Highlights From London Fashion Week SS18
By Something CuratedSomething Curated highlights the best from London Fashion Week, taking a closer look at a selection of the most exciting Spring/Summer 2018 shows and collections.
Asai
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British designer A Sai Ta has quickly forged a signature of shredded pieces imbedded with references to Chinese culture and stereotypes. This season comprised a number of de-constructed and reworked garments, some of which appeared to be physically caught mid-transformation. Tarpaulin-like trousers took centre stage, alongside some of the popular stitching and fraying techniques brought forward from the last collection.
Marques’Almeida
Marques’Almeida’s SS18 collection was dedicated to the women who have inspired them in different ways. One of those, based on the soundtrack at least, is Dolly Parton. There was a reoccurring technique of collage, of pulling things apart and piecing them back together, and the combinations were unexpected, with cow print trousers and tops, armour-like bodices that sat over baggy striped shirts, Chinese silk jacquards, and puffs of marabou feathers.
Molly Goddard
For SS18, Molly Goddard reworked her signature orb dresses of smocked tulle, while moving her aesthetic onwards, honing a more conventionally sexy silhouette in energising shades of orange. Models wore practical flat boots, black brogues or went barefoot. The set was made up of a series of platforms, which the girls hopped onto before striking a pose, including a theatrical drag on a cigarette courtesy of Edie Campbell.
Charlotte Knowles
Making her LFW debut with Fashion East, Charlotte Knowles’ SS18 offering took its queue from lazy days at the beach, imbued with a sense of summertime melancholy. The Central Saint Martins graduate’s MA collection featured elements of corsetry, bringing together silicone details and elegant shirting in a discerning palette. This time, similar shapes took form in mesh and practical-looking fabrics, featuring dusty pinks and faded khaki. Paying close attention to the way in which her garments conform to the body, her work intuitively celebrates the female form.
Simone Rocha
Influenced by the Victorian dolls she kept as a child, Simone Rocha’s models were pale faced with rosy cheeks, echoing the porcelain faces of the toys. Featuring Edwardian-inspired layers and puffy sleeves reminiscent of previous royal dresses, Rocha’s collection was an elegant nod to the past, simultaneously feeling youthful. Though largely black and white, colour wasn’t completely left out, with various floral designs making a bold impression.
Chalayan
The show commenced with a series of elegantly cut tailored pieces, including dropped shouldered-suiting with tucks in each side to warp the shape and sleeveless blazers that opened up into a caped back. Later, coloured crystal post-it notes hung from dresses, a comment on the digital age and our desire to endlessly self-promote and curate ourselves, according to the show notes. Chalayan’s presentation culminated with a number of sculptural headpieces with the models’ faces poking through.
Ryan Lo
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Set inside St Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church Ryan Lo’s SS18 show riffed on wedding celebrations, taking inspiration from various famous nuptials. Referencing royals, among other well-known figures, the collection saw glimpses of Princess Mako of Akishino and Princess Diana’s iconic ensembles. The pared-down palette, largely monochrome and unusual for Lo, was accentuated with pearls and glitter. Simultaneously a celebration for Lo gaining British citizenship, further nods honoured the Queen and her antecedents from the Victorian age.
Sadie Williams
An exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London about The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, a camping, hiking and handicraft organisation founded in the Twenties that aimed to bring world peace as a co-ed and non-militaristic alternative to the Boy Scouts, inspired Sadie Williams’ SS18 collection. The London designer put her signature metallic disco flourishes to work in shimmering folkloric symbols and organic motifs.
Dilara Findikoglu
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Findikoglu’s SS18 collection took inspiration from many different eras. Victorian silhouettes presented themselves throughout the collection with an emphasis on cinched waists, undergarments and ruching. There were also references to the Eighties punk era with spiked colourful hair, dark makeup, and bondage from Vivienne Westwood’s Seditionaries collection. As ever, Findikoglu’s design focus was all in the detail, with safety-pin trimmings, graphic patchwork, and intricate embellishment.
Ashish
For SS18, Ashish’s show space was transformed by set designer Tony Hornecker into a nightscape with black vinyl flooring and disco balls refracting light, like stars, all around the room. As the show began, harpist Tomos Xerri lulled the audience with celestial music. The words ‘Rest in Peace’ twinkled on the back of a jacket and were emblazoned on the front of a t-shirt, while a dragon motif ran across night robes and jeans. “I wanted a beautiful atmosphere. I imagined a harpist playing if you were in the clouds in heaven,” the designer said.
Marta Jakubowski
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Showing her most comprehensive collection to date, Marta Jakubowskireinterpreted her tailored-and-draped jackets with asymmetric cuts and wrap details, alongside cigarette trousers with skirt panels, pleated this season, which have become somewhat of a signature. She built on the slashed-and-tied style of AW17’s velvet turtlenecks, rendering them in yellow, lilac or green denim and sheer, polka dot chiffon for this season.
Ashley Williams
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Presented in a set which appeared to be the teenage bedroom of a nature enthusiast, complete with live snails sliding amongst soft toys, Williams’ collection played on an aesthetic instilled with girlish nostalgia. Her staples, kitsch hairpins, cosy knits, retro graphics, and high-waisted tracksuits, all appeared in her SS18 collection, this time with an 80s feel. Printed cycle shorts were worn under oversized knits, zebra prints adorned suiting, while thick-belted bat-wing drapery dresses in neon pink and bright yellow offered something previously unseen from the designer.
J.W. Anderson
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For Jonathan Anderson’s SS18 show, models walked around a collection of the designer’s artworks. Eclectic pieces gathered from his own walls, there were both paintings and sculptures, all resting on a hand-woven grass mat by Anthea Hamilton. The installation reflected the calm tones of the collection itself, whilst offering a glimpse into Anderson’s home. “Against the complexity of contemporary life, there is sanctuary in clarity, simplicity and focus.” This is how Anderson describes the collection, according to the accompanying show notes. The line-up featured airy garments in washed-out cottons and soft looking leather accessories, paired with flat shoes, with a decided focus on comfort.
Erdem
“What if Queen Elizabeth had gone to New York? What if Dorothy Dandridge ended up in Buckingham Palace?” the designer mused after his show, which imagined that exchange. Under the polite structure of a Fifties silhouette, his sexiest collection to date unfolded in strict pencil skirts adorned in opulent surface decoration, tight metallic sequin tops, and floral dresses with sweetheart necklines slithering down the arms.