Burberry SS20. Courtesy of Burberry.
Great Britain may be going to hell in a handbasket as it stumbles through Brexit negotiations, so designers showed out at this London Fashion Week like it was their last, because, let’s face it, it very well could be. While Peter Pilotto and Mary Katrantzou chose to move their collections to less disputably European soil, Milan and Athens respectively, there was still plenty to see. Here are some of our favourite moments:
Tina Modotti inspires Erdem
Courtesy of @erdem.
Candian-Turkish designer Erdem Moralioglu paid tribute to the Italian photographer Tina Modotti. After moving to Mexico in her twenties Modotti became a noted photographer and prominent communist. Erdem was fascinated by her oblique death in 1942, aged 45, largely thought to have been a murder due to her rampant activism. Moralioglu based both garments and styling on photographs he found of her while on holiday in Mexico last year.
#MeToo era sex at Christopher Kane
Courtesy of @christopherkane
Last season, Christopher Kane and his sister Tammy created catchprases and slogans from the manual written by sex researches Masters and Johnson in the 1970s like ‘more sex’. ‘Joy’, and so on. This year, their collection catered to the female gaze only and felt more apt for Simone de Beauivor’s famous saying from her 1946 book, The Second Sex—“The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project.”
Agyness Deyn goes back to the runway
Courtesy of Agyness Deyn.
After half a decade off, British model Agyness Deyn returned to the Burberry catwalk for Ricardo Tisci’s fashion sound bath on Monday, joined by Bella and Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. The SS20 collection was inspired by the British Gothic Victorian era, and being an epochal British model, Deyn’s appearance fell in line with Tisci’s tribute to Britain.
Victoria Beckham riffs on old Burberry
If Burberry wasn’t offering the Nova check people were hoping for, Victoria Beckham tapped into heritage checks with coats, skirts and suits in throwback prints. This season she celebrates 10 years since the launch of her eponymous brand, and did so by nodding to the ultra sophistication of classic British design with pussy bow blouses, tailored maxi trousers and a bubblegum palette.
Jess Maybury at Simone Rocha
Jess Maybury at Simone Rocha. Courtesy of Simone Rocha.
British model Jess Maybury Walked for Erdem, Molly Goddard and Regina Po but her turn for Simone Rocha was the best by far. In one of Rocha’s gargantuan floral dresses, Maybury was easily the most interesting model at London Fashion Week and a welcome change in a casting system that continues to prioritise size and youth.