Fashion Week
Versace’s Autumn 2021 Catwalk Stars Gigi Hadid For the First Time Since Becoming a Mum
Versace always taps the most influential models for its ready-to-wear fashion shows. The legendary Italian house opened its autumn/winter 2021 season with a film starring Irina Shayk, Bella Hadid, and Gigi Hadid who is back on the catwalk for the first time since becoming a mum. The new collection “Step Inside La Greca” is confident and slightly rebellious with an emphasis on the brand’s iconic Greca motif, subtle graffiti details, and a smaller, rounded silhouette for womenswear. “I have realised that this is the future, the new way of communicating collections,” Donatella Versace said in a press statement about the industry’s move towards digital fashion weeks. “Models are like actors, they bring the designs to life, just like when a performer po...
Fashion Designer Priya Ahluwalia Wins the Queen Elizabeth II Award For British Design
Since launching in 2018, menswear brand Ahluwalia has quickly become a favourite of the fashion crowd, and now the brand’s designer Priya Ahluwalia is also a favourite of the crown. Winning the Queen Elizabeth II Award For British Design is the recent accolade in Ahluwalia’s growing list of recognitions — including the British Fashion Council’s 2019/2020 NewGen initiative and the 2020 LVMH Prize. The Queen Elizabeth II Award, previously given to Rosh Mahtani of Alighieri, Bethany Williams, and Richard Quinn, was presented to Ahluwalia by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, on Tuesday, 23 Feb. The Queen Elizabeth II Award For British Design recognises “the role the fashion industry plays in society and diplomacy and the movement of young designers that are both talented and ...
The Fashion Week Trend That’s Serving Us Serious Sex and the City Vibes
According to Carrie Bradshaw, “every year the women of New York leave the past behind and look forward to the future . . . This is known as Fashion Week”, or in this case, it’s London Fashion Week, and the latest trend to grace the catwalks is tulle tutus! And yes, we are having some serious Sex and the City nostalgia. Whether you’re a fan of Sex and the City or you’re left perplexed when someone describes you as “a Miranda”, you’ll no doubt recognise Carrie’s iconic tulle tutu from the opening credits. According to the show’s costume designer, Patricia Field, the well-known skirt was found in a showroom bin and was likely to have cost just $5! It’s a no-brainer that Carrie paved the way for some very cool ’90s and ear...
Simone Rocha’s Autumn 2021 Collection Celebrates “Fragile Rebels” With Lots of Leather and Tulle
Simone Rocha has a unique talent for using her designs to represent the world of girlhood with authority and complexity. For her brand’s autumn/winter 2021 collection at London Fashion Week, Simone chose layers of satin, leather, and tulle to create a sartorial love letter to the “fragile rebels” of 2021. Standout trends for Simone Rocha’s autumn/winter 2021 collection are the brand’s signature tulle and puff sleeves, which are reimagined by contrasting the fragility of tulle skirts and dresses with the rebelliousness of leather jackets, puff sleeves, and combat boots. Poised for back-to-school, there is a prep-school theme to the collection as seen in the flat-collar white Oxford shirts layered under sheer pinafore dresses — we’re thinking hints of Goss...
Daniel Fletcher Just Unveiled His Brand-New Womenswear Collection For Autumn 2021, and We Want It All
On 23 Feb., London-based designer Daniel Fletcher released his first womenswear collection as part of London Fashion Week. Having been known as a menswear designer since his first collection release in 2015, the time has come for his womenswear debut. The designer also came second on Netflix’s Next in Fashion competition back in 2020, only adding to the demand for Fletcher to design women’s clothing. His first offering features tailored jackets, checkerboard prints, and split-hem trousers, inspired by his menswear archive. Sustainability is still at the core of the Fletcher brand, with the collection’s centrepiece — a checkered dress — developed with the patchwork scraps that littered his factory floor during the design process. Fletcher spoke to British Vogue about the t...
