Catwalk Reports from The LFW Daily
Today's reports by Dolly Jones, Editor, vogue.com
MULBERRY
The charm started with the music-box invitations and continued with the ice-cream van parked outside Claridge’s, which was followed by rooms piled deep with animal-shaped balloons, pink lemonade, a seagull soundtrack and even animal-print loo roll in the toilets (love Mulberry’s attention to detail). So who decided they wanted to be beside the seaside? Kristen Stewart, Kate Moss, Hayley Atwell and Romola Garai. Naturally, Emma Hill had whipped up a deliciously playful capsule wardrobe for all eventualities of British weather. Outerwear was oversized and casual – cropped patent-lemon cagoules teamed with tulle maxi-skirts, silk anoraks (one worn over a cracked-mirror mini-dress), waspish hooded trenches and olive waxed windcheaters. Honestly, Emma’s clothing threatens to overshadow her fabulous bags. Gorgeous! The palette ran from lemons, sherbet pinks, icy mint, inky navy and olive with flashes of peach and gold, and a cute carousel animal print.
This is one seaside trip you’d definitely sign up for.
MATTHEW WILLIAMSON
It was an evening of firsts for Matthew Williamson. The first time any designer had shown in the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern, and his first shoe collection with Charlotte Olympia (fab red or green Perspex-heeled pumps). But it wasn’t the first time he has shown his skill with colour, print and embellishment. He does it every season. For summer he played with Oriental textiles, sometimes blowing blossom prints into neon hazes, others inserting miniature Tokyo scenes onto flower silhouettes. Then he super-scaled the buds until they resembled ikat prints. And his daywear was enviably relaxed. Tobacco jumpsuits and jackets, easy silk trousers and shirts, knits with beaded necklines. Looking for something more maximalist? What about a hot pink frock with tufted feathers, or a long bodycon column with beading and feathered peplums at the hips? But the real showstopper had to be his saffron gown, intricately detailed with dense appliqué at the torso and finishing with a flaming orange train. Beautiful pieces, beautifully done.
UNIQUE
Think Liz Taylor’s Cleopatra chasing her Antony into a Nineties hip-hop club, and you’ll immediately get Unique S/S 12. In one of its best shows yet, before an audience including Ellie Goulding, Pixie Geldof, Nicola Roberts, Kelis and Olivia Palermo, Topshop created some genius pieces for any self-professed young club goddess. And I can also report the return of the crop
top, oversized hoodies and tube skirts. Very Bodymap, and actually very fresh. Body-con columns sported
gold foiled Egyptian prints; monochrome graffiti-esque hieroglyphics were scratched over track pants, and woollen hoodies were over-painted with gold leaf (as indeed was the models’ hair). Heavy gold jewellery and metallic fabrics flashed alongside watermelon pinks in gold harnessing, desirable laser-cut denim and scarab- and snake-embellished sweatshirts. One dress also seemed to wink at another legendary Liz role, Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (pink jersey dresses wrapped in bandage), but maybe that was just me…
PAUL SMITH
It felt like Paul Smith had stripped his collection back to the bare bones, and what beautiful bones they were. This being a huge moment for the shirt, it is appropriate that they were deceptively impeccable versions: pinstriped and oversized, tucked casually into the palest pink trousers; in watercolour prints featuring the most delicate of blooms; jacket/shirt hybrids that wrapped across the front. You’d take them all, in particular the pale pink shirt worn with a saffron silk skirt. There was a decent quotient of dresses: the softest pearl-grey silk shirt-dress, the shrug-on piece that would make your summer; eggshell-blue chiffon belted at the waist; an apron maxi- dress that looked natty with Chelsea boots. If that all sounds too pretty, he also threw in some fabulously deep jades, blues and clarets. I loved the envelope bags; and the brogues and ankle boots delivered that English tomboy sensibility that is so now. Personally, I want to be a PS woman next summer – confident, easy, a bit boyish and very English. And that is coming from a Scot.