At London Fashion Week, I always want more colour*
This week at London Fashion Week, I’ve been on the hunt for colour as part of an editorial collaboration with LFW partner Swatch. If you follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat, you’ll have seen the mentions popping up alongside a trio of new season Swatch watches and the #Ialwayswantmore hashtag.
Personally, my default colours are navy, grey and camel, plus denim of course (hey, blue is a colour). Red and pink get the occasional look in; for some reason I’m partial to pink sweatshirts, jumpers and fluffy cashmere socks. So to ease into things, I started off wearing the minimalist Metal Knit Swatch (below) with a few choice red and yellow accessories. So far, so easy…
My favourite LFW colour story was the bright primaries, which aptly seemed to echo an overall art gallery theme to the week. Two of the main show venues were the wonderful Tate Britain and the ICA, so it wasn’t too weird to see Peter Jensen’s Calder-coloured separates and dresses (below) displayed on models posing on plinths, inspired by legendary art collector Peggy Guggenheim, and Miuniku’s graphic, pop art pieces shown as an installation at a painting studio. I thought my Red Grin classic Swatch (below) popped nicely against my double denim ensemble…
Elsewhere it was about head-to-toe monochromes. Alas not denim, but every shade of green at Burberry (below, hello, shaggy green Muppet coat), golden oranges and cool turquoises at Faustine Steinmetz (below, another gallery-esque presentation, complete with audio guide) and joyful rainbow colours at Ashish.
Pink was the surprise standout colour, especially the kind of saccharine milkshake pink that could easily go horribly wrong. Hill & Friends (the new line by Emma Hill) went to town decking out the Curzon cinema with pink carpet and matching popcorn for their The Happy Factory film screening. (As it happens, this was the day I chose to wear my favourite pink sweater, coordinated with the Wonderqueen Swatch, below.) Shrimps and Preen showed pink with attitude (I loved Preen’s ruched dress with big boots) and Vivienne Westwood showed the best boyish pink trouser suit.
And it wasn’t only about the clothes. I loved the beauty looks that used colour in interesting ways. Most experimental were Isa Arfen’s tribute to Serge Lutens with extended beetroot-coloured eye shadow (below), Vivienne Westwood’s smudged red lips and Peter Jensen’s abstract lipliner. With colourful characters of every hue, London Fashion Week definitely lived up to its creative-cool reputation.
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WORDS AND IMAGES: Navaz Batliwalla/Disneyrollergirl
*This post is a sponsored collaboration in association with Swatch*
