So it’s the last day, it’s gone by so quickly a week definitely isn’t long enough for London to show off its hot designers.
Mulberry it was pretty obvious the collection was going to be amazing yet again. Emma Hill is doing a grand, grand job. The collection was all about flowers, starting with mustard colours and going into a gorgeous pastel green colour. The prints were beautiful and vintage looking floral ones with matching floral buttons on the jackets. It was collection great for the British summer with coats and lots of layers. Pieces included summer leathers for trousers, skirts and tops, which i think will grow on me. The bags are what we all love to see. New clutches made an apparance and floral bags matching the print of the clothing. The dogs as always made the whole show a bit more fun and less serious. That’s what fashion is all about – having fun!
Simone Rocha is still a fairly new designer but she is doing an amazing job. Her SS13 collection was ticking all the trend boxes: sheer, knee length, high necklines, summer leather and metallic. I predict that her perspex box bags will be on everyones wish list. She brought back that neon yellow/green everyone is crazy about at the moment, it just works doesn’t it! Her collection was simple yet modern and very strong.
Meadham Kirchoff‘s SS13 collection was amazingly crazy as always. They mixed historic elements with new and covered them in frills, bows, jewels and ribbons. They worked the layering trend putting skirts of trousers. My favourite look was the one with a top with YES print worn with yellow skirt over blue trousers as it wasn’t as out there as some of the other outfits. The collection was styled with embellished hats and big bling earrings which I loved as it worked so well.
Ashish was all denim, numbers, and wonky wonky outfits. I loved the “I’m serious” jumper and the fact Ashish mixed sequins in with jersey and denim it worked so well. The models were styled with messy ponies, wrongly buttoned shirts un tucked adding to the messy messy feel. They wore old school reeboks keeping the look sporty the tracksuit bottoms also added to this. It was a great mix of smart casual.
Fashion Fringe was set up by Colin McDowell in association with IMG Fashion 9 years ago. It was set up to support young talented designers in London and to keep them in London. There are three finalists, Haizhen Wang, Teija Eilola and Vita Gottleib so three collections in one show.
Haizhen Wang was first up, drawing inspiration from japanese armour and historical costumes as well as spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. I did love the collection and it was definitely suitable for our english summers as there was a lot of jackets, trousers and layers. There was a big mix of the two inspirations colliding together, this can sometimes not work but it did for Wang.
Next was Teija Eilola who described her collections as “A Finnish girl arrives at the party: shoes in her bag and a huge, crisp mackintosh over her little silk dress. On the way to the party she crossed a forest and a couple of fields.” This definitely came across in the collection, I felt her stronger pieces were, a gathered neck floaty skirt and the cropped mac. All her pieces could be worn day or night which was a great strength from her work.
Lastly it was Vita Gottleib who was inspired partly by Paul Poiret’s 1911 party ‘Thousand and Second Night’ and partly by the idea of layering Eastern influences into western ideas. Gottleib made eastern influences much more rocky which was something different. I loved the leather collars and belts adding a harsh edge. There was a lot going on in some of her designs as she had some many influences so it maybe would have been better to take some away. However it showed off her skills as a designer.
All images are from Style.com and London Fashion Week.
