Bora Aksu SS15
It’s London Fashion Week and the sun is shining. It is always a welcome relief to approach the Spring/Summer collections when the weather is warm – something that becomes impossible once the editors start shooting these flimsy clothes in the cold of a British winter. But this week, the weather gods were kind, offering the perfect backdrop to these optimistic collections.
Toga SS15
London is all about the young, the new and, more often than not, the colourful. Highlights of this colourful vivacity were seen with Thomas Tait’s skimpy drapes, Roksanda Ilincic’s artful boldness and Meadham Kirchhoff’s rebellious, punk-fuelled mash up. As usual prints, collage and clash were abound at Peter Pilotto, Michael Van der Ham, Erdem, Toga and Lulu & Co. The brightness continued with the summer fur at Shrimps, the crazy beach of Ryan Lo and the refreshing wardrobe friendliness of Issa.
Issa SS15
As with all the fashion capitals, London has its own mood and its top-tier designers that promise the wearability as well as the excitement. Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, J.W. Anderson – these are the designers one can see moving their shows to Paris in the future. Christopher’s tribute to the late Louise Wilson produced a more sombre collection that usual but one that perfectly fused his unusual genius with highly desirable pieces – Kane’s take on the Chanel suit in particular. Mary Katrantzou’s departure from prints continues to go from strength to strength, replaced by intricate textures and beautiful cuts – the tectonic plate tops feeling a lifetime away from her early work.
Lulo & Co. SS15
As we anticipate his debut for Loewe in Milan, J.W. Anderson showed another robust and perhaps even very slightly feminine collection – by J.W. standards that it. There were nipped in waists, a-line skirts and floppy hats – albeit in black leather.
This season saw the schedule continue its shift to more democratic output – there were more presentations and digital screenings fitting nicely in between the standard spectacle of the catwalk shows. There is something so much more personal about these presentations, and one can’t help but wonder if this is the future of the fashion show. The salon show means everyone can see the clothes up close, generally while sipping a sponsored cocktail and even perhaps having a face-to-face with the designer. The result is a feeling that you really ‘saw’ that collection, rather than being simply present while it swooshed quickly by – here one moment, and gone the next.
Fyodar Golan SS15
Another shift that was palpable this season was the uptake of technology – there was an emphasis both in the presentation of collections and in the clothes themselves that fashion and technology, though in a fledgling courtship now, are heading toward an almost certain long-term relationship. From interactive Instagrams in Topshop’s windows as well as their show space, to the giant Microsoft pyramid at Fyodor Golan that projected a refracted image of the models as they walked, to the fibre optic Tinkerbell dresses at Richard Nicoll, the conversation about wearables and tech-fashion is certainly bubbling and where better to delve into this brave new world than London.
Review by Katy Lassen
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