How to give momentum to a lackluster fashion week? The question arises in London since the heavyweights slipped away: this season, JW Anderson decamped to Milan; Craig Green, Alexander McQueen and Burberry play it personally, out of season. From February 17 to 22, fashion week responded by betting on coherent and above all embodied proposals. In the British capital, a haven of creativity that sends conventions flying, designers have above all sought to tell their story, often favoring a childhood memory as the starting point for their collections.
After maternity leave, Molly Goddard returns in great shape, giving an appointment in a gym close to Hyde Park. The smocked tulle dresses that made its reputation are still there, but have lost their princely volume for more refreshing combinations. They are worn with oversized sweaters like children put on to dress up, or mutate into bags. “I wanted an unbridled and mixed silhouette, very 1980s”, the decade when her mother’s best friend who inspired her ran the Portobello market tinkering with hybrid outfits. In 2022, those memories resurface on her models, in old floral denims, leggings and large gray coats, plaid and cable-knit cardigans, platform shoes and naive tees that display a winged horse. “This is a print from The Story of Twinkya children’s book by Betty Larom that I have always adored »specifies the thirty-something.
At Simone Rocha, the story before going to bed is that of Children of Lir, “an Irish legend where two boys and two little girls end up transformed into swans for nine hundred years and die when they return to human form”, she says. In the solemn setting of Lincoln’s Inn, a 15th century buildingand century in which the lawyers of the English bar are trained today, it wanted “translating the stages of this mythical narrative into clothing”. After the beginnings of the metamorphosis (coats and games of taffeta to represent wings), she sets the scene of a lake (silver crystals echoing the reflections of the water; sinuous blue organza like a wave) then raises the tension until the bloody denouement (a virginal dress stained with red vinyl).
The memories of youth films remaining in memory forever, here they are invited to Priya Ahluwalia and Michael Halpern. The first, of Indo-Nigerian origin, draws on her teenage viewing of Bollywood and Nollywood hits to imagine a colorful wardrobe that borrows suits and saris and diverts posters into prints.
Sportswear and Nollywood
The second is more Hollywood trendy and draws its specialty: spectacular sequined or draped dresses. “I thought of the female character of Madam Satanby Cecil B. DeMille, a woman who wants to win back her unfaithful husband, and to Katherine DeMille herself », explains the American. His parade, however, does not take place on the red carpet, but at the Recreation Centre, a gymnasium in Brixton which offers sports activities and has housed a food bank. Halpern, whose brand has taken on a social dimension since the pandemic (he had signed a collection in 2020 around the “first chores” of Covid-19), integrated the teams into the preparation of the show and financed the electrification of the building . “What interests me remains glamorous and artisanal fashion, but moved to a different context to take it out of the salons for the privileged”he defends.
Newcomers to the calendar, too, draw on their childhood. Steven Stokey-Daley, sensation of the September edition, whose menswear is characterized by its romanticism and its theatrical staging (this time, choreographed hugs between the models), recalls in particular his years of internship, at the through flowered pajamas, uniforms or checkered suits.
Beginner Maximilian Davis unveils well-cut tailoring and pieces reminiscent of his childhood in Shropshire. Belted coats suggest the cult of riding; a crown of thorns print dress her Catholic upbringing; the short vinyl jackets the look of the bikers he passed on his way to school.
“Making fashion by talking about yourself is more fun”, says the Irish Robyn Lynch. Along with her masculine silhouettes constructed from surplus Columbia tech jackets and bead-embroidered pants, she sent photos of her dad’s soccer shirts to Synflux, a Japanese creative lab. “Their algorithm recomposed the jerseys that date from 1995, 2002 or 2007, in a new, more abstract form, which I reprinted on cotton. » A way to revisit his past.
Daniel W. Fletcher reimagined an old Levi’s tee from his dad, Pete, into a red and white leather tank top. His recent death inspired him to create a lively and moving collection, like an ode to the Manchester club (of which he was a fan) and to his taste for rock. Since it was together that they attended a memorable Rolling Stones concert in 2002, the creator parades, to the rhythm of Paint It Black, proud boys in cream silk or navy striped suits very Mick Jagger. Their faces are veiled in organza, evoking a mourning mantilla as well as a nod to the album cover. Goats Head Soup.
Finally, it is at the Tate Britain, in front of graphic sculptures in painted wood by the artist Eva Rothschild, that Roksanda Ilincic invites her world for a collection where we recognize her flowing trousers and shimmering dresses. But this time she added a sportswear touch, through monumental neon dresses and epic puffer bags, in collaboration with the equipment manufacturer Fila. “I wanted to escape outside my territory and apply my vocabulary inspired by couture to sport”, she says. Among the audience was hiding “the most important of [ses] VIP » : her daughter, who came to attend the show with her entire primary class. What, perhaps, to make memories for the next generation of British designers.
