As we all know, London Fashion Week was born in an era of change, and there are anti-bones behind the ears, destined to break through the rules. In addition to its fame, London Fashion Week is still a fertile ground for newcomers, new things and new ideas.
Under the long-term friction of the epidemic, the works at Fashion Week show a trend of going against the grain, on the one hand, they are enthusiastic imaginations of the future and active exploration of new technologies, and on the other hand, they are endless remembrance and reinterpretation of the golden age, but no matter which side they go, they are accompanied by the premise of sustainability and environmental protection. And Autumn/Winter 2022 London Fashion Week combines technology, culture, craftsmanship and social perspectives, wiping out the line between business and art, and London remains the creative city that bursts with endless imagination.
The metaverse has only revealed its sharp corners, and there have long been NFTs on the head. Even though London hasn't been too eager to take a digital step compared to New York, Roksanda's partnership with IODF and C learpay to turn show clothes into NFT fashion products for sale is a testament to the digital path at London Fashion Week. The 8IGB metatopia created by Bissoli Ruben attempts to place clothing in a virtual community, hoping to build a more complete fashion metacosm. As described by Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, the Digital Hub is becoming the focus of London Fashion Week' development, with 66 digital events taking place at the LFW Digital Centre this year, including digital shows of well-known design brands such as Toga, Jens Laugesen and Vivienne Westwood.
Vivienne Westwood's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
The combination of online and offline presentation has become more and more mainstream, and the combination of real fabrics and physical presence and freedom to break the space will be integrated into the display form of fashion with ordinary postures.
The back of the digital mania is a retrospective of the classics, the real and vigorous, and the classics that can be seen and visible are always the blessed places for creativity. London's rich culture and reserved craftsmanship mingled with youthful creativity at London Fashion Week, giving rise to new designs with a classic look.
Jens Laugesen's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
Among them, Savile Street as the North Star of London's craftsman spirit carries part of the soul of London, the first black tailor Ozwald Boateng returned after 12 years, and the first women's tailor shop Banshee of Savile Row established in 2019 injected new blood into the tradition. Simone Rocha tells an Irish mythological story about love, jealousy and curses, 25-year-old designer Harris Reed holds a big show at Westminster Abbey, baroque buildings contain feasts of gender flow, Bora Aksu places the place in a church in south London, and the models wear intricate and childlike dresses on the altar, and the thick of the old classics and the spirit of pioneering exploration are combined to form a special look that belongs to London. Molly Goddard pairs a traditional FairLea-knit pullover with the iconic puffed skirt platform shoes for a sense of intimacy back to the childhood bazaar.
Molly Goddard's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
Richard Quinn, a social network star whose designs are beautiful, playful and somewhat familiar, brings the orchestra to the runway to perform Olivia Rodrigo, with Lila Moss walking the red carpet with flowers in his arms. Fashion can be old and new, hot and cool, after all, no one has ever really rejected a deep history and a happy song.
Richard Quinn's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
The removal of social restrictions has allowed us to feel intimate again, and the desire for skin-to-skin intimacy is hidden in the expression of sexy design. Supriya Lele, a designer from south London, shows her body in a sharp and rebellious way, like rehearsing a carnival party. Christopher Kane uses elements such as straps and leather to express fetishism as a strange elegance. LVMH Award winner Nensi Dojaka has created an enticing winter wardrobe inspired by lingerie, British menswear designer Steven Stokey-Daley has been bolder this season, and leather vests and ultra-shorts add another layer of explanation to the fun of "less is more". The combination of sexy elements into a force also seems to be a reflection of the spread of the concept of numbers. In unreal code, how to feel real in a dumped world. Even if numbers and reality are bound to become the norm in our lives, it is only after touching the flesh and blood of the skin that we can bring about the real trembling of the heart. Less is more is less cloth, more real.
Nensi Dojaka's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
This season's London Fashion Week, Chinese designers are also shining. A total of 14 Chinese designers participated in the fashion week, including many students graduating from London, who gathered here every year with the meaning of returning home. Yuhan Wang showcases her feminine aesthetics with prints, knitting and fur, and incidentally sends her kitten Misty to the runway.
Yuhan Wang's Fall/Winter 2022 collection
Pronounce's rich, quaint tones and woolen tapestries convey a sense of courage to go on. But Chinese designers are just a microcosm of London's diversity, with young designer Saul Nash inspired by her mother's hometown, the Guyana flag. Azura Lovisa, a Swedish-Malaysian mixed-race designer who grew up in Miami, designed for an international identity, allowing race, gender and even seasonality to disappear into the design. London Fashion Week is clearly the most suitable testing ground for new concepts.
Pronounce Fall/Winter 2022 collection
At the same time, London Fashion Week also uses its strong tolerance to let different designers preach their thoughts and reflections on social issues, the fashion industry, the future of mankind, the philosophy of art, and even the current political situation. This is probably the proudest place in London, and it has not lost the motivation to build a voice through fashion.
The absence of big names like Burberry, Victoria Beckham and JW Anderson didn't make London Fashion Week lose its needle-like panic, but left plenty of room for a new group of designers to show themselves. Behind the eaves of the elm willow shade, in front of the peach and plum luotang, even if the elm willow is no longer there, the peach and plum are still fighting for spring.
Stavros Karelis, founder of Machine-A, said that the greatest charm of London Fashion Week is to feel these fresh and amazing young creative forces gather here to show their magic, and the tolerance of pioneering creativity and rapid response to social issues are the undefeated backbone of London Fashion Week. Even though Fashion Week is no longer as buoyant as it used to be, London Fashion Week has always retained a corner of the fashion world with its punk spirit of embracing unbridled creativity and tolerating interesting characters. WWD
Written by Dou Dou
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