Eric Wilson is InStyle’s Fashion News Director. Sit front row at Fashion Week with him by following him on Twitter (@EricWilsonSays) and Instagram.
The new stars of London Fashion Week have reached a critical point in their young careers, when buzzy debuts and runway fancy turn to serious business and corporate backing.
When they first began receiving global attention about five years ago, the New London designers, a group that includes Mary Katrantzou, J.W. Anderson, Simone Rocha, and Thomas Tait, spoke with a unified voice. Their collections had similar threads of ostentatious decoration and gender-blending mixed with an unapologetic embrace of smart commercialism. What is interesting now, during the spring 2015 collections that got underway here on Friday, is how they are beginning to differentiate themselves.
Katrantzou is the visual maximalist whose dexterity with prints has evolved into fantastic collages of lace (the curlicue filigree in her spring designs, when you looked up close, looked like it was actually composed of writhing snakes, pictured, top). Jonathan Saunders is the master colorist, his pale blue, silver, copper and khaki collages of stars and amorphous shapes evocative of the Matisse “Cut-Outs” exhibition that enthralled all of London this summer (pictured, below). Anderson is the more curious case—it’s hard to put your finger exactly on what is so cool about his take on seafaring clothes this season, a dress with a nautical rope looped through it, a sweater with half a camisole applied to the front, sailor pants with big brass buttons on the seat.
Perhaps it is the mystery that seduces.With such intriguing work on the runways here, it is no surprise that the big luxury conglomerates have their eyes on London for talent, and the international editors have returned in droves. (Anderson will present his first runway collection for Loewe in Paris this month.) Katrantzou is quickly rising to the top with her ever-inventive approaches to decoration, this season taking inspiration from the supercontinent of Pangaea breaking into the seven modern ones. Her compositions are like puzzles, here with panels of what looked like glistening silica, lace appliques of snakes and coral, an occasional beaded lizard popping its head from the side of a jet black crystal dress.
The buzz of this generation has also brought attention back to other English heritage brands, or any brands, really, with any English connection whatsoever. Hunter Original has returned with a very big splash, thanks to its new creative director Alasdhair Willis, who in his second season took the label’s signature rugged rubber boots into a bold and more adventuresome territory. Models in playful heels and kicky camping sportswear made their way around a mirrored runway, some chased by sharks that swam by them on a backdrop of a digital ocean (pictured, below right).
“We’re not just protecting you from water,” Willis said backstage before his show. “We celebrate it at Hunter.”
And who was New London before them? Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig of Marchesa, who celebrated their 10th anniversary by bringing their runway show back home from New York. The change of location put their collection an attractive new light, since what might have looked like an abundance of frothy gypsy lace in Manhattan seemed to strike just the right note here (pictured, above left), appealing to music festival devotees and English roses alike.
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