Aitor Throup designs
Fresh out of the Royal College of Arts, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who's heard of the improbably named Aitor Throup, a young fashion designer from Burnley. And despite winning a series of awards over the past two years and having been offered a string of high profile placements, Aitor says he's "not desperate for a job", preferring to work on his designs and progress within the industry in his own time.
It would seem that his work is all the better for it. His September 2006 collection (his most recent) is a display of originality, combining elements of military costume and "hooligan wear" - the latter a product of his upbringing in the Northern town. There are even themes of Hinduism included in his work, again an influence of growing up in Burnley, where racial tensions between whites and Asians often reaches levels of physical conflict.
In terms of practicality, it's unwearable, but I find the design shown above, with its military-jodhpur style trousers and "skull bags" intriguing. Unfortunately Aitor does not have another collection out this year, obviously taking to heart his ethos of "working at his own pace", but his website contains a whole range of other designs, as well as some great looking concept drawings that I hope make it into production.