East Londoners can sit front row for free this London Fashion Week as The Lab E20, East Village’s new flagship for experiential retail, streams the latest looks from the catwalk as part of a collaboration with The British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion.
From 17 – 21 September, The Lab E20 celebrates one of the capital’s most iconic fashion events through a host a of live screenings from designer catwalks including Vivienne Westwood, Molly Goddard and KNWLS as well as films from designers themselves.
Established by the British Fashion Council in 2020, the Institute of Positive Fashion celebrates industry best practice and encourages businesses to create positive change in the fashion industry.
London Fashion Week ‘Digital’ features as part of PREVIEW – The Lab E20’s six-month cultural programme developed by Futurecity and supported by Get Living. September sees the programme move into its next phase: Regeneration. The theme encapsulates Newham’s regeneration as the future borough of fashion, re-thinking retail, lifestyle, materiality and design.
Later this month, community and fashion businesses will also come together in the space to celebrate sustainability and innovation throughout the Fashion District Festival which takes place across five Stratford venues from 22 – 26 September. Events at The Lab E20 include an upcycling ‘Trashion Factory’ workshop and a party and repair ‘DiscoMake’ workshop with Fashion Open Studio.
From 27 September Fashion District will also run a student takeover in the space, putting on a series of inspiring fashion-focused events and workshops for young creatives (16+).
Located at 3-4 East Park Walk, The Lab E20 has been designed and produced by Christopher Raeburn, founder of RÆBURN, with a focus on positive fashion and sustainable living.
Ailish Christian-West, Director of Real Estate at Get Living, comments: “East Village like all good London neighbourhoods will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the community and our residents. Something that resonates with us all is supporting sustainable and active lifestyles, creating spaces to empower people to live and work as they desire.
“Our vision is for East Village to become a stage where meaningful things are created, offering visitors and members of the community the opportunity to experience and see things being made, to learn about the products and the design, before buying them.”
Alongside the British Fashion Council Institute of Positive Fashion, PREVIEW programme partners include architectural and regenerative design practice D-Lab; LOANHOOD, an East London start-up fashion rental platform; The Sustainable Angle, the UK’s leading resource for sourcing sustainable materials, and global activist and maker platform Fashion Open Studio (Fashion Revolution).
