The Best of London Fashion week's The Daily by Jenny and the Cat Club

LONDON FASHION WEEK THE LFW DAILY IS THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR THE BRITISH FASHION COUNCIL’S LONDON FASHION WEEK, REPORTING FROM FASHION’S FRONT LINE VIEW THE DAILY ONLINE: www.lfwdaily.com

ISSUE N O 5, LONDON FASHION WEEK SPRING /SUMMER 2010

IN ASS OCIATION WITH PANDORA

SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2009

THE FASHION MOMENT White hot: the front row at Christopher Kane’s show included US Vogue’s Anna Wintour, model Natalia Vodianova and designer Donatella Versace. Photography by Anna Bauer

It’s all white now Report by David Hayes and Anna-Marie Solowij Isn’t it lovely starting with a clean sheet of spotless paper? The promise of all the things you could create. Of course, you go on to make a right old hash of it and have to chuck it straight in the bin, but that moment before you put pen to paper is definitely something special to savour. In this 25th year of London Fashion Week (LFW), designers are having a clean-sheet moment. Pure white was like a breath of fresh air blowing through the Spring/Summer 2010

Victoria’s secret Report by Isaac Lock This season, the LFW celebrity ante was upped significantly. As well as the usual cast of Alexa and Peaches and Pixie Geldof, we’ve had the Olsens, Donatella Versace, Gwyneth Paltrow, TV’s Lorraine Kelly (who had a mumsie moment in the front row of House of Holland) and Nicola out of Girls Aloud. Most intriguingly, Victoria Beckham [see right with Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman] slipped in to sit on a bench

collections, linking diverse designers. Christopher Kane [see above] used virginal white in soft pleated chiffons and starchy cottons to get his sweet Lolita message across; Pringle of Scotland opened its homecoming show with whiterthan-white whites that included airy crochet dresses, flounced chiffon skirts and sheer tops; Todd Lynn, tailor extraordinaire, sent out a sharp white tailored trouser suit to set the scene at his show, and Hannah by a makeshift runway in a damp tunnel under LFW’s new home, Somerset House, for new-designer initiative Fashion East. “I’m working and haven’t time to see loads of shows,” she said. “But there’s so much great new talent I wanted to make it to this.” Post-show, she said she loved Central St Martins graduate Michael van der Ham’s patchwork dresses. Mrs B seemed to be there from her own genuine interest. “We don’t court celebrities,” said Fashion East founder Lulu Kennedy, “but Victoria got in touch and said she wanted to come. She insisted she wanted to be treated like everyone else, turned up with a friend and watched quietly. It all seemed very down to earth.”

FROM TOKYO TO LONDON

Marshall broke up her black-leatherand-coat-hanger-shoulders style with a few well-placed white moments. Even new designer Holly Fulton, who showed at the Fashion East emerging-talent showcase, used white to offset her stunning graphic prints. “This is the first time I’ve worked with white,” she said. “I was really excited after doing my first collection; that’s why my colours were really optimistic. Using white just seemed right somehow.”

This kind of coincidence is the stuff of major trends. The references to designer Rifat Ozbek’s seismic White Collection of, whisper it – 19 years ago – are unavoidable. So does it feel like 1990 again and that major fashion moment that signalled the dawn of New Age spirituality, when PR guru Lynne Franks hosted a legendary all-white party, and everyone wore white Levi’s and Gucci loafers? Sort of. White is the ultimate clean sweep. It symbolises purity, serenity, spirituality, and we could all do with that. Also, designers are conscious of producing ideas that will prompt us to buy. So if the shows at London Fashion Week are anything to go by, come next spring we’ll all be looking for white at the end of the tunnel.

To tweet or not to tweet Report by Disneyrollergirl “The first fashion-show season with Twitter in full force is like Gossip Girl on crack!” So reads designer Henry Holland’s (henryholland) Twitter, summing up the latest obsession to take LFW in less than 140 characters. If we’re not tweeting about spotting Donatella Versace/ Joan Collins/Martine McCutcheon, we’re tweeting mini trend reports as they happen: “RoboCop shoulders at Todd Lynn!”; “Polka-dot shoes at

Cat people Report by Julia Robson Forget fashion’s current leopard-print fad, cats of the domestic variety are the mascots of next season. Backstage at her LFW presentation, Suzanne Clements, of design duo Clements Ribeiro, revealed the two reasons why their Spring/Summer 2010 collection has such a feline theme: “Toulouse and Marie, our new British Blue pet cats.” Cat fans will go gaga over the new Clements Ribeiro range, which features embellished cats on preppy cashmere cardigans and a cat print on silk dresses. It’s purrrfect!

Photography by Marcus Dawes

Luella!” in a barrage of sartorial sound bites. But what’s the official code of conduct at the shows? Is it offensive to a designer if we watch-’n’-tweet or is it a compliment that we can’t wait? “I tweet before the shows but not during,” says Stacey Duguid, Executive Fashion Editor of Elle. “A designer has spent four months of preparation for a seven-to-eight minute show and people spend four minutes tweeting? It’s rude. Also, you haven’t really formed an opinion about the show, so it’s competitive tweeting. It becomes a big tweet-off!” For some fashion editors, it’s all for the readers. “We’re about fashion as it happens and opening up our world, so it’s important that we

tweet,” says Hattie Brett, Web Editor of Grazia Daily (Grazia_Live). “But I would only tweet in a show if something unmissable happens.” What ’s ‘unmissable’? A model tumble? A seizure? “I tweeted a TwitPic during Danielle Scutt’s show,” admits Duguid, “because the hair was so incredible.” The buyers are brandishing their BlackBerrys, too, with online stores leading the charge. Net-A-Porter (Luxury_Fashion) tweets at almost every show. But not East End fashion boutique Start. Owner Brix SmithStart (Brixsmithstart) says, “I like to focus on the energy of the moment.” To see fashion pack tweets from the London shows, go to londonfashionwk on Twitter

