Wednesday 26 September 2012

Pretty, Pretty

 Now I am not one for trends or any of that old guff, but there was a definite mood at London fashion week, and that was for all things twee, pretty and ladylike, albeit with an edge. The Londoners took their hats off to a bygone era and with it the look of a prim and proper lady, who left her morals at the door. For all the exaggerated waists, twin sets and hand embroidered lace, there was transparency, boobs and teeny little body suits. So here is to the London lady... chic, twee and halfway drunk on champagne!






First up in my lady line up is Burberry Prorsum, with all the fanfare of the technical wizardry of the Regent Street flagship opening and their live streaming of the catwalk Burberry showed with a bang. The theme of the show was announced as "Corsets and Capes" and Mr Bailey did not disappoint. As always the focal point was outerwear, but Burberry's lady was ravishingly well dressed, tousled of hair and clearly lacking in the bottom half of her outfit... Corsets and capes were given a slinky, cool update. The catwalk was awash with shrunken trench inspired capelets, corsetry that focused on the breast and lashings of stiff and heavy duchesse satin. The dresses that did appear were form fitting and panelled, this was set off with fabulous form fitting trenches that ballooned at the sleeve to show off slender, lithe bodies. Oh and don't get me started on the colour palette... it was bold, rich and dashed with Quality Street wrapper inspired metallics. A triumph... and I so want a pleated, metallic leotard thingy...







Christopher Kane is always a London highlight and this season he lived up to that, at first the collection looked to be perfectly well put together and polished, especially after last season's dark and gothic offerings. However on closer inspection pieces were held together with bolts and images of Frankenstein flashed up on tees halfway through... There was something strange going on. There were dresses that looked crinkled plastic, and fabric that had been injected with rubber... The only girlish difference was the beautifully soft pleats in saccharine sweet pastels. Oh and then came the lace and organza smattered with gaffer tape... it was almost as if his prim heroine was caught in a horror film... And this is what made Kane's vision of lady like absolutely perfect.









Mulberry did 'the lady' in a traditional, London cool girl way... Like an updated Shoreditch version of the look, I may be making it sound cliched but it totally wasn't. There were subtle beautiful florals worked into floaty, pretty tea dresses, like the kind Kate Moss made cool. However they were updated with boyish biker jackets skimming the hips and with rounded shoulders, a look that seems to have been carried over from this season. There were hints of pastels and nudes to give it a soft, spring mood and there were sequins and lovely bags as always... I loved the start - lashings of buttery caramel and toffee hues especially the thick, soft looking leather. My favourite bit was the flash navy in the middle, especially in the high waisted silk trousers, so stiff they looked like they could walk on their own.

Images courtesy of style.com

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