LFW

The Darker Side. Simone Rocha AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Simone Rocha‘s autumn-winter 2021 collection is brilliant – and it took us to the darker side of the designer’s off-kilter, romantic universe. Amidst the frenzy of the upcoming H&M collaboration (one of the best in years coming from the high street giant), the designer appears to have doubled down on the codes upon which she established her brand, with the themes that defined her early collections re-explored and elevated anew. Her debut collection, inspired by teenage rebellion and tucking tracksuits under her school uniform to go and smoke cigarettes in the alley near her house, set a blueprint for her world which has been expressly reasserted this season. Over a decade later and biker jackets and leathers appeared for the first time on her runway, in a manner that beautifully reflected the subversive femininity so key to her work; a distended, oversized knit worn with heavy brogues and satchel directly evocative of times spent in alleys. “I really wanted this collection to have a lot of clarity, a lot of identity,” she told Vogue. “To look at the codes which felt very me.” She continued: “I was working my femininity into a harder, more protective shell; working with fragile fabric which would explode out of it.” So, from beneath cropped leathers bloomed layers of tulle; pretty dresses harnessed to the body; heavy patent bovver boots laced with pearls. Some exceptionally fabricated 3D satin roses managed to maintain a somewhat imposing presence and, rendered in a waxed cotton khaki jacket, appeared almost utilitarian. “The petal of the roses and the spike of the thorn,” is how she described it – a sentiment which might sound trite were it not so expertly executed. “We all feel very kind of internal at the moment; I wanted to look after that fragility, but give it a harder shell. I like how, at the beginning of the collection things appear tight and closed, but throughout the collection, the woman blooms open until the leathers are just strapped on. The shell breaks down, but the tulle keeps its strength.” There’s melancholy, yet there’s plenty of hope – a cocktail of feelings we all might going through now, and Rocha captured that just perfectly with her pack of goddesses and fairies. It’s no revelation that Simone Rocha’s accessories are a standout. But this season they make you drool: porcelain cameos turned into earrings; crumpled leather rose bags; a new floral iteration of her classic chandelier earrings; thick-soled shoes with scalloped platforms. Love, love, love!

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.

All About The Silhouette. Roksanda AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Roksanda is another London-based brand that I haven’t mentioned for a while on my site. This might be the biggest advantage of slower, extended fashion months – going through more shows, without a bigger rush. The autumn-winter 2021 collection coming from Roksanda Ilincic is fabulous. The new season offering was presented today in two formats: a look-book and video. Nothing shocking here, as it’s the new showing standard in COVID times. But the video part was especially done well, and it elevated the garments in a beautiful, considered way. Listening to Vanessa Redgrave softly recite William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 is without a doubt the most soothing thing you’ll hear today. Watch her gaze out the window of her daughter Joely Richardson’s countryside home as her granddaughter Daisy Bevan brings the family’s winter garden back to life via voluminous ruffle and bow-adorned gowns in shades of honeycomb, vermillion, meadow blush, sienna and celadon, and you’ll start plotting your escape from the city. In a short yet wonderfully transportive insight into the lives of three generations of incredible women, Roksanda communicates fashion’s inextricable link to familial bonds in all their fragility, strength and tenderness. The new season pieces are all about entrance-making silhouettes, which are not only bold, but comfortable – not your usual pairing. Intricate pintucks help to create dramatic volume on dresses that cocoon their wearers, while tailoring – a big focus for the brand this season – is made as impactful as the dresses via bold colour blocking and modular sleeves that can be worn open, draped or closed. Additionally, Ilincic’s sensual illustrations worked as subtle, well-balanced prints that contributed to this very personal collection.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Regal. Emilia Wickstead AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

I’ve slept on most of Emilia Wickstead‘s career – majority of her collections felt too preppy, too controlled for me – but the autumn-winter 2021 line-up is quite something. This season, I feel like most brands and designer lean on styling too much, and in case of Wickstead, we see actual clothes, which are proof of excellent cut and tailoring. From the caped coats and suits to wonderfully refined eveningwear filled with couture-ish, lady-like silhouttes for day and evening, this is a regal, yet contemporary wardrobe for a modern-day dame. You know, that kind of Agatha Christie character, but living in social media times. And really, that woman doesn’t have a single pair of sweats on her racks. She will wear one of those shoulder-revealing dresses, in classy black or timeless florals, to a Zoom meeting (or a socially distanced five o’clock). I sense some Prada influences here and there, like the cut-out, pleated skirts especially, and that sort of elegant strictness, but those are equally signatures original to Wickstead.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

