Well it was a long adrenalin-fuelled few days at LFW, from Ashish's sea of squins to Meadham Krichoff's candy coloured lifesize rag dolls, Spring/Summer 2012 proves to be an exciting one ahead of us.
Many a trend emerged from the Somerset 'fashionista-laden' House and beyond including copius amounts of crochet knit - be it metallics at Craig Lawrence or in bright block colours at Mark Fast, luxe print layering at Micheal Van Der Ham & Burberry, cool blues at Erdem and Christopher Kane and pastel, ice-cream colours all ready to wake you up into Spring!
Below is a few of my favourites along the way:
Vivienne Westwood Red Label
Celebrity central, you got the feeling that this was going to be quite rock n roll, all held together by the Charity the Show was supporting - Cool Earth. In her infamous Westwood style, her show was a platform for "the important of social injustice and the urgent need to fight climate change". This idea was weaved into each look with bird's nest bouffant hair or leaf embellishes hair caps and tropical bursts of make-up yet the clothing remained typical Westwood of plaid and preppy. The atmosphere was electric, which the rock music helped maintain and with a brilliant charity campaign to support behind the idea this was ethical high fashion at its best.
For more info on Cool Earth visit
http://www.coolearth.org/. Look out for the star studded event in November that will highlight this important cause.
Craig Lawrence
In the brand's sixth year as a recipient of the British Fashion Council's NewGen awards, S/S for Craig Lawrence interwove luxurious fabrics with influences from the British seaside. In a collaboration with Swarovski, the looks contained Swarovski crystal yarn and/or crystal embellishment on the garments themselves.
The collection's 'seaside' influence can be seen through the muted palette of beige, peach and creams, (think sand and seashells) that coincide with the shell-like dimensions of the way the garments were created. Whilst I thought the headcaps looked a touch on the 'Snow Queen' side, looking back I can understand this as a translation of swimcaps often worn swimming in the sea; even these were interwoven very carefully into the models' hair to emphasize the woven effect from the knitwear. To accompany each look were a selection of tights, socks and cycling shorts from print design duo 'Patternity' (regular readers would have recognised this name from a previous post "The Road to Patternity") in complimentary shimmering tones of rose gold.
Complex and cleverly designed, I am very fond of contruction techniques so this collection kept me fascinated throughout. Craig Lawrence remains the go-to person for innovatively designed knitwear.
Fred Butler
Fred Butler has been one of my favourite accessory designers for a while "Sonic Sinuate Supertemporal Sequestador" - a mouthful right? Well it is the name of her S/S 2012 collection that takes inspiration from aquatic creatures -another trend amongst S/S collections- that shed their shell to reveal their fluorescent bodies. Hosted by superstar blogger Suzie Lau, this collection was brought to life by a technicolour rainbow palette in Fred Butler's infamous cleverly constructed shapes. Everything co-incided perfectly together, from the Patrick Wolf soundtrack, to the Sodastream rainbow drinks, it was a multi-sensory installation perfectly matched in mood, colour and sound.
I loved the hand painted silk, twisted and swirled around to create a dramatic 'shell' texture upon the body that could simply be taken off the neopreen playsuits and used again on other garments. Bright, brilliant and beautifully modern construction is exactly what I love about Fred Butler's pieces and this collection reiterated that into a new life for next year.
A real ignition into Summer, this was a fun collection.
For previous Fred Butler blogposts check out "A Women's Work is nver done" and "Beautiful Fashion Short Films".
Mark Fast
Wow! From the scramble of people darting to be seated, to the look of wonderment across people's faces who looked toward the glamourous effect the lightbulbs made at the entrance to the catwalk, this Show was destined to please. Great, modern soundtrack of dubstep and electro music took us through the motions: Cream knit floor-length gowns, every woman's favourite LBD made from sensual chiffons and the fabulous star-bright yellow knitwear and orange and pink two pieces, Mark Fast is your designer of the Summer! The 'tangy' fruit palette has got me already looking forward to S/S 2012.
Christopher Kane
Celebrity guests a plenty (that being Kanye & Sienne Miller to name just two), this show was ready to make its mark.
Seated front row I could
smell the quality of the garments. First came the blue floral mosiac outfits, shimmering along - again metallics playing a key part to S/S 2012- to the most beautiful soundtrack, soft and almost dreamlike. Next came my favourite, the grey organza shift dresses and jackets whose sheer-ness gave a very feminine edge to these tailored garments. Appliqued between the layers of fabric were what can only be described as flower 'stickers' that made the garment more aesthetically pleasing and Spring-like. Embellishment was rife in his collection with beads and sequins playing a key part but in subtle pastel tones so to encompass Spring. This collection had an item for every fashionista, it was elegant and smart but ventured out of the ordinary with bold patterns ("Flower Power" appliqued stickers) and modern colours (metallics, yet subtle not gawdy).
A summary of trends of S/S 2012 for me has to be this: subtle, not garish metallics, pastels, colour block brights, chinse luxe-layering, homage to the British coast; so get hunting for remnants of these trends now before they become too popular to find in six months.
Come February Fashion Week, I'll be donned in my huge fur coat, hat and fashionista sunnies to keep out the glare of the Spring sun on those icy mornings; I'm not a poser of course! ;)