OXFORD STREET / SHOP ONLINE: UNIQLO.COM

TREND ROUND-UP

THE LFW DAILY CREDITS Created and edited by JENNY DYSON & CAT CALLENDER Managing Editor JANA DOWLING Art Director & Designer BIANCA WENDT Chief Sub Editor MARION JONES Deputy Chief Sub Editor FIONA RUSSELL Design Assistants THOMAS ELLIOTT & KIT HUMPHREY Reporters NAVAZ BATIWALLA , STEVIE BROWN, CARRIE GORMAN, DAVID HAYES, ISAAC LOCK & JULIA ROBSON Beauty Correspondents ANNA-MARIE SOLOWIJ & ANTONIA WHYATT Guest Reporters CARYN FRANKLIN, REBECCA LOWTHORPE & COLIN MCDOWELL Staff Photographers ANNA BAUER, MARCUS DAWES, CHRISTOPHER JAMES & TYRONE LEBON Advertising & Distribution Manager GEORGE RYAN Editorial Assistants CATHERINE BULLMAN, FIONA CAMPBELL, IONA HUTLEY & TODD WATKINS Web Co-ordinator KILA CARR-INCE IT Consultant SCOTT KNAPPER BFC Marketing Manager CLARA MERCER Printed by THE GUARDIAN PRINT CENTRE Published by JENNY & THE CAT LTD In association with RUBBISH INK LTD Thanks to THE BFC TEAM AND SOMERSET HOUSE The British Fashion Council would like to thank the following for supporting London Fashion Week: CANON – PRINCIPAL SPONSOR, BLACKBERRY, BRITISH AIRWAYS, CHAMBORD, DHL, DRAPERS, EVIAN, LAVAZZA , LG, LONDON DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, LONDON EVENING STANDARD, MERCEDES -BENZ, M . A . C, THE MAY FAIR, MONSOON, RED BULL, TESCO CLOTHING, TONI & GUY, TOYWATCH, TOPMAN, TOPSHOP, UK TRADE AND INVESTMENT

LONDON FASHION WEEK’S THE DAILY Saturday 26 September 2009

Fashion gets happy! Report by Rebecca Lowthorpe, Fashion Features Director, Elle It all started with a smile. On the catwalk! True, an almost unheard of occurrence in the straight-faced business of modelling. The girl in question was prancing down Dame Vivienne Westwood’s catwalk and – boom! – out of nowhere, a beautiful, broad, toothy smile. And so it was that by the time Nathan Jenden’s models stormed the catwalk at the end of his show dancing, leaping, laughing and encouraging their audience to do the same – there was no question that London Fashion Week (which ended on Wednesday) was in the grips of an optimistism pandemic. “They all did it spontaneously, even in rehearsal,” said a breathless Jenden backstage. “It’s all about having fun; fashion should be fun.” There was much to feel good about – a spectacular new show venue at Somerset House, a landmark anniversary celebrating 25 years of London fashion and an international front row, spearheaded by US Vogue’s all-powerful Anna Wintour, who had flown in to see what all the fuss was about. Luckily, the designers they had come over to see did not disappoint. How embarrassing might it have been if Christopher Kane had presented a dud or Erdem

had started over two hours late? But there were to be none of the usual LFW antics; in their place a slick, professional schedule and polished shows of an international class. Phew. But more than that, a powerful buoyed-up feeling of positivity. London’s 25-year celebration – a kind of coming of age for the fashion city known for producing sapling talent only for it to leave and make a name for itself elsewhere – could even be felt in the stitches of the clothes. There was a sweetness to the London collections, not just with the proliferation of sugaredalmond colours and so many pretty dresses, but also because designers actually used the word ‘pretty’ and talked of wanting their customers to feel ‘uplifted’. Antonio Berardi – a huge talent who came back to London having shown his collections in Milan and Paris for the past 10 years – described his show venue, St Mark’s Church in Mayfair, as ‘euphoric’. “Women need to feel an emotional attachment with the clothes they buy,” said designer Marios Schwab. “I want them to feel good. It’s the only way people are really going to buy clothes now.” So the biggest new trend to come out of London this season? Optimism.

CRIB UP ON THE SPRING/SUMMER 2010 TRENDS WITH THE LFW DAILY’S SNEAK PEEK OF WHAT YOU’LL BE WEARING Compiled by Cat Catalogue

SWEET-TREAT JEWELLERY Bracelets that look like a string of Smarties, keepsakes hanging from necklaces and handmade tulle confections dripping from fingers [see Betty Jackson, right] – jewellery will be about wearing things that make you smile. Get thee to a haberdashery and go DIY!

Photography by Tyrone Lebon

KNOTTY BUT NICE Elevate your ponytail into high fashion with a simple twist and tie. Charles Worthington and stylist Marc Trinder were inspired by how Japanese girls knot their hair at Erdem [see right], while Sam McKnight braided, pinned and knotted high ponytails at Jaeger.

