London Fashion Week Update

Welcome to the Apocalypse--or, at least, the moments right before it. No one during London Fashion Week went right out and said that, of course, but the message was clear. Everyone was a scavenger--whether it was raiding Grandma's attic or a museum's Ming vase collection--the general theme to this fashion week was scrounging for bits and pieces. As Style.com's Maya Singer said in her Christopher Raeburn review, "In coming years, it's likely that innovation in fashion is going to revolve less around aesthetics and more around the way things are made—where materials come from and how efficiently garments are produced."

Unusual Fabric

Like Rodarte and Proenza Schouler in New York, lots London designers experimented with custom-made fabrics. Erdem envisioned a mad artist's wife, shredding her husband's canvases to pieces and making them part of herself. Each dress had patches of tweed, silk, sequins--you name it. Both House of Holland and Christopher Kane took little old ladies as their point of departure: Henry Holland used custom Scottish tweeds, while Christopher Kane deployed some sinister crochet and...those weird poofy stickers with liquid in them that change color when you touch them. Kane wanted to use a textile that no had ever used before. The results are mixed, but one thing's for sure--no fast fashion house will be able to copy any of these designers.

House of Holland

Erdem

 

Christopher Kane

 

Wild Prints

 

Lately, Brit designers have been much more adventurous than their American peers when it comes to prints. Last season, Mary Katrantzou surprised and delighted the fashion world by presenting dresses printed with interior photographs. This season, Katrantzou decided to show the "woman in the room," and all of the objects she owns--precious Ming vases, Faberge eggs, jewels. Jonathan Saunders was inspired by the early 30s photographer Paul Outerbridge, who experimented with color photography techniques. Both designers presented a woman so consumed by collecting that she becomes an objet d'art herself.

 Jonathan Saunders

 

Mary Katrantzou

London Fashion Week may not directly impact American design, but it gives us a preview of what to watch out for at H&M and Topshop: black, white, red, mustard, plum, and navy, as can be seen at Antonio Berardi and Matthew Williamson, and fur, as amply demonstrated by Giles Deacon. Oh, and crazy ladies. Lots and lots of crazy ladies. 

   

TOPSHOP/LONDON

“Five girls out of 30 will all buy the same skirt in London, and we’ll never wear it the same way. We can all wear it on the same day and never know it. Someone will wear it as a top. Someone will wear it as a hat.”
-Eric Wilson, NY Times, discussing Topshop's impact on style

read the rest of the article here.

I have to be honest, having spent time in London I am constantly amazed by how much more innovative and fashion forward people are. I remember about 4 years ago I bought my first skinny jeans there, and was terrified to wear them. Now they are all I wear. The same thing goes for knee high boots with either tights or jeans. Something else that amazed me though was the lack of variety in stores. It seemed like everyone in England bought their underwear at M&S, their trendy clothes at Topshop, their shoes at Office, and then dabbled in Mango, Zara, Karen Millen, etc. The turnover in these stores, however, was unreal. If we think about Forever 21's two week stocking pattern, Topshop and Office put them to shame. Topshop is able to produce high fashion trends fast, allowing the girl next door to look like she stepped off a runway. It is their innovation and creativity that allows all of these girls to look so unique- even when most of them are shopping at the same stores.