Is a fashion week in the midst of national mourning worth a lack of taste? The question has anguished British fashion since the announcement of the death of Elizabeth II on September 8. The next day, Burberry announced that it was canceling its show, as did Raf Simons. In the aftermath, should everything be stopped? A meeting of all the designers with the organiser, the British Fashion Council, finally remobilized the troops, the youngest of them not being able to afford to see the financial investments that a show represents go up in smoke, in terms of reservation of space, communication costs, hiring of labor… “It was essential to continue to scroll and that everyone remains united, by showing solidarity with young creators”defends the designer Jonathan Anderson, whose voice has weighed.
London fashion week therefore took place at all costs, from September 16 to 20. Parties, cocktail parties and dinners have nevertheless been cancelled. At the entrance to the parades, prohibited on the day of the funeral, the outfits of the guests were less extravagant. But on the catwalks, unable to anticipate the shock wave of the sovereign’s disappearance, the designers had instead planned casual and disco parades, with a shower of sequins and a desire for light. Results ? A strange atmosphere where a minute of silence and tribute outfits (a blue sheath-cape inspired by a 1957 outfit at Halpern, a black ensemble embroidered with flowers at Erdem…) often precede cheerful, glamorous and shiny clothes. As if the sequins merged with the tears.
At Michael Halpern, on Take Me to the Bridge, by Vera, a disco track from 1980, sophisticated creatures appear in leopard dresses, before eight sparkling silhouettes, imagined in collaboration with… Barbie! Born in 1959, the outrageously feminine doll has been nurturing a “barbiecore” trend for several months, her abuse of pink and her tight-fitting outfits coming back into favor. She will even be entitled in 2023 to a film to her glory signed Greta Gerwig. From the Mattel archives, Halpern reimagined models of Barbie dresses, with white and pink herringbone, black with gold polka dots or zigzags. “We suffered Trump, the Covid, now the war and the death of the queen… More than ever, lightness is necessary for us in the midst of darkness”pleads the American, who has also just acquired British nationality.
Winner of the 2021 LVMH prize, the Albanian Nensi Dojaka enriches her sensual vocabulary, often black and guided by lingerie, with great evening effects. Here she is in sequined dresses in bubblegum pink or leopard print, a silver bodysuit worn with jeans, a sheath from which dripping sequins… Nourished by the world of Jean-Paul Goude, she develops her fashion by theatricalizing it .
Sequins, pearls and rhinestone tentacle
Even Simone Rocha, to whom the pandemic had inspired dark collections, indulges in sequins: they compose green flowers that bloom on bombers and salmon tulle dresses. “I wanted to get out of the black hole where I was, to find the urgency to move forwardexplains Rocha with emotion. I chose echinacea, chamomile, with healing properties, and veils that cover the silhouettes, not for mourning but as a breath on the skin. » Its abundant collection, presented within the confines of the High Criminal Court, mixes women and men with XXL backpacks, metallic ballet flats and socks studded with crystals, beaded bags, military bomber jackets covered with pearls and dresses in retrofuturistic lamé.
No slacking off either at Molly Goddard: “I wanted shocks of sparkling tones”, she assumes. Beyond the toile de Jouy patterned jeans and cowgirl boots, she has fun tinting her wardrobe with fluorescent colors. It awakens tulle dresses, sweatshirts and cardigans.
Disco glamor calmed by a contemplative contemplation: Edward Crutchley and David Koma, too, have to deal with this bittersweet atmosphere. The first, an excellent fabric selector, who is also director of fabrics at Dior Men, conjures up grandiloquent creatures on a calm soundtrack. His models, perched on silver or iridescent platforms, wear puffy dresses or bathrobe coats in cloqué silk and aluminum or luminous Nylon, psyche dresses embroidered with pearls, fuchsia sequined briefs and chrome-blue manicured nails.
As for David Koma, once the minute of silence is over, he makes slender women wiggle their hips in fishing net or black velvet dresses awakened by an octopus tentacle covered in rhinestones, black glasses and a lilac bikini weighted with a star. of flamboyant sea, electric blue feathers and sequins, F1 jacket and iridescent thigh-high boots… Less Sunday mass in Westminster than feverish Saturday evening in Soho.
From Virginia Woolf to Lewis Carroll
It is precisely in Soho that Jonathan Anderson meets in the evening, at the Las Vegas Arcade, a party place where you can indulge in video games or billiards. “I often came there late at night, during my college years”, he slips. The omnipresence of flashing screens resonates with his disconcerting collection, a reflection on the digital age that disturbs our reading of the world. By dint of staying immersed in our “smart devices”, do we end up merging with them? The most prolific of British designers makes his models mutate between human and machine, with his sense of pop clothing, of the diverted object. Computer keyboard top, ankle boots and overalls printed with wallpapers (dolphins, coconut palms, etc.), knits to wear without removing them from the hanger, T-shirts with two small surfboards similar to shark fins on the back … Her wardrobe forms a crazy cartoon. “For me, it’s neither futuristic nor surreal but a reflection on our lives”underlines Anderson, who closes his parade with a black T-shirt in homage to Her Majesty.
Its shadow definitely hovers everywhere. Steven Stokey Daley, the winner of the LVMH Prize 2022 for his SS Daley label, thus offers a wardrobe that would not have gone wrong at Balmoral, the Scottish castle of the Windsors, with its hunting parties between aristocrats. In one year, he managed to impose a recognizable silhouette, worn by stars like Harry Styles, made of rural trips and queer loves often prevented. After exploring the thrills of boys’ boarding schools, this season he looks at the impossible love between two women of letters, Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) and Violet Trefusis (1894-1972), who are said to have inspired Virginia Woolf the characters ofOrlando. Daley’s models read the poetesses’ love letters aloud against a backdrop of groves, in peach boots and pom-pom socks, calico shirts, linen suits or khaki playsuits, bunny ears on their heads.
At Paul & Joe, Sophie Mechaly had put together a naive collection under the influence of Lewis Carroll (bustier dresses, peter pan collars, short shorts, candid gingham overalls, and of course a few drippings of sequins). “But I wanted to add scarves and fascinators at the last minute, a nod in homage”she says.
Even Christopher Kane, who revisits his signatures in a vintage that lacks freshness, goes with his gesture to the deceased. Admittedly, her satiny dresses devoured with lace, her games of corsets, plasticized effects and graphic overlays do not a priori have much to do with the royal style. But guess who inspired her twin-set sweaters?
Way of Thinking, a series of great interviews with creators