s time to shine, as the Syrian-born British
designer was named as one of the winners of the prestigious British Fashion
Council Fashion Trust Grant. The charitable initiative offers not only
financial funds, with the eight awarded designers sharing grants totalling
380,000 pounds, but each designer also takes part in a structured mentoring
programme, such as legal advice, sustainability and industry best practice
and digital training to build up their labels into global brands.
“Honestly, even just the attention you get because of the prestige that
Fashion Trust holds is amazing,” explained Nayal when he spoke to
FashionUnited during his LFW presentation. “But in terms of some cash flow,
some money to help us do these big events.”
Nayal added: “The Fashion Trust is also about the business support, the
team are always there to answer questions and offer advice. I’ve called
them many times and they’ve always ‘Call us whenever”. I can’t thank them
enough, they are just incredible.”
Nabil Nayal makes London Fashion Week debut with a presentation at the
British Library
The British Fashion Council also helped Nayal secure the British Library
for his presentation space, which marks the first time a designer has ever
stage a show in the building, and is fitting as Nayal’s spring/summer 2019
collection is inspired from Queen Elizabeth I’s 1588 Tilbury Speech, which
she delivered ahead of the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish
Armada, and can be seen printed on the collection and the model’s faces.
“I just finished my Ph.D. 6-months ago and after spending so much time
in archives and libraries researching, I felt totally at home being in a
library, that I thought it would be incredible to showcase my work in this
space,” Nayal said. “I thought that was a crazy idea but after speaking to
the British Fashion Council and the British Library they said it was a
possibility.”
Nayal added: “We’ve been working on this for three months – they allowed
me special access to all their archives, so I was able to see all their
Elizabethan imagery, the Book of Hours and the Tilbury Speech, delivered by
Queen Elizabeth I. Just being able to showcase the wealth of the imageries
they have here in this building is a real honour.”
His Ph.D. thesis focusing on Elizabethan and contemporary sportswear
really shines through in his spring/summer collection which highlights
Elizabethan principles of design, such as the powerful silhouettes, the use
of pleats and dramatic construction from the soft silk tulle ruffles to the
stiff and starched on the front of the shirtdresses, and the regal drama of
the floor-grazing cape-like semi-sheer organza dresses.
The SS19 collection also see’s Nayal’s love of the classic white shirt
further refined. It was Nayal’s craftsmanship of his white shirts that
caught the attention of Karl Lagerfeld, during the judging of the LVMH
Prize, who loved it so much that he bought it for Amanda Harlech, and the
shirt has been since become affectionately named ‘The Karl Shirt’. This
season the shirt-form offers what Nayal calls a “puritan backdrop” that
“whitewashes” the complex hand-cut embellishments made of bonded poplins
and marcella.
As well as showcasing the brand’s signature elaborate couture-style of
craftsmanship, the designer’s sister was wearing a 40-metre long tulle
cloak that cascaded down the steps of the library, there were also wearable
ready-to-wear pieces such as the printed trousers, voluminous smock dresses
and tailored shirts, showing how the label is looking to the future by
introducing more commercially-viable designs into the mix.
“Some of the pieces are much more time-consuming than others to make,
the one that my sister is wearing a 40-metre long cloak took forever to
make, it literally filled my living room, there was no floor space
anywhere,” he explained. “And the black taffeta dress has a lot of
embellishment, so the beading, the gathering and the hole punching was all
done by hand and then there are much more straight forward pieces like the
white dress, which I call my more everyday pieces.”
The mainly monochromatic collection, has print heavily weaved into the
designs, with the featured print inspired by Queen Elizabeth I’s Tilbury
speech showcased alongside digitised images of the Queen, royal insignias,
historical cartography and hymn sheets on dramatic flowing cloak-like
dresses, belted silk dresses with kimono sleeves and tailored trousers,
which feature accents of pale gold, greens and rich blood red, shining
through on the black and white looks.
Nayal calls himself a “design practitioner,” adding that while he is
pushing forward to grow his label that he will always straddle the line
between research and academia and also practice, and added that he believes
these principles will push the label forward as well as inspire his future
collections.
“I’ve always been a designer who likes to be in the library researching
and I’m very much into the Elizabethan and Renaissance era, so it was a
natural kind of progression to take my research into a Ph.D. context, so it
doesn’t feel like I’m doing anything different now, I’m still doing my
research in a way at the library, it will continue being this
research-practice mix.
“Equally, my Ph.D. was all about disruption so I’ve taken that concept
and apply it to my collection, so I think all my collections going forward
will be about disruption and the Elizabethan period,” added Nayal. “I’m
definitely going to keep on with the Elizabethan, that’s not going
anywhere.”
Nayal has a way of recontextualising the spirit of the past by offering
the modern-day woman a regal touch with masses of tulle, ruffles and his
unique approach to tailoring – and the inspiration of Queen Elizabeth I and
the Elizabethan era adds strength and confidence to his dramatic and
beautiful designs that makes him stand out from other emerging
designers.
“It’s going to be a big shift, from full-on research for my Ph.D. to
dedicating all my time to the collections – but we’ve some ambitious plans
and I’m excited,” expressed Nayal.
Images: courtesy of Nabil Nayal