London Fashion Week is a city wide experience that explores inclusivity and consciousness. This season, the runway had hit the diverse community of Soho and the beautiful landscapes of Sommerset House; a true zeitgeist representing the cultural atmosphere of London’s inclusivity and diversity.
The week began with a memorial to the late Vivienne Westwood, a phenomenal designer in the industry. This season saw the emergence of new and upcoming female designers like Di Pesta and Karolina Vito, debuting their ground breaking collections. Returning fashion houses such as Burberry, Molly Goddard and JW Anderson hit the runway; yet again with thrilling designs that have captured the interest of the fashion world. One week on since LFW ended, Kindred. is looking back at this year’s thighlights and sharing our favourite collections from London Fashion Week.
Harris Reed- ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
To kick off, Florence Pugh gave a monologue on the runway of the Harris Reed AW23 show at the Tate Modern wearing a harlequin sequin thigh high skirt, a black corset with hip cut-outs, along with a matching cape and halo disc hat silhouetted in the foreground.
“The art of dressing up allows us to express who we truly are, creating a space to inhabit in a sometimes judgemental world,” said Pugh said while walking along the spotlight runway.
This season, Harris Reed’s collection featured 10 Shakespearean demi-couture looks that are embellished with high neck cuts, intrinsic linings and curved structural shaping. The stunning royal gold and shimmering silver gowns, partnered with black velvet curved bodysuits, evoke sensuality and beauty within.
OXFAM x ebay- ‘Fashion Fighting Against Poverty’
A commendable moment this season is eBay’s Fashion fighting against poverty collaboration with Oxfam. Each and every look for one week only was auctioned on eBay to raise funds for Oxfam to help those that have been affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The appearance from runway icon Erin O’Connor in a second hand black velvet twin set suit, shows that thrift and second hand culture is not dead in the streets of London.
Di Pesta- Womanhood
Newcomer Di Pesta hit the ground running with her visceral female coming-of-age collection. The audience gathered around a rock, observing the story of Persephone, a Greek maiden who evolved into a mythological goddess. With neutral colours accompanied by angelic and intrinsic designs, femininity in all its glory exudes out of this collection throughout each and every look. Di Pesta’s iconic wet-look is featured in her utilisation of mixed recycled fabrics, vegan leather corsets and dip-dyed materials. The transitions from neutral and earthy colours of brown and beige to the fierce colours of black and red reflects the descent of the Goddess of the Underworld. Models with bellies both real and manufactured made their way to the runway. The collection featured long silhouette designs as extensions of their beauty, female divinity and majesty. Being handed swirling sage and red wine by the models, by the end of the show Pesta - centre stage - embodied contrasting female archetypes; lover to temptress, mother to daughter and the final descent from maiden to demon. The restoration of Dimitra’s descent was symbolic in the transcendence of the final white angelic look.
Karolina Vitto, Johanna Parv and Standing Ground- Business Chic Meets Utility
Karolina Vitto debuted her collaborative collection with renowned designers, Standing Ground and Johanna Parv in their metallic and abstract designs. The signature looks of Michal Stewart’s Standing Ground, presented silky structurally shaped looks, accentuating the models hips and neck lines with Victorian-esque padding in her frosty metallic blue and chrome aesthetic. Johanna Parv, an emerging designer incorporated a utilitarian edginess to the feminine streetwear collection. Female models walked down the industrial runway in a streetwear look comprising of active-wear – a wrap skirt, a utility shirt with a shoulder cut-out and a utility vest and belt layered to complete the look. Lastly, Karolina Vitto enlisted a diverse cast of models to debut her FW23 collection where business-chic intertwined with utilitarian styles featuring tight wrap dresses, with cut intersection along the thigh and waist, along with mesh sleeved gloves. Vitto incorporated metal rings to encompass the models, connecting the intersections of the bold and contrasting red, white and black looks. The trio dynamically present a fierce utilitarian collection, with each designer representing their interpretation of this aesthetic style, heightening female empowerment in a new light of body positivity, strength and mystery.
Burberry- Under New Management
Former Bottega Venetta creative Director, Daniel Lee revealed his first collection for Burberry at AW23 London Fashion Week with a redesigned logo to kick off his hopefully long-lasting reign at the household label. The collection incorporates check patterns, utilising bold colours, blanket coats, hot water bottles, and knits to encapsulate the Equestrian Knight style, ultimately playing homage to historical British fashion trends, specifically Scottish kilts. Incorporating an oversized coat that has embroidered red roses on the matching set is accompanied by a fur neckline, a blue graphic t-shirt to contrast the light silhouettes. The look is supported by the outdoor side bag—brown leather—that Burberry’s outdoor aesthetic is known for; other looks featured a mixture of satchel and saddle bags. A key component of this new collection incorporated pleated tartan inspired kilt patterns over chequered tights, knitted chunky Aran and argyle oversized-jumpers. Staple Burberry equestrian boots and rubber rain boots were juxtaposed by the amplified square foot stylised trainers many models wore at the long lasted anticipated debuted of Daniel Lee.
ASAI- Four Years Later
After taking a four year break from the runway for SS20 while paying homage to native ancestral homeland, this collection pushes boundaries set by ASAI in past collections experimenting with multi-faceted stylistic designs. The entirety of the collection presented bold colour palettes, ranging from the stylish hot pink and yellow, to a more dynamic red and black. Breaking gender role boundaries, a signature look that hit the Eastend runway featured a male model in black heels, an embroidered velvet black coat with tassels shimmering along the waist tie and the neck line, extending the chic look. Accessories include a black leather spiked ball chain in one hand and a jewel encrusted silver nail extension in the other. Contrasting this dynamic black velvet look, a runway look that captivates ASAI’s boundless style is his red and black mesh ensemble. A half body mesh outfit with black and red colour dye encompasses the female model, with half a skirt flowing behind. Staying on theme, ASAI incorporates knitwear into the collection with a knitted chequered scarf, tube top and floor length skirt. To accompany this intricate look, a thigh high twisted mesh material surrounded the model’s leg, giving it a three-dimensional look. To complete the look, accessories included a bold red satchel bag in one hand with a numb-chuck stylised hand and in the other a floor length ruby red woolly sleeve. Though the runway had missed the appearance of ASAI at fashion week, it was worth the wait.
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