Won over by the west Sunday, March 07, 2010 By Ruth O'Connor Irish designer Paul Costelloe, who opened London Fashion Week for the fifth time, looked west for the inspiration for his new collection.
The early morning crowd was introduced by the voice of Dolly Parton to a collection inspired by the film, The Assassination of Jesse James.
The music drops as the models stride the catwalk wearing dresses with tight bodices and flounce skirts in tweed fabrics. A gold jacket with puff sleeves is teamed with a short skirt and bustle as the silhouettes of the frontier are updated for the modern wearer.
The theme is subtle at times, with details such as saddlebag pockets on coats and check skirts, or ruffle blouses worn with voluminous check skirts. It’s overt in other outfits, with corset bodice dresses in checks and flashes of high lace collars beneath check jackets as the catwalk rocks to the sound of Theatre of Hate’s Do You Believe in the West World?
Skin-tight black leggings are a feature of the womens wear collection, micro-minis peep out under jackets and sequined shorts flash beneath sleeveless jackets with built-up shoulders.
The menswear is equally inspired by the frontier, with floor sweeping greatcoats, long jackets, two-tone ponchos and bib-fronted shirts. Suit jackets are double vented at the back and the shirts often feature tie detailing.
Backstage Costelloe speaks of the collection as ‘‘special’’. ‘‘I put on a theatrical show because I want to encourage people towards my name,” he says. ‘‘Menswear is growing and growing.”
‘‘The days of politicians going to the local tailor are gone, men are being more creative with their clothing. Obviously the long coats in the show are extreme - when they go into production they will be less so, but they will still be carefully tailored and of beautiful, quality material.”
Later the same day, in an old ballroom in Bloomsbury Square, Japanese-Swedish duo Aminaka Wilmont draw on concepts of ‘‘fringe existence, quiet violence, refugees, debris and flotsam’’.
Models with flyaway hair and solemn expressions wear swirling oil-on-water prints which drape and cling; knits have a distressed feel. Bondage-style straps on leggings work alongside beautiful prints. Dresses twist at the throat and then drape at the back, with the entire collection giving off an edgy modern, disruptive, destructive feel.
In contrast, the Bora Aksu show is heralded by uplifting tunes - including Dimitri from Paris. The clothes are romantic and highly structured. Skirts are voluminous yet nipped in at the waist. Leathers and skins are patch worked together in honey toned leather, snakeskin and gold.
The volume is concentrated around the waist and hips and narrows at the ankle. The knits are beautiful, futuristic creations which see knitted tentacles of yarn stretch to the hems of dresses. The tones are nudes, peaches and duck-egg blues, their softness is counteracted by the skin-tight black leggings which are oil slick, often with fishnet panels through which flesh flashes.
Irish designer Orla Kiely is in good spirits at her static show, which sees models sitting at television sets from the 1960s and dressing tables. Her autumn/winter 2010 collection features Jackie Ostyle suits in dogtooth and her characteristic repeat patterns on blouses and dresses.
‘‘The colours and patterns are working well this season,” says Kiely, who is known for her vintage appeal. ‘‘I have a 1960s sensibility, I like things from around that mid-century period. You could say I am a bit of a fan of modernism in a positive sense.”
The ‘Orla Kiely woman’’ is a positive one she says: ‘‘creative, independent and confident’’. The designer says that each area of her brand receives the same amount of attention - be it home ware, luggage or clothing, and laughs at the notion that she has become an adopted British designer ‘‘No! I feel Irish. They haven’t claimed me yet as a British designer.
There is a lot in my collections that reflects growing up in Ireland - while it may not be obvious, it’s about colour tones or taste,” she says.
Nothing could be further from Kiely’s collection than John Rocha’s autumn/winter 2010 show. Inspired by the gauchos of the Argentinian pampas and Edwardian ruffians, the menswear is about opposites - upside down and inside out. Ragged leather capes are thrown over the shoulders of long coats, waistcoats are worn on top of over (under?) coats and leather jackets have raw edges. Long-haired, ragged-looking Artful Dodger types wear double breasted coats and exaggerated bowler hats.
Rocha’s womens wear has a myriad of fabric techniques and fabrics from felted wool to silks. Towering hats adorn the models’ heads and there is a disconnected romance in the nude baby-doll dresses overthrown with shearling coats, frilly sleeves and transparent panels.
Fabric cutting and manipulation give some garments an incredible sense of the natural with their leaf-like or reptilian forms.
Organic and natural is something associated with Rocha’s designs yet, taken out of this dramatic context, some of the coats and dresses could work just as well in the business setting. ‘‘Unless I have something amazing to say with my clothes I won’t say anything,” says Rocha, joking that the collection was made up of ‘‘25 shades of black’’.
‘‘It’s important for me to keep up with the young people, by keeping my looks alive. There is no point in me doing what I do unless people can put my garments on their back. I make clothes to try and make people look beautiful.
I’m not trend-driven: I make clothes from my heart.”
That night it is off to Claridges for an elegant party to celebrate Rocha’s25thyear showing at London Fashion Week. Guests include shoe designer Jimmy Choo and artist Guggi as well as members of the Rocha family, including his daughter Simone. A designer in her own right, Simone showed at London Fashion Week for the first time this season as part of the Central St Martins College MA show.
Alexander McQueen, the designer whose tragic death occurred just days before the start of London Fashion Week, is never far from the thoughts of those who attend.
There is a wall of honour dedicated to him in the British Fashion Council show space and his spring/summer skull motif scarf is much in evidence, an emotional reminder of a great loss to the fashion world.
‘‘I am very sad at the loss of Alexander McQueen. He was a very nice guy, very shy. I think we must remember what a great contribution he has made to world fashion as a British designer.
We need to remember him and remember what he did for the country, for design education and specifically for British fashion,” says Jimmy Choo.
|
Text-Only