Fashion: It's all black and white

Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Sunday 30 December 2007 01:00 GMT
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Jens Laugesen, who has just scooped the British Fashion Council's Fashion Forward prize for a second time, might just be the industry's most-qualified man: after graduating with an MA from Central St Martins just five years ago, the Danish-born designer has won the Topshop New Generation Award an unprecedented three times. His Fashion Forward double is all the more surprising, given that Laugesen took a sabbatical in 2006 in an industry that changes daily, a year would usually be long enough for most designers to be forgotten.

His speciality is casual tailoring and his monochromatic garments were famously described by Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, as having a "sluttish elegance". His reworkings of the classic tuxedo for autumn/winter 2007 are absolutely of the moment.

Laugesen's qualifications are impeccable: before he arrived at St Martins, he studied haute couture design at Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. And not content with simply studying fashion, after graduating in 1991, he worked as a freelance fashion journalist in Scandinavia, before returning to Paris for a Masters, in Fashion Management, from the Institut Franais de la Mode in 1994.

Laugesen subsequently worked at various Parisian fashion houses, before arriving in London to further adorn his resum at St Martins, where he now teaches. After graduating with distinction, his MA collection was snapped up by the iconic French boutique Maria Luisa to be exhibited in its windows during Haute Couture Week in 2002.

Having pocketed a cash prize from Fashion Forward to show at London Fashion Week, look out for Laugesen's name gracing the catwalks come February.

Jens Laugesen's collection is available at Dover Street Market, London

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