The London Fashion Week outfits you need to see.
London Fashion Week is always a highlight for anyone who can appreciate fresh talent and and forward-thinking design aesthetics. Unlike the it's sibling fashion weeks, London has only Burberry Prorsum to offer when it comes to mega brands - but this doesn't mean it's falling behind New York, Milan and Paris. As is usually the case, quite the contrary.
This season, London pleasantly surprised me yet again. Every designer was at the top of his or her game, and as we've been seeing a lot this season, restraint was a key design element. Meadham Kirchhoff for example - usually a burst of rainbow colours, music, dance, and madness - presented a mostly monochrome collection. Somehow, when the designers who a year ago sent something down the runway that could quite soberly be described as an 80s-glam-rock-alien do something subdued, it's just that much more appealing.
Editing this treasure trove of glorious looks down to just five is no easy task, but here are the absolute must-see (and hopefully wear) looks from London.
CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO SEE THE VOGUE REVIEW AND FULL COLLECTION
Christopher Bailey was in the mood for a little fun this season. This trench coat is the most obvious manifestation of the collection title: Trench Kisses. In a season where the bolder designers opted for a more restrained mood, Bailey, usually quite restrained, went bold. Flats are here to stay, (for now) metallic accessories make the garments modern, and somehow Bailey managed to make animal print look classy. The trench has been redefined yet again. How could you not fall in love?
Mary Katrantzou. Reigning empress of print. Things were looking much more sombre than usual this season. Katrantzou was exploring a darker theme (there were all-black looks this season) which manifested in an almost Expressionist way: the jagged lunes created by some dresses, the gloomy landscapes and shadowy figures in the prints. Still, there was something distinctly romantic about the darkness, perhaps brought on by the irregular flashes of colour and the rounded cuts as seen above. So this is how Mary Katrantzou does dark romance then.
The bib may have given it away. Otherwise you really wouldn't know this was Meadham Kirchhoff if no one told you. The designers did a visual one-eighty this season, combing Victoriana and the Twenties. Though there was more victoria than twenty, the latter was a key ingredient in making the former appropriate for today. From this dark creation above, to the monochrome trenches and ballerina-print dresses, there's no questioning this collection's imminent best seller status.
Spanish renaissance artists were the inspirations for the Peter Pilotto prints this season. The amount of that-print-is-so-hyper-I-can't-tell-if-that's-pants-and-a-top-or-just-a-dress garments were kept to a minimal. Of all the coats that went down the runway this season, (an exceptional amount) Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos showed some of the most covetable options: boxy in a single colour with Renaissance-inspired embroidery from the waist down. The cut of their evening dresses used the body by merging it with the print - that's the next level.
It's impossible to choose a look that represents Christopher Kane's entire fall collection. There were about six equally brilliant (and totally different) ideas that came walking down the runway in Kane's biggest show to date. PPR having given this brand the financial backing it needs to flourish, there's nothing stopping this label from becoming the next Prada. But what inspired the collection? Nothing in particular. "The brain works in mysterious ways" says Kane talking about the different looks this season. This is just what's been on his mind of late.
Christopher Kane's fall collection is a perfect metaphor for London Fashion Week: innovation, desirability, talent. If this season (and every other season since 2012) is anything to go by, they'll all top themselves yet again this September.
Images: Vogue.it.
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