FASHION WEEK:IN WHAT'S been generally considered a strong London season, the womenswear shows for winter closed yesterday on a high note, with prints and pattern to the fore.
Mary Katrantzou, the Greek-born, London-based designer famous for her “lampshade” skirts, sent out an exuberant collection of printed ensembles that referenced objets d’art like coromandel screens, Fabergé eggs, Chinese and Meissen porcelain.
It was a heady visual assault of bright pattern employed in curvilinear forms, exaggerated silhouettes that accentuated the hip and waist line. Only one coat, in a bold purple chain print, featured in a collection that majored on separates, but the most beautiful item was a slim silk hourglass dress composed of different patterns united by similar colour combinations showing that less complicated, softer shapes were more appealing.
Prints made a big impact at Joanne Hynes show too, a creative collaboration with artist Helen Steele in the Freemasons’ Hall inspired by the west of Ireland and Mayo’s warrior queen Grace O Malley. Its freebooting, bohemian spirit showed in its fearless juxtaposition of shapes and textures, elaborate Indian brocades with Irish tweeds, patchworked furs with multicoloured spatter prints and chunky jewelled decor on Aran sweaters and biker jackets.
There was something madcap and irreverent about the collection, but it rocked with energy and ideas even if some were occasionally overstated and overplayed. It certainly put paid to cliched notions of Irish dress, cross-referencing other ethnic and street wear styles from jodhpurs and fustanella skirts to tunics and skinny leggings. The headwear, twiggy creations from basket maker Joe Hogan, and the shoes, painted cork platforms, were terrific.
Off the catwalk young Londoners are kooky dressers and they turned out in force for Simone Rocha’s collection yesterday in Billingsgate. This was the second collection from the Irish designer, one of the Bright Young Things selected by Selfridges (who will make her Dublin debut at Havana in March) and a continuation of her playful deconstructed tailoring.
Her mix of sheer and opaque fabrics showed in the mannish jackets with sheer cutaway elbows or fake fur insets, cut-out motifs repeated throughout the collection.
A short tube cable-knit dress was overlaid in tulle, a black leather tunic featured slit sleeves and even the brogues were uplifted with coloured Perspex wedges and metal wall brackets. It was youthful and fresh in attitude and its spirit summed up the mood and vitality of London fashion this week.