The summer party continues as London supports design ‘Made in Britain’ by celebrating London fashion week on its famous red buses, busy tube stations, and in its decorated arty window shops.
With Christopher Kane’s botanology-inspired collection, flower woman takes part in a science project: plant science plates served as beautiful decorative cutouts on silk dresses and ensembles. The tiny-printed flowers on crêpe outfits and oversized petal cutouts with PVC edges were indeed an unexpected take on the floral theme! Particularly noticeable were the impressive iridescent dresses, as well as drapes, both of which were quite new for Kane.
As for Michael van der Ham, he remained faithful to his very own style, and experimented with various texture and motif combinations to make his ever more precious collages. The addition of embroidery and dark lace and the mixing of abstract and stylised floral motifs along with rough and silky fabrics to his patchwork designs, certainly hinted at a creative maturing.
Mary Katrantzou continued her exploration of daily objects and traditional crafts. This season, she sought inspiration in leather goods in general and shoemaking in particular, which she used as prints for her daytime outfits. Buckles, eyelets, laces and brogue motifs were all zoomed in and featured in mocha, dark green and navy blue. More colourful outfits were sneaker-inspired with a plastic, neon-toned aesthetic. As for Katrantzou’s evening dresses, they took on a more Cinderella-like air: pastel and vivid floral prints, in ‘wrapped present’ shapes.
Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos used aquatic colours and digital prints on extraordinary bell-shaped dresses with bustle-like cages that winked at crinolines. Some dresses interestingly also had ‘cage’ prints, while many tops and jackets were kimono-shaped, a common trait in Pilotto collections. The pair also used fiery tones and matched geometrical prints with more calligraphic, floral ones for a dramatically luxurious effect.
David Koma showed clean-cut sporty Amazon looks in ‘tough’ leather and sharp contrasting colours: mainly white and black but also periwinkle and electric blue, as well as some milder pastels – all of which owned a pleasantly familiar 80s action woman and Sci-Fi heroine spirit.
Jonathan Saunders’ sports chic pieces were an ode to colour: delightful Asian florals paired with abstract digital-printed dresses, numerous silk shorts and equally shiny bomber jackets. Some shirts and shorts were ‘colour-graded’ as Saunders has accustomed us to: his favourite light blue with ruby red and emerald green with pale pink, all in a vivid collage style.
Last but not least, for Fyodor Golan, designer duo Fyodor Podgorny and Golan Frydman presented a collection that had a distinct ‘classic with a twist’ feel to it: neat, elegantly tailored pastel dresses with embroidered detailing and a touch of retro, as well as pretty ethereal sun pleated-dresses.
Louise Kissa