ANTONIO BERARDI, BURBERRY, JONATHAN SAUNDERS MATTHEW WILLIAMSON & PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND Stellar returns to the London catwalk

Photography by Marcus Dawes

Photography by Jason Lloyd-Evans

Nicholas Kirkwood shoes. Illustration by Iona Hutley

THE DOT’S GOT IT Whether super-sized [Luella, see above], graphically bold [Danielle Scutt] or slightly blurred and Tipp-Exy [Kinder Aggugini,] polka dots look set to be the print of choice for Spring/Summer 2010. Playful, girly and ever so slightly eccentric, spots broke out last week over practically every item you can imagine. Channel next season by snapping up a dotty print now – you’ll look so fashion forward!

RETEMORAB

SHOP FOR VICTORY! With such great Brit brands, there’s every reason to buy British PALOMA FAITH Her acoustic set at the Pandora LFW Daily Disco ROCKED!

POINTY SHOULDERS Enough! BLACK We all love pastels now BRA TOPS Apparently, they’re coming back, but not round our way!

BAROMETER

Photography by Anna Bauer

SWIMMER’S HAIR Take a dip—and leave your hair wet afterwards. Swimmer’s hair is in. Basso & Brooke channelled model Stephanie Seymour surfacing from the pool in that Herb Ritts photo, keeping it wet with L’Oréal Paris Studio Line Design Wet Gel. Guido Palau went for damp and slightly 1990s grunge at Jonathan Saunders [see above] and hair stylist Malcolm Edwards did a twisted-hair look at Amanda Wakeley that recalled a 1970s Marie Helvin. Whatever the inspiration, it makes summer a whole lot easier.

Match of the day London Fashion Week and Matches got together to create an on-site store with all sorts of one-off goodies to buy at Somerset House from the Matches 4 LFW booth. To get in on the act, The LFW Daily ran a Willy Wonkatastic Golden Ticket competition every day during LFW to give readers the chance to win a limited-edition designer gift. Today it’s a bag and T-shirt by fashion star Nathan Jenden! Go to www.matchesfashion.com and enter code LFWDAILY.

Photography by Tyrone Lebon

FASHION-PACK FAVOURITES Most peeps think that fashion folk slavishly wear what’s on the runway. Not so. However, what does emerge around showtime is what’s best described as a fashion week uniform. A great indicator of how to work the clothes for the current season [that’s Autumn/Winter 2009], London Fashion Week’s fashion pack were working Breton tops [see above], bare legs and er, ankle socks – obviously not both together…

Photography by Catwalking.com

ALL ABOUT ANKLES Want to make your current wardrobe Spring/ Summer 2010worthy without a shopping splurge? Rustle up some ankle socks and team them with platform sandals or slingback kitten heels. Big at LFW, fashion eds were working the look by day two of the six-day event. Cute!

Photography by Marcus Dawes

AFRICA ‘BACONGO’ CHIC At Paul Smith

PASTEL PERFECT The hot new hues for summer? Sun-faded and pretty, sugaredalmond shades. Think lilac, pistachio, baby blue, lemon or peach. Either wear one colour head to toe, as at Louise Goldin [see right] or several in one go, Christopher Kane-style. You’ll look a treat!

MANGA MAKE UP Why be subtle when you can be a superhero with the flick of an eyeliner? Manga make up made us whoop with delight at Luella [see above], where bright colour blocks of blue, red and glossy black framed models’ eyes. The look went futuristic and doll-like at Kinder Aggugini, while make-up artist Pat McGrath used pink blusher and purple glitter across lids and cheeks. Val Garland chose a graphic, linear under-eye liner at Mary Katrantzou. The question is, are you brave enough? KNIT-TASTIC! Hooray for the return of Pringle of Scotland. The brand usually shows its collections in Milan, but returned to the British capital to celebrate London Fashion Week’s 25th anniversary. With actress Tilda Swinton [the face of the Pringle’s Spring/Summer 2010 campaign] sitting front row, Creative Director Clare Waight Keller’s collection for the label returned to Pringle’s roots: knitwear. Think chunky and open-knit cable cardigans [see right] with a cool, urban feel and not in the slightest bit homespun.

BEST FOOT FORWARD Forget It bags! It’s all about shoes, shoes, shoes next summer, from painted slingbacks at new luxury label Veryta to feathery confections at Roksanda Ilincic and Jonathan Saunders’ neon-flash towering stilettos. “It’s definitely gone from being It bag to It shoes,” says hot new cobbler Michael Lewis (who has worked at Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Gucci). While platforms are still huge news, the most exciting new shoe shape is… the return of the kitten heel. GOING GAGA She’s on the cover of art/fashion publication V, was the toast of New York Fashion Week and emerged as the left-field style icon of the London shows. Yup, Lady Gaga will have a lot to answer for come next season. Her signature PE-style, high-waist pants cropped up at almost every other show [see House of Holland, right]. Sounds mad, we know, but the high street will be awash with skimpy shorts come spring.

Photography by Jason Lloyd-Evans

Photography by Catwalking.com

ORIGAMI FOLDS As if inspired by the Japanese art of origami (paper folding), designers draped fabric into angular folds, creating a new silhouette for summer [see Peter Pilotto, right]. Complicated? Is for them. Isn’t for those wanting to dip their toe in the trend. Just invest in a drapey shift or a skirt with rippling folds over the hips. Divine.

Photography by Catwalking.com

PERFECT PINS Get your legs out without fear, with St Tropez’s new runway-tested products. Models glistened at Louise Goldin (Wash Off Instant Glow Mousse), gleamed at Roksanda Ilincic [see left, using New Radiance Mousse] and went bling at Marios Schwab (Wash Off Instant Glow Shimmer Stick).

