London Fashion Week

Friday 14^th September marked the beginning of the hottest week in UK fashion. Five whole days of glamour, style, drama, and starstruck adoration for every single body working before, and behind the scenes. Manufactured by a whole host of shows, collaborations, presentations, and a whole lot of partying, the week dedicated to the industry’s finest brings together not only the creme de la crème of the trade, but many of media’s elite. In attempt to give you the slightest flavour of the event’s beautifully hectic goings-on, here are just a few of my personal highlights for Spring/Summer 2019.

RICHARD MALONE

Combining agonisingly laced platforms, with silky structures, and the odd garish print, Richard Malone revamps a 1970’s Austin Powers panache, dousing the cheese fest with ultimate class and confidence. Disco fever is now the everyday, holding colour somewhat accountable in every design.

JAMIE WEI HUANG

Oozing with attitude, Jamie Wei Huang stuns with this array. Compiling casual vibes with modernity, Huang hits the nail on the head when it comes to bringing today’s youthfulness into full, physical form. With bucket hats that give off a finesse rather than ‘ketamine-loving-rave-goer’, and oversized everything that screams “I don’t care, but make it fashion”, mimics millennial sensibility seamlessly.

NICOPANDA

Giving us an excuse to bring rodeo to the height of fashion, NICOPANDA merges cowgirl cuteness with glitzy sports glamour. Placing the contemporary at the heart of each look, this fashion-house storms the use of pattern, print, and colour, to throw us right into the future of streetwear. Hints of tutu-like fabrics for embellishment, in addition to crushed velvet textures, and ‘don’t-look-at-me’ sunnies, every cool kid wants to grab their hands on these wavey garms.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS

Dark yet dreamy, Ashley Williams has provided the answer for all us 90’s kids who were born too late to partake in the era’s grunge consumption. Dashes of punk meet classic mean girl turned goth. Animal print galore with a motto of ‘retired and loving it’. A collection that makes you want to die, but also one you would die for.

ANYA HINDMARCH

Making old people cool since forever, Anya Hindmarch envisages a world full of groovy, granny-chic attire. Bringing a whole new energy to the retired old dears, the designer combats with table cloth, curtain decorative and transports it to the 21^st century. Crazy knitwear is taken by the hands of technical skill, complimented by ultra-fly accessories, slippers, and sliders.

CLIO PEPPIATT

Safari jungle textures greets 00’s rich girl. Clio Peppiatt offers functional tailoring with a personality; by means of dazzling intricacies and lavish details at every turn, the artist indicates motifs of sorcery and voodoo queens throughout. Girly, angelic, yet completely alluring. Peppiatt is certainly a designer to keep your eye on.

HALPERN

It’s as if Piet Mondrian himself resurrected and adapted his colour-conscious abilities from painting to fashion. Bombarding audiences with bold, epic graphic printing, and dazzling, luxurious materials, the collection is almost synonymous to the seasons in which it was invented for. A particular number of the designs focus on colour-clashing shapes (which sounds like a faux pas waiting to happen), but Halpern has executed this superbly, bringing rise to whether there truly is an indefinite amount of colour combinations that can/cannot be achieved.

HOUSE OF HOLLAND

The revival of sportswear has begun, and it starts with House of Holland. In an age where chilled, athletic aesthetics are the go-to, brands are repeatedly putting out replica upon replica of the same old, chav-chic. HOH turns this all around, bringing a fresh, vibrancy among the genre. Cooperation occurs between a variety of suited blazers, lazy trousers, ruched dresses, and oversized polos. A combination unheard of amongst sporting brands; a collection equivalent to the label’s always-unorthodox ethos.

GARETH PUGH

Jesters enters a gothic, scenic sex club in Gareth Pugh’s latest innovations. Models dressed up to the nines in chunky, barbarous boots; tight, bondage-like fixtures adorned across the face, the chest, the waist. A theme of red and black seeping through, with clownish shape and line. Distinguishable elements of glitzy barbie pinks spritzed across, in addition to subtle, pin-striped grey tailoring for a perfect equilibrium between remorseless fierceness and the everyday.

NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD

Unearthly creatures go to an Ibizan white party. Nicholas Kirkwood redesigns simple, skimpy clad by utilising translucent layering. With an explicated corset here, and an icy bubble coat there, Kirkwood establishes a mirage to the galaxy without obvious representation. The only issued colouring is from the footwear, allowing for an interesting contrast, and perhaps conflict of focus, between the body and below.

ASHISH

Toning it down this season, Ashish appears to be honing in to a more developed, mature version of himself. Whilst keeping some sparkly sensationalism, the collection seems to be much more refined and minimal than in previous years. Loose gowns, sequined jumpsuits, and essences of swim wear complete this wet-looking assemblage. Although we may see this as a more serious side for the designer, his known charm and wit is still perceivable in his silver, slogan-centred hoodie, reading ‘Send Nudes’; a tribute to all the horny, overly confident males we’ve ever been lucky enough to communicate with via Tinder.

PALMER//HARDING

Exceptionally slick and polished, palmer//harding present a blasé, ‘back 2 the office’ ambience for early 2019. Emphasis on being to shape and enhance the most important female bodily attributes, whilst removing the need to be skin tight, exhibits the brand’s ingenious methods when it comes embodying smart casual as a dress code. Punching colour into trench coats, and transforming shirts to look off-the-cuff, you’ll no doubt be the most fashion-envied colleague on Monday morning.

BURBERRY

The collection that has been on everybody’s lips from the moment it left the runway. Sticking to their roots, the fashion house has taken camel coloured tones to the next level. Bordering on equal in the amount of looks catered for both males and females, their dynamic overall shifts between suited and booted, and lackadaisical effortlessness. Keeping up appearances in terms of the demand for animal print this season, Burberry make commentary on their newly, fur-free label with inclusion of deer print. One of the features reads “WHY DID THEY KILL BAMBI”. I don’t know Burbs, we’re as upset as you.

NATASHA ZINKO

Elaborate and electric, Natasha Zinko gives us 80’s mermaid realness. Packing a punch, the creator rollercoasters between electric pinks, misty florals, disco holographics, double double denim, neon green, and an assortment of eponymous prints. Whilst this list may sound overwhelmingly chaotic, the designer materially reassures us upon exhibition. Arrangements of colour and style appear to tumble like dominoes, gaining inspiration from one garment and falling into the next. Order is obtainable amongst the disorder.