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Scarcely a fortnight has passed since London Fashion Week ended. Yet, here we find ourselves in scurrying between prêt-à-porter shows in Paris after traveling back from a very impressive group of shows at Milan Fashion Week. In this light, it seems appropriate to take a quick look back at the best of London Fashion Week and to highlight some spectacular collections you may have missed.
Emilia Wickstead’s SS2015 collection was all over the fashion press well ahead of her show. The designer is very much in the now, with a new Sloane Street store and a collaboration with Moda Operandi for its UK launch. This made her SS15 collection seem that much more refreshing for its updated ‘60s vibe with a distinctly youthful feel, naturally with Wickstead’s attention to colour and feminine cut and tailoring (there’s a reason her work is a favourite with the Duchess of Cambridge). Bright oranges and yellows mixed with clean ivory, soft blues, and the occasional black in a variety of silhouettes, including beautiful coats, dresses of every shape and size, and even a jumpsuit and romper or two, topped off with minimalist accessories. Her best look arguably was a white and yellow dress with a dramatic open front slit that was somehow modern, daring, yet ladylike at the same time.
Similarly, young designer Phoebe English brought her A game this season with a modern and refreshingly narrative SS15 collection, shown in a presentation at Somerset House. Both the presentation and the collection played with the ideas of repetition and doubling only in a highly contained manner. Indeed, the presentation took place in a deconstructed theatre-like circular space with broken-down stairs and a pseudo-shattered chandelier. For this collection, Phoebe English collaborated with illustrator and print designer Helen Bullock to create two hand-painted prints, which were beautifully shown in contrast to a generally monochromatic palette. She also made use of a 16th-century lace technique, guipure d’art, in a soft, pretty, but disheveled way by expanding it and turning it upside down. Also, to honour the 10th anniversary of Dover Street Market, English also worked with set designer and art director Phillip Cooper to create a darkly romantic shop window, featuring an immense black ship and a complex rigging system.
The classic turned upside down was also a definite theme for Australian designer Daniel Mcilwraith of Antipodium for his SS15 collection. This season Mcilwraith brought out a little bit of everything, mixing ‘80s style long jackets with reinterpreted day dresses, cute short sets, and eclectic but pretty sportswear-inspired looks. The collection had a retro yet cooly modern aesthetic, largely through the pops of spring-appropriate yellow and pink and the smart crisp cottons that unified the collection. More than one buyer no doubt went away from the Antipodium presentation with a note to pick up one or more of Mcilwraith’s devastatingly simple long jackets, which come in both sleeved and sleeveless styles.
When it comes to covetable pieces, Giles Deacon is perhaps the master. The Giles SS2015 collection is one of his best to date, and represented a bit of a creative departure, only in a good way. Inspired by artist Walton Ford’s wildlife paintings, Giles made predatory animals look hip but couture with a focussed-attention to detail. On a spring appropriate but functional base of soft pinks and neutrals, feline and serpent appliqués twisted wildly around dresses. Fractured leopard prints brought an almost pop-art feel to very feminine cut pieces, including a gown, day dresses, and slim trousers. Giles’ most unforgettable looks no doubt were the oversize cat-claw prints, sometimes faded, sometimes glittery, which gave a sense of menacing edge to this very cohesive collection. On the whole, Giles brought a streetwear approach even to the formal pieces, which made the whole thing feel like the perfect fusion for Deacon in all his diverse forms.
by Jessica Quillin