Well, that should really be ‘yesterday I was wearing’… You’ll be glad to hear my camera has been fixed after its adventures out and about London Fashion Week with Style and Then Some, so I can share a little bit more of our LFW style.
Our ever stylish editor Katie, below, mixed a vintage M&S 80′s shirt with a high-waisted vintage skirt from Blitz on Brick Lane with H&M boots and socks.
I played it safe in a navy wool maxi dress from ASOS, worn with a pair of scruffy lace-up old boots. No running in heels for me.
Who? Our friend @Katie_Jane_Rose, who is working with Liberty London Girl herself Sasha Wilkins this season, was seated nearby. Katie kindly let us jump in her cab to the Zoe Jordan show after.
We had to venture a bit of a way off the beaten LFW track yesterday to get to the Spijkers show – but it was worth it. Not only is Il Bottaccio a beautiful venue, all chandeliers and white stuccoed ceilings, but this was a very well-executed and desirable collection.
Twin sisters Truus and Riet Spijkers took Queen Scheherazade of the One Thousand and One Nights tale as their starting point. You know how the story goes, big bad King guy takes a different bride and beheads her each morning, but clever Scheherazade tells the King such gripping, cliff-hanger stories each night that he chooses to keep her alive and, lo and behold, falls in love with her in the process. Using that premise, the backbone of the collection was a glut of silk dresses formed from black and white oriental geometric shapes in something called Penrose tiling, named after an English mathematician, Google informs me. Colour also came into the equation, delicately at first with powdery tones of jade, peach and rose, and later in punchy coral and violet. There was tailoring, too, but it was relaxed and hung off the shoulders rather in a boyish way rather than clinging to the body.
In spite of the occidental mathematical influence, the overall effects was decidedly 1920′s, thanks in part to the tassels that hung from the zig-zagged hems of those silky frocks. The flapper effect seems to have crossed the Atlantic from Ralph Lauren’s New York fashion week show, and it’s only going to get worse: Baz Luhrmann’s remake of The Great Gatsby is due in cinemas next March so come 2012 I think all the high street stores will be jumping on the roaring twenties band wagon. I wonder if the Spijkers twins know this? If they don’t someone should tell them, because it’s a stroke of luck that could stand them in good stead next spring.
Frantically swapping tickets after an envelope mix-up disaster, the (extended) S&TS team found a little downtime between shows for LFW posing. We’ve always got energy when someone points a camera at us..
Coat from John Lewis Kids (!), vintage boots, H&M bag and new hair
That's a Whistles cardigan, Topshop shoes and H&M skirt and tee
Working Urban Outfitters boots and blazer with Gap shirt and H&M leggings, accessorised with a Fashion Scout pillar
The lights dim and pre-show chatter shushes. The opening gospel of ‘Like a Prayer’ lends its atmosphere, as the first girl comes down the catwalk.
Dans La Vie’s SS12 is inspired by Tokyo in the aftermath of the earthquake in March, the theme ‘Clash Beauty’ and what are termed the Four Pop Madonna’s: Madonna (obv), Amy Winehouse, Rihanna and Lady Gaga and the show is split into four sections by this soundtrack.
Breton stripes met pop in plastic coated outerwear, with Da Vinci inspired prints. As Back to Black blared out from the soundsystem, more sombre hues appeared – complete with cross motifs and see through chiffon.
My favourite piece was a floor length prom style black skirt with a hint of off-duty sugar plum fairy. Vey wearable, if you’re six feet tall.
The Gaga finale track announced a tit tape and balloon skirt combo with bright blue lips – another highlight.
The last look seemed to sum up the collection: a gorgeous headdress with a hint of the ecclesiastical, a barely there blouse and 50s/Pop inspired skirt. Don’t be a drag - just be a queen.
Where: Vauxhall Fashion Scout, The Freemason’s Hall
When: Sunday 18th September, 1.15pm
Who: Shingai Shoniwa of The Noisettes, Amber Atherton of Made In Chelsea, ‘fro.
