East End Review

Tag: Rosie Higham-Stainton

London Fashion Week: East End designers go back to the 80s

Eye-popping palette… Roberta Einer’s SS16 collection

East London designers brought a dash of daring and surprise to London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 16, with eighties nostalgia and experimental knitwear referenced on catwalks and in presentations.

Peter Jensen, based on Shacklewell Lane, referenced sixties and eighties Americana in his SS16 presentation, with pinafores and shirt collars, stitched name badges, polo shirts and jean jackets in primary colours. Monochrome prints on Jensen’s signature twin sets and sweaters were paired with visor-helmets for a futuristic twist.
Also playing with black and white was Phoebe English with her deconstructed collection in silks and taffeta. Shirts looked like they’d been unstitched and put back together; Japanese ties, ruched fabric straps and sashes of fabric were used as simple tech-free fastenings.

Leather stirrups, silk ruched Bardot tops and opaque white tights were brought to life at Claire Barrow’s presentation through her surreal illustrations and dystopian messages. Models wielded musical instruments against a dark backdrop of draped fabric and wore vintage drawn-on jeans, jumpsuits and oversized power suits, reminiscent of a moody eighties band practice. For her twisted vision of Dallas, Barrow used a lot of silk fabrics as her canvas, challenging the feminine ideal and playing with sensuality, heightened by the mixed-sex casting.

Roberta Einer SS16

Faustine Steinmetz was acknowledging her tools and craft for SS16, with garments looking like they’d been pulled off the huge handlooms, which she works on in her East London studio. Denim jackets disintegrated into loose threads at the bottom, curtains of thread made for casualwear motifs on sweaters. For her presentation the French designer had models coming out of the walls, missing limbs, which only enhanced the distorted proportions of the clothes and the surreal element of her collection.

Crash and repair were themes for Christopher Kane’s SS16 collection, and his use of deconstructed fabric and pulled threads reinforced these ideas, turning them into motifs on sweaters and fringing on skirts, this time in primary colours. The collection was unpredictable and varied in its offer, from abstracted wavy cloud silhouettes and rainbow fades, to geometric panelled dresses and block colour shifts interjected with sheer rubberised panels. The designer, whose headquarters are still based in Dalston despite his global success and flagship West London store, brought something new and something old to the collection with unfinished knitwear and his signature fluoro lace. Christopher Kane plastic tags around necks and in hair brought a DIY edge to the collection.

Newcomer Roberta Einer’s eye-popping palette and use of textiles garnered attention at her off-schedule presentation. The recent graduate produced feminine slips and flared skirts in aquamarine and candy pink, incorporating eighties Americana motifs and soviet artwork into her illustrations, which were made out of hand-dyed beads and sequins.
Feminine shapes, whether reimagined or challenged, were evident across the board at fashion week. A vein of eighties nostalgia – bold colours and geometric shapes – was also a reoccurring theme and many designers acknowledged the craftsmanship of their work and that of the industry, by playing with finishings, fastenings and thread.

October 6, 2015
East London designers to watch: Louise Alsop

AW14 designs by Louise Alsop

With an aesthetic combining minimalism and grunge, Louise Alsop draws on a love of hardcore music and zines, while reimagining graphics and logos for each season. A 2013 graduate of the prestigious University of Westminster design course, Alsop launched her own label for AW14, on-schedule, as part of Fashion East. Here, the London-based womenswear designer talks about the design process, education and branding.

What made you want to be a fashion designer?

I’ve always had a huge fascination with fashion, clothes, looking at catwalk shows on the internet and studying my favourite designers. But it hadn’t occurred to me that this was something I could pursue as a career. After studying art, design and textiles and completing school I started to look into fashion courses. Prior to that, I spent a lot of time drawing and making garments and taught myself to pattern cut at home. So I can’t pinpoint a time when I made the decision that fashion was the direction for me, it just seemed kind of gradual and very clear.

You graduated in 2013, from University of Westminster, which has also produced the likes of Liam Hodges, Claire Barrow and Ashley Williams. How did this experience shape your work?

Westminster has an amazing reputation for producing really strong graduates for sure, with the likes of Liam, Claire and Ashley all graduating before me. Westminster was great for allowing you to figure out where you sit within fashion. There was never one pathway for all. It has a strong list of alumni and the classes are small so you easily built relationships with really interesting and creative people, which made for such a good working environment. Westminster always pushed me to produce work that was to the best of my ability, while never pressuring me to decide what I wanted to do once I’d finished. It was about self-development.

