DASH SS14 Launch Party At London Fashion Week

 Words: Matt Willms

Images: Matt Willms

Guest list only, neon lights, fashion, loud music, dancing, photographers, candy coloured hair - the DASH SS14 launch party was all of these.

 Plus you could pick up your own edition of the world’s leading fashion illustration magazine at only £5 (cash only).

Last night, just south of Covent Garden in a warehouse-like space on the Strand, the drinks flowed and the clothes glittered at one of London’s many parties during the city’s famed fashion week.

The event attracted a crowd that filled capacity and left the press disgruntled, waiting outside in the cold for guests to leave so they could get in; unless they had the swagger to ask the bouncer if they could “speak to Harald”.

DASH launched two years ago and has redirected focus back onto fashion illustration; a limelight that photography stole when the first photographic cover of Vogue was printed in 1932.

DASH editor in chief NoéMie Schwaller says, in regard to photography, fashion illustration brings “imagination, a different type of imagery and a certain freshness” to the industry.

The 160 pages are a feast for the eye and most could be framed and mounted on a wall, while the text is smart but not pretentious.