Wild Wicklow-inspired look at London Fashion Week

A camping trip in the Wicklow mountains was the creative starting point for Irish designer Danielle Romeril’s London Fashion Week catwalk debut at the weekend.

One of London’s “ones to watch”, Romeril’s spring 2015 presentation was an intimate affair on a small set got up like a riverbank, with leggy models brandishing fishing rods.

“I had an image of a girl gang who live in the wild and who fish for their supper,” said the designer.

Her dresses and jackets incorporate fishing tackle-style bucket pockets, flaps and integrated backpacks. Her use of camouflage print and khaki, as well as innovative laser-cut mixes of lace and organza was light, feminine and assured.

Nautical at Loewe

Irish designers were in focus at London Fashion Week, where one of the hottest tickets was for JW Anderson, who is the creative head of Loewe, the Spanish fashion leather-goods house which is part of global luxury giant LVMH.

His family from Derry turned out in force for his show at the former Central St Martin’s School of Art. For a designer who can skilfully mix the conceptual and the commercial, his spring collection was a playful riff on French femininity. It showed a promising hand, with leather for cummerbunds (that cinched linen jackets), architecturally cut capes and floppy black hats. Nautical references, including back-buttoned matelot trousers, draped rope decor and creamy silk blouses caught the seaside spirit in a wayward but alluring way.

Orla Kiely continues her global dominance with six new stores planned for Japan and a continued collaboration with Clarks shoes. Her Japanese business partners, and Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall and his wife Greta, attended her show at Soho's Vinyl Factory in which daisy motifs decorated carefree summer dresses and separates. The collection featured giant appliquéed flower bags and pink fluorescent hoodies with US pop artist Alia Penner painting daisies on the stage set.

Elsewhere, the Hunter show made a big splash in every sense, and drew front-row celebrities such as Stella, Mary and Paul McCartney. Hunter creative director Alasdhair Willis (husband of Stella) took over a leisure centre’s covered swimming pool for his second collection for the boot brand.

The parkas, anoraks and ponchos in khaki, stripes and bright colours, along with new variations of flat, ankle and high boots underscore Hunter’s growing utilitarian cool.