Cotton News

COTTON USA Sponsors Flourishing Designer Louise Gray at London Fashion Week

The catwalks are set to be awash with cotton yet again this season, as COTTON USA reveals flourishing designer, Louise Gray, as the recipient of its prestigious London Fashion Week sponsorship programme. Louise, an advocate of U.S. cotton, will unveil her latest collection at London Fashion Week, 16th – 21st September 2011.

model on catwalk

Heralding the seventh year of the COTTON USA sponsorship programme, its support gives up-and- coming fashion creators an opportunity to explore the huge variety and versatility of premium U.S. cotton fabrics and use their design flair to transform them into exciting and original fashion pieces to showcase to the fashion elite in London. This marks Louise's third season as the COTTON USA sponsored designer; previous winners of the prestigious grant include: Richard Nicholl, Meadham Kirchhoff, Nathan Jenden, Sinha-Stanic, PPQ, Preen, Gardem Paris and Deryck Walker.

Hailed as the one to watch by British Vogue and winner of the New Talent Award at the Scottish Fashion Awards 2007, Louise is a rising star in the fashion industry. The Scottish born designer studied at The Glasgow School of Art and went on to graduate with an MA from Central Saint Martins College in London.

Celebrating Louise's sixth consecutive season at London Fashion Week, her Spring/Summer 2012 collection is inspired by 'a spot, a stripe and a check', and seeing how far she can take them. It includes prints developed into devores, patch work and new craft techniques. In classic Louise Gray style, texture will feature heavily as will hand embroidery, from beadwork to various takes on traditional stitch work. In addition to this, elements of Louise's Scottish heritage will also permeate her latest collection.

Louise's design signature is based on brightly hued, boldly textured garments whose shapes are simple and where movement and embellishment take centre stage. Employing a wide range of materials, including fabric made with extra-long U.S. cotton Supima® yarn, nothing is quite what it seems. Contrast is key and Louise reworks traditional stitches and embroidery techniques to create modern folk details and trompe l'oeil effects.

Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager of
COTTON USA, commented: "We have a strong commitment to young talent and the COTTON USA sponsorship programme is a huge boost for designers looking for ways to develop their work. We are delighted to be working with Louise for a third season – she is a perfect fit with
COTTON USA. Her confidence and sense of adventure is unrivalled and we can't wait to see what her latest collection has to offer".

On being selected for the COTTON USA sponsorship programme once again, Louise said: "The past two seasons have been fantastic and I'm so pleased to have the ongoing support of COTTON USA". She continued: "U.S. cotton always features heavily in my collections as it's one of my favourite materials to work with. I'm looking forward to exploring new ways of using cotton in my Spring/Summer collection".

Louise will show her Spring/Summer 2012 collection at 17:30 on Monday 19th September at Topshop Venue, Waterloo.

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