Day 2: London Collections: Men SS13

Highlights from day 2 of London Collections: Men included more long-haired surfy swagger courtesy of Shaun Samson, and a vibrant baroque-printed vision of skater style from Katie Eary (complete with custom skateboards). As with womenswear, those creating a strong signature with colour and print are attracting all the buzz, so Eary’s confident shirting and baggy shorts layered over skinny-fitting jeans and accessorised with patent croc backpacks and optic white Nikes got plenty of love (props for styling to Way Perry). Jonathan Saunders was another highlight, showing at the Elms Lester Painting Rooms. His perfectly judged colour blocks, stripes and graduated spot prints were rapturously received, although I preferred the more casual pieces to the tailoring. I also loved his mirror-like silver and black lace-ups by Christian Louboutin.

Shaun Samson (via Fran Burns)

Katie Eary


Jonathan Saunders





In the static shows, Guy Hills of Dashing Tweeds (AKA, recent winner of Best Scottish Textile Brand at the Scottish Fashion Awards) showed me his latest reflective tweeds and just-in-for-the-Olympics hanky hat. I also discovered Hancock, a brand created by Daniel Dunko (the brains behind the reinvention of Mackintosh), which uses the same vulcanised rubber cotton for this new range of jackets and outerwear. They also have a rather nice line of Globetrotter cases.

Dashing Tweeds

Hancock

Always a pleasure to chat shoes and design with Mr Hare’s Marc Hare. I love his unexpected use of colour in these luxury shoes

Britannia-themed sunglasses created by Prism for the new Opening Ceremony store to coincide with the Olympics

“We’ve had a great reaction to our magnetic bags, they’re super-practical because we wanted to make a bag that goes from work to gym,” said bag makers Chris & Tibor. The sides and ends of these bags fold in with the help of magnets, giving them a slick and streamlined functionality

William Richard Green showed me how some of the pieces transform into different garments – such as this jacket that can be reconfigured as a coat. Also, how cool are those oversized polka dots?



On the Fash/On Film programme was an excellent Jeffrey Hinton mash-up of rare 1980s fashion footage from his archive, featuring Bodymap, Judy Blame, Mitzi Lorenz, Barry Kamen, Boy George, Michael Clark and all my other early fashion crushes. I was also quite blown away by Martine Rose’s film for Test, directed by Paul Gore and choreographed by Del Mak…