John Rocha's edgily romantic clothes captured the mood of a strong arts and crafts theme running a thread through London Fashion Week yesterday. Rocha's new collection shown last night illustrated a fresh spirit for hand-crafted fashion, giving a feminine spin to the spring 2002 collections.
Events in New York and the cancellation of shows by some of London's star designers including Paul Smith, Nicole Farhi and Clements Ribeiro came on top of the decision by Alexander McQueen, Luella and Hussein Chalayan not to show here this season.
This has given a fresh young crop of talent the opportunity to try their luck. It has happened before. Eight years ago British fashion was reduced to a handful of shows in low-key venues, but it gave McQueen, Chalayan, Clements Ribeiro and Philip Treacy a platform to put British fashion back on the map.
This season, young designers such as Jessica Ogden, Russell Sage, Michelle Lowe-Holder and Shelley Fox are some of the rising stars ready to make their mark. Their collections yesterday illustrate the innovation and creativity for which London is known. Jessica Ogden has created a niche for herself with what is called "Salvage Chic". She picks through thrift shops and antique stores for fabrics which she customises and cuts into loose easy shapes that wrap and layer the body.
London-based Canadian Michelle Lowe-Holder used nostalgic hand-blocked prints - from the archives of a wallpaper printer - which go back hundreds of years, to create a romantic crafted collection of smocked dresses, trouser suits and shifts decorated with pearly queen button necklaces. Ivy prints trailed over ruched dresses and crisp cotton trousers.
Shelley Fox eschewed the catwalk to show her collection as an installation in a gallery, all the better she felt to explain the intricacies of her cutting.
The skirts, a seemingly complex equation of geometry and mathematics, are easily explained with a circular piece of paper deftly folded to demonstrate how she arrived at, for instance, a skirt that wraps at the waistline and falls in a cascade of folds down one side. The results are not only intriguing and intelligent but instantly appealing.