Photography by Catwalking.com

NEWS

www.lfwdaily.com

Flats vs heels

What a load of b**logs

Report by Julia Robson

Report by Isaac Lock

Are flats the new heels? The message from the London catwalks was blurry. Shoes were mostly preposterously high, particularly at Peter Pilotto, Mark Fast and Bernard Chandran. However, when flats did put in an appearance – like the androgynous, shiny black brogues at Meadham Kirchhoff, and the Christian Louboutin rollerball loafers and ruffed-up Doc Martens at young talent showcase Fashion East – they floored it. Offcatwalk, the fashion rabble voted with their feet. To quote Cheryl Cole, flats got a 100 per cent YES. Doc Martens, Converse baseball boots, plimsolls, brogues, loafers, workman’s boots, flat (but not a pump), flatter (lace-up wedges are cool) and flattest (studded is best) are the new footwear of choice (check out fashion blogs The Sartorialist and Jak & Jil, if you don’t believe me). Handy for negotiating cobblestones at London Fashion Week HQ Somerset House, too (those who stayed loyal to heels made the former dwelling of the British Admiralty look like Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks). “Thank God the brogue is back in fashion,” mused six-foot model Erin O’Connor (well, she would wouldn’t she?). A glance around static displays at the onsite industry trade exhibition showed a pendulum swing. Shoes were either very, very high or very, very low. Even Nicholas Kirkwood, who invented the ‘superheel’ and those whoppers for Rodarte’s New York show, has also done flats for Spring/ Summer 2010 – for the first time EVER (strappy and closed and laceups). “I’d been meaning to do them for a couple of seasons, but there was too much saturation with the ballerina. There’s a lot of scope with flats. Next season, they are going to be very important.” In the meantime, Grazia magazine’s Mel Rickey has found the best compromise. “Doc Martens heels. The Holy Grail of footwear. The perfect in-between boot.”

Arrrrrrghhhhhhh! Child bloggers everywhere! You’re probably sick of hearing about Tavi, the strangely charming 13-year-old American blogger who has turned herself into an internet celebrity recently with her unnervingly knowing references to fashion and culture. She caused ripples by plonking herself on the front row at the New York shows last week and people haven’t stopped talking: is she a JT LeRoy-style hoax, masterminded by a photographer/ an adult with freakishly good skin/ preserved by Eerie, Indiana-style human Tupperware/meant to be in school or something? The truth is she is a scarily intelligent kid with a baffling degree of visual literacy, thanks to having grown up with the internet as a resource. Anyway, last week two international schoolkids (a boy called Lev with long, ginger hair like a young Mick Hucknall, and a girl called Noa who talks to her friends on the phone like an editor in chief talks to their PA) were turning heads at the shows by stomping around like mini-editors, shooting street-style pictures like master fashion-blogger The Sartorialist. If you go onto their blog, brainsbeauty.wordpress.com, you can link to hundreds of other fashion blogs by youths, all equally outspoken and obsessive. However, already their days are numbered. Once you get over the novelty, there’s nothing that interesting in the innermost thoughts of a kid discovering fashion. The opinion of a life-long expert is more relevant. People read the kids because they’re currently running the internet, while the grown-ups are scrabbling around like mad to keep up. However, as is apparent this season in the way everyone is multitasking to get on the online bandwagon, they’re getting there. The girls at Vogue are posting five blogs a day each, national newspaper writers are stomping around with digital SLRs for instant blog posts, and Grazia’s Paula Reed is covering the magazine, the daily blog and trying to film herself with a Flip video camera to post online films. Even seasoned fashion journalist Colin McDowell has just launched colinmcdowell.com, exploiting the ‘freedom’ of the internet to, he claims, “Write down my nastiest thoughts, send them off and get them online.” If the real fashion grown-ups are getting on board, does this mean that the internet age has finally reached the fashion mainstream? Internet 3.0 should be quality content by relevant commentators! So enjoy it while you can, amazing/ terrifying mini-bloggers; the real world is on its way!

LIVE CATWALK ILLUSTRATION AT PETER JENSEN’S SHOW

Drawn by Pia Bramley

Girls! Girls! Redefining Girls! the waist Report by Isaac Lock

Report by David Hayes. Photography by Catwalking.com

So, it’s probably time to talk about some models. The highlights of the week who lit up the runway. As usual, a lot of the really exciting girls had skipped London to go straight to Milan Fashion Week (where they get paid more money), but casting director Angus Munro reckons the situation is getting better season on season. “It’s sometimes a bit dribs and drabs, but London is building a head of steam with the return of Burberry and Matthew Williamson to our catwalks. And with an everincreasing core of talent emerging with Louise Goldin, Erdem and Peter Pilotto, I have noticed a distinct increase in interest of girls to come. This season has seen the arrival of supermodels in the making, in the form of Patricia, Frida, Auguste and Mirte,” he claims. Munro cast some breakthrough new faces for Matthew Williamson, including Karolin Volter, alongside some major bigger girls, such as Freja Beha Erichsen and Abbey Lee Kershaw. Meanwhile, at Topshop Unique, Russell Marsh put together a really directional casting made up of some of the most talked-about girls of the moment, including Dree Hemingway (yeah, yeah, the great-granddaughter of ) and the incredible Frida (who had everyone doing backflips at Calvin Klein in New York the week before), as well as some of the stars of last season, like Alla, who opened the Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen shows in Paris. At his Monday show, Christopher Kane, of course, had killer casting – thanks once again to Marsh. The show was opened by Valerija Erokhina and closed by beautiful, androgynous Ursula. And French Vogue favourite Lara Stone popped up, too. Coco Rocha and Chanel Iman were also in town – at Nicole Farhi, and Sessilee Lopez and Alana Zimmer have both been working their trotters off!

