Fashion Week Roundup - LONDON

Welcome, welcome who ever it is that actually reads this blog! 

When I sat down and decided that I was going to reboot this oul' fashion blog of mine I had to make an important and, some may say, almost life changing decision (well actually, no one would call it that but anyway). 

Where would I start again from? What event in the fashion calender could I use to spring board this blog once again to its previously held, dizzying heights?

(Clue: The answer is in the title of the post!)

YES!

You've guessed it!

It's that time of year again when New York, London, Milan and Paris throw week long fashion extravaganzas which are creatively known as "Fashion Week".

However, considering the sheer about of amazing designers on show at any one of the four weeks in question I felt it would be wise to split the coverage into four separate blog posts (which means you lucky lads and lasses and more blogs to read!)

And so I give you: LONDON!

Now London is generally my favorite of the fashion weeks overall (with Paris a close second) and I'm sure that's pretty much because of the age I am. London as an event seems to be more focused on young and exciting brands that are coming through to fashion's forefront with shows such as the Central Saint Martins graduate show being a perfect example of this strive to include and nurture young designers from the offing. As a 20 year old fashion enthusiast, I think its great to be able to see these brands in their infancy as I'm sure I'll be growing up with a lot of them over the next couple of decades. 

The aesthetic of London has always interested me too. As a rule it seems to me that the aesthetic of LFW is more about risk taking, innovation and growth as opposed to the traditional powerhouses of fashion you see in say, Paris or Milan (which are obviously brilliant for reasons that this post wont be getting in to).

Anyway, I guess its time to get down to business, as they say...

Obviously I can't fit in every designer I liked so first of all I'd like to start with some honourable mentions; Yifang Wan, John Rocha and Temperley (the link will bring you to the Vogue coverage of those shows, I'm just so lovely to you guys!)

1205

If you've read any of my blogs covering fashion weeks of the past then you'll know that probably my one true love in this world is good tailoring. I'm a strong believer in the idea that the world would be a much better place if everyone had to go to a special class to learn about the shape of clothes and how different shapes fit. It's be like a really well dressed Utopia. 

 I think in my dream Utopia a lot of people would be wearing 1205...

At the helm of 1205 is Paula Gerbase, who cut her post CSM teeth on Saville Row. Which is clear from her masterful handling of the shape and line of clothes. 

Oversized, masculine shapes dominated the show with pieces like the great Crombie style jacket below causing me to feel a mix of love, pain and desperation due to the fact that I don't own it. 

On a personal level, I would never wear this shirt dress (due to the fact that I know in my heart of hearts it would look like a I was expecting twins if I attempted to) but believe me, if I had the shape for them, oversized shirts like these would constitute a large amount of space in my wardrobe.

Giles

Giles offered probably my favorite collection from LFW overall. It consisted of film prints, lips and bats. What those three things have in common, I have not got a fucking clue. Do I care or does that matter? Absolutely not. 

I mean this leather bat dress is just the definition of fierce. I think it would be physically impossible to wear this without having your unconscious frighteningly-fabulous bitch come out (everyone has one by the way). 

And really, what more could you ask from a dress? 

 The lip and film motifs came up at various points throughout the collection and the shilouettes on which they was used were constantly on point.

They were modern-grungy and had flecks of femininity and girlieness from the sheer detailing done throughout.

That's not to say that the collection was without any nipped in waists of tailoring. 

For that I give you probably one of the most amazing creations I've ever seen..

THE BAT BALLGOWN!

Can we all just look for a second and appreciate that this entire dress is made up of bat shapes?

Have we done that?

Its so painfully beautiful. The overlapping of the bat shapes has made it seem almost as if it was something else, manipulating the form of the original shape to create something which evokes a dark, powerful femininity.

I would probably give up a large chunk of my right leg to just try this dress on. That's how sure I  am that it possesses some sort of magic powers to make the wearer invincible. 

How could it not? Just look at it!

Haizhen Wang

Haizhen Wang pretty much encapsulates that whole "new blood" thing I was talking about a little earlier. 

The winner of this year's Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden Award, Wang is surely a name to watch in the future. 

