LONDON'S image at the moment is of a place in which creativity abounds. All too often last week that creativity was demonstrated by the character of the shows, rather than by the clothes. The setting, not the work itself, was what left the most memorable impression. Desperate to maintain their reputation for quirkiness, many young British designers chose unusual (and inconvenient) venues in which to show their new collections. Antonio Berardi went for the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, transformed into a circus ring for the night. Hussein Chalayan invited everyone to climb seven flights of stairs in an East End warehouse, sit on hard wooden benches for an hour while listening to a soundtrack of gale force winds and then, after seeing his clothes, struggle back across the city during rush hour traffic. Most notable of all as usual Alexander McQueen persuaded the fashion pack to troop south of the Thames to a semi derelict market where most of the seats had already been occupied by gatecrashers, a fire broke out on part of the "ghetto" set, and fights broke out at the entrance among latecomers unable to gain admission. Other publicity highlights of the week included. The artist formerly known as Prince abandoning his front row seat at Berardi after being approached by a journalist Simply Red's Mick Hucknall walking out of Katharine Hamnett's show but then being persuaded to return when places were found for him and his party frenzy among photographers when Liam Gallagher turned up at Ben de Lisi's show and his girlfriend Patsy Kensit appeared on the catwalk.
In the midst of all the drama, there were clothes too of course, even if at times these seemed merely incidental. In part, this was because what was shown regularly disappointed in its consistent blandness. Newly arrived labels such as Miu Miu a second range by Prada until now seen in New York Spaniard Amaya Arzuarga and Scapa made little impact, while even the brightest hopes appeared to play sale. McQueen, for example, essentially offered well tailored trouser suits and dresses, disguising the classicism of his designs by using cowhide and tie dyed denim. Jaspar Conran, showing for the first time in many years, played safe to the point of timidity, opening with a homage to Dior's New Look of 50 years ago before going on to show smart leather jackets and high necked jersey dresses. Antonio Berardi's models may have sported faces painted to look as though slashed with a knife, but they were wearing pedal pushers, bell hop jackets and asymmetric hemmed chiffon dresses.
Of all the designers showing this season, the most consistent vision was displayed by Workers for Freedom and Ben de Lisi. The former produced a ravishingly romantic collection of layered velvets, silk georgettes and brocades which managed to be both lush and yet utterly wearable. Ben de Lisi scarcely considered clothes for day, concentrating instead on late nights when women will wear bias cut velvet panne in shades of grape and plum coloured double chiffon.
Purple in all its differed tones was one of the most consistent trends to emerge in London last week. It looks set to take over from brown next autumn/winter as the favourite colour, although there was still plenty of chocolate and coffee to be seen. And green, especially of the forest and bottle shades, is also likely to be much used, together with grey.
Another key direction for next season is the asymmetrical hemline at times it was hard to find a skirt or dress which finished at the same level all the way round. Even the shortest of hems wove its way up and down awhile anything below the knee was certain to hit the ankle at some point.
Trouser suits remain central to every woman's wardrobe, the pants flared as before while jackets continue to have narrow waists, if slightly wider shoulders than last season. But the key piece for the coming autumn/winter is a 1940s inspired skirt suit. This has a high fastening darted jacket band a straight skirt to the knee. The look is sober, sensible and, just possibly, just a little dull. That's also true of coats where the favourite shape, whether six button double breasted or three button single, is to the knee or, more interestingly, slightly flared from the waist and to the ankle.
For evenings, some one shouldered styles of dress appeared, but the drape neckline reminiscent of designers such as Molyneux in the early 1930s, was much employed on bias cut dresses. Velvet will be next season's most commonly used fabric and shearling coats featured so often that all sheep should grow anxious about their future. Prints were rare but contrasting wide bands of colour, whether horizontal, vertical or even diagonal, were much seen. Finally, in knitwear, the ribbed poloneck was much favoured but there were also lots of gauzy, sheer sweaters about on the cat walks.
The Irish in London
AS IF responding to global pronouncements on its newly resurgent international status, London Fashion Week this season took on a distinctly Irish hue at times. There were more designers from Ireland than ever before taking space at the fair which is organised alongside the shows newcomers such as Marc O'Neill were there, as well as more established presences including Louise Kennedy and Orla Kiely. And after last Monday's acclaimed catwalk presentation from Lainey Keogh, on Wednesday no less than three Irish designers staged shows beginning in the morning with Paul Costelloe.
Admittedly Costelloe's clothes for next autumn/winter will feature New Zealand wool rather than fibres from his own country. Otherwise, however, he stayed close to home, offering Irish music and at least one Irish model, Alison Canavan, who on her first appearance, burst into a sprightly jig down the length of the catwalk. As for the clothes, they too were indisputably of Ireland in their spirit, with an abundance of knits and tweeds throughout.
Paul Costelloe envisages a cold spell "later this year, because he offered lots of heavy knitted full length cardigan coats in flecked shades of mossy green. And he plans to provide earth and forest toned cable stitch sleeveless polo neck long dresses as well as wide lapelled corduroy and tweed suits in the same colours. Dark brown shearling coats, both to the hip and midcall, alternated with three quarter length single breasted jackets and ankle skimming blanket fringe skirts. Come evening, the Costelloe customer will want to opt for rich brown and mustard patterned panne' velvet for belted smoking jackets teamed with similarly toned silk print pants.
Velvet turned up also among John Rocha's evening wear for next autumn/winter. His black velvet devore' dresses were coupled with buttermilk shearling coats, the latter's enormous turn back cuffs matched by equally generous shawl collars. Rocha's show was a tribute to Hong Kong, his country of origin, as much as to his adopted home of Ireland. At first, the oriental influence was more apparent in the rich Chinese embroidered brocades of gold and midnight blue used for short jackets and pencil leg pants, Dazzling red the colour of eastern lacquer was used for a knee length belted leather coat lined in satin. On black silk georgette dresses, hems were decorated with gold discs reminiscent of oriental symbols, while the trailing sleeves of many garments suggested clothing worn by courtesans in imperial China.
But perhaps those same sleeves could also imply a debt to Ireland, since very often on coats and dresses their scoop form had the look of a hurley. Rocha's honeycomb weave roomy sweaters and below the knee cardigans also had a distinctly Irish quality, as did his wraparound shearling coats. And given his worldwide appeal, it's no wonder this designer can produce clothes with an international flavour, such as a dark charcoal silk wool gabardine frock coat and matching Oxford bags, or a stunning bias cut evening dress, backless and with trailing band kerchief hemlines. As one Japanese journalist remarked after the show, both east and west can look at John Rocha's work and both will find his clothes equally exotic.
The same is just as true of milliner Philip Treacy, originally from Co Galway, who presented his latest collection at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square on Wednesday night. Treacy's most exciting hats are inevitably the most exotic huge arching constructions that looked like snail shells, or an elaborate fantasy of wire, studded with tiny lights but he is also capable of producing pieces which may be worn off the catwalk. Obviously his show, attended by Mick Jagger, Helena Bonham Carter, Simon Le Bon and Boy George, emphasised the fantastical element with a succession off hats based on medieval wimples. However, the prettiest pieces were frequently the most simple, including some very lovely lace veils draping over the head and onto the shoulders, Suggestive of the mantillas which used to be worn to church, these offerings from Treacy indicated that even he has not travelled so very far from his origins in this country.