MY:VIEW London Fashion Week SS13 days 4 & 5

London Fashion Week is now over, and Milan has started.  I really loved this year’s LFW, and here’s my round up of the last 2 days.

 Day 4

Peter Pilotto showcased black and white mixed with lime green and tomato red being key tones, but pretty much every other colour under the sun was in existence through the collection of mainly dresses (and five pairs of trousers). The prints were beautiful, and I loved the peplums and cut away wrap skirts.

 

I loved Antonio Berardi’s structured shapes and geometric patterns.  I loved his dip hems, with flashes of colour, so the outfit I posted yesterday where I teamed 2 dip hem dresses together was obviously very on trend without me knowing! (see here).  The relaxed peplums were really interesting, and I can see these being adopted everywhere (and make a good DIY on existing clothes!).  Again blue was show, although this was a lot brighter than the ice blues seen elsewhere, but I can honestly say this was one of my favourite shows of the week.

 

Christopher Kane’s 1^st 12 looks were all white, which didn’t impress me much (not purposely quoting Shania Twain!), but the focus after that lay quite clearly on texture and shape, with zips, cut outs, tailoring and detail. White changed to powder pinks and neon yellows, in minimalist shapes, with origami style fold-over texture. Then came the detail; ruffled modern textures made an interesting highlight alongside embellished lace and sheer organzas. I loved the standard Kane hard v soft: delicate roses were embossed on to boxy leather biker jackets, and what looked like black gaffer tape was used as a criss-cross on dresses, which is something I love to do, so this was inspiring.  The Frankenstein references (images and perpex bolts) were strange, but Christopher Kane never does anything you’d expect!

Erdem showed very feminine 50s styles, featuring nipped in waists and below knee skirts.  Clashing prints featured heavily with bright florals on white and slashes of snakeskin with mesh panels, one shoulders and halternecks.

 

Burberry Prorsum was probably one of the most anticipated shows of the week, with everyone wanting to know what else Christopher Bailey could do to the brand.  He made the classic trench the focus of the collection, but updated it using leather, miniscule crops, balloon sleeves and exaggerated shoulders. These were teamed with pencil skirts, micro shorts and lace.  The colours of the show were amazing, using metallic, pinks and greens.

 

Giles was in my top 3 shows of the week, and I would honestly wear absolutely everything in this collection, even the mad feather hats! Laser cut leather, sheer bodices and patent made it a pretty sexy, rocky collection, but he also flipped this around with white high neck dresses with horse print, gold brocade and embellishment.  It was largely monochrome (anyone who reads my blog knows I love black!) with hints of pink and blue, and the collection that I will be frantically searching for copies of come SS13, especially this laser cut leather dress!

 

 

Day 5

Mulberry was the main highlight of the day, on what was a pretty disappointing day for me (especially after days 3 and 4 being so amazing!)  The “English summer” themed show had muted colours, with white, biscuit, blush pink and nude featuring heavily.  There was an abundance of leather in the collection, as well as relaxed shapes and silhouettes.  Florals were on not only the clothes, but bags and shoes, as were brocade and applique.  Mulberry also launched the Willow bag, which will no doubt be the “IT” bag of next season.

 

 

 

 

Ashish was the total opposite of the elegance of Mulberry, with a lot of denim in unusual shapes and their usual slogans, which were amped up by using numbers randomly too.  I loved the sequin asymmetric slip dresses, but not sure if I’ll be following the odd sock trend, especially word with trainers!

 

All in all, LFW was pretty spectacular, and, without again sounding like a Proud Brit, will take a lot of beating by Milan and Paris!

My favorite shows of the week were Marius Schwab, Giles and Antonio Berardi (click to see full collections from LFW website).

I’ll be keeping hold of all of my peplums and buying more prints, as clashing prints looks like they’ll be around for a good while longer!  I'd love to know what shows/trends you liked and will be following.