London Fashion Week Part 2
Time to wrap up the last round of shows in the UK's fashion capital! Two of my favorite designers, Erdem and Peter Pilotto, showed this week and their collections were absolutely stunning! Check them out, and a few other favorites below, and get ready to jet off to Milan on Saturday for the first sound of Italian shows!
In case you missed them, you can find the rest of my Fashion Month shows / coverage HERE
Preen was founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi. The pair loved all things Victoriana, and that masculine and feminine mix that the couples still brings to thier designs. They showed at London Fashion Week for the first time in 2001, and became a smash hit among the British fashion scene with thier style which they describe as "deconstructed chic with a minimal opulence".
For most labels, constant change and new ideas is the way of staying relevant, but Preen has curated a signature style over the past 20 years that it's fans have come to expect and adore, and staying true to that style is what has made them most successful. However this season, their New-Romantic influences bore a certain resemblance of British Edwardian-era woman marching for thier right to vote, just as modern woman across the globe still march for equality, and that injected a little (interntional or unintentional) political relevancy into their show, which was expectedly, a smash hit.
Peter Pilotto
Austrian-Italian Peter Pilotto and Belgian-Peruvian Christopher De Vos met while studying at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. They launched the brand in 2007, with Pilotto focusing on textiles and prints, and De Vos creating the silhouette of the garments. They have been awarded the ‘Best Emerging Talent Award’ at the British Fashion Awards in 2009. The duo is known for unique and unusual prints, as well as soft but sculptured shapes in thier silhouettes.
Pilotto's girl looks best sashaying through a flea-market picking up antiques and foreign, colorful textiles. Pilotto and his partner De Vos covered the Waldorf Hotel in various patchwork couches and colorful rugs for thier parade of free spirited but sophisticated models to showcase the designs in, and while there were no creative leaps for the label this season, it's hoard of followers are sure to be delighted by the new gems that the duo has crafted.
Mulberry
Mulberry was founded in 1971 by Roger Saul and his mother Joan. They opened a small factory in Somerset, England, and began making leather bags and accessories that quickly became popular. Today, Mulberry is headed by thier Spanish Creative Director, Johnny Coca. Coca studied Architecture and Design in Paris, and after working for both Louis Vuitton and Celine, found a home evolving Mulberry's British heritage.
Coca's intention to celebrate "British-ness" was highly prevalent in the Fall 2017 collection. The looks featured classic browned checks and an overall equestrian mood, but the proportions were overall a bit too large. Edited down, this show would have been a hit, but odd hemlines put with too-large shoulder pads drowned the female form in too much fabric. As always, their bags, shoes, and accessories were strong, and thier British heritage will never be questioned.
Roksanda
Serbian designer Roksanda Ilinčić studied architecture and design at The University of Arts in Belgrade, before continuing at Central Saint Martins in London, where she earned an MA in Womenswear. She has been showing her collections at London Fashion Week since 2005, and her dramatic use of color and silhouette has made her a go-to for fashions elite.
Rocksandas normally voluminous shapes took a slinky turn this Fall, with more delicate fabrics (draped in large quantities) falling over models in floor-sweeping designs. Her colors were a beautiful mix of vibrant hues and warm autumnal tones that blended unexpectedly but beautifully. There was also an emergence of the quilted coat, which has been a fall piece popping up on multiple runways over the last week.
Erdem
Canadian and a Turkish fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu was raised between Montreal and Birmingham, England, and got his BA in fashion from Ryerson University before moving to London to earn his MA in fashion from Royal College of Art. His graduate collection closed the Universities show, and after working at Diane von Furstenberg for two years, relocated back to London to launch his own line. Erdem describes his designs as having a "versatile yet powerful femininity" and his use of experimental textiles and vibrant prints have made him a London favorite.
For Fall, Erdem was inspired by “an improbable meeting between two women, which could never have happened — [his] great-grandmothers.” Erdem's paternal grandmother was Turkish, his maternal grandmother was English, and throughout the collection you can see the two cultures dancing together in his designs, with Islamic and English influences both beautifully celebrated.
xoxo,
Audra
