John Rocha, who celebrates 20 years in business this year, showed an impressive autumn/winter 2003 collection for London Fashion Week in South Kensington yesterday.
The familiar Rocha hallmarks were in place - craft detailing, layering, a black and cream palette - but the clothes looked slick, modern, even sexy at times, and successfully mixed seemingly incongruous elements such as American Indian feathers, Japanese draping and traditional Irish crochet.
What made the show work was balance: between tight and loose tailoring, between seductive black silks and naïve craftwork red and orange flowers made from feathers and wool.
Rocha also used black sequins - a sub-trend at the moment - on an apron skirt that wrapped over a short skirt made from cream feathers. Many of the outfits involved this kind of non-bulky layering and feathers standing vertically from the arms of oversized cream sweaters.
Some proportions were elongated, such as long bell sleeves billowing on kimono-style dresses in black, cream and mint-green, which had draped open backs.
"The hand-painted kimono dresses were very seductive but not contrived, dressed-up looking but totally relaxed at same time," commented Joanne Hynes, an Irish designer at the show. The hand-painting was by Mel Bradley, an artist with whom Rocha has worked for many years.
Coats had a drawstring effect, so the wearer can create an undulating hemline. Some were in velvet and some in wool with 1920s faux-fur panels at the hemline. Others had tailored patchwork effects and distressed gauge-knit fishes diving along their side panels.
A designer who relocates from Paris to London might seem foolhardy (Paris provides a more stable business environment for fashion) but Frenchman Roland Mouret did just that over a year ago and also showed yesterday.
Mouret is one of the most popular designers in London, with both press and consumers (his clothes are available at Brown Thomas) and his show was one of the most hyped in London so far.Mouret took his cue from the space-age fashion of 1960s designer Mary Quant and the neat suits and dresses popularised by Jackie Kennedy, but styled them through the eyes of an extra from Clockwork Orange.
This was not a retro show, however: the clothes looked minimal, sometimes severe, with anachronistic combinations of fabric and texture.
Those "Jackie" suits were in black wool but their cute curved collars were made from black PVC. Simple black shift dresses had patent eyelet-shaped cut outs across the upper chest. Coats also had patent belts, cuffs and pockets. The show also included pleated grey minis with Modish black polo necks, grey cropped trousers with large curved black plastic pocket surrounds, striped red knit dresses and black plastic breast plates.