FASHION Magazine

London: Day three

Posted on February 12, 2008

By Leah Rumack

Shown: Christopher Kane Fall 2008. Photography by Peter Stigter.

Right, so I've been told to speed things up here in blog-land, so if you want the full force of my deep thoughts, you will just have to take me out for dinner.

In the meantime...

Marios Schwab
I'm not surprised Schwab cited "looking inside" the "contours of the female silhouette in its entirety" as his inspiration for this show. The full-length dresses were so tight the poor models had to mince down the catwalk. And when a designer says he's also inspired by the literary classic, The Yellow Wall-Paper–you know, the cheery story where a woman goes shoutycrackers in an attic and starts shredding the wallpaper–you're bound to get a collection that's a little mental. Witness floor-length dresses with high necks with all manner of distressed or shredded fabric, cutout panels and strange bits of fabric seemingly squeezed out from the girls’ bodies.

Aquascutum
While there were definitely cool dresses, skirts and sweaters here, what I remember most was the endless parade of coats that opened the show. I want them all and I'm not even cold! Some came with clear military flourishes, but were made feminine by being long, long, long. Many came in riotous colours–yellow! hot pink! green! –or patterns like a yellow jacquard.

There were lots of ladylike, full-skirted, 1950s silhouettes, a trench featuring above-the-elbow massive puffy sleeves, and my favourites, a raincoat and trench screen-printed with photographs of The Great Exhibition of 1851.

Christopher Kane
My Darling Christopher,
I hear your show was fantastic! I hear there were dresses splashed with huge plastic discs, a tartan coat studded with black roses, wispy chiffon dresses, slouchy sweater-dresses and jackets embellished with gold. I heard you surpassed expectations and your steady rise to the top is even more assured than ever. But love, I wouldn't know, because I wasn't bloody there.

Neither were most of the other foreign press I talked to who aren't American Vogue (who don't really talk to anyone.) Turns out that London is touting itself as an international fashion city, but is busy shutting much of the non-London press out of the bigger shows. Now is that nice? I mean, I know it's not your fault Chris–may I call you that? –but you seem as good a target as any.

Yours truly,
Maybe Next Year

***

I loved the wee horse tails hanging off the back of the Louboutins at Todd Lynn's Chimaera show. Naughty naughty.

Everyone is buzzing about New Gen-sponsored label MeadhamKirchhoff and Polish designer Krystof Strozyna.

The girls on the street are wearing crazy bright eyeliner.

The people at the shows are wearing whimsical colours and patterns, and not just the fashion students. There's a whole other vibe here in jolly old, where you see even the grown-ups being a lot more playful with their outfits than the typical (yawn) stiletto-clad, black-wearing New York fashion borg.

Categories: Runway Report | London