Top image: Photo by Carly Sco. featuring L-R Yuhan Wang, Gareth Wrighton, Charlotte Knowles & Alexandre Arsenault of Charlotte Knowles

London-based talent incubator Fashion East has announced the designer line-up for its FW19 womenswear show.

Taking place on Sunday 17th February, the platform welcomes back Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault of Charlotte Knowles for their third and last season, and Yuhan Wang for her second, alongside newcomer Gareth Wrighton who will present his debut collection for Fashion East.

A graduate of the BA Fashion Communication and Promotion course at Central Saint Martins, Wrighton’s work employs a variety of media to explore society’s crossover between the digital and handmade. The British designer has previously worked with South African photographer Kristin-Lee Moolman and Sierra-Leonean designer Ibrahim Kamara on Soft Criminal, an exhibition at New York’s Red Hook Labs set around an imagined storyline about characters from the African diaspora.

“Gareth came onto my radar back in 2015 when he was making collections, film and video games with endless energy,” says Lulu Kennedy, Founder and Director of Fashion East. “I loved his vision and sense of adventure as an artist working across many mediums whether solo or collectively. I’m excited to watch his work evolve in a catwalk context and welcome him to our line-up. We’re all very proud of Charlotte and Yuhan’s beautiful collections; their exploration of sexuality, femininity and what it means to dress for yourself as a woman.”

Gallery: Soft Criminal / by Gareth Wrighton, Ib Kamara and Kristin-lee Moolman

Fashion East FW19 takes place on Sunday 17th February.