The Designers
The Designers
The Designers
Meet The Designers
Saif Ud Deen
Mr Saif Ud Deen was born and raised in Levenshulme, a district of south Manchester. He studied menswear design, and at 23 he’s the youngest of the MR PORTER FUTURES candidates. A third-generation British Pakistani and practising Muslim, his designs are inspired by his local community and incorporate elements of streetwear and traditional Islamic attire. He describes his collection concept as “an autobiography of sorts, a culmination of my own experiences and how faith and fashion intertwine with the urban environment.”
Messrs Ryan Edmonds and Julian Canda
Messrs Julian Canda and Ryan Edmonds – the design duo behind Miles Leon – hail from the Portland area of Oregon but met while they were both working in New York City. They followed different educational paths – Ryan studied apparel design while Julian studied business and marketing – but connected over a shared outlook on fashion that promotes craftsmanship, natural materials and slow, purposeful design. Their collection concept focuses on the garden as a metaphor for our individual selves: “Like a gardener, we must tend to and nurture our own gardens by providing nourishment at the source of the structure: the mind,” they say.
Ms Kat Tua
Born and raised in a small town on New Zealand’s North Island, Ms Kat Tua moved to Sydney to pursue a career in fashion and spent 10 years working for a number of retailers before quitting her job last year in order to launch her own brand. TUA is inspired by Kat’s exploration of her Maori heritage, and its first collection – “Past, Present and Future” – includes references to the Polynesian Panther Party, a social justice organisation, which protested against racial discrimination in the 1970s and 1980s, and a concert held in Auckland by Mr Bob Marley in 1979.