Interview/Profiling with Lu Flux

Lu Flux’s Sea and Be Seen collection for AW11 plunges into the alluring mysteries of the deep blue sea. The brands distinctiveness is present in the form of great British craftsmanship and trademark wide shapes. She describes the colour palette as paying credit to the murky depths of the sea and, “embroidery referencing the bioluminescent creatures who make their own light to attract mates and dissuade predators, in an underwater world teeming beauty, colour and hidden dangers.”

Lu Flux is of a calm nature and talks with a thoughtful demeanour. Set apart from fast paced society she grew up in the Isle of Wight and travelled to the mainland to study Fashion at Edinburgh College of Art. Lu triumphed by winning the Ocean Terminal Scottish Fashion Graduate Award for her final University collection. Subsequently, success followed her with post graduation, where she sailed into a design assistant job with an innovator of the fashion world, German designer Bernhard Willhelm.

Returning from one fashion capital to another, Lu relocated to London in 2008 but says of the time that, “I still wasn’t committed to fashion, it wasn’t until I put myself down to show off some work at a friends gallery in the east end, that my career kick-started. I was then put down for the Ones to Watch show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout in 2009.” Here, she showcased ‘Innocent Merriment’ a collection full of British eccentricity with sculptural pieces that had a life of their own. Lu was awarded the Innovation award in conjunction with the Ethical Fashion Forum who celebrated her inventive designs, this led to an exhibition at the next three Estethica showcases. By September 2010 her collections were also being shown in Paris, Amsterdam & Tokyo.

This is Lu’s third season of working with Green Shoes, collaborating to make ethical hand made shoes. The velvet straps and mysterious buckles of her boots echo the colour scheme of the collection and have a fantastical essence. It would be easy to imagine one of Lewis Carroll’s characters dressed head to toe in any of Lu Flux’s collection. Similar to the way Carroll used fantasy, logic and word play to create literary nonsense, Lu has used fantasy, logic and wrought craftsmanship to make fashion nonsense, which has radiated through all of her collections.

A fashion film also accompanies the latest collection, directed by Neil O’Driscoll, the footage is based in a room covered with luxurious velvet and inhabited by fantastically dressed people, who appear to have become bored with each other’s company. Animation brings the cinematic experience to life with aquatic creatures representing the underwater feel of the clothes. SS11 collection, over the hills and far away, is currently stocked in New Zealand, Japan and several London based locations such as Wolf & Badger in Notting Hill and Labour of Love in Islington.