London Fashion Week has rolled around for another year and the designs are bigger, bolder and better than ever before.
The week we’d all been waiting for commenced Friday February 15 bright and early at 9:30am and finished this last Tuesday the 19th. With over 150 designers and creations set to storm our fashion houses through 2019, this year’s event of the season was not one to be missed… but if you happened to stray from the details thus far don’t worry, FIB has got you covered with all the highlights your fashion-loving heart could possibly desire.
The bi-annual event held its February edition of fashion month, kick starting in the big apple then bringing it across the pond to London at The Store X, 180 Strand. The February/September event in London is just one of four that takes place each year in New York, London, Milan and Paris where British alumni and International designers from both emerging and established brands showcased their Autumn/Winter collections for the year.
Put forth amongst a collection of modern brands brimming with diversity out of both Accessory and Ready-to-Wear titles, this event continuously highlights the utmost of creativity, art and various expert accompaniment always – and this year is no different. No door was closed as designers from Germany, Italy, Austria and the United States made their way along with other Internationals to showcase fashion on a global scale.
Creativity is precisely what this seasons event is putting forward as designer Anya Hindmarch created an installation of mesh. The idea came about from a bag she says “we’ve” designed, called the Neeson. The installation was designed to involve the public in fashion week.
Having exposure at the ready from publications, stylists and media waiting at the end of the catwalk; no doubt the goal is for brands to headway these relationships by making a stamp on the runway with their collections at LFW, and it’s just the place to do it. Designer Jamie Wei Huang wants LFW to be a place where she can show that her designs are something to be believed in; “London is where people support us for what we design, so that’s what I want to keep showing”.
The collections formed from the names of Gayeon Lee and Bora Aksu certainly set the pace on day one and the insurmountable praise received for Alexa Chung’s show on day two gave rise to the way London’s “home grown talent” is blossoming. Model, Londoner and fellow fashion fan, Jack Guinness, stated how proud he was of Chung and how incredible her show was.
It wasn’t just those three who made London Fashion Week what it was this time round though. The star-studded line up of creatives included: A.W.A.K.E MODE, Matty Bovan, Xu Zhi, 16Arlington, House of Holland, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood, Emilia Wickstead, Rejina Pyo and Victoria Beckham; plus, many more.
Given that a lot of the designs this year come with sharp lines and range in the darker or more muted tones, the runway in London didn’t feel intense as some might think but instead, refreshingly airy. It appears the audience felt a sense of whim and wonder through some of the shows and even remarked as feeling “happy”, “good” and in a “dream”. The overall theme felt like an expression of fun through classy and edgy formats.
Bora Aksu showed us all it’s okay to be out there and different and still be powerful and influential as individuals. His collection featured designs with considerably wild fabrics and unusual prominence on shapes. Aksu’s designs truly “feed off” London women; the bold and unafraid.
Matty Bovan’s “Ode to Folk England” displayed a willowy range of textured culture suited up in eye-catching-golden-brown ensembles accompanied by stretches of pinks and reds. A simply enamouring display of layered pattern slick.
The amazing silhouettes and modern storytelling had Lucy Williams in a haze, for A.W.A.K.E. MODE displayed a daring approach to leather, an elegant façade of bold lines and tightly fitting greys and a whimsy highlight differentiating from the rest through draping material in all the places you’d least expect.
The designers aren’t the only thing you should take away from LFW 2019 but the show stopping models who give face and character to the showcase of all the products on the runway and in house. Gigi Hadid and Irina Shayk took to the runway with big name stars like Susanna Lau and the Beckham crew looking on, and breakout models Ugbad Abdi and Primrose Archer strutted up a storm alongside them.
Black svelte styles and a combination of 70s and 80s design reborn seems to be the theme from what we can gather of Alexa Chung’s courageous design effort this season. Chung embodies the notion that “Young fashion talent is the lifeblood of the industry and it’s the future”. Her designs range from billowed sleeves, to pointed collars, to what my nan had in her wardrobe in 1981. Some of the designs; completely fresh, sleek, warrior symbolic like and yet conversely some garments entail bright yellow, floral graphic and a Wendy Darling bookish glow about them.
Voluminous glamour is encasing this season as a steady up and coming fixture creating “a new wave of almost a British couture”. Molly Goddard showed us this couture wave with mint and black tulle enveloped frocks and lilac and faint yellow colour choices with overtones of the children’s cartoon character Lumpy Space Princess.
Day three was off to a good start with fashion not only influencing style culture but emotional wellbeing as well. Model Amber Le Bon said of the Preen by Thornton Bregazzi show; “It’s meant to make you smile and meant to make us feel good and I think London does that really well”. The comfortable looking sweaters gave off a vintage homey feel with diamond patterns and a muted green and grey colour palette. A vastly different showcase of dark lace, high rise slits and low-cut necklines – believe it or not – brightened the show as the dazzling pieces sparkled, rivalling Ashish’s colourful display of glitz and glam.
Not to forget the ever media present singer turned designer Victoria Beckham who “absolutely delivered” according to Elizabeth Saltzman – Contributing Editor of Vanity Fair. “It was everything that every woman would always want to wear and it’s timeless”.
The fourth day was a day the audience relished with some calling the Erdem show a “dream” and others stating how incredible it is that the British Fashion Council are getting behind sustainability. Creative Director of Mother of Pearl, Amy Powney, said it’s about creating a fun event that’s waste free, “This isn’t just about fashion brands making a change it’s about an entire mindset”.
Finishing off on a high, pushBUTTON, the most popular designer label for women and men in Seoul gave us a futuristic envisagement with it’s fun and quirky designs. Unusual to look at but hard to take your eyes off, and I suppose that’s exactly what impactful fashion is supposed to do.
As I’m looking through all these Fashion Week images, I can’t help but feel creatively brimful and inspired to sift through my dusty wardrobe and start anew.
What looks would you like to recreate at home? Let us know in the comments.
