RICHARD QUINN

Last year, 28-year-old British designer Richard Quinn had Queen Elizabeth II in the front row at his first London Fashion Week show, while Amal Clooney turned heads in his floor-sweeping floral skirt-overtrousers gown at the Met Gala. The Central Saint Martins graduate has been lauded worldwide for his innovative use of wallpaper prints, and won the 2017 H&M Design Award and the first Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. His spring/ summer 2019 collection sees Quinn giving back to the community that nurtured him. Aiming to draw attention to underfunded art programmes in British schools, he eschewed the usual style suspects for his front row, replacing them with students from his alma maters. Models strutted to a soundtrack by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, first wearing black-out velvet bodysuits and tutus before the collection burst into bloom with Quinn's usual bold florals, like oversized frangipanis on a flowing shift dress and a kaleidoscopic minidress. This time he incorporated animal prints too, the cream of the crop being a leopard balloon number with a giant black bow sitting atop an empire waist. Time will tell what the gutsy designer has in store but you can count on it being wild and totally unexpected.