Lovely, but would you wear it?

On the catwalk, outrageous designs make headlines, but what does the woman on the street think? We assembled a panel to give their verdicts on London Fashion Week

THIS YEAR, catwalk shows from London Fashion Week were streamed live online so fashion lovers everywhere could, for the first time, witness the creative juices that flow along the fashion food chain.

It marks a democratisation of high fashion, but also begs the question: do the shows matter to the 20- or 30-something woman, who is interested in fashion but who looks to high street stores such as Penneys and Topshop for her fix?

Or, without buyers and editors to pinpoint the must-haves do they simply remind us that high fashion and fashion as we know it are poles apart?

Five avid young fashion watchers – and dedicated consumers – agreed to take a look at a selection of last week’s London shows and give their verdict on how the catwalk offerings might translate into wardrobe buys. Their opinions came crisp and quick.

Burberry, the group agree, offers wearable clothing, but designs that will, undoubtedly, be adapted by high-street stores.

Mark Fast’s show is “sensationalist” while Matthew Williamson is “catering solely to his own customer”. Christopher Kane’s designs, on the other hand, made an impact on our panel. Astrid Brennan confesses to now being on the hunt for an embroidered leather jacket; Bláithín Kearney is “still thinking about leather and lace, not something I’d ever have paired before.”

But do we need fashion weeks? “I would consider the high street ‘fashion’,” says Lee Kutner. “I never thought of it coming from these shows, although obviously, subconsciously, it does. I just don’t care that much.”

“I think it’s going to become increasingly more important as it becomes more accessible. Being able to watch it online brought it all down to base level,” says Brennan.

“It’s important in order to advance the world of fashion,” says Kearney. High fashion collections, she says, “keep the fashion world ticking over.”

“It definitely influences you subconsciously,” says Brennan.

“What I like about it is that it showcases new designers,” says Gina Murphy.

While the designs we see parading down runways in London, Paris, Milan and New York may, at times, seem outrageous, the overall verdict is that fashion needs these artistic, sometimes dramatic and entirely unwearable, collections to push it forward – and to keep us yearning for the next big thing.

MARK FAST

MARK FAST’S debut show last season drew more attention than any other. He used plus-sized models and rumour had it that a top stylist walked out because she refused to work with them. Has he moved on?

“This is really sensationalist,” says Bláithín Kearney. “It’s a big publicity stunt.”

“There’s no problem with using plus-sized models,” says Lee Kutner, “but these designs do nothing for them.”

“If he got Alexa Chung, maybe – who’s tiny anyway – wearing a knitted skirt with a leather jacket, you might think, ‘oh my God, that’s amazing’,” says Gina Murphy.

But the panel baulk at the suggestion that catwalk trends are appreciated only because of their “celebrity” status. Isn’t there an element of wanting something that is out of reach?

“I think it subconsciously registers when you see something that’s a catwalk copy,” says Kearney. “But I don’t buy things because I think, ‘wow, this is a steal’, I buy things because they look well on me.”

“I have to really like something,” says Murphy. “I’ve often bought things on the high street and thought, ‘this looks a bit familiar’,” says Julie O’Donnell. “So it must register.”

CHRISTOPHER KANE

CHRISTOPHER KANE is one of London’s young guns. Championed by fashion editors worldwide, his collections have consistently succeeded in dictating the fashion aesthetic. This year, he produced a collection that “combines biker with florals,” says Astrid Brennan.

Lace, printed silk dresses and embroidered leather are teamed with black, patent-leather concoctions that lace all the way up to the knee. “They look like Irish dancing shoes,” says Julie O’Donnell. “When you take away the lace and floral, I could see that being very wearable,” says Brennan, before touching on something that is essential to how fashion weeks work: the influence of designers on fashion trends and, more importantly, what people are and are not willing to be seen in.

“When shoe boots first came in, I was going, ‘ugh, I don’t know about them at all’. Now I love them. It definitely influences what you like.”

“If I see something [at London Fashion Week] I like, I definitely look out for something similar,” says O’Donnell. “A lot of it, I think, ‘that’s a bit crazy’ and I forget about it, but it must influence trends.”

“For me, it’s on a subconscious level,” says Bláithín Kearney. “Like shoulder pads. I never thought they’d come back, because they’re such a 1980s thing, but they’re here – and they haven’t gone away. The collections, well, they wear me down eventually.”