For your final collection, you referenced hard rock and nuns. Tell us about that.

I’d been playing around with so many ideas for my graduate collection and when it actually came down to it and the final result, I just simplified everything. I didn’t want to make a final collection that was huge and brash, uncommercial and unwearable. I always loved making clothes and wearing them, so I felt really strongly about that. Because I kept the colour palette just black and white, the prints and fabrication needed to be special. Many of the references were from zines and posters and books I’d collected, and growing up listening to punk rock and hardcore I felt like it was important to reflect that within my work, which I still do to date.

How do you go about designing a collection now? What is the process?

There is always a lot of research to start with, which gets heavily edited to make sure each collection is strong. I love developing my own prints, so sometimes I start there and then work on shape and silhouette and how I can make them work together to create something new. I also love mixing unconventional fabrics together, so there’s also a lot of fabric development and hand work.

You have developed a unique aesthetic with a young rebellious edge to it. What inspires you?

None of my collections have a specific theme. They’re all just a culmination of lots of things I really love which come together.

You use a lot of layering techniques. What got you interested in this?

I really like being able to mix sheer and light fabrics with heavy and matte ones, so I think the layering came from this — seeing fabrics sitting together and complementing each other. I also like things to be really tactile and want people to want to touch my clothes.

Tell us about your use of branding and logos.

I’m obsessed with logos and fonts and graphics and I’m constantly playing around with them. I want this to always be strong and when people see my work, for it to be instantly identifiable. I spend a lot of time getting this right and working out new and interesting ways to do so. I’ll often create seasonal logos, which makes each collection special. It also makes them of a time.

What are you working on now and what is next for Louise Alsop the brand?

I’m currently working on my SS16 collection. I’m constantly working on new ideas and how I can make each new collection the best one yet. I’m hoping the brand continues to grow and in seasons to come I’m enjoying it as much as I do now.

louisealsop.com

Photograph copyright: Louise Alsop

June 23, 2015
Menswear label Cottweiler awarded NEWGEN support

Cottweiler’s AW 15 collection at London Collections: Men

Dalston menswear duo Cottweiler has been awarded NEWGEN MEN support, to showcase its SS16 collections on schedule at London Collections: Men in June.

The NEWGEN initiative supports young designers and brands at a crucial stage in their careers, nurturing their creativity while promoting their commercial potential.

Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell have attracted attention for their understated approach to sportswear, exploring innovative textures and logo-less fabrics in their reimagining of the tracksuit, sports jacket and sweatshirt. They have also created bespoke costumes for FKA twigs’ first tour, which included sheer mesh tracksuits studded with jewels.

Dainty said: “We are really looking forward to showing on schedule as part of the NEWGEN MEN scheme for London Collections: Men, in June. The support and guidance from the British Fashion Council will allow us to further our business and bring Cottweiler to a wider audience.”

Alongside Cottweiler this year are two other newcomers – PIETER and Bobby Abley (formerly of Fashion East support). Existing NEWGEN designers include the likes of East Londoner Nasir Mazhar and Central Saint Martins’ alumnus Craig Green.

For Spring Summer ’15, Cottweiler’s collection was awash with swimming pool blues and terracotta browns, with toweling and flannel put to good use in a reinterpretation of summer holidays.

For AW15, the pair returned to stark monochrome tones, injected with details in concrete grey and powder blue. Comfort, through breathable fabrics and high stretch materials, is an ongoing consideration, while the likes of Teflon-coated cotton and innovative techniques continue to push the label in new directions.

May 19, 2015
Top five tips for spring dressing

Raincoat by Christopher Raeburn

The arrival of spring puts us in an annual state of flux. From April showers to sunburnt summers, we are destined to be second-guessing the weather until October comes around again. So it is lucky that a practical combination of rain macs and walking sandals, durable fabrics and sensible silhouettes, defined the Spring Summer ‘15 collections, unveiled at Fashion Week back in September. Our guide draws on an unusual combination of practicality and sartorial goodness, with a firm nod to East London’s top fashion names.