You might have thought that your body parts were fixed exactly where they were. Barring major surgery, of course, that your hips would always be below your waist, your chest above, shoulders, two arms at the side, that kind of thing. You are wrong, of course. Every couple of seasons, fashion rearranges the natural order of things, changing proportions, dropping waists, widening shoulders, generally mucking about with Mother Nature. This

season, waists are up, quite literally. The high waist was a strong statement at many shows – usually accompanied with corsetry or clever cutting, to make them look waspishly thin. Erdem [see right] tailored his pretty, floral dresses with a step of wider fabric jutting just below the ribs – like an inbuilt cropped top – that made the nipped-in waists below appear even smaller; Marios Schwab sliced the body in three, with

outfits changing fabric on a high waistline and across the hips; and Mary Katrantzou used sculptural pleats, fanning out across the chest and narrowing in to the waist, on her collection of printed party frocks. Elsewhere, designers either puffed out skirts to bell-like proportions (Luella), or used ruffles or origami pleated skirts (Pringle of Scotland). Christopher Kane’s approach was far simpler, but just as effective. His gingham dresses came with built-in, boned corset panels – often in contrast colours – to cinch in a high, positively svelte-looking waistline. All clever stuff. Let’s hope these looks work just as well in a size 12, when they hit the shops next season.

MODEL FOCUS Mimmi and Hannah, star models of the current Miu Miu advertisement campaign, backstage at new label Veryta. Photography by Anna Bauer

NEWS

LONDON FASHION WEEK’S THE DAILY Saturday 26 September 2009

Catwalk highlights Photography by Catwalking.com

RICHARD NICOLL

BURBERRY PRORSUM

CHRISTOPHER KANE

MICHAEL VAN DER HAM

Report by MELANIE RICKEY Fashion Editor at Large, Grazia

Report by DAVID HAYES Fashion Writer

Report by DAVID HAYES

Report by REBECCA LOWTHORPE Fashion Features Director, Elle

Designers talk of ‘conceiving’ their collection as if it’s a baby. Richard Nicoll became ‘impregnated’ with his Spring/Summer 2010 looks in Barcelona. But don’t think flamenco frills. No. “I felt so free in Barcelona. It was pure summer escapism. It made me think we all need frivolity in our lives,” he says. From that thought came the clothes, inspired by late 19th-century Tahitian photography and flooded with a sense of freedom from convention. So we got giant tropical flowers on short, corseted cocktail frocks in humid terracotta pink and cool misty blue; loose, silky tailoring; and wide-shouldered jackets and high-waisted pleatfront trouser suits in tobacco and putty – perfect for a jaunt in a steamy city. A navy silk shirt-dress with sleeves cut to expose a toned shoulder made me dream of cutting loose. His pale-blue denim shot through with silver thread was glamorous and covetable. Expect a waiting list for the smart, wearable snakeskin sandals he co-created with Jonathan Kelsey. Champion!

Burberry were the biggest comeback kids of London Fashion Week – and boy did they show it. The megabrand landed a huge show tent in Westminster to close London Fashion Week with a big money bang – complete with a celebrity appearance headed by Victoria Beckham, Liv Tyler, an Olsen Twin, and even Peter Mandelson. Context is everything in fashion, and if the spectacle seemed, well, a bit too Armani-esque for London, the clothes – give or take a few misjudged summer fur coats – showed off the inventive British genius of Yorkshire-born Christopher Bailey on a supermodel line-up including our own Lily Donaldson. The collection revisited Bailey’s tangled chiffon dresses of Spring/Summer 2005 – only this time on steroids. Wrapped, twisted and knotted fabrics were turned into sweet pastel summer dresses, turbanlike miniskirts, and even fashioned into classic trench coats and oversized bags. The soundtrack included Fleetwood Mac’s Big Love – and, as far as giving a little love back to London goes, you couldn’t get any bigger.

Boy, was it hot at Christopher Kane. Maybe it was the high wattage front-row line-up [US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, designer Donatella Versace and supermodel Natalia Vodianova] or maybe it was the stellar collection from London Fashion Week’s hottest star. Even with all the heat and hubbub, Kane kept his cool with a show that mixed oversized gingham checks on dresses cut with corsetry seams and boning with slashed cashmere sweaters, layers of pastel chiffons with floral sequin motifs and sheer pleats – all sent out to a melancholy gospel soundtrack by Mahalia Jackson. ‘The Jonestown cult and Jehovah’s Witnesses’, ‘Lolita’, ‘covering up’, ‘teenage bras’, ‘a girl who doesn’t know who to be’… the inspiration was hard to pin down from Christopher or sister Tammy. But who cares? The results spoke for themselves. Backstage, the front row and teary-eyed buyers were vying for Kane fashion hugs. Topshop boss Philip Green and daughter Chloe seemed pretty pleased. You could almost hear the cogs turning. Expect to see gingham in Topshop next season.

