The Homecoming and a Debut
Beneath the vaults at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Seán McGirr brought McQueen home after many years showing in Paris. “This collection is a celebration of London’s ceaselessly stimulating and transcendent power. McQueen is a London-born house, and the city’s uncompromising attitude and subversive spirit sit at its very heart,” says McGirr. He laid out his smarts in excellent tailoring, pinstripe cloths hand-embroidered with florals and cut with plenty of elegant edge. The mood was macabre, with chokers and hair swept high into ‘horns’. McQueen is, after all, a provocative house. For after dark, McGirr draped diaphanous chiffon into one-shoulder gowns that moved like liquid, and tulle into micro ballerina skirts that burst from peplum jackets. Florence Pugh, Ellie Bamber and Emilia Clarke looked on, then joined the fray at the afterparty at The Standard.
Christopher Kane is a born provocateur who likes to twist and subvert codes. For his debut at Mulberry, he swept aside the bucolic, earthy Somerset vibes and brought in a sense of modernism: lean leather coats with geometric cut-outs, semi-sheer checked macs, miniskirts and half-moon bags. The trigger was the geometric lines of the brand’s iconic Bayswater bag. “The past is present, not as nostalgia, but as something active, useful and alive,” says Kane.
Seasonal Delights
Come May, society comes out to play, and English designers know best how to dress it. Patrick McDowell is one such star, with elegant gowns printed with a bounty of flora this season: green blooms popped on cotton shirtwaisters, and Monet-like pink and green florals on trapeze-line styles captured the spring air. Steve O Smith has a delicate hand, translating his painterly sketches onto organza dresses inspired by the silhouettes of 1950s couture. His Fever collection began with the painter André Derain and his use of bold colour, cobalt and crimson among them. Fittingly, it was shown in the Life Drawing Studio at the Royal Academy. Meanwhile, Emilia Wickstead unveiled a film at her Sloane Street store, showing off geometric-print, feather-trimmed shifts with matching cloche hats.
At Burberry, Daniel Lee partnered with the artist Celia Birtwell for a delightful outing, her lyrical drawings printed on washed silk and cotton skirt and shirt co-ords and embroidered onto featherlight parkas and bomber jackets. “Nothing is overly pressed or pristine,” says Lee. “There’s an intentional imperfection: the idea of owning a piece, living in it.”
Boudoir Frills
Erdem’s muse was Barbette, the 1920s American cross-dressing trapeze artist, an enigmatic figure who wooed Parisian art circles with his flamboyant, daredevil performances. That translated into gorgeous silk slip dresses dripping with rhinestones, the fabric hoiked and draped; ballerina-skirted showgirl dresses teamed with formal morning jackets; and feather-trimmed peignoirs to suit the star in everyone.
Swiss newcomer Ginny Litscher channelled her drawing prowess with print into luxurious resort wear that first took life in a giant abstract canvas that took one year to complete. Kaftans hung with chainmail-like jewellery, ruffle skirts and billowing holiday shirts sat alongside hand-painted denim and printed sequin gowns that reflected light on water. Motifs swept the board, from pufferfish to flying birds and decorative stucco swirls. Ellen von Unwerth shot the show, with Helena Christensen on the front row. Note to self: order now for that forthcoming beach escape.