1. Get yourself a raincoat

Christopher Raeburn’s Spring collection ASCENT featured feminine versions of waterproof classics, such as parkas in iridescent pink and coloured marbling. Describing the aesthetic
as “easy elegance and feminine functionality”, this East London
brand has created a niche for itself by fusing practicality with style. Simone Rocha, who works from a studio on Shacklewell Lane, featured delicate custard-coloured trenches for her collection, less practical and more refined. While Emilia Wickstead paired long a-line PVC coats with ladylike skirts. Spanish brand ECOALF creates waterproof outwear
from recycled plastic, available at sustainable retailers 69b Boutique, on Broadway Market.

Layering up: a model wearing items from 1205’s SS15 collection at London Fashion Week

2. Layers are your friends

Tackle unpredictable weather with layers. A host of emerging designers are creating interesting silhouettes through systems of layering. Louise Alsop’s second season with Fashion East – an incubator for British fashion talent – gained attention for its grungy monochrome aesthetic. The collection is a rebellious combination of slashed fabric, frayed oversize tees and dresses on top of skimpy sportswear crops and skirts. The brand 1205, headed up by ex-Savile Row designer Paula Gerbase, also adopts layers, producing striking silhouettes and practical details through loose fit shirts and mid-length skirts in cool starched white, with belted waists.

3. Try sensible sandals

At British heritage brand Margaret Howell, monochrome flat leather sandals were paired with contrasting socks (another take on layering), while Antipodium matched their feminine dresses with full-on Velcro walking sandals (as did Raeburn), and Eudon Choi also adopted flats. With or without socks, sensible sandals bring a contemporary and structured element to an outfit as well as being good for your feet.

4. Dig out your denim

Durable, and currently being fashioned into everything from crop-tops to parkas, denim is the fabric for spring. Thanks to the likes of East London stalwarts Marques’ Almeida and newbie Faustine Steinmetz, jeans are being re-imagined, as flares, in boot- cut, baggy and cropped. Denim also embraces the current penchant for the seventies. Lower Clapton Road’s Bad Denim offers an edit of the best jeans from international brands including NEUW and Paige.

5. Practical accessories

From J.W. Anderson’s shady wide- brimmed leather hats, to ADAISM’s paper-bag style clutches made from cork, suede and metallic leathers, spring’s accessories embrace unconventional materials and simple functional design. ADAISM’s tactile rolled up sacks are available from LN- CC on Shacklewell lane.

April 13, 2015
Dressing up at London Collections: Men

London Collections: Men – London’s biannual menswear event – continues to go from strength to strength. Last month it showcased the AW15 collections and saw designers exploring femininity and masculinity, playing with perceptions of gender norms and revelling in make-believe.

Designer Kit Neale invited us on a foray into the dressing-up box, complete with hats and gems and vibrant faux furs. Taking circus costume as a reference point, the designer created playful proportions by pairing heavy footwear with cropped trousers and matching jackets in primary tones of orange, red and navy, topped off with coordinated pork-pie hats.

Recognised for his wild print, his vibrant palette and visual references to childhood, Neale turned to slogans and words – rather than motifs – for inspiration. Jackets were embellished with patches reading “Greatest Show on Earth”, slogan t-shirts screamed “No teddy bears were harmed in the making on this coat” and letter ‘K’ badges were attached to pockets.

Neale utilised his print background for the same ends, producing jackets, shirts and sweatshirts in alphabet print. There was a punk element to the collection, evidenced in classic Doc Marten shoes, tartan patches and frayed edges. But there was no escaping the sense of make-believe and dress-up, apparent in colourful faux fur teddy boy coats and giant gemstone earrings.

Wales Bonner’s collection, as part of Fashion East (an organisation that supports and funds emerging design talent), continued the theme of costume and dress-up with her 1970s inspired line of leather jackets, crushed velvet and cream suits, featuring high-waisted flares and diamond-encrusted cummerbunds.

Grace Wales Bonner, the Central St Martin’s graduate behind the brand, debuted her distinctive aesthetic, which draws on the 1970s, disco and Voguing, at her graduation show last year. This season she returned to these themes, exploring feminine and masculine aesthetics and blurring these constructs through the use of rangy silhouettes, diamanté chokers, handbags and wigs, all worn by male models.

Edward Crutchley, another of Fashion East’s designers, produced a pared-back collection, more ‘dress down’ in its flavour, but with enough innovative textures and sumptuous colours to make the garments feel really special. Quilted ochre kimono jackets, burgundy short-sleeved shirts and navy layered loose-fit trousers were suitably autumnal in tone. Silk bomber jackets featured exquisite Japanese embroidery of birds and fauna. Crutchley’s collection spelt purity and refinement.

