Panic on the streets of London Part Three...

I have just this minute stumbled upon Mary Katrantzou's collection and it would be very wrong of me not to share this fascinating show with you why such a big deal? I'm sure my words won't do it justice but you'll definitely understand when you see it, but i'll try to describe this bewildering spetical first anyhow, so chandelier necklaces, lamp shade skirts with beads hanging from the hem, curtains on the hips and of course the grand household scenes mirrored on the dresses this is all sounding a bit surreal? Well it is and if your thinking this combination cannot create beautiful dresses you would be terribly mistaken, its all a bit architectural and that's reflected in the sublime structure of the clothes and of course the name of the collection ' C’est Ci Nes Pas Une Chambre or This Is Not A Room.' I don't know what else to say apart from i don't think this will be like anything else you've ever seen before and if it is please share!

Panic on the streets of London Part Two...

It's so hard to chose just a few more collections from London to share with you as i loved so many of them but i am going to begin with David Koma with only his third collection he created a show based around a sophisticated palette of blacks, whites, golds and severely pale pinks, peaches and yellows. The dresses went through a whole transition from little pleated and peplum skirts in pale colours, with sheer panels on top, to monochrome assembles, onto monochrome with a hint of yellow and peach, then black was swapped for gold, and then to finish off it was an all black affair from short to long dresses. It was a truly cohesive collection if ever i did see one.

Up next is Matthew Williamson who's collection had a glamorous tribal feel to it, the intricate techniques and embellishment he used were exquisite, he had flowing dresses that appeared sun bleached, perfectly cut trousers, woven tops and those oh-my-god-i-love-that-dress party frocks. One of my favourite features of the show is the skirts some with tiered, layers they almost look like a grass skirt that had had a trim, some with suede fringing, one was covered all over in gold sequins with peacock feather donning the hem just beautiful.  I also liked the culotte type affair that was happening with the shorts and trousers with giant although subtle studs on the waist band and pockets, a truly awe inspiring show.

Cooperative Designs is a label created by knitwear designers Annalisa Dunn and Dorothee Hagemann who meet at St Martins and founded their label in 2008. They enjoy creating experimental and innovative knitwear mixing old and new techniques to produce an interestingly modern outcome.  I read an interview with them recently and here's how they described their s/s 11 collection "S/S 11 is called 'Bollywood Babylon'. It's a '30s Hollywood film version of India, really over the top. We've got some animalistic prints that are modern and graphic."  And their not lying the collection is certainly over the top and definitely features prints although 'features' may be an understatement try features on every surface possible.  The collection oozes cool fashion forward print clashing wonderfulness and i love it. Cooperative Designs clothes for A/W 10 are available from asos.com now YEY!

Last but by no means least Louise Gray who's show was as usual brightly coloured, crafty, layered, textured and bold, the models wore heaps of rags and coloured raffia in their hair, eyes smeared with bright colours and sandals designed by the great Nicolas Kirkwood. The fabrics we're faded in parts and the outfits had a kind of recycled vibe about them with bottle top embellishment stuck on the bottom of shorts and on tops, those arts and crafts neon star type cardboard shapes you have as a kid inserted in clear tops to fall where they like and what appeared to be paint stains on the fabrics. The thing i love about Gray is her ability to layer on clothes to produce an edgy outfit and she continued with this throughout the collection.

Other Collections from London worth a look:

Clements Ribeiro.

Mulberry.

Temperley London.

Richard Nicoll.

Panic on the streets of London Part One...

So London was completed today and Milan is already under way, and i have a carefully selected group of my favourites from the last week to share with you. So lets get started firstly Holly Fulton who is still slightly new to this [this is only her 4th or so collection] but still she can pull it off like a pro, if your not familiar with her she is well known for her Art Deco and futuristic inspired collections and also her jewellery which is always a major theme in her shows and you will probably have seen it used in numerous photo shoots. This season however she has toned it down slightly but this certainly didn't tone down the impact she made, the collection involves laid back beachwear, covered in those completely unique prints Fulton owns with hula type skirts attached to some dresses, these clothes could fit into any wardrobe they are amazingly versatile but completely original, jewellery obviously played its part too.  

Erdem every woman's hero no one makes clothes like he does and in his latest collection as usual every piece makes you sigh with happiness/sheer amazement because you didn't know it was possible for clothes this nice to be made.  The clothes were embroidered, appliquéd, lace, flowers basically everything lovely, the whole thing had a sound of music, Heidi [a children book about a little girl who lives in the Austrian hills] type vibe.  The collection was also full of those wonderful dresses he does so well.

Leather, neon, flowers, conservative shapes, twin sets, dragon print can that combination work?? Well Christopher Kane's show proved that they do in a very bizarre way, miles away from the pretty colours of Erdem and a huge step up the slight flashes of florescent's we've seen previously this season Kane went all out as usual and made a giant statement he took conservative patterns made them in leather i mean NEON leather and then stamped flowers all over them then mixed with tunic's, a dragon print and twin sets this completely shouldn't work and at first i wasn't convinced but the collection has grown on me massively and i now think its a refreshingly different take on colour blocking.

  

And my last port of call for today is Johnathen Saunders, his show was just beautiful clothes made up of beautiful patterns, colours and cuts, there is a sort of cool glamours sportswear feel to the collection with short pleated bouncy skirt, cute shirts,  grown up dresses, high ponytails and cool belts.  Saunders pulled it off with his usual uber modern colour mixes and neatly shaped garments and here is his latest fantastic result.

To Be Continued ...