Day
One
Orlebar
Brown – presentation
It may be the AW season, but here it is
warm and sunny Miami! Taking inspiration from glamorous 50’s
beach and night life, the bulldog shorts, tees, short sleeved shirts and jacket
linings sport specially commissioned Miami
illustrations as prints. A
great capsule wardrobe for a winter beach holiday.
John
Smedley – live presentation
Moving on to a more typical colder AW scene
is Smedley’s knitwear collection which was inspired by skiwear from their
1930-60s archives. Amongst the jumpers
and scarves we see that the thermal ecru long johns has been given a fashion
makeover with bright colours, stripes and fine soft wool. A shame to cover them up.
Topman – catwalk show at Old Sorting office
Starting with pristine white, the models
look set for the arctic in fur trim parkas; wide baggy trousers tucked into
chunky hiking boots and oversized leather rucksacks. This young explorer trekked
on for Tibetan inspired prints in warmer creams, then down the spice trails in
top to toe blazing hot orange. Outerwear
still remained warm and cosy with parkas, turtle necks and cropped pea coats
but the hiking boot made way for thick hiking socks worn with the softer
sandal. Spice shades settled down to deeper
red tones until his journey ended back in the city with the classic cooler navy.
Hentsch Man – live presentation at the
store
Monochrome double breasted jackets in traditional
dogtooth and herringbone were given street cred teamed with black & white geometric
printed sweaters and tees, plus a few tattoos (models own). However it wasn't all black and white as
burgundy added some colour to the more casual clothes.
Lee
Roach – catwalk show Hospital Club
This monochrome (black, white and navy) and
minimalist collection was a blend of a clinical futuristic style mixed with a
touch of the 60s beatnik style. Jackets were collarless worn with plain no fuss
crew neck tees or sweaters and straight leg trousers. The only decoration was that of a strip of
silver sparkle down tees and on sleeves of sweaters. Buckle fastenings gave an eerie feel that
madness or emotions could erupt any time and had to be restrained especially on
the slightly padded white jackets.
A La
Dispostion – live presentation held in Seven Dials
This season showed the debut of menswear
standing alone from the LFW women’s show plus a separate inspiration. That inspiration came partly from the
graphic novel of Black Snow, an unsuccessful alcoholic wannabe superhero who
can’t control his powers, and partly from Prague and Hermetic Mysticism. Traditional fabric used are English
woollens with silk and adding a twist was the quilted padded nylon used for super wide trousers and jagged peaked
superhero styled helmets plus the acrylic wire embedded into the techno fabric to
keep the shape of the wide culottes
Day
Two
Aitor
Throup - sculptural presentation
As though walking in to a faded black and
white war movie, the colour palette for the whole presentation was in grainy
monochrome. It was difficult to see the clothes from the sculptures but I
suppose that was the point. Looking closely the collection was actually
wearable ranging from the casual parka to a more tailored herringbone coat with
hood and adorned with zips. The large
leather rucksacks in the guise on an upside down skull would turn a few heads
on the streets.
YMC – Catwalk show at Old Sorting Office
Titled Dead Inside, designer Fraser Moss
looks back to when YMC was launched for inspiration, the post punk era. Sporting berets and wearing black and grey,
the models have a look of the French Resistance. Keeping zipped they wore cardigans zipped up from
the back, zipped parachute chinos, and zip front Chelsea boots. The lighter side showed intarsia sweaters
with accents of baby pink, orange and light blue with trousers in plaid and in
block colour jade.
RAKE – catwalk show held at the private members’ club in Jermyn Street -
Tramp
The ‘rake’ muse this season is the
international playboy Gunter Sachs with his relaxed elegant style. Silk twill
trousers in white (Sachs’ favourite) came also in orange, teal and emerald
green inspired by Sachs’ collection of Pop Art. But not forgetting that this is
an AW collection, these were worn with six-ply cashmere shawl collared
cardigans, tweed jackets, pea coats and Melton overcoats. The wow factor was
the turtle necks tops in soft leather.
Oliver
Spencer – catwalk show at Old Sorting Office
German art theorist Joseph Beuys and his
involvement with the 1960s Fluxus Movement was the inspiration. Fluxus Movement
saw the idea of art as a game for the artist to reconfigure the rules. Here Spencer reconfigures the style
rules: black and grey horizontal striped
trousers similar to the stereotype prisoner outfit are matched with tailored
jackets and coats. A shearling jacket is dandified into the long cutaway style
with a high neck making the exposed wool reminiscent of an Elizabethan ruffle.
And the suit makes a bold statement in wide colour block horizontal stripes.
Alex
Mattsson – presentation
Inspiration for this urban street wear
collection was taken from the large scale immigration of the Latin Community to
California in the 1940s plus the designer’s love for the Biker culture. A vintage style chalk stripe zoot suit and
40s style baggy dungarees mixed effortlessly with modern day biker jackets,
stud trimmed hoodie and baggy denim shorts. Flashes of white lighten this
mainly all black and navy collection. White stitching on a black biker jacket
gives a futuristic Tron like glow whilst the white spanner silhouettes on the
black socks showed a fun and softer side to the tattooed gang of models.
Day
Three
Paul
Costelloe – presentation at the Hospital Club
Titled Cheltenham this is a collection of
heritage tweeds modernised with bright accents of colour peeping out from under
collars, covering elbow patches and incorporated in to the check patterns. Patterned waistcoats in silk also jazz up the
collection in pinks, purples, blues and golds.
Orschel
Read – live presentation at the new ME hotel
This is sartorial tailoring in bold colours
and patterns: slim fit suit of gold paisley on navy corduroy, electric blue
suit with red zigzag wool jacket panelling and a jazzy ‘white noise’ inspired print
suit with link button feature. Cashmere knitwear included a vibrant jacquard
twin set of sleeveless roll neck and v-neck cardigan.
Jenny
Schwarz - presentation at the new ME hotel
Titled ‘Jesse’ after Jesse James. Like Jesse,
the poor horsemen and farmers of the 1880s were quite well dressed. Not because
they had an eye for quality but because the rich would discard their out of
season garments. Luxury cashmere sweaters are in the style of granddad t-shirts,
everyday jackets are of silk taffeta, and soft leather trims pocket slits and
underneath pocket flaps. And for that quick escape on horseback, long coats and
jackets sport high back vents
Euphorik - presentation at Wolf & Badger
Although this collection was inspired by
medieval knights and kings, there is no sign of long sweeping cloaks or suits
of armour and chain mail. This is a modern take on how clothes have become our
everyday armour. The pieces range from
the short silk velvet dinner jacket in red named the king’s robe, to the simpler
light grey suiting adorned with a hood. Other pieces include the liquid silver Lurex
t-shirt named chain mail and a metallic grey tailored suit with suede lapels
and shoulders called steel armour suit.
YMC image by Christopher Dadey
Euphorik image by Sam Atkinson
