A Look Inside Samsung UK’s Skatewalk Event at London Flip Park Pop-up

For 17 days this month, Samsung UK has landed on east London’s Shoreditch High Street with its Drop in with Samsung Flip Park pop-up – a skate-focused experience organized in partnership with Skateboard GB. As part of the pop-up’s lengthy schedule of events, Samsung hosted a “Skatewalk” fashion show last week, welcoming a handful of exciting UK designers to the ramps.

The show took place in the Flip Park’s immersive creative hub. Sitting alongside the main skateboarding arena, the space featured a variety of interactive booths that gave attendees the chance to discover the Galaxy Z Flip5 features through a range of creative activities. For the Skatewalk show, these booths were accompanied with a specially erected catwalk flanked with ramps on either side.

After exploring the space, a crowd of stylists, curators and other creatives in attendance sat around the catwalk for the main showcase hosted by Fabio Dessena – better known as FD From the Future. Wall Street Mafia kicked off the show with models skating down the ramps in baggy knit pieces inspired by skate silhouettes. Coming straight from Manchester, Donkwear previewed their pieces next, displaying how tagging, graffiti illustrations and other streetwear signifiers inform their designs. The tracksuits of Teef Machine and GVNMNT also made an appearance as well as new deconstructed pieces from craft-led brands Joshua Samuels and Palmer UK.

With a range of new-gen designers uniting on the catwalk, the eclectic fashion show portrayed how traditional skateboarding uniforms are giving today’s creatives a foundation to form their own design language. Going deeper behind this growing trend, Dessena sat down for a panel talk with stylist Jacob Levine, creative director of All Within magazine Shammi Popat and featuring designers Stefani Nurding of Salon Skateboards and Joshua Samuels.

“Streetwear has evolved into a movement that has taken over fashion,” mentioned Popat. “We curated this show by looking at the different elements of skate and street culture, bringing in dancers and skaters on the catwalk. It’s all about bringing opportunities to people who aren’t on a direct path.” For Levine, who joined Popat to choreograph the show, organizing IRL events can prove to be a challenge but is something that young designers need. He said, “I think it’s important for fashion to be put in front of people, allowing them to engage with it as much as possible and see how outfits move and flow.”

With the event centered around the Galaxy Z Flip5, conversation turned to content creation and the power of technology. “Sometimes creating digital content is more important than the product itself,” said Samuels. “A lot of us here today are independent designers so we don’t have big marketing teams and have to rely on digital content.” He went on to share how he’s become a big fan of process videos, giving fans a look into how he upcycles old clothing. On the flip side, Nurding explains how she’s used content creation for herself rather than her brand, allowing her to “connect with a whole generation of expressive, female skaters.”

As the panel talk wrapped up and special prizes had been distributed, the floor was cleared and a line-up of Rinse FM DJs took the stage. For the final few hours, FAE, Ehua and Papa Nugs played a mix of tracks while guests continued to browse the creative booths with the Galaxy Z Flip5 and get a closer look at the garments on show.

Discover what went down in the gallery above. Be sure to check out Samsung’s closing party with Rinse FM on Dec 16. To find out more, head to the brand’s website now.