Beauty Sparkling

Frumpy to Funky’s London based Personal Stylist, Karen Grace, comments on London Fashion Week for Autumn/Winter 2011.

Day One

The first day of London Fashion Week and an early start to see the first catwalk show in the big tent at Somerset House.

PAUL COSTELLOE

Costelloe really does have a large family! Last season we saw his 6 sons taking to the catwalk, this time it was his daughter, Jessica’s turn. She opened the show in a short burgundy tweed coat with oversized collar and closed in a cute metallic burgundy baby doll dress.

The rest of the models wore rustic red blunt cut frizzy wigs which complemented the bright bold colours of the collection’s palette.

The inspiration for the collection was ‘Home Grown Fashion’ using fabrics of tweeds, plaids, and herringbones. These traditional fabrics had been given a face lift with mini skater skirts, short tailored swing jackets and coats, plus the bold splashes of peacock blue, emerald, mustard, burnt orange and fuchsia. Not to be outshone, collars and buttons were large making a statement.

Metallics, plain and patterned, gave retro glamour to the structured dresses rather than the usual sci -fi it’s associated with.

 

Next show venue was at the plush Savoy hotel.

MARIA GRACHVOGEL

Whilst Costelloe’s AW11 girl is bright and vivacious, Grachvogel’s AW11 woman is languidly graceful. The sumptuous setting of the Lancaster ballroom with its crystal chandeliers added to the elegance.

The style palette was muted shades of ebony, bone, grey and blush with a shot of flame orange to show there is heat underneath the Grachvogel woman’s cool exterior. Inspiration came from the tribal to the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. This was shown in the exclusive artwork prints as enchanted forests in the fairy print, but instead of the natural browns and greens, the colour shows the fairy tales’ dark side in steel grey mixed with buttermilk, winter white and muted jewel shades of amethyst and sapphire.   Several catsuits and dresses sported a modern twist with a racer style back softened by the fluidity of the fabrics.

Statement pieces included the bone wool flannel full length ‘Emperor’ coat with oversized shearling collar, and the ‘Aesop’ skirt with its asymmetrical hemline graduating longer at the back, in black lace, bone wool flannel and the tribal Shamen wool print.

The look was fluid and cleanly cut with the fabrics bringing rich textures such as silk, georgette, lace and cashmere tweed.

 

With no time to muse over the collection, again a mad rush to get to my next destination, this time to the On/Off location in Covent Garden.

JENA . THEO

From the floaty pastel hues of their Indian inspired SS11 collection, designer duo Jenny Holmes and Dimitris Theocharidis go dark and grungy in their AW11 collection looking towards Norse mythology for their inspiration. Titled ‘Valkyre’ after those celestial females who decide who will die in the field of battle, the models wore their long tousled  hair with just the front strands tied back to reveal the black war paint worn as a mask around their eyes. Touches of leather appear as plaited braids and patches on some of the garments giving the illusion these warrior women have been busy making their own clothes in the traditional Viking way. This more so on the high heeled shoes covered in curled edged patches of brown leather.  However these warriors had the luxury fabrics on hand with cashmere sweats, silk modal jerseys and sand washed silk satins with touches of soft baby alpaca wool hand knits. It’s all about layers and loosely woven oversized knits, with the main colour palette being sombre hues of black and charcoal grey, lightened with the natural neutral shades of ecru. Denim reappears from last season but this time ranging from a pale treated washed look to the darker blacks and greys, with light jersey semi ruched leggings in denim look prints.

Key pieces were, the brown and black silk dress made of shorts with a long billowing trail and leather patchwork tight sleeves; and the oversized faded black padded coat with exaggerated shoulders but fitting snugly around the knees.

 

Next mad dash was to the Freemason’s Hall for the first of the Vauxhall Fashion Scout‘s catwalk show:

PROPHETIK

Titled ‘Artist Wonderment’, designer Jeff Garner was inspired by the fashionable French court of Louis XV where frivolity reigned and egos were high, but turns this pretension around to appreciate the wonderment of an artist.  Prophetik is an ethical range so the fabrics used are eco-friendly such as hemp and organic velour. He’s introduced two new fabrics this season: the cactus silk made from the agave plant and his own great grandmother’s 100year old southern quilts! The quilts are a patchwork of colours, but the main colour palette of the collection was neutrals, white, black and the splashing of rich hues (well it is Louis XV inspired) in emerald, plum, violet, deep scarlet and burgundy.

