Simone Rocha in spotlight at London Fashion Week as new names shine

London revved up its fashion engines for the winter collections 2022 this weekend after an almost two-year Covid absence, with varying efforts to reignite its original format of invitation-only physical catwalk shows, fewer than half than in February 2020.

The five-day event is now a digital/physical hybrid and though boasting a lineup of over 100 brands, many of the heavy hitters like Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane and J W Anderson were absent. Instead, Burberry and McQueen will stage runway shows in New York in March outside the official season.

At this arguably more democratic event, thousands of fashion lovers were able for the first time to experience virtual shows on the freely accessible LFW digital platform and there were forays into the metaverse. Rosksanda Illinic, for example, will launch a set of wearable NFTs after her show on Monday.

In a city associated with creativity and innovation, new names to shine included: Nensi Dojaka making a name for exquisitely executed lingerie looks, Harris Reed committed to sustainability, gender fluidity and inclusiveness, and Yuhan Wang who draws on Chinese ideas of femininity.

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Last night the most coveted invitation was to Simone Rocha’s show in the Great Hall of Lincoln’s Inn, the first time this 19th-century banqueting hall had been used for a fashion show. She called it “a dark lament” for the Children of Lir drawing on the ancient Irish saga for inspiration and as the massive oak doors opened, sent out a dark parade of embellished slope shouldered black coats trailing long, sad plaits.

She has always said that with each collection, she tells a story. From there the collection wove from that sobriety into more lightweight looks, short full skirts with pearl encrusted high boots, lush creamy dresses with stiffened swaying skirts or slim, transparent delicate tabards trailing long ribbons of silk but worn with knitted balaclavas studded with pearls. It was a study in contrasts of textures and silhouettes in her subversive feminine way combining fragility with strength.

New this season were soft navy cabled knits, cropped and cossetting, displayed over white frilled peplums and knitted shorts or with jackets spliced with inserts. More enveloping and dramatic were huge white quilted blankets wrapped around models like an extra layer of protection.

That her appeal is global cannot be denied but her romantic impulse knows its boundaries. Bound to be copied are those boots and balaclavas, the long blood red sequined gloves and heart shaped bags that accessorized many of the looks not to speak of the white tractor soled sneakers that grounded sweetly feminine velvet dresses.

Her signature use of red was evident in shiny red patent jackets armouring pale dresses in concealing and revealing layers of swirling red embroidery not to speak of pervasice heart motif cutouts, details bound to quicken many a female pulse.