I’m late. I’m running down Great Queen Street after being stuck on the bridge in traffic for half an hour, gritting my teeth at my lack of luck. I’ve never been to a fashion show before and it looks like today will not be the day I get to see one. My wonderful sister’s voicemail is not offering any consolation as the minutes countdown.
I get there at exactly 1.15, and there is an immobile queue in sight. Fortunately the show, being locomotive themed is accordingly delayed. As the doors finally open we are led in to the opulence of the Freemasons Hall, a gold and jewel coloured Art Deco dream.
I’m studying the fashion crowd, perfecting my own faux disinterested visage (I’ve already practised, I go to Central Saint Martins) to mirror theirs as we wait on the stairs. A man in a vintage style train driver’s get up welcomes me to the Izmaylova Express, and clips my ticket. All aboard.
A few scuffles for the best view, many photos and a clock strikes signaling the start of the show. There’s a definite 20′s-with an edge- vibe throughout. My camera’s misbehaving as I struggle to capture the pale silks, the swish of skirts and the statuesque drapery all offset by the geometric patterns of the granite floor. Hard glances meet feather adornments and assymetric cuts.
A rhymthic moody music sets the pace for the poses, and its all over in a flash, so quick! The final clap, buzzing talk and I’m out of there.
Who?Erol Sabadosh on the decks, remixing Arcade Fire
A firm favourite with the Style And Then Some team, who have now seen three shows by the emerging designer, Lako Bukia gave us another delightful collection this time with a hand drawn flower print across many of the pieces.
She also gave us beautiful corsets in black, white and red and, as ever, her collars were to die for. Last season we had matching leather collars and cuffs and this time she gave us Asian-inspired buttoned up collars on sleeveless pieces and the aforementioned corsets.
Below the waist, Lako kept to her signature style of flowing chiffon skirts and dresses. Altogether, dramatic but wearable clothes in feminine but strong looks – we can’t wait for next season.
Who? As we waited under our umbrellas outside we watched all the big UK editors file in (Alexandra Shulman of Vogue and Jo Elvin of Glamour) plus bigtime blogger Susie Bubble.
Last season I had a ticket for the John Rocha show and I queued patiently only to be turned away, along with about 100 other people, because the BFC show space had reached capacity. Determined not to let this happen again I turned up 20 minutes early today and was sure it would all be fine since I was right at the front of the queue of standees having gone up to make sure our photographer Faraz made it in to the photo pit.
But alas my hope was dashed when we (again, there were easily 100 others) heard the music start and knew the show was under way. I won’t get into a rant about the ticket allocating procedure (there are enough shows with empty seats to understand why the PRs do it) but I will say I don’t think I’ll be chancing my luck with Mr Rocha next season.
The only silver lining to this fashion week storm cloud was that I got to go into the pop up cinema that has been installed in the BFC foyer for the first time this season and watch the show streamed live all the way from, well, about 20 metres away actually. In spite of my disappointment, I have to admit it was a great show. Not because I actually wanted to wear many of the clothes, but because it was such a coherent and well-realised production.
From the hefty platform-soled sandals that caused the models (including first out Abbey Lee Kershaw) to stomp moodily down the catwalk, to the downbeat, driving soundtrack, it all conspired to create a darkly atmospheric production. And what about the clothes? It was all about texture. Seaweed-like ruffles, raffia, crochet, feathers, irregular pleating – mostly on A-line skirted dresses, almost nothing lay flat against the skin. The densest pieces were a tangle of strands so fine they resembled cassette tape. This being Rocha, most ensembles were all black, but half way through we saw the light, from palest faun to outright white, and the first pair of trousers, wide-legged and to-the-floor.
Arguably the most wearable was the outerwear. A couple of double-breasted jackets, one sleeveless, were positively middle of the road when compared with the crunchy crochet that preceded them. According to the show notes (which I had to read vicariously via Twitter because, as I might have mentioned, I wasn’t in the venue) Rocha wanted to create warrior woman outfits, and that he did. You’d have to have a pretty fierce attitude to get away with some of these looks.
