London Fashion Week AW15: let’s hear it for the girls
In these days of Insta-journalism, a fanciful theme is a gift to the time poor and attention-deficit. It helps tell the story of a collection which is what selling clothes is all about. And our young female designers are particularly adept at it.
On the first day of London Fashion Week AW15, we saw evocative tableaux styled as an art class and a gossipy teen gathering courtesy of Molly Goddard and Le Kilt respectively. Meanwhile, Shrimps gave us beautifully vacant aliens landed on a glittery planet surrounded by stalagmites. Because…why wouldn’t you?
MOLLY GOODARD
Molly Goddard is only in her first real season, but some are already familiar with her volumious prom dress aesthetic. She showed the Aw15 versions – gathered and smocked confections of pink tulle and mustard corduroy layered inelegantly over boiled wool knits and lurex fairisles. The models were street cast and looked entirely believable, concentrating hard on their sketches of a very brave nude life model…
SHRIMPS
Hannah Weiland has had quite the meteoric rise with her winning faux fur outerwear collections beloved by the style set. Pioneering a real-looking furry texture in surreal colour combos, for AW15 she’s moved on to tackle ready-to-wear. Her brilliant shearling and glitter coats were layered over tartans and cable knits with the added bonus of playful hand drawn embroiderd patches. As any new designer knows, accessories are a potential money-spinner. Hannah happens to be buddies with Sophia Webster, hence the furry shoes in electric primary brights, guaranteed to be visible from the moon and beyond.
Le Kilt
No Brit stylist or fashion editor can resist a punk or subculture reference, so I think we fell in love with this collection way before we saw it. Le Kilt is named after the 80s Soho night club, so the lived-in, clubby location of L’Escargot in Greek Street was a fitting tribute. In a corner, a live band serenaded us with string renditions of Papa Don’t Preach and Smells Like Teen Spirit.
The fledgling brand is based around hand made Scottish kilts, updated each season in colour and detail. This collection was styled on too cool for school, kohl-eyed teens, with knee socks, loafers and kilt pin brooches to accessorise, not to mention the cashmere tam-o-shanters. Newly added to the lurex and tartan-mix kilts are blazers, tees and cashmere knits, which can be styled naughty or nice as preferred…
WORDS AND IMAGES: Navaz Batliwalla/Disneyrollergirl
