London Fashion Week

Odd, Sinister, Refined. Raf Simons AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

Picture this: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pierre Cardin and “Matrix“, all on one spooky, audience-less runway. Only Raf Simons could pull that off. After pandemic collections that furthered his explorations of youth and distress (and sometimes youth in distress), for autumn-winter 2022, the tense, urgent shapes of his rioters and revolutionaries has dissipated into a silhouette that is abjectly elegant, with draped pleated trousers, slender cloak wraps, black blouson bomber jackets, and backpacks with silken trains. Set in a stately interior, with glass chandeliers and furniture draped in red fabric, the collection’s video looks like a scene from a brooding horror movie that would would chill you to the bone. That’s how Simons works: say nothing and project it all through the clothing and the environment. This season he gave but one hint about his collection: Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1559 painting “Netherlandish Proverbs“. The opening look, a blue cloak suspended from a hat designed in partnership with Stephen Jones, is almost a one-to-one remake of the garb worn by the painting’s central figure. From here, the hood-hats continue in luxurious colors, emphasizing the thinness of Simons’s silhouette. Surprisingly, the headwear, seen through a contemporary lense, makes you think of Cardin’s futurist ideas dating back to the 1960s. And now, here’s where things get even more eerie: prairie dresses made from what appears to be latex, worn with cloaks and long leather neckties (very Trinity). There is something undeniably kinky about the combination; fabrics and ideas taken from the bondage shop and stripped of their obvious hotness. Simons is best when he is in a clash, taking the obvious and making it strange, turning the serene into something suspicious, or electrifying peaceful shapes with a rebellious edge. These combinations are the oddest and most enticing facet of this collection.

Maybe the purpose of being a silent designer is to leave the questions unanswered. To provoke, not explain. Back to the painting. Art historical interpretations of the work cast the people in the town’s square as fools, acting out proverbs of the era like “banging one’s head against a brick wall,” or “the world is turned upside down.” What does that central figure in the blue cloak depict, the one whose very cloak opens this collection? A man who has been cheated on by his wife. What can we extrapolate from that? How could Simons relate? For a designer who rarely speaks publicly, he manages, always, to say a lot about himself, his life, his obsession in his work.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Children Of Lir. Simone Rocha AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

There’s something about Simone Rocha‘s collections that truly, truly makes you feel emotions – a rare thing in today’s fashion. The designer hoped her autumn-winter 2022 show stirred up an “arresting melancholy euphoria” for her guests. It surely did mesmerise. The darkly seductive collection, inspired by an Irish fairytale that has stayed with the designer since her childhood, is probably one of the best collections of the entire London Fashion Week. Rocha was inspired by “Children of Lir” – the dark and intriguing tale of Aodh, Fionnula, Fiachra and Conn Lir, who were turned into swans for 900 years at the jealous hands of their magical stepmother, is one every Irish child knows. But, for Rocha, it has always represented a particular kind of “melancholy beauty”. For the latest offering, she mused on the transformation from human to bird through the manipulation of her garments. Accordingly, wings seem to burst through nylon taffetas, while technical water-resistant padded nylons and patent leathers give the feeling of being wet. Velvet, last seen in Simone Rocha’s autumn-winter 2017 collection, makes a comeback because of the wonderfully melancholy feel it has when dyed a rich blue. A new woollen embroidery, called “Bloodline”, is hand stitched onto tulles and organzas, while eiderdown quilting also gives added texture to her signature voluminous silhouettes. From the new crystal-flecked balaclavas, ultra-long stockings and elongated gloves to the myriad layering ideas, this was the sort of clothing you want to wrap up in and listen to stories. Really good stories. There was also the jewellery: crystallised hair clips and pearly jewellery are the easily identifiable entry points into her world, and this season, they have been given the beauty treatment. Perched delicately around models’ eyes, the effect was one of water droplets, and totally mesmerising to look at. In Rocha’s hands, the wet-look becomes magical.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Dark Couture. Richard Quinn AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

Richard Quinn’s autumn-winter 2022 show celebrates the golden age of haute couture. “Dark couture”, as he calls it, has informed the collection which includes oversized vinyl hats, cocoon-shaped separates and majestic feather dresses. Accordingly, Quinn explored styles that were more synonymous with fashion in the 1950s and ’60s than today. But with Richard, it’s never all prim and saccharine. The voluminous and ultra-glamorous florals were contrasted with the entry of a latex-encased dominatrix leading a human dog on a leash. The balance of lady-like and kinky is the label’s key signature. This season, one of Quinn’s most intricate designs this season is an embroidered hooded dress. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that it’s actually engulfed in tiny feathers. Consider it Quinn’s love letter to those who adore the vivaciousness of his technicolour evening gowns. “It’s essential that we offer our bespoke clients something special,” asserts Quinn. After-dark dresses have also been fashioned from beautiful silks and 3D embroidery. “Setting an almost impossible task, then making it happen is what drives the team and I,” he adds. Still, it seems to me that Quinn got stuck in a loop. The latest collection is pretty much the same thing we’ve seen in his previous seasons. The untamed glamour is highly Insta-grammable and impresses the eye, yes, but I think the designer should try out some different directions in the near future.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

