Fashion month comes and goes each season. But London does Fashion Week like no other, and I love any chance to share its buzz of colours, ideas, raw new talent and emerging trends. We have Alia Gargum’s exclusive trend report…
Fashion month comes and goes each season, and every city does it in their own way. But London does Fashion Week like no other, and I love any chance to share its buzz of colours, ideas, raw new talent and emerging trends with whoever will listen.
London is always moving; it’s constantly exciting and busy. However, at the start of London Fashion Week, it gets a little brighter. You can feel the whole city gearing itself up for something special. It might be spotting models rushing off to last-minute castings or seeing a dressed-up fashion editor like Anna dello Russo in a look straight off the catwalk.
This is all pretty exciting stuff, but the best thing is getting a sneak peek at what’s coming up next. As I make my way to the first show of each Fashion Week, I like to try and guess what will be the new direction this time around. Looking back over the week that showcased upcoming Autumn/Winter 2012 collections, it’s clear that London has some new tricks in store for the next season.
Be prepared to be scared, fashion is going to a dark place. In an oh-so typically fashion way, Autumn/Winter is going to be nothing like Spring/Summer’s current sweet, sugary colours and innocently all-white outfits.
Several designers took to the sinister side, in particular London-based design duo Teatum Jones. Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones looked at the menacing side of Grimm’s Fairy tales, inspired by the underlying wickedness and cruelty found in the well-known stories. Hollywood crime scene photographs from the 1940s were cut up and layered with pictures of dark woods for the prints, creating a frightening narrative for the entire collection.
The midi-length dresses and feminine silhouettes were juxtaposed with glittering over-sized separates in with what Rob Jones called a ‘gingerbread house’ colour to sweeten things up a little. A nice finishing touch were the flashes of fluorescent limes and neon magentas through the collection, which I was surprised to see more than one designer continue from Spring/Summer into the next season.
Dutch twins behind the Spijkers en Spijkers label mixed neon accessories with vintage prints and silhouettes based on another disturbing tale.
The twins looked to the distraught yet close relationship between fallen high-society New Yorkers Edie Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter, ‘Little Edie’ who became an unusually eccentric couple after living in a mansion that slowly fell apart due to Little Edie’s father leaving the two women penniless.
The end result was a collection that looked like a young girl had dressed up in her mother’s beautiful vintage designer silks and mixed it up with her own jewellery and styling. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the unusual story behind this ‘Birds of Paradise’ collection; especially as Spijkers en Spijkers turned it into such a strong and feminine look.
One designer that left me and the rest of the audience beaming was Norweigan-born Fam Ivroll, who did scary for Autmumn/Winter too, but in a completely different way. London wouldn’t be the great place it is if you didn’t have someone who goes against all the rules when they feel like it. Fam Ivroll has always done fun and in-your face collections.
Her Autumn/Winter collection for 2012 was a fresh hit of cartoon fun and a warm welcome between some very serious catwalk shows.
Over-sized cartoon monsters that came to life through pyjama-like prints or massive 3-D eyes and teeth made a collection that looked at the fun side of scary. Her catwalk show opened to a model pulling some menacing-looking dance moves under strobe lighting, and then changed to bright lights while the original ‘Ghostbusters’ theme song pumped through the venue. I was sold.
Models had paint-pot make up and wore brightly printed creepers that have already made my shopping wish list.
New to the London Fashion Week scene, Tokyo-born creative director of Dans La Vie, Rira Sugawara provided more 90’s indulgence.
Her colourful pop-art prints and feminine silhouettes were brought to life on the catwalk with blasting re-mixed 90s club classics and the kind of mirrored round sunglasses I haven’t seen since I was a teenager.
Reach out and touch some texture. Something that I couldn’t help noticing at many a show was the use of texture for next season. Two designers stood out for their breathtaking use of materials and mix of shiny, smooth, furry, spiky, and even rubbery.
Central Saint Martin’s graduate Phoebe English presented an exquisite and mostly black collection, spiked with bubblegum pink in the middle.
The mix of wet silk-screened gloss, sheer sand-washed viscose and pleated (yes, pleated!) rubber was what made this debut solo show so beautiful to look at.
An ‘exploration of the way surfaces speak against one another’, Phoebe mixed textures to create clothes that moved like no other. Even the knits were constructed from hundreds of pairs of tights bonded together with rubber weave.
Another designer of Central Saint Martin’s calibre, Shao Yen, created a luxury-meets-sportswear collection through an unconventional mix of materials.
Fur, leather, tweed, knit and silks were re-worked into wearable silhouettes with youth subculture references such as hoodies, trainers, and high-end baseball caps.
I never thought of a tweed suit being comfortable until it was in the hands of Shao Yen.
So there you have it, things are going to get scary, but longer and more relaxed with a good dash of 90’s revival for Autumn/Winter 2012.
Get your summer of clashing florals and floaty dresses while you can, enjoy the sun and think about which woman you’re going to be, come winter.
Words and photos by Alia Gargum, 16 March 2012
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