London’s fashion designers looked to painting and sportswear for inspiration as leading fashion editors, models and celebrities flocked to the capital’s biggest runway shows on Monday.
British heritage brand Burberry sent models down the runway in long flowing dresses and scarves, daubed with brushstroke designs of flowers, leaves and autumnal abstract prints in shades of cornflower blue, lemon yellow and blush pink.
Britain’s most successful fashion house is host to the week’s glitziest show, which featured a live performance from musicians Paloma Faith, Ed Harcourt and Rhodes and was attended by actors Bradley Cooper and Naomie Harris, as well as US Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Harry Styles from boy band One Direction.
Designer Christopher Bailey said he drew inspiration from artists in London’s Bloomsbury Group of the early 20th century, which included painters Duncan Grant and Roger Fry. “What I wanted to do is try to capture that spirit in the collection — the colours, embroideries, the fabrics — but also through all the hand painting on all the bags and the coats and the shoes and the belts,” Bailey, who is set to become the company’s chief executive soon, told reporters backstage.
The label showcased dozens of new variations of Burberry’s bestselling trench coat, with the standout styles in putty-coloured leather, hand-painted with floral designs, paired with knitted pencil skirts in shades of ochre, burnt orange and russet reds. There was plenty of warm outerwear to choose from, including painted shearling jackets, blanket coats and wool ponchos in bold geometric prints, and heavy blanket scarves embroidered with initials. When customers buy those scarves, they are encouraged to have their own initials added.
That personal touch and emphasis on individual craftsmanship comes at a hefty price: A sheepskin trench coat straight from the runway could set you back £6,000 (Dh36,872).
“It was absolutely beautiful,” Harris said. “So vibrant, classic with such a modern twist, and that’s what I love, because I’m personally quite classic in my taste but always wanting to jazz it up with something modern as well.”
Other familiar faces on the front row included movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, singer Tinie Tempah, Topshop boss Philip Green, TV presenter Cat Deeley and celebrity photographer Mario Testino.
Earlier in the day, Georgian designer David Koma, who was hired by Thierry Mugler in December to become artistic director, kitted out his eponymous collection with sharply tailored outfits in a range of luxurious textures.
Models wore pony hair-covered coats in bright violet or cobalt blue, concrete grey leather skirts and sculptural black dresses with midriff lattice cut-outs that were inspired by the portrayal of women in Renaissance paintings by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Design duo Peter Pilotto attempted to fuse sportswear with evening wear for their latest collection with puffer jackets digitally printed with mountain landscapes and floor-length gowns embroidered with mother-of-pearl which were inspired by their recent travels.
“We want to do something quite summery, like summery colours in a winter collection, so we wanted to use pieces of summer like shells and have them embroidered onto evening dresses,” co-designer Christopher de Vos said.
“We find that sportswear is often so dynamic, the lines follow the body and it’s sort of ergonomic. We found it fascinating to use that as an inspiration when doing formal wear,” designer Peter Pilotto added.
Bradley Cooper supports girlfriend
Cooper gave the fashion week some high wattage star power when he showed up at Burberry, where his girlfriend, Suki Waterhouse, was modelling the autumn and winter collection for the luxury label. He squeezed in next to US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and the two were pictured chatting and joking together.
A few hours and an outfit change later, Cooper was spotted on the front row at Tom Ford, this time with Waterhouse next to him. The pair kept a low profile, deliberately turning their backs to prying cameras. That wasn’t too difficult. The show space at Ford, set up like a nightclub, was so dark that they could have gone unnoticed.
Tom Ford ‘knocks off’ Jay Z
Tom Ford may be best known for his razor-sharp suits and slinky womenswear, but the designer showed a humorous side on Monday with a catwalk collection that played on his own fame and rapper Jay Z.
The designer’s catwalk, unveiled at London Fashion Week, featured sequined football jerseys emblazoned with the giant white letters ‘TOM FORD 61’.
That’s a playful reference to Jay Z, who recorded a song called Tom Ford and wore a similar jersey — without the sequins — at his shows. Versions of that jersey are now sold online, independent of the luxury design label. (61 refers to Ford’s year of birth.)
“I just took the knock off from online, and knocked it off,” Ford told AP after the show, which also featured black and red velvet dresses, sporty hoodies and animal print separates worn with high-heel boots.
Ford said the collection was about “modest luxury” and updates on 1960s shapes and the styles women wear in the American West, where he grew up.
“The first dress was actually the same dress that Navajo Indian women have been wearing since the 1920s and still wear,” he said, referring to a black velvet dress that opened the show.
Floor-skimming skirts, cropped jackets and knitted dresses also featured in Ford’s collection in luxurious fabrics such as leopard fur, alligator leather and cashmere.
“It was a pared-back, streamlined collection. It was a bit of a pullback but still very chic, very luxurious. It feels right to me,” he told Reuters.
Ford said he was confident his label, which he founded in 2006 after leaving Gucci and YSL, was on the way to becoming one of the top international fashion brands in the world.
Christopher Kane’s eclectic collection
Christopher Kane opened his show with tough and mannish all black outfits, and ended with little dresses that couldn’t be more delicate.
The designer, one of London’s favourites, offered many more looks in between. There were black plastic-looking dresses trimmed with cream fur, all-black outfits made trendy with neon green or yellow accents, sporty puffer jackets and ladylike pale pink wool coats.
If that’s not enough, he added clever and surprising touches that would make anyone who wears his clothes a talking point. Memorable designs included cocktail dresses that came with sculptural ‘sleeves’ made of stiff ribbons that looped around the arms, or made of countless layers of thin parchment-like fabric, so that they fan out like the pages of a book as the models moved.
Kane’s creativity could be too quirky and weird for many women, but this time everything was wearable.
“I really liked the fur, the black, pink, coffee white,” stylist Caroline Sieber said. “It was very chic.”