Is it responsible to fan the flames of hype that already surround young fashion designer Michael van der Ham? Having graduated from the lauded Central Saint Martins MA in February, and this being his first proper show, is it fair to heap yet more hyperbole on this most precious seedling of talent? It might be better to highjack him, stick him in a creative box for six months and let him out next season to see what he’s come up with. Sadly, however, I foresee column inches dedicated to this naive softly-spoken young man, before he’s even broken a sweat in the real, tough industry that is fashion. So, what’s all the fuss about? It was a further refining of his graduation collection, in which the Dutchman’s concept, inspired by a Seventies exhibition in which Warhol cut up three dresses to make one, produced the loveliest jigsawpuzzle pieces. Splicing together different eras – Twenties beading, say, with a shimmery metallic Forties tweed skirt – the effect is dazzlingly unique and lovely.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY FRONT ROW, THE NEW BACKSTAGE STYLING RANGE FROM CHARLES WORTHINGTON

Beauty spot Report by Antonia Whyatt. Photography courtesy of Max Factor

HOW TO GIVE GOOD SKIN “Women say they want their skin to look ‘natural’,” says make-up artist Pat McGrath, sipping a post-show cocktail at the Hospital club in Covent Garden, “but what they really mean is they want to look HDTV natural.” She’s got a point. Our idea of natural has been tied to film ever since Max Factor created the first ‘Pan-Cake’ make-up for Hollywood. Now close to 100 years on, we expect naked perfection, as played out at the London shows. Backstage at Issa [see left], the models were glowing in a hyper-real way — the foundation on their skin was so fine, if they’d sworn they had nothing on you would have believed them. This was thanks to Pat McGrath’s secret weapon, Max Factor’s brandnew Second Skin Foundation. Skin was the tonal trend of the season. From beige and taupe eyes to ‘concealer’ used as the lip colour du jour, it was everyone’s inspiration. For Christopher Kane’s show, Lucia Pieroni gave skin a preternatural glow, prepping it with Clé de Peau, before highlighting cheekbones with cult product Egyptian Magic. At Matthew Williamson, James Kaliardos, the master of minimalism, had reduced his products to the

L’Oréal Paris Made for Me Naturals Doutzen palette, and used it to do all his tonal contouring. “Women are used to airbrushed images and seeing perfection; they expect products to deliver.” Meanwhile, at Jaeger, girls had been given what we are calling ‘mushroom face’, a harmony of beiges and taupes created by M.A.C makeup artist Hannah Murray. She proudly brandished her four key products (Oak lip pencil, Luna Cream Colour base, Beguile Eyebrow Gel and M.A.C Face & Body), saying, “Anyone can do this look, it makes the girls super-gorgeous in this Lauren Hutton way.” For Erdem, M.A.C make-up artist Andrew Gallimore was going for a ‘hyper-real’ look. He slicked cheekbones and eyelids with gloss for polish, and painted eyelashes with a fan brush to make them black and pointy in a nod to Erdem’s geisha influence. The happy ending is that Max Factor has once more moved with the times and created a foundation to make real skin look, well, real, but in a filmic way by using high resolution pigments that mimic the ‘multi-chromatic look’ of flawless skin. How perfect.

NEWS

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JONATHAN SAUNDERS

LOUISE GOLDIN

MARIOS SCHWAB

MEADHAM KIRCHHOFF

Report by REBECCA LOWTHORPE

Report by MELANIE RICKEY

Report by SARAH HARRIS Fashion Features Writer, Vogue

Report by SARAH HARRIS

Wow! What a difference three seasons in New York can make to a designer. Polish? Certainly. Desirable? Absolutely. Relevant to now and very much his own thing? Yes. Saunders has undoubtedly been one of the greatest print talents to come out of London in recent years and he’s done very well for himself, thank you, graduating to show his own-name collection in New York and collaring a nice little consultancy in Milan at Pollini, but what we had here was a massive leap forward. In the past, Saunders’ prints have been wickedly good but the clothes have often not lived up to them – too heavy, too try-hard. This was sport-tech luxe and it suited his obsession for interesting fabrics (think holey Aertex/transparent plastic/couture-like chiffon and silk), his passion for print (neon-paint brush strokes on raw linen or geometric ice-cool pastels), and his eye for surface decoration (looped fringes or tiny silver studs that traced the patterns beneath). A bold leap forward.

Attending a Louise Goldin show leaves one hunting for adjectives, not jotting down notes describing clothes and styling. Here is a knitwear designer creating clothes that are experimental, intricate and not at all like knitwear as we know it. For Spring/Summer 2010, the Louise Goldin woman, as she imagines her, is a softly sculpted collision of an intergalactic warrior woman and a Baroque Marie Antoinette. Oh, yes! She wears pastels – palest lemon, dusty lilac, powder blue – and mixes them with gold lamé, gold crystal and high heels encrusted with vicious little spikes. Her wardrobe is a similar clash of demure and sexy. So you get gold romper shorts with a draped top that flashes open to reveal a pointed padded crystal bra, making her look very pleased to see you. But mostly you get complex little dresses bristling with stiff pleats, bustles and peplums, overlaid with tulle, and lace crystal that looks like nothing else out there. The designer was inspired by “Baroque and mid-1990s Versace. I’ve been working on the bra shapes for a while.”