One of his key pieces was of course the finale dress called ‘Mrs Moulton’ made of hand sewn white ostrich feathers on white silk and silk organza. Why it is called this I don’t know, maybe because the ostrich naturally moults its feathers twice a year? Or it could be Jeff’s old next door neighbour.

Whatever the reason, the feathers gave an otherwise simple gown a touch of grace and playful frothiness.

Another key piece was called ‘Lola’ named after his great grandmother. Here Lola’s old quilt was given a new lease of life as a corset panel and quilted hood. Teamed with wool jodhpurs (considerately lined in linen) which were embellished with reclaimed gold piping and antique gold buttons.

The men were striking in military style jackets, jodhpurs and short velvet baggy breeches, although it probably is not a look you could pull off in everyday life. The quilts came in to their own here as a cosy pink and blue coat with large frilled collar, it wasn’t the case as wherever I lay my hat is my home, rather wherever I lay my coat is my bed –now that’s recycling at its best .

 

Wishing I could lay on one of Grandma Garner’s cosy quilts, it wasn’t to be as Somerset House called to me for the next catwalk show:

CORRIE NIELSEN

Titled ‘A Winter’s Melodie’, this collection’s inspiration was drawn from two different periods – the Elizabethan period and the 1940-50′s French Haute Couture. The colour palette was the deep rich colours of amethyst, burgundy, gunmetal grey, purples, navy with pale gold.

Blanket like wraps were layered over skirts and trousers or draped asymmetrically over wool day dresses and blouses, giving a Celtic feel.  The knee length pencil skirts and dresses were more inspired by the haute couture with their clean lines skimming over the female form.  Then the real drama appeared in the guise of a Sir Walter Raleigh style puff ball cape in silk metallic green, a pale gold silk gown with semi hooped skirt and flat stiff bodice with the finale dress looking regal with its oversized puffed ruff collar and long train.

 

And just to make sure my legs were still working,  it was time to make a dash back to the On/Off venue for my last but not least show of the day.

ASHLEY ISHAM

Taking Christina G Rossetti’s poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ for inspiration, ‘The Enchanted Forest’ is a darker continuation of Isham’s earlier floral theme ‘East of Eden’ in SS11 collection. Here the models represent fairies in lush tones of magenta, emerald, deep sapphire, crimson, coral and granite whilst the Queen of Fairy looks dark and mysterious in granite voile and silver sequins.

The headgear ranged from the simple floral arrangement you’d expect fairies to wear, to those with more of a touch of the orient – proving fairies are well travelled. And of course the Fairy queen’s headdress was bigger and better than the rest – like a bridal veil on a windswept day catching   flowers as they flew by

Opening the show are the fairies, sorry models, in striking bold floral patterns on a background of forest green and turquoise blue velvet. Then came the elegant long draped jersey dresses in plain deep sapphire and crimson, followed by green and yellow pattern chiffons which brought a light airy freshness before going back to deep block colours, this time the turn of emerald.

By the end of the collection the colours were darker with the granite and silver shining like different strengths of moonlight on metallic bark textured browns, silver birch jacquards and scale-like sequins, whilst black beaded and woollen lace appliqués entwined around the dresses and jackets representing creepers.

 

Day Two

After a full first day, the second day started miserably with queuing outside in the rain and cold for my first show at the Northumberland hotel.

BERNARD CHANDRON

Once inside and quickly thawing, the show began with a shocking pink futuristic mini dress, worn with matching tights and shoes (designed by Guiseppe Zanotti) to make sure we were all paying attention.  This set the scene for a blaze of all over eye popping colours in reds, oranges, pinks and a slightly more subdued electric blue.  Not the usual autumnal colours here. Our eyes were sometimes given a rest with the solid classic navy and blacks.

Wide zips were exposed and the main attraction were the half peplums giving volume to the pieces.  These ranged from the more traditional short peplum in the same fabrics as shown on a double breasted orange trench coat with tulip style skirt, to the oversized shiny black