The Joy Of Dressing Up. Molly Goddard AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Finally – a collection I genuinely loved this season! Despite the obvious limitations of the moment, Molly Goddard delivered a phenomenal collection. Since the UK went into lockdown for the second time this winter, the designer has been forging ahead with her eponymous label, recently dropping a capsule of exquisite bridal dresses that’s primed for the current boom in micro weddings. And all that at eight-and-half months pregnant (congratulations!). “This collection was maybe the toughest to put together because of all the restrictions,” said Goddard, speaking via Zoom with Vogue from her home in West London. “There was so much uncertainty even in the logistics, but that didn’t stop us from taking risks. In a way, I think we really went for it.” Goddard is well known for her daring otherworldly confections, though this season she took to honing the down-to-earth signatures in her repertoire. She leaned into the quirky Britishisms that make her work sing, starting with an extended offering of her adorable Fair Isle sweaters for both men and women. Goddard takes pride in the fact that much of the collection is manufactured in the UK, and for autumn-winter 2021 she worked with a Scottish factory to produce traditional tartan kilts that looked especially good on the male model in her virtual fashion show, paired with colorful knits. Though it was hard to ignore the joyful exuberance of the tulle evening dresses in her lineup – she opened and closed the show with two especially flirty strapless numbers – the dry, taffeta frocks with angular bows were just as attention-grabbing layered over raw denim pants for day or with knee-high metallic boots for party time.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Men’s – Real and Fun. JW Anderson AW21

| Design & Culture by Ed

Jonathan Anderson working with Juergen Teller? That’s a match I’m living for. JW Anderson‘s autumn-winter 2021 collection for men (and pre-fall 2021 for women) has been photographed by Teller in London, in his distinct, easy, spontaneous manner. The process basically reflected what Anderson wanted to achieve this season with the garments. “I felt it was better to start the year with something lighter and less calculated,” he declared on a Zoom call with Vogue. “At the beginning of 2021 I wanted something that’s reality. A reality check.” Reality? Well, now that reality’s gone mad, the hilarious antics going on in Anderson’s new set of look-book-posters are a reasonable enough response to the zeitgeist. There’s Sophie Okonedo, who played Charlotte Wells, the mental hospital patient with multiple personality disorder in Ratched, acting up with a gourd, a pumpkin, and an armful of berries, and a trio of male models doing things with cabbage, cauliflower, and an assortment of house plants. To add to the silliness, the handwritten captions are all nonsensically mixed up. “It’s a lot to do with being straightforward, and that’s why I wanted to use Juergen,” Anderson opined. “He’s so good at showing a sharp reality without any fuss.” As usual with JW Anderson, eclectic matchings are the key. Follow the vegetables: ever so cute as crocheted radishes on a sweater, or embroidered on a hoodie; suggestive as great big prints of gourds and a random peach – yet also inspired by Anderson’s interest in 17th century Dutch still lifes, and the work of the British painter William Nicholson. An existential, speculative rabbit-hole, this one: “Why do we glorify something as simple as a lemon or a radish? Is it meditative?” he asks, rhetorically. “So we turned that idea into patterns and iconography. I like this idea of humor in clothing. Squashes on jeans. A peach in the middle of a sweater. Something that makes you grin. Because fashion is meant to make you think, or dream.” Then, the extreme trousering. Follow those upended isosceles triangular trouser legs, and you’re off down the warren leading to Dada and Surrealist costume, the Cabaret Voltaire and Bauhaus theater, if you please. Or perhaps to bump into the checkerboard patterns that the extraordinary gender non-conforming anti-fascist Surrealist Claude Cahoun photographed herself wearing. Those shape experiments are a bold “no, no” to stay-at-home sweats. “I spent so much time last year admiring people ‘doing’,” Anderson says. It’s reinvigorated his belief in craft, in making things himself, in the way he did when he started his brand at the age of 24. “Because I think the world is starting to change. I think this isn’t a time for shock – I think we want reality, honesty, to be stimulated in a way that isn’t sensationalized.”

“Live” collage by Edward Kanarecki.