Ganni’s Autumn 2021 Collection Is Inspired by Princess Diana and ’90s Teen Angst
Danish fashion brand Ganni presented its Autumn/Winter 2021 collection as a livestream performance featuring three very cool women musicians — Zsela, Deb Never, and Coco O. The trio wore full looks from the brand while covering some of the creative director’s favourite songs mixed with their own material. The collection, titled Love Forever, is inspired by floral pieces worn by Princess Diana and angsty shades of ’90s slime green for channeling your inner main character. “It has something new to offer, but there is a fundamental Ganni DNA present throughout,” said Ganni Creative Director Ditte Reffstrup in a press statement. “It feels familiar in a good way, like meeting old friends.” Familiar is correct: when flipping through the vibrant and slightly no...
Area’s Couture Spring 2021 Show Gives Us the Fashion Fantasy We’ve Been Craving
Area always gets us excited for sparkling dresses that celebrate showing skin with confidence. For the New York brand’s first couture show, designers Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk tapped trailblazer Precious Lee and catwalk favourite Yasmin Wijnaldum to model a body-positive, 14-look collection that can be described as sexy, fantasy couture. “Haute Couture originally started in Paris in 1858 but looking deeper into history and tracing back to ancient civilizations, there has always been a deep connection and appreciation for craft and beauty,” Fogg and Panszczyk said in a press statement. “It’s like Haute Couture has been ingrained into our souls culturally expressed in different ways. Whether it be for religious purposes, or simply the innate need to cre...
Burberry’s Next Fashion Show Is an Immersive Experience Set in the Great Outdoors
When Burberry didn’t feature in the British Fashion Council’s first London Fashion Week Digital, a few eagle-eyed fashion fans were left perplexed. But Britain’s premiere heritage house wasn’t going quiet; instead, it was planning something far more grand — an immersive fashion show set in the great (British) outdoors, accessible to all this September. Like many of us, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has inspired Burberry to muse about nature in all its purity and power. The brand’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection titled “Burberry in Nature” seeks to “redefine our fashion landscape with new forms of expression.” The brand’s creative director, Riccardo Tisci, explained in a press statement that “as humans, we have always had a...
London Fashion Week’s First Digital Schedule Starts This Weekend – and You’re Invited
London Fashion Week’s first digital-only platform launches Friday, 12 June. The British Fashion Council has carefully curated a three-day online fashion event combining both menswear and womenswear collections, to be offered in a variety of formats — including films, interviews, virtual galleries, and podcasts, as well as late-night DJ sets and even a 3D movie. The BFC is taking this uniquely transformative time to make a deeper push into sustainable practices within the British fashion industry, encouraging homegrown designers and the wider industry to follow suit. LFW Digital June 2020 combines both menswear and womenswear in an effort to further the BFC’s Positive Fashion initiative. Streaming live from London Fashion Week’s official website, the online event lineup wi...
London Fashion Week Goes Digital and Gender-Neutral in a Positive Move For British Fashion
For the first time ever, the British Fashion Council will officially merge London Fashion Week‘s womenswear and menswear shows into a single, gender-neutral showcase. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, LFW will also launch a digital-only platform open to both industry insiders and fashion enthusiasts until June 2021. Who would have thought that COVID-19 would be the catalyst that LFW needed to embrace more sustainable practices. Merging womenswear and menswear schedules means fewer but better quality shows, which translates to much less waste produced during Fashion Weeks. The move to digital will also boost morale for British fashion by making viewing access to new collections more inclusive, leading to more engagement from everyday shoppers. LFW’s gender-neutral show sc...
Gucci Calls the Fashion Schedule “Worn Out” and Decides on Seasonless Shows Twice a Year
It’s no secret that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is the push the fashion industry needed to clean up its act. Now that everything from garment supply chains to performative fashion shows are in desperate need of restructuring, who will be the voices of fashion’s future? Gucci’s Alessandro Michele is one person leading that conversation and thinks the annual seven-season fashion show schedule is “worn out” — we couldn’t agree more. Following Gucci‘s virtual press conference on Sunday 24 May, creative director Alessandro Michele took to Instagram to elaborate on how the brand is embracing a more sustainable fashion show schedule. “I will abandon the worn out rituals of seasonalities and show to regain a new cadence, closer to my expressive call,&...