Another designer sharpening his aesthetic was Royal College of Art graduate Liam Hodges, who brought his fourth on-schedule collection to LCM. His usual blend of British cultural references was apparent, but streamlined for the AW15 collection. The designer played with the traditions, aesthetic and practical needs of market tradesmen: models wore aprons and A-boards and the dregs of old newspapers became motifs on sweatshirts and a flat cap complemented each look. Weather-proof parkas in navy and black, ribbed drop-shoulder sweaters and coordinated tracksuits in vivid orange, white and black, were commercially viable interpretations of Hodges’ recognisable masculine silhouette.

After establishing itself as a fundamental part of the British fashion landscape, LCM and its participating designers were able to have fun with menswear for AW15, challenging gender norms and exploring the male identity.

londoncollections.co.uk (Designs by Kit Neale)

February 12, 2015
East London designers to watch: Faustine Steinmetz

Queen of jeans: Faustine Steinmetz

Parisian born, East London-based designer Faustine Steinmetz is turning heads with her deconstructed garments made from hand-woven denim and ethereal threads. Working with her team on hand looms in her studio, she puts the exquisite craft and skills gained from training in Parisian couture houses to new, less conventional uses. Named a One to Watch at AW14 by NEWGEN – the Topshop initiative supporting young designers – Steinmetz has quickly established herself as one of East London’s most exciting emerging talents.

Your last two collections have seen you re-imagine denim in some way. What draws you to this fabric?

Since a young age I’ve been drawn to denim. When I was younger I would drive my parents crazy by cutting up all my denim to make new pieces. It is amazing to work with because it is so recognisable and very meaningful. It is pretty much everybody’s staple.

All your garments are hand-woven on looms by your team here in London. Tell us a little bit about the process.

Each individual piece is made by one person so that they can put their name on it at the end and you know exactly who made that piece for you. We have a few different types of looms of various sizes so the process changes a bit from loom to loom.

After the yarn has been prepared you first have to set the loom, which on our smaller looms can take a few hours and on our bigger looms can take over a day depending on how difficult the yarn is to work with. Once the setup is finished the weaving process can begin, which isn’t terribly difficult, it’s just very time consuming and you need a lot of patience. A pair of jeans can take up to a week to complete depending on the type.

Where do you source your fabrics and yarns?

We try to source everything in the UK, but of course that isn’t always possible. Some things you just have to go abroad to get. We’ve been lucky enough to develop close relations with some small UK suppliers of yarn and we like to try and do business with them. To be honest, the most important to me is to make sure that the animals are not mistreated.

For AW14 you created a collection of hand-woven jeans and trench coats with hints of copper so they can be bended and melded to fit. Where did the idea for this collection come from?

I’ve always been a big fan of Issey Miyake Pleats Please and I wanted to work around pleating, but I wanted people to be able to create their own piece by pleating it themselves.

Your SS15 collection references the mega couture houses. Do you think the role of the couturier has changed and what is its future?

Yes, it has completely changed. I think it is not about beauty anymore it is about creating something which is very unique to you. The garments in the SS15 collection are beautiful and intricate but are also rough and imperfect – using knotted threads and frayed hems.

Is this a reaction to the finished and polished garments of couture?

Not really, it was more about the yarn in itself. I was very inspired this season by the process of making fabrics and the threads are exposing that.

What is next for Faustine Steinmetz?

We’re hoping to launch our e-store very soon. Other than that we’re just working really hard on our new collection and getting very excited about it!

www.faustinesteinmetz.com

January 27, 2015
Princess of Wales – review

Pub royalty: The Princess of Wales

Where Lea Bridge Road meets the River Lea is The Princess of Wales pub, like the proud gatekeeper of Hackney, welcoming in commuters, travellers and lorries from Leyton, Walthamstow and beyond.

A few years ago The Princess got a makeover and on a dark autumn evening the pub is a warm and welcome respite from the frantic traffic of the nearby road.

At the heart of the pub is a stove fire (a rarity in London’s boozers) and the interior is light and warm – almost nautical, befitting its canal side situation. We sat in the dining area, which was snug like a living room, all mismatched retro furnishings and dark aubergine walls. There is a terrace facing the canal and picnic tables out by the towpath, making it an ideal summer watering hole.

The wine menu offered an impressive selection, including a Dorset cuvée and house Viognier. There were ales and Aspall cider on tap, being enjoyed by a number of punters propping up the bar.

