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
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