LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES OPENING CEREMONY SHOWCASES THE VERY BEST OF BRITISH EMERGING FASHION DESIGN TALENT

London, July 27th 2012. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and The British Fashion Council (BFC) today announce that some of the very best young emerging fashion designers working in the UK helped design costumes for key segments of the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Over the course of the last year Suttirat Larlab, Creative Director for Danny Boyle, has toured the studios of the best of British based new young designer talent selecting those designers whose aesthetic fits the narrative of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Introduced to these designers by Sarah Mower, the BFC’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent, Suttirat and her team have chosen three main designers to showcase through the Ceremony and several others to dress individual talents and performers.

These three main designers are: Christopher Shannon, Michael Van Der Ham and Nasir Mazhar. Each of the designers’ studios is based in the East End, a stone’s throw from the Olympic Stadium from where their designs will be viewed by over a billion people worldwide. The segment that they contributed to required a representation of the present and future of the extraordinary influence of British Creatives in world of youth culture. There are about 350 dancers wearing their pieces within a segment of about 1200 dancers - a quarter of the segment is costumed purely by their work.

“London is known worldwide for its incredible talent in fashion design. We wanted to choose young designers who work and live in the East End for the Opening Ceremony and who create innovative and cutting edge new ideas. It has been an incredible experience working with this fresh new talent all of whom have dedicated themselves heart and soul to this project. The Opening Ceremony is an incredible platform to showcase the very best of creative talent in the UK and we are thrilled that Fashion is such an important part of this.” Suttirat Larlab, Creative Director of The Opening Ceremony

"The British Fashion Council is delighted to be supporting British fashion's contribution to the Opening Ceremony. We are thrilled that the Creative Directors of The Opening Ceremony decided to work with some of the most exciting emerging British talent based in the East End to help create costumes for key elements of the Ceremony as well as using more established talents to help dress some of the performers.

The British Fashion Council promotes leading British Fashion Designers in a global market. Our events and initiatives support and strengthen the UK's reputations for developing design excellence. There could not be a more outstanding showcase for this talent than the Olympics and we are delighted to have played a small part in showing the best of Great Britain's creative talent." Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of The British Fashion Council....