For starters was a generous board of charcuterie, which came with fresh leaves and strips of sweet grilled peppers. The large prawns that came with my partner’s calamari were juicy and well-seasoned.

For mains he had sirloin steak medium rare, which came on a wooden chopping board atop a pile of dressed leaf salad and triple dipped chips. It was excellent: the steak succulent and pink, and the chips alone were worth the visit – with skins on, crunchy and piping hot. The quail, if a little overcooked, was beautifully presented and came with a delicious butternut squash puree. We managed to secure the last slice of pecan pie, which was sweet and nutty – just as it should be.

This pub does the pub grub options well – our neighbouring table was tucking in to good-looking fish and chips; the steak is worth returning for, not to mention the triple dipped chips, which are some of the best in Clapton at least.

It’s a nice, mixed crowd at Princess of Wales, lacking the pomp of some other East London gastro pubs and with the advantage few others have of being tucked away by the canal.

The Princess of Wales, 146 Lea Bridge Road, E5 9RB

November 20, 2014
London Fashion Week – five East London designers to watch

Charlie May SS15 designs. Photograph: K Bobula

London Fashion Week SS15 showcased a bounty of new and emerging design talent, who brought a heavy dose of daring and DIY to the landscape of British fashion. New names such as Faustine Steinmetz and Charlie May, and young brands including Louise Alsop and Claire Barrow dominated the schedule. The atmosphere and aesthetic emerging for SS15 was about fun and fantasy, but also craft and technical innovation, and these designers proved that they had it all, shaping what British fashion is today.

Kult Domini

East-London based footwear label Kult Domini presented Babylonia, their aptly named SS15 collection inspired by the earth and its minerals. Vegetable dyed leathers in midnight blue and dusky pink were used for the uppers on shoes, along with chlorophyll-like cellular prints and crocodile skin textures. The label, which has gained recognition for its wooden stacked heel and open-back brogue, have the shoes produced in Italy using fine Italian leather to ensure quality. But this is not precious footwear, Kult Domini shoes are made for pacing the pavements.

Look out for: The Kult Domini croc platform pool slider.

Faustine Steinmetz

Denim and ready-to-wear designer Faustine Steinmetz deconstructed the American classic and any conventional notion of it in her SS15 collection, which featured hand-woven and hand-dyed jackets and jeans in ethereal matted threads and puckered fabrics. Washed out denim tones and iridescent silver hues made for a light otherworldly aesthetic. The designer, who works on handlooms in her East London studio, referenced the mega couture houses of her native Paris through playful branding on pens, sweets and plinths that read ‘Faustine Steinmetz – Whitechapel’.

Look out for: Security tag jewellery in scuffed silver, made in collaboration with jewellery label Niomo.

Charlie May

Charlie May presented a collection of wearable loose-fit trousers and drop-shouldered T-shirts in a palette of white, the softest blue and camel brown. Inspired by her upbringing on the Devon coastline, the sea breeze is almost palpable in the botanical-print tops and easy sliders, created in collaboration with Adidas.

Look out for: May’s painterly leaf print tops.

Minki Cheng

Graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2012, Minki Cheng’s first full collection, for SS15, was made up of simple, clean jackets and dresses with pleating and sheer panels, in charcoal, black and navy. Using neon rubber, to create contours on soft organza slip dresses, brought an interesting contradiction in surface texture.

Look out for: Minki Cheng’s drop pleated sleeveless dresses.

Claire Barrow

Emerging designer Claire Barrow used her sci-fi influenced vision of the future, involving deadly viruses and medical wonder women, as the inspiration behind her SS15 collection. Disregarding the norms of warm-weather wear, Barrow adopted her gothic DIY aesthetic to create leather vests and silk dresses depicting cavemen-style paintings of Chagall cats with human faces and other unidentified creatures.

Look out for: Barrow’s cat-adorned zip-up biker vests.

October 15, 2014
London Fashion Week to spring into action

Faustine Steinmetz design. Photograph: Sanna Helen Berger

Spring Summer 2015 womenswear collections will be revealed at London Fashion Week in mid-September. Just as we slip back into coats and sweaters in preparation for autumn, designers are lifting spirits with their preamble to 2015.

