London Fashion Week: Day 2
So day 2 is down and it seems to have been an interesting one. Our main focus was of course John Rocha. Last season we loved his romantic collection and stunning colour palette although the previous aw2009 collection, we were a little underwhelmed, but this year for aw2010, we do feel a little more love for the honorary Irish designer. Once again he has, in true Rocha style, experimented with fabrics and techniques to bring about a fanastic tight, layered ruffling that would have involved a huge amount of work and craftsmanship. Unfortunately, where he could have utilised this in a most magnificant and elegant way, he seems, in a lot of his dresses, to have completely ignored the female form, placing his models in shapes that are rather unflattering and resembling large pears. But of course I duly acknowledge the artistic licence in use and the fact that this it is a couture collection as opposed to what we will see on our rails. I did truly enjoy the use of silk and ivory cream on quite a few of the outfits that adorned the runway, which offered a nice relief from what was a predominantly black collection. He incorporated statement sleeves, over the top millinary and dark hosiery that was cut out at the knees on all models.
The mens collection from Rocha, I’m afraid, I did not fall in love with. Although I recognised the use of layered animal skins as being something that is going to be incorporated into young, urban, fashion forward collections, the overall use of the animal pelts, the mismatching layering upon layering and the bowler hats gave an almost, dare I say it, ‘tatty clock work orange' type of feel to the look. But overall, I enjoyed the experimental nature of the entire collection and Rocha doesn’t disappoint when it comes to quality and craftsmanship. He certainly deserves respect for his unending creativity.
In brief, Mark Fast produced a collection that was insanely unflattering and underwhelming in every way – with a whole host of skin tight clothes that looked - on both his tiny framed models and his plus sized models – that they were way too small. He incorporated a lot of cut out designs and patterns which served only to emphasise how poorly the clothes seemed to fit – how any outfit can make even these gorgeous models, look terrible, is beyond me.
My favorite collections from Day 2 have to be that of Prophetik and also Kinder Aqquagini who proved that creativity and couture CAN mean elegance and sophistication. But I also enjoyed the fun, futuristic elemtents of Hannah Marshell's colleciton.
One designer who pushed the boundaries in terms of barely there fashion, was Ann Sophie Back and one of the images (see below) from her show was this shocking one of an emaciated model wearing a dress consisting of plain material, cut out in strategic places which highlighted her prodtruding rib cage and pelvic bones. I thought we had moved a little further on from the size zero debacle but this designer very carefully chose this particualr girl to wear an outfit that would emphasise her skeletal frame and that worries me. I was distinctly disturbed by this image.
Below: A model works the runway at London Fashion Week in a dress by Ann Sofie Back (aw2010)
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