Sometimes a designer’s show invitation can provide clues as to what they send out on their catwalk. Marios Schwab’s invitation was a flipbook comprising three sections of various animals’ heads, bodies and tails. But what was printed there isn’t the point; it’s the mixing and matching. Similarly, his Spring/Summer 2010 formula consisted of three elements. On top, an ultra-cropped chain-mail vest or a sawn-off jacket with a Swarovskicrystal-encrusted collar, layered over a pannier-shaped sheer tunic or a stitched pleated sheath, and finally under that a midi-length skirt, as light as whipped cream, which was scooped and draped just so that it bounced with every step. In a pretty pastel palette of lilac, pale pink and silver (colours that many London designers are experimenting with this time around), it was poetic, and certainly much softer than Schwab’s usual roster of body-gripping dresses. “I was thinking about romance and eclecticism,” said the exhausted designer backstage after the show. “It’s for an eccentric English rose.”

Ed Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff said they started off where they left last season; taking those puffy-backed biker jackets as a starting point to inform spring’s silhouette. But exactly where they took it – into a series of beautifully engineered draped silk dresses with eruptions of knife pleats, or frayed tiered skirts in sorbet hues of faded lemon, peach and pale pink (yes, Meadham Kirchhoff does pink) – few could have predicted just how beautiful it would be. There was enough familiarity: those now signature skinny trousers with sliced knees made a reappearance, but they were teamed with glittery T-shirts or, elsewhere, layered with navy tulle dresses adorned in tiny velvet bows. Everything was paired with Jordan Askill’s black patent brogues, tied with silk bows and festooned with spiky silver hardware. The duo said they wanted everything to look old. It did. Fabrics felt antique, and white shirting looked Victorian in parts, but their ideas and execution felt brand new. It was a triumph, and exactly where these two are headed makes riveting viewing.

And now a little something for the boys Report by Isaac Lock. Photography by Catwalking.com Hooray! Thanks to a new menswear day that tagged on to the end of London Fashion Week in a joint initiative between the British Fashion Council (BFC), newdesigner umbrella Fashion East and Topman, menswear in London is becoming something of an intimidating force. The day was made up of MAN (a group show for three new designers and Topman Design), a show from the designer boutique bStore, presentations from Savile Row tailor E Tautz, installations from 14 new men’s designers, and a runway show from James Long and Carolyn Massey

[see below], who were the first designers to receive support from NEWGEN MEN, the addition to NEWGEN – the designer initiative that has been supporting womenswear design talent in London for 16 years. Phew! “I think this explosion in menswear talent in London has been bubbling away at the surface for a long time,” claimed Fashion East/MAN founder Lulu Kennedy outside the show, “but since we started the men’s day and created an outlet it’s just snowballed. We started out with four installations last year, and now we have 14!

I think great menswear talent is something that London is starting to really be recognised for.” The other thing that menswear is getting London recognised for is a co-existence between fashion and commerce, which only exists in this way in the UK. At the MAN show the business end of things was taken care of by Christopher Shannon, who has managed to farm out his contemporary sportswear for collaborations with brands including Reebok and Eastpak; in the middle there was JW Anderson, who caused a real sensation with a beautifully made, incredibly focused collection of contemporary tailoring and menswear with intriguing feminine touches. At the purely creative end there was Katie Eary, who has landed one of her jackets on the cover of October’s Vogue and frantically described her collection before the show as “William Burroughs! Naked Lunch! Bones printed on tights and tops! Stripes! Sailors! Rent boys!” The same was true of the 14 installations; young designers with a real abundance of sometimes unbridled creative talent, showing alongside more business-minded brands, with neither presence undermining the validity of the other. So, luxurious, embellished young tailoring from Casely-Hayford at one end of the scale sat next to block-coloured latex bondage vests and shorts with matching spiked gimp masks (and matching coloured cup cakes) from Jaiden rVa James at the other. “At the moment, we’re just interested in being creative and expressing ourselves,” said the designers. “And this has given us an opportunity to do that. We are working on establishing our vision, and will develop our business later.” London is perhaps the only place in the world where they can make that happen.

As a fashion-week virgin, Pandora the Danish mermaid decided the only way to dress the part was to wear a very posh crown. Rings worn as posh crown from £515, ring worn as belt £1,535, available from Pandora

LONDON FASHION WEEK’S THE DAILY Saturday 26 September 2009

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LONDON FASHION WEEK’S THE DAILY Saturday 26 September 2009

And Joan came, too Report by David Hayes. Photography by Anna Bauer Bunting, big hats, tea cups and even a speech from the Mayor; the grand opening of London Fashion Week on Friday 18 September was less Mad Hatter’s tea party and more ribbon cutting at a very chic village fete, with champagne and a guest appearance by Joan Collins. “Darling, of course I’m here for the hats,” said Joan, as she swished into the Headonism show in a tight pencil skirt teamed with one of her own grey leopard-print satin numbers, topped off with a jaunty straw trilby she had picked up in NYC. Put together by the patron saint of British milliners, Stephen Jones [see left with model Erin O’Connor], Headonism showcased five of the hottest London-based hat designers around today: Piers Atkinson, Soren Bach, Shilpa Chavan, Justin Smith and Noel Stewart. “When people think of Britain, they still think of the Royal Family and hats,” said Jones. “I met most of these young designers when I put together my exhibition at the V&A. There was nothing like this back when I started 25 years ago, so it was a great opportunity to give these new designers a voice.” And the hats? A crazy mix of shiny outsized cherries, intricate crochet work, strung-together tin bangles, tinsel, Perspex cutout trees and painted muscle shells. Not all on the same hat, of course; now that would be silly. Working out whose hat was whose was a little tricky, as models stepped up on the revolving stage designed by Dior set designer Michael Howells in a haphazard order. The presentation certainly set the tone for the week: beautifully crafted designs, crazy talent and a good dose of British charm. For images and more information, go to www. londonfashionweek.co.uk

Overheard The wit and wisdom of London Mayor Boris Johnson [see right] from his opening speech at LFW… “I BUY MY BOXERS FROM CHAPEL MARKET IN ISLINGTON.”