Autumn Winter 2014 collections consisted of a sixties-by-way-of-2014 aesthetic, all miniskirts and gogo boots in textured contemporary fabrics. Seventies shades of browns and orange and nineties oversize knitwear also made for popular inspiration. Now, fashion aficionados await the next season eagerly, ready to discover what the mood will be for 2015, and which new designers will be making it into the foreground of British fashion.

Keen to make the most of a season’s commercial capacity (and with the optimism of Spring/Summer still a strong selling point), some designers have taken to creating pre-Spring Summer collections. Antipodium revealed their Resort 2015 collection (aka pre-Spring Summer) some months back, and used this opportunity to debut the work of new Head of Design Daniel Mcilwraith. The tangerine tones of their AW14 collections faded into peachy hues for Resort 2015. Autumn’s miniskirt lengths were adopted for shirt-dresses, while light knits and printed silk shirts brought renewed energy in tones such as baby blue and kiwi green.

Utilising the practical needs of the summer, London Fashion Week will for the first time have a dedicated area of the Designer Showrooms for emerging swimwear and lingerie designers. The British Fashion Council will host a pop-up showroom, exhibiting collections by NEWGEN designers – this annual talent identification scheme, sponsored by Topshop, gives emerging designers financial support and an opportunity to gain recognition and exhibit at London Fashion Week.

For SS15 a number of East London designers have been given NEWGEN status including denim stalwarts Marques Almeida and new kids Faustine Steinmetz. The latter is an innovative denim and read-to-wear brand working out of a studio in East London where the team spin, dye and weave their own fabrics, producing exquisite handmade and handwoven pieces. This will be Faustine Steinmetz’s debut at London Fashion Week and the Parisian designer has taken inspiration from the mega couturiers of her birth place. Analysing the high-end luxury industry, and its shift towards mass consumerism, seems fitting coming from a brand that believes in the bespoke and handmade.

East London designer Phoebe English will be returning to London Fashion Week to present her take on Spring Summer 15. Of what to expect from the collection, English says: ‘The SS15 collection has elements of both tailoring and broken forms, and includes print collaborations with Dalston-based illustrator and print designer Helen Bullock.’

Autumn is all about new beginnings and looking forward. London Fashion Week SS15 with its new talent, and new mood, is set to do just that.

September 9, 2014
East End designers celebrate summer at London Collections: Men

Kit Neale SS15 designs at London Collections: Men

East London designers playfully drew on the simple pleasures of a summer holiday at London Collections: Men, the capital’s menswear fashion week. Reinterpreting the luggage and holiday attire of Brits abroad and shaped by their own brand identity, a handful of designers tapped into our nostalgia for the summer experience.

Master of print Kit Neale incorporated symbolic holiday motifs from family holidays on the Med and a Neapolitan ice-cream colour palette into this season’s spring/summer ‘15 collection. The Ravensbourne alumnus printed a medley of potted cactus plants onto heavy white cotton board shorts and jackets, while the in-flight emergency manual became the basis of another print, the designer accentuating the cartoon-like nature of the instructions. Neale gained access to the Coca Cola archives for this collection, and reworked the classic logo on candy-coloured diamond print shirts. Trousers were rolled up (prepared for a paddle), hair was 1950s quaffed, and sweaters were worn over the shoulders, completing the carefree hyper-holiday aesthetic.

Playing with the same themes to different ends was sportswear inspired duo Cottweiler. Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell took us on the entire journey, from airport departure lounge through to sunburnt noses and a feeling of ‘I don’t want to go home’. The collection opened with Cottweiler’s signature tracksuits, this time employing a palette of dusty grey and white, and was worn by a set of pale models with wheelie suitcases. The collection evolved, as did the models’ tans, into shorts, sleeveless vests and t-shirts nearly all in crisp white, with accents of colour in swimming pool blue piping, and Mediterranean terracotta jackets. Short shorts, funnel necks and the deployment of burnt reds and greys brought a touch of 1970s nostalgia to the aesthetic, while the overall collection made for a wholly contemporary and unique reinterpretation of travelling to foreign climes.

For SS15, J.W. Anderson featured knitted tops of pastoral British landscape scenes – rivers and lakes, complete with threatening skies, evoking memories of camping holidays or hours spent in the car, watching the rolling countryside pass by. Astrid Anderson transported us to Japan for her collection, exploring her own fascination with the art of sumo, by creating kimonos in soft sunset shades of orange and pink.

It was back to basics this season, with designers drawing on precious personal memories and evoking ours through a focus on travel, holidays and kicking back.

July 14, 2014