For the past few seasons Alexander McQueen Creative Director Sarah Burton has been resorting to the quietude of poetry as sparks of inspiration for her latest collection. A strategy that has been working quite well in finding the beauty in little things to execute and amplify on a larger scale. The beauty in nature or culture or in this case heritage. Burton’s FW20 references stemmed from a trip to Wales where she grew fond of several aspects of the country’s heritage.
“The collection is a love letter to women and to families, colleagues and friends. We went to Wales and were inspired by the warmth of its artistic and poetic heritage, by its folklore and the soul of its craft, “ she commented.
She drew direct inspiration from the Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt was an artefact and one of the most well known patchworks that was crafted over a ten year from 1842 using recycled scraps he had used to craft the uniforms he made during the day. The quilt known for its detailed visuals which stood as a representation of something greater, braver and aspirational knowing that it was pieced together by scraps. The literal and symbolic sentiment of this resonated with the designer.
“The woman is courageous, grounded, bold: heroic. There is a sense of protection in the clothes, of safety and comfort, evoked through quilting and blankets. The hearts are a symbol of togetherness, of being there for others.”
The collection was a collage of sharp seamed graphic tailoring that incorporated upcycled wool flannels woven in British mills from previous McQueen seasons and set in dramatic geometric blocks, which was also very much in line with the brand’s recent initiative of a fabric donation scheme for future designers.
“The ethos at Alexander McQueen means that everything we use in researching and designing collections has always been archived and stored”, she notes. “We’ve never thrown anything away.” Mindful of providing access to students who need resources, the scheme activates an imaginative purpose for the remaindered luxury fabrics which have been routinely saved after the sampling and production cycles of women’s and men’s collections over the past decade,” Burton said of the initiative.
This collection was a further step to this project , pulling on fabrics from the brand’s archive to piece together an impressive collection which spoke to the concepts of warmth, family and heritage all while being sustainable while at it.
Within the past few seasons designer Thom Browne has managed to establish himself as one of the more creative menswear voices in fashion. Each season he manages to reflect the scenery that is the objet d’art of his complex mind. Creating fusions of menswear with forms of femininity and couture tailoring. For spring summer 2020, he created a story around a secret garden where he unleashed his fantasies of typically masculine sports reinterpreted and blown up with masculine qualities while still caressing the idea of vulnerability. This was shown through XVII century clothing that were reinvented and reinterpreted. From hips that blew up inches wider than usual to oversized shoulders all shown in the classic Thom Brown seersucker fabrics. Football balls pads and codpieces paid tributes to the sports in red, green, yellow among other colours.
When crocs made their comeback on the London stage they rightly induced scepticism – Crocs! – but it seems they are the shoe that won’t go away.
Christopher Kane got there first, with quite innocuous looking pairs during his AW17 show; they came in marble and camo print and were lightly adorned with gems and glittering rocks. Then for SS18 Kane did it again, this time going further with large Swarovski diamonds and bright yellow hues.
Now in Paris, Balenciaga has taken up the mantle, offering platform pairs in bright, bubblegum pink and strong yellow. So perhaps it’s time to embrace the unthinkable: after all this time in the dark, are Crocs the shoe of the season?
From the 19th to the 24th January, a space on Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth in Paris’ trendy Marais neighbourhood will be transformed into the London in Paris pop-up. The shop, overseen by sister duo Gemma and Annabelle Phillips, and in partnership with the Department for International Trade (DIT), will provide a platform for London’s young designers and emerging brands during Paris’ busy fashion week.
Housing SS17 ready-to-wear, as well as accessories, jewellery and shoes, the pop-up will feature some of the capital’s most exciting new brands. They include Florence Bridge and her stunning patchwork shearling jackets, and Clio Peppiatt, whose bold designs have garnered the attention of a troupe of celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and Adwoa Adobah. Other designers, like Bonnie Fechter and denim brand I AND ME, will showcase their innovative seasonless and unisex collections, which reflect wider trends within the industry. Sustainable clothing lines like Elliss and Neoss, and sleek monochrome designs from Habits will also be available to buy. Beyond the bounds of a fashion store, the pop-up will also stock London-based magazines Ladybeard and Orlando, who have both recently released their second issues.
The London in Paris pop-up will be open from the 19th to the 24th January between 10-7 at 68 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth. There will be a launch event on the 21st January between 6 and 9pm.
Next in our series we find ourselves at the glamorous Issey Miyake AW14 show. This time we give you a glimpse of what happened, both on the catwalk and backstage during Paris Fashion Week.
In our second Twin Backstage series, we focus on the last stop during fashion month, Paris. We sent photographer Masao Yufu backstage at Tsumori Chisato’s AW14 show to document everything that happened behind the scenes.
Last week Rick Owens created a stir during Paris Fashion Week, a well needed one and a very appreciated one, as he sent out “warriors” on the catwalk for his spring summer 2014 show. A group of female hip-hop dancers invaded the stage and preformed a dance whiled they showed the collection, an asymmetric collection with lots of leather in a fairly strict colour palette of black to grey to white.
Owens dancers fit the general dimensions of real women, and the show got reviews of being revolutionary and something different to the otherwise rather banal and commercial shows with usual silent, bored-looking models.
Style blogger Susie Bubble was among many to respond positively, suggesting Owens had made “the most powerful and provocative statement this season” while Harper’s Bazaar UK described it as the “show everyone’s talking about”.
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