London Fashion Week Fall 2008 Wrap-Up
Alright indies, here’s the final wrap up of London fashion week by Mode et Utopie. If you’re not on this site, get on it. The coverage is always on point and Riz’s opinions are always so sharp.
Christopher Kane
Christopher Kane defied our expectations yet again this season. His fall collection clearly conveyed that he was beyond the re-mixed denim he concentrated on in the spring, and even farther beyond the bandaged, neon body-con creations of three seasons ago. The element of surprise this fall, were the strands or panels of paillettes, the models were practically dripping in these spangles of ornamentation. But they were not sprinkled, they clustered in areas around the body, almost armor-like, contrasting with the airiness of the clothes that carried them. An interesting direction for Kane – but we now know with him we can never expect the eternal return of the same.
Is admittedly one of my favorite designers. The way in which he is able to reveal and conceal the body all at once, with such grace, is astounding. The critics are saying Schwab’s pieces are less wearable this time around, and I think ultimately I do prefer last season’s anatomical references. Quite interesting is the fact that this collection is said to be inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, a canonical work of Victorian feminist literature. Again Schwab commits himself to an aesthetic that, in its deference for the human body, its content as well as its form, points us to the contingency of madness or hysteria, a psychic heterogeneity that is complex to grasp, that perhaps we wear unconsciously as a second skin.
Todd Lynn, Erdem and more after the jump…
As one Hint Magazine writer put it, “Todd Lynn’s tailoring is kick-ass.” The sharpness of the lines, the unapologetic assurance of his cuts define a lean silhouette, ultra-modern and sleek. His clothes have an urban, cosmopolitan edge to them, and possibly open up a space for the emergence of a different kind of gendered figure - the androgynous femme fatale perhaps, if there can be such a thing. Lynn’s talents and technical abilities should not be underestimated.
Erdem
This collection by designer Erdem Moralioglu, truly astounds in its delicate flirtation with the gothic, yes, but more interesting here, is Erdem’s presentation of the ephemerality and, perhaps most politically important, the increasing sense of the impermanence of our natural landscapes. The designer was said to have commented that he intended for the pieces to “look blurry, like a landscape speeding past when you’re on a train.” Standouts for me included the standup and funnel necklines, as well as his skillful integration of lace into the collection. He has perfectly balanced the richness of a royal purple with a cutting acid yellow and lime, leaving the eyes rapturous for more.
Roksanda Ilincic
Roksanda Ilincic’s trip to Brazil yielded a colorful and vibrant collection, that reflected on the shape and structure of Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Ilincic is definitely fond of the elegance and drama of charmeuse, as was apparent in her fall collection which did appear more deliciously raw and unfinished to me, but this spring the designer presents pieces that subtly convey the inspiration of a locale without over-aestheticizing it - that is, thankfully without exploiting and inflating that culture’s regional charm.
Giles
I quite like Giles Deacon, but this fall collection didn’t seem to carry his signature mischievousness, the sly allusions to the dark, even slightly perverse underside of fairytale romances. Whether or not Deacon was trying to channel that master of the macabre Alexander McQueen, this fall show somewhat faltered in the inability of this watered-down collection to fully possess that dangerous promise that fashion at its ominous best, is able to offer.
Gareth Pugh
I can do little to add to the excellent review by Suzanna Mars, except to say that with this fall vision, Pugh seems to have returned to a more concentrated fearlessness. If the last collection was a rather cheeky display of excess, over-driven, over-sexed, over-hyped clothing that perhaps could not hold its own without the impossible decadence of its vermin stoles, then this collection is perhaps Pugh’s attempt at restraint. The question that lingered from last season was how he would successfully navigate beyond the now all too familiar gesture of shock? Pugh has productively demonstrated that he can turn out masses of shag and enough zippers and industrial bells and whistles to still allow us to dream of a future history whose conditions of possibility, as sci-fi writer Eugene Thacker has proposed, potentially produces and foregrounds “the promises of monsters.”
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