Feben at London Fashion Week, September 2021
London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2022 returned this month with a bang, offering a greater number of physical shows, along with creative digital offerings. It’s good to see that sustainability has become commonplace with many brands abandoning the traditional “seasons.” Some designers added menswear to their spring collections and gender fluid designs is a growing trend too. Here are ten catwalk and presentation highlights from a pared down, more chilled out fashion week.
French brand Paul & Joe showed at London Fashion Week for the first time to celebrate their 25th anniversary. The ready to wear collection, shown at a gorgeous mansion house in Mayfair, featured the label’s signature styles including the trademark shirt, dresses, jumpsuits and menswear inspired coats.
One of London Fashion Week’s most highly anticipated presentations was NEWGEN 2021 designer Feben. A recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, her designs draw on the nomadism of her own background (she was born in Korea of Ethiopian parents and grew up in Sweden). Her garments play with popular imagery that links all Black people to create an aesthetic vision imbedded in community: a vision at once familiar and other-worldly, accessible and playful but bound to the codes of luxury and the hand crafted. The designs use a variety of textures and vibrant colors such as fuschia pink, acqua blue and bright yellow.
Edeline Lee collection at London Fashion Week 2021
For her new collection, Edeline Lee used leftover fabrics in her studio to create a range of 32 beautiful samples in a wide range of colors. The designer said: “It felt wrong to order new fabric so I decided to use up all of the leftover fabrics in the studio - we ended up with 53 colors in the collection.” The spring/summer 2022 collection includes new takes on the brand’s signature designs loved by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Solange Knowles, Olivia Colman, Alicia Vikander and many other high profile clients. Edeline Lee pieces emphasise precision cut, hand-made details and are tailored to fit on a wide range of body types. Her signature fabrics resist wrinkling so are ideal for travelling.
British designer Saul Nash’s first solo runway show was on an urban set (there was even a bus stop) that strongly evoked his London roots. The designer, described by Hypebeast as the “next superstar of sportswear,” introduced womenswear for the first time although his designs are gender fluid for the most part. Founded in 2018. Saul Nash’s designs cleverly bridge the gap between luxury menswear and activewear. Using zips and lightweight materials, the garments are made to be functional as well as stylish. The catwalk show demonstrated his background in dance and embraced his London background by featuring friends as models and collaborators.
Isabel Manns presents her Spring Summer 2022 designs as part of London Fashion Week SS22.
Isabel Manns’ eye-catching designs in a colorful palette that includes cobalt blue, green and purple, focus on five key pledges for delivering a circular fashion brand that contributes to sustainability in fashion: reversibility, zero waste, made in England, sustainable fabrics and seasonless clothes. Reversible clothing is what this brand has become known for, with every garment offering you two items in one. The new seasonless collection includes of a variety of pieces that can be worn together as an outfit or combined with items from Isabel’s previous collections.
Instead of his usual glitzy catwalk show at the Palm Court at London’s Waldorf Hotel, Paul Costelloe opened his atelier to present his new designs and provide industry professionals with an intimate look at his working methods. He works entirely by hand, from his initial sketches to hand designed fabrics and patterns. His ethereal new collection in a palette of pastel blue was inspired by The Book of Kells, using bespoke linen from Ireland’s oldest linen fabric mill, William Clark.
A new, sustainable luxury brand by London College of Fashion graduate Deborah Latouche, is one to watch. She uses end of roll luxurious fabrics, silks, jacquard and fine cottons, so that each piece is completely unique. The attention to detail and quality of craftsmanship is clear in every piece from flowing dresses to elegant capes. And any design with buttons has used vintage buttons. A number of actors have already become fans, including Naomie Harris, Sophie Turner and Eric Underwood.
Vogue Met Gala challenge winner Karina Bondareva presented highly crafted, fantastical designs that incorporate matchsticks, paper, clay buttons and other unusual materials from her Central Saint Martins’ graduation show. The Met Gala gown she recreated from Thom Browne’s $200,000 design for Cardi B was made from 500 sheet of red paper.
Helen Anthony SS22 at London Fashion Week
London based luxury menswear and women’s wear brand Helen Anthony presented an impressive unisex ready to wear designs included gorgeous tweed overcoats and jackets. Creative Director Naeem Anthony’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection was inspired by the decade of liberation, the 1970s. The eclectic, bold new collection includes opulent color, sharp silhouettes and edgy patent leather.
Anna Mason worked for Karl Lagerfeld in Paris, for MaxMara and Valentino in Italy and for Amanda Wakeley in London before launching her own label in 2012. Anna Mason clothes are feminine, wearable and timeless, the opposite of disposable, fast fashion. While new styles and fabrics are introduced each season, many thematic elements endure, such as with the Classics range. This was the first time Anna Mason showed on schedule at London Fashion Week and the concept was a “garden of freedom” inspired by Claude Monet’s Giverny. Designs featured flowing sleeves and silhouettes from artist’s smocks in pretty floral and paisley prints, broderie anglais, lace and ribbon.
The next edition of London Fashion Week will be in February 2022.
