Mark Fast

Following in the footsteps of Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh and Jonathan Saunders, Mark Fast is the next young London designer in line to set the fashion world alight.

The 28-year-old graduated from Central Saint Martins last February and his CV is already enviable. Last September he was chosen to show at London Fashion Week as part of the Topshop New Gen scheme and his hand-crafted knitwear caught the eye of a host of insiders. The buzz behind his label built and in February he not only had the great and the good of the fashion scene out of bed and sitting front row at 9’o clock in the morning (no mean feat, we can tell you), but also had them racing to pre-order once the show was done. Check out his collection and you’ll see why. Inspired by the power of nature in his native Canada but infused with a dash of London cool, his body-hugging, bum-skimming knitted dresses with deconstructed panels and sexy cut-out sections nailed the luxe-grunge look that’s set to be a wardrobe staple come autumn. We want to wear it all now.

And he hasn’t just been busy working on his own collections. Fast has just spent three seasons working alongside Bora Aksu, a year working under Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and he consulted for Loewe on the label’s a/w09 collection. Rumour is afoot that he also is set to produce a collection for a big high street brand (no prizes for guessing which one), and our sources tell us that other exciting plans are in the pipeline – we can’t wait to see what he does next.

Mark Fast’s a/w09 collection will be stocked at Browns Focus.

By Emma Sells