Homespun Glam. Molly Goddard AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

Returning to the runway with a full-scale, fabulous line-up, Molly Goddard gave London Fashion Week big hair and even larger-than-life silhouettes. Growing up around Ladbroke Grove – just a stone’s throw from Portobello market – proffered a lot of great people watching for a young Goddard. For autumn-winter 2022, the designer drew on the homespun fashion and army surplus that became hallmarks of a youth spent West, but supersized the silhouettes and doubled down on texture. With high hair backcombed to look artfully undone by Gary Gill, Goddard’s girls and boys were the cool kids you’d want to hang out with were you roaming around Golborne Road now. This season, supersized sweaters feature heavily because Goddard loves the “silhouette of below-the-bum jumpers”. Also grazing models’ behinds are this season’s skirts, which are barely bigger than belts. “I love miniskirts on men, women, anyone,” notes Molly, before adding that she’s in the mood for dancing this season. Well, who wouldn’t want to go to a ball in one of these delicious, multi-ruffled gowns? In other words: still true to Molly Goddard customers who apparently can never get enough of her ruffly net party dresses, but this time with more in the way of sensible outerwear to combat the weather in the streets and plenty of cozy layers.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.

American Archetypes. Conner Ives AW22

| Design & Culture by Ed

It’s really fascinating how designers in London look at the lexicon of all things Americana. Matty Bovan‘s take tackled toxic masculinity and deconstructed American pop culture. Conner Ives‘ autumn-winter 2022 runway had a more humorous approach towards the American Dream, as the designer made a strong statement about the sentiment of new American style. He drew directly from American archetypes and aesthetics: Jackie O, Andy from The Devil Wears Prada (!), contestants from America’s Next Top Model, and even the models from Isaac Mizrahi’s iconic film Unzipped. “It sounds really cheesy, but honestly, this is something I’ve dreamed about doing since I was five years old.” It was a big rite of passage indeed for the young American alum of Central Saint Martins – a boy who grew up in Bedford, New York, logging onto Style.com and watching Tim Blanks’s Fashion File interviews. In 2021, he graduated – in the misery year when no student was able to have a final runway show. Though that proved no barrier to being able to build up a retail market for his reclaimed patchwork T-shirt dresses, getting picked out by Andrew Bolton for a purchase that put a design of his in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and getting invited to the Met gala, and being selected as a runner-up in last year’s LVMH Prize competition.

If Central Saint Martins teaches one bottom-line rule, it’s always the individualistic insistence on students being true to their identities. That’s a lesson that Ives has patently taken as gospel. His show said that in every look, each one systematically named after Y2K pop movie/reality show actors, actual girl clique leaders he knew in high school, hero-worshipped female relatives, and American women he has always fantasized about knowing. There was Ives’s vision of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy as a bride in a sleeveless, bias-cut dress and matching headscarf-cum-train. He had a “Madam Vice President” look: a dream pitch for Kamala Harris to wear a Conner Ives cream and brown patchwork scarf dress. There was a cowgirl, representing an influential aunt in Santa Fe, wearing laser-printed denim and turquoise jewelry. And “The Editor,” an Ives fan note to Anna Wintour, thrown back to an evening in the 2000s when she wore a white tank and a red flounced flamenco-ish skirt designed by Oscar de la Renta for Balmain. Near the finale, Jackie Kennedy came out in a simple cream Watteau-back gown with a huge quilted patchwork star planted in its midsection. Another lesson Ives has seriously taken to heart is upcycling and repurposing. The sexy-skimpy glam and funny identifiable references might be the primary attractions of his kick-flares; leisure suits; and silk-fringed, piano-scarf dresses and skirts, but Ives sources all of it from deadstock and vintage garments and materials. In other words, here was the first public outing of a very modern designer – fun and good times on the one hand, and on the other as much of a stickler as he can be about his production process. Rarely do those two things go together in contemporary fashion. Ives also intends to forgo the waste of showing every season. He plans to do a runway show only once a year.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.