WOF | The Fashion Month Spotlight

Another fashion month has come and gone. In the midst of the fashion chaos of inaugural shows and hot frowers, we at Fourth Wall have created a round up of our highlights.

New York Fashion Week

Alexander Wang

Wang’s all black collection showed how intuitive he is as a designer. Wang knows that his woman wants black, “so why not do an all-black collection?” – hallelujah! The problem with all black was how it looked on the runway and in photographs but Wang overcame that with some major sculptural forms in his designs like quilting and velvet, referencing subcultures like Japanese lolitas. Hardware was a major accessory on Wang’s designs - a ball-chain trim and silver snaps.

Altuzarra

Altuzarra is a firm favourite, he’s a designer who knows exactly who the woman wearing his designs is and always delivers. The collection was powerfully feminine; the embellishment contrasted with delicate lace was the epitome of dress-up. Another exciting aspect of the Altuzarra show was the debut of the new handbag collection – polished leather in large saddle shapes, with thick, elaborately braided and tassled straps – divine.

The Row

The Row certainly distinguishes itself from purveyors of luxe minimalism but Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen know how to do normcore and they do normcore very well. Their minimalist season felt very “New York” with the palette being mainly black and white - this was a serious-minded collection, for a grown up New Yorker. The tailoring was austere and spare but not stuffy, the superfine materials made sure of that. The Olsens also contrasted with wonderful moments of softness and seduction.

London Fashion Week

Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha has been killing it the past few seasons, she has become a firm favourite on the LFW schedule and is considered leading the new generation of young designers. Her collection was Louise Bourgeois inspired - padded velvet ensembles assembled from undulating forms in sensual textiles, nothing new but continued to be evocative and distinctive.

Erdem

In one word, the Erdem collection was sumptuous. For AW15 the collection was inspired by the broken muse, with spectacular effect. His rich, complex fabrics in jacquard have always been a strong feature in his shows but they were designed to embody an urban, earthbound atmosphere. For Erdem, the urban environment as an expression of character for his broken muse translated so effortlessly to clothing.

Holly Fulton

Fulton’s brand of good-time clothes with idiosyncratic depth have established her with the party animal. This season saw her collection mature, but only in the sense of being conceived with commitment and joyfulness. Old lady fabics strewn with powdery and quaintly chaste florals were jarred on frocks of daring lengths with hints of lace and even latex curling south of the hem. This was a collection that thought every detail through, even to the maximal accessories. It was refreshing to see at LFW, her understated nods to current trends made a big impact.

Milan Fashion Week

Prada

Prada’s pastel dream for the autumn was a huge contrast to the men’s all black show. “Sweet but violent” was Miuccia’s inspiration. This variation on beauty may appear to be cliché but that was Miuccia’s intention, to delve into the supposed disparity between the real and the fake. The designs ranged from real ostrich to printed ostrich, sumptuous detailing from the most ordinary of materials such as double faced jersey. Prada was the most intelligent collection seen during fashion month and a sharp reminder that extreme beauty can spring from absolute artifice.

Marni

Consuelo Castiglioni’s main reference point for her collection was “twisted femininity” but it was the fierce quality which differentiated it from seasons past. Marni has always walked the skewed side of the street so it could have been a dusty catwalk show but Marni delivered in true vigilante style. Here, there was an Amazonian tunic with a major belt and python boots, hair dragged up and off the face - the notion of a purposeful Marni woman on the move, elegant but fierce.

Gucci

Alessandro Michele’s inaugural show as creative director of Gucci was highly anticipated. Could he be the saviour of the brand? Could he do what others before him couldn’t? From this collection it seemed like a yes. The new era at the label was defined by an aristo-romanticism, something incredibly relevant today and a trend seen throughout fashion month. Gucci is back on the map with a more daring direction, his Gucci girl is a far cry from the bohemian chic of Frida Giannini, she is an ingénue with an eccentric side.

Paris Fashion Week

Valentino

For Valentino’s show, the inspiration was Emilie Floge and Celia Birtwell, women who were both artists and muses. Modernism and femininity don’t normally go hand in hand with clothes but the designers achieved this through their soft tailoring. This new perspective was fresh for the label, the gold leaf fox-fur coats and quilted velvet coats were coupled with some new casual vibes, it felt understated but still packed a punch. Also, who could forget that Zoolander moment on the Valentino catwalk undoubtedly stole the show.

Alexander McQueen

With the V&A exhibition of Alexander McQueen’s work, Sarah Burton brought the romance back in anticipation, giving us all a reminder of what brought Alexander McQueen to fashion. She offered up the purest distillation of what she called “the spirit of the rose” and the collection was a heady sense of the flower in decay. The frayed nature of reality and the beauty of imperfection was evident in the entire collection. The models seemed to be the embodiment of an Egon Schiele painting, something of a fraught intensity, piercing stares with delicate bodies. This melancholic vibe is not unusual for a McQueen show but with the retrospective, it felt completely natural.

Givenchy

Givenchy took the collection to a whole new level of drama for the coming season. Everything felt ornate and decorative but it was definitely not superfluous. The collection was executed flawlessly; showing off Tisci’s skill as a tailor and everything was more intense than ever, almost couture-like. Not only was the collection a sumptuous affair, the make up inspiration from Givenchy was equally divine. Tisci took inspiration from the Chola girl gangs in South America but added more drama to the face with embedded jewels and ornate nose rings. The Givenchy muse was a Victorian-chola girl - a savage beauty decorated ornately.

From the looks of our highlights, the coming AW15 season is set to be extremely lavish, we’re already getting prepared.

images courtesy of style.com