And if you can possibly believe it , this is only his second proper FW show - I know what you're thinking, "his designs are far too assured and mature for that to be the case" - I thought the exact same thing myself. But it's true. 

We've got a little star in the making here lads!

His collection was completely on point with the monochrome feeling of this years collections and the hints at metallic are a trend that seemed to keep popping up all over London at FW.

Although, metallic is for me sort of like neon. I think you should have to pass a sort of fashion version of a driving licence before they let you purchase it (I saw a middle aged woman wearing a badly fitted neon yellow tunic dress and almost felt the need to say something to her the other day) but as is evident here, it is completely possible to do t right, so yeah, kudos to Wang!

There was a great mix of TAILORING (I know I keep saying it but seriously lads, it's so important and people don't seem to get it) with some softer feminine draping. 

What we seem to be seeing so far is the SS14 woman being a bit of a tough bitch but in a classy feminine way, if you get my drift here...

This is pretty sweet because it kind of reminds me of a really, uber chic karate girl (what an insight into the nuances of fashion I am displaying here).

But this is totally wearable. And I don't mean that in the Meadham Kirchhoff sense of wearable, I mean it in the "I could actually go for a drink in this and not look insane" kind of wearable, which for me is pretty much the great thing about this whole collection.

I mean, don't get me wrong, that Giles Bat Dress was gobsmackingly stunning, but you couldn't exactly go down to have a quick pint with your mates in it could you?

Meadham Kirchhoff

If there is a god out there or some higher celestial being, he definitely was rewarding us fashion heads when he, in whatever god like way he did, bring about the existence of Meadham Kirchhoff. 

I have literally never seen a Meadham Kirchhoff show I didn't think was amazing. 

Yeah, maybe it's not all stuff you'd wear about to Tesco but you can't deny that these two have a real aesthetic vision when it comes to their shows. They never fail to disappoint and this collection is no exception to what is fast being a rule of fashion week;

whatever you do, DON'T miss the Meadham Kirchhoff show. 

Although I definitely would wear that cobra skin jacket.

For those of you who know me personally, you'll know I have a sort of morbid love of fur and animal skin (though not usually animal print, but that's for a later discussion) so this is right up my street.

Also, though you can't make it out on the photo, the gold metallic gloves are actually done to replicate the snake skin.

Gold AND Snake Skin.

It's like all my tacky/Cruella DeVille dreams have come at once!

And I mean that in a really good way.

The show had a whole "young Victorian school girl" meets "sexy bitch" vibe, with loads of gold thrown in for good measure. 

It was actually really hard to pick out just a few pieces to show in this post because they were all so eye catching in their own way.

Meadham Kirchhoff really just excel in creating a whole fantasy world in all of their collections with sharp visual imagery in each one to the point where the whole collection itself seems more like an artistic expression as opposed to trying to create fashion which has artistic aspirations it doesn't reach like a lot of collections do. 

D'ya get me?

And after that brief foray in to fashion philosophy, here's an amazing gold mac paired with a crop top and full mid-length circle skirt.

Pretty sweet stuff lads. 

Simone Rocha

Apparently Simon Rocha was trying to channel Connemara when she created this collection.

On the one hand, I've been to Connemara and it's the sort of place where you get weird looks if you have any sort of facial piercing of even, dare I say it, a pair of high waisted jeans on. 

It's definitely a place where the Aran Jumper, rugged yet oddly attractive look comes in to its own.

Would I say it's the sort of place that'd come to mind when I thought of a completely sheer balloon shaped t-shirt? Probably not.

Having said that, I sort of get what she means when she's taking about the extreme beauty mixed with a type of paired back austereness (as evidence here in the models make up and hair).

 Because this collection does definitely have a level of harsh beauty to it. 

Even in the more classically "beautiful" pieces, like the sheer top and skirt below, the muted colour tones and choice of footwear give the outfit something of a jagged edge.

But bringing it back to the clothes and away from those floaty topics such as "concepts" and the like, there are pretty much no arguments against the fact that this is just a startlingly strong collection from a young Irish designer who seems to only be going from strength to strength with each season.

*******

So that's it folks.

A marathon first entry after my long break away from all of you, who ever it is you may be!

xxx