“Clothes and textiles are worth £6.2 billion in overseas earnings alone for this country. That is why I’m so proud that we and the London Development Agency have supported this industry throughout the downturn, flying in buyers and journalists from across the world to see London Fashion Week. Our studies show that the investments we make in fashion in London have returns of 30 to one.” “WHATEVER THE THREATS OF THE TRADE UNIONS, AS LONG AS I HAVE ANYTHING TO

DO WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS CITY AND OF THIS COUNTRY, THERE WILL BE NO BAN ON HIGH HEELS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.”

“I’m not a style icon. When I lived in Australia I sported extremely short shorts, known as stubbies. As a child my mother put me in shorts. I still love a pair of rugby shorts, although my girlfriend has tried to ban me from wearing them.” “I HAVE A PAIR OF MEXICAN SANDALS MY DAUGHTER FINDS SO REVOLTING SHE CAN’T CONCENTRATE WHEN I WEAR THEM.”

“Thank you very much for having me. I have great pleasure in declaring London Fashion Week open.”

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FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 1 BY ANDREW GROVES IVAN EGO Sees it all in his lovely Cutler and Gross specs

FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 4 BY ANDREW GROVES DEE SIGNER Hides the late nights behind sunspecs found in Oxfam

FASHIONABLE FUN FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 2 BY ANDREW GROVES

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FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 3 BY ANDREW GROVES KATE GRASHER Holds her breath in platforms by Burberry

DESIGNER DISH DURO OLOWU COOKS A PLANTAIN OMELETTE Interview by CAROLYN HART Photography by EMMA HARDY

FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 5 BY ANDREW GROVES MISS UNDERSTOOD Takes cover under her Burberry umbrella

FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 6 BY ANDREW GROVES PAUL E TITIAN Backs Britain in a topper by Stephen Jones

adbroke Grove, London. It’s raining – a greasy, grey and uninspiring day, so it’s a thrill to arrive at fashion designer Duro Olowu’s flat, four floors up above the Notting Hill traffic, an eyrie decorated in rich colours and black walls. “Actually, they are smoke-grey,” says Duro. That may be what it said on the tin, but it looks black to me and, at any rate, it forms a terrific background to his African artefacts and the vivid upholstery designed by himself. Duro’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection was inspired by Picasso’s Mosqueteros, feather textiles from ancient Peru and 125th Street, Harlem. The lunch that he’s about to make, however, comes straight from his mother’s kitchen in Nigeria: plantain omelette. “When I was a child,” explains Duro, “my mother, for a real treat, would make omelette with fried plantain on the side. It was usually either omelette on toast, or plantain as a main meal – to have both together was just incredible.” He makes plantain omelette a lot during fashion week, it transpires. It keeps him calm: “It’s either that or a kir royale, and the colours are so good in a plantain. Jamaicans use them green, but in West Africa we like the ripe, yellow ones.” To the uninitiated, plantain looks like a big banana, but it has a more subtle taste. It is delicious and it’s incomprehensible that we don’t eat more of it here, though not perhaps to the extent that Duro once did: “When I lived in Paris for two years, I ate it every day; I was addicted. I had to cut down.” Luckily, fashion week this year is going well, so he hasn’t eaten it in such quantities. Nevertheless, between us we managed to polish off a whole pan of fried plantains, and that was before Duro had even started on the accompanying omelette. “Food was a big thing in my childhood,” he says. He grew up in Nigeria. His grandfather was Head Man of his tribal village and Duro has pictures of him on the wall in a wonderful headdress and tribal robes. “I need home-cooked food. If you buy fresh food, you appreciate what you’ve got and think about how to cook it. These eggs,” he says, rooting about in the fridge, “come from Scotland, for instance.” He breaks eight of them into a bowl; it’s going to be a very big omelette. “An omelette is an omelette is an omelette,” says Duro, “but add plantain and it becomes something else altogether. You can put anything you want in an omelette – my mother’s would include potatoes, onion and corned beef…” He carries on chopping onion, cherry tomatoes and green peppers.

More plantain gets fried in oil, until it turns a glorious, golden sticky brown. “In Nigeria,” explains Duro, “you’d put the cooked plantain onto plantain leaves and squeeze the oil out, but here you drain it on paper napkins. You can have plantain like this with a meat sauce, or you can roast it with fish in the oven, put it with mushroom sauce and a salad, or even have plantain chips. Or sometimes, in Nigeria, they do whole plantain sliced in half, seasoned with salt and drizzled with oil and grilled, then eaten with peanut butter…” Plainly, it’s the world’s most versatile veg. We eat Duro’s plantain omelette as a very un-Nigerian rain pours down outside; it’s rich, fresh and grassy, with banana top notes and a sweet and salty edge. No wonder he’s addicted. Duro Olowu’s Spring/Summer 2010 LFW presentation was on Monday 21 September at 4pm. For more on Duro, see www.duroolowu.com. For Duro’s plantain omelette recipe go to WWW.DAILYRUBBISH.CO.UK

FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 8 BY ANDREW GROVES MIKE ROWDRESS Teams a short hemline with fashionable Falke tights

FASHIONABLE CREATURE NO 7 BY ANDREW GROVES MO DELLE Cherishes her Mulberry Bayswater bag