Your phone cover can speak volumes about you – as potent as any slogan sweater. It’s that first hello to the curious eyes about you. New shoes can go unnoticed and bags may be left at home, but your phone is hardly ever out of sight. Therefore it’s at the forefront of your fashion, a decorative wrapper to reveal a little glimpse of who you are – the token gesture as to what you might stand for or who you might be. Protective phone cases have been lighting up fashion’s radar as a simple way to self-express and identify your tribe or fashion gang. If you’re going to get involved, let us inspire you with creations by some of the UK’s top emerging fashion talent.
Ryan LO
Hong Kong-born womenswear designer Ryan Lo is a ritzy antithesis to no-frills fashion. Shortlisted for the prestigious LVMH Prize in 2015, his splashy collections are shaken champagne bursts of ruffles, ruches, lace and tulle – part runaway princess bride, part runway regency grandma. The London designer has won the support of both the NewGen and Fashion East initiatives since the launch of his label in 2013. SS18 was bittersweet – a “sad wedding” show featuring trailing veils attached to top hats, double ribbon-wrapped boater hats and pinched-shoulder princess dresses worn with eight-eye Dr Martens. Unashamedly kitsch, his case is a fuchsia fruit salad meets floral farmyard scene of daisies, strawberries and “hug me, love me” baby animals.
Dilara Findikoglu
With her unmistakable swathing gothic dresses, Istanbul-born designer Dilara Findikoglu is a scarily good find for fashion. Having staged her own guerrilla degree show outside of Central Saint Martins in 2015 after being omitted from the school’s official show, Findikoglu made a name for herself as a new enfant terrible and is now in demand with the bad girls. Rihanna wore a wicked red corset on the cover of CR Fashion Book; Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey did the cover of Time in the “Victorian Alien” dress and Madonna sang this summer in a “Garden of Eden” jacket. Collaborations with Kanye West’s Yeezy and Marilyn Manson merchandise have trickled in, and Bella Hadid and Adwoa Aboah are buying in bulk. Not bad for a SS18 London Fashion Week debut. Findikoglu’s Google case is as vamp as you’d expect – with an eerie dagger, rose and serpent set-up.
Charles Jeffrey
When John Galliano presented Charles Jeffrey with the emerging menswear designer award at The British Fashion Awards 2017, the Scottish-born newcomer was platform-booted and pinstripe-suited. Jeffrey is a Dalston disco designer in that his very social scene played muse to the label he went on to launch. Loverboy was founded in 2015 under the same name as Jeffrey’s club night – an enterprise that helped to pay his way through Central Saint Martins. Last year he circled on to The Business of Fashion’s “500 most influential people in fashion” list. Harry Styles has performed in many a bespoke Loverboy creation, including a violet double-breasted jumpsuit. Jeffrey’s phone case for Google features his illustrative and bold brush stokes in red, white and blue, fresh from the SS18 runway.
Bobby Abley
Bobby Abley’s collections are pretty often out of this world. Nostalgia-driven – with escapist references veering from Bambi and Mickey Mouse to Star Wars and Power Rangers – the designer has the likes of MIA, Bella Hadid and Sofia Richie reaching for his unisex suiting, Dalmatian-print gilets and oversized joggers. Since his label’s launch in 2012, Abley has shown as part of London Collections: Men, but SS18 was his third co-ed season. And he landed in Laa-Laa land with a Teletubbies-themed show. Models wore the iconic headpieces, tubby-shaped backpacks and more politically-leaning, “Foreign”-sloganed hoodies. His Google phone case sticks to his trademark bear logo, embellishing with a scattered 3D gummy-bear effect in searing red, yellow and blue.
Sadie Williams
Sadie Williams is best known for her use of metallic, popping colour and graphic-blocking prints. Named a Selfridges Bright Young Thing in 2013, the same year she graduated from Central Saint Martins with a distinction, the Londoner was last year listed by Forbes as one of Europe’s 30 under 30 for the arts. This year Williams – who has presented on schedule at London Fashion Week with NewGen backing since AW15 and created prints for Marc by Marc Jacobs – was awarded a place on the Swarovski Collective. Her Google case design features the striking symbols that inspired her SS18 collection – taken from the 1930s English youth movement, the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift.
Marques’Almeida
Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida have always had a raw edge, from the frayed-denim street styles they first spun their label from in 2011 to scooping the LVMH prize for young fashion designers in 2015. Now, for the Portuguese-born, London-based duo, lines are cleaner cut. SS18 saw little denim but a lot of seaside stripe, boldly decking out bias-cut maxidresses as well as their monochrome pinstripe Google phone case. Joining forces while at Central Saint Martins, Marques and Almeida – who had stints at Vivienne Westwood and Preen respectively – now have a fanbase including the likes of Solange Knowles, Selena Gomez, Marion Cotillard and Rihanna.
Ashley Williams
Born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, Ashley Williams has a kitsch cult of a label inspired by pop culture past – such as River Phoenix, Michael Jackson, Garbage Pail Kids and Clueless – but is worn by modern icons Rihanna and Harry Styles. Williams has collaborated with Red or Dead shoes and cast Grace Neutral, a body-modified tattoo artist with forked tongue, purple eyes and pointy pixie ears to model in her SS16 show. Her Google case features an Ashley Williams classic – the “First Born” cherub design that has graced her much-coveted T-shirts, anoraks, hoodies and dresses.
Art School
Draw me like one of your French girls – boys or gender-neutral subjects. South London-based Eden Loweth and art criticism graduate Tom Barrett, make up the unisex fashion label Art School. Championing a decadent but minimalist “queer aesthetic”, Art School set up with a presentation for AW17 during London Collections: Men. They hit their stride for SS18, elevated to Fashion East’s MAN catwalk. The intricate red and white floral check design that washed across shirts and strapless ankle-grazing dresses – on male models – shows up again on their intricately-designed Google phone case.
Mimi Wade
Dial M for Mimi Wade – the British-American designer who counts Lana Del Rey, Adwoa Aboah and Lady Gaga among her film-noir fashion fans. She glamorously graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2015 with Debutante Drunk, a hand-painted Hollywood horror movie collection – and made her London Fashion Week debut on the Fashion East platform last year. She continues to create scenes for SS18 with MimiMount, a fashioning of 1950s-style pin-up and pageant dresses and Marlon Brando printed T-shirts. The collection is inspired by her grandmother’s Hollywood home (the actress Pamela Curran, who appeared in I Dream of Jeannie), and “I dream of Mimi” is a slogan that former model Wade has waved over patent pink mini-rucksacks and her Google phone case alike. Her Dial M for Mimi case design features the haunting Hitchcock film’s iconic black telephone (a riff on Dial M for Murder, obvs). Now showing on phone screens near you.
