Photograph by Anna Bauer

Boy, was it hot at Christopher Kane. Maybe it was the high wattage front- row line-up, including Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, Sir Philip Green, Natalia Vodianova and Miss Joan Collins. Or maybe it was the stellar collection from London Fashion Week’s hottest star. But boy was it hot.

Still, even with all the heat and hubbub, Kane kept his cool with a show that mixed oversized gingham checks on dresses cut with corsetry seams and boning with slashed cashmere sweaters, layers of pastel chiffons with floral sequin motifs, sheer pleats and razor-sharp tailoring – thanks to Savile Row tailor Patrick Grant – all sent out to a melancholy gospel soundtrack by Mahalia Jackson.

‘The Jonestown cult and Jehovah’s Witnesses’, ‘Lolita’, ‘covering up’, ‘teenage bras’, ‘a girl who doesn’t know who to be’… the inspiration was hard to pin down from Christopher or sister Tammy. But who cares? The results spoke for themselves.

Backstage, the temperature cranked up a further notch with the front row and teary-eyed buyers vying for Kane fashion hugs. “I liked it very much,” said Donatella in her husky Italian accent, holding on to her daughter, Allegra. Philip Green and daughter Chloe seemed pretty pleased, too. “Great,” said Sir Philip. “Really nice,” added Chloe. You could almost hear the cogs turning. Don’t be surprised to see a fair bit of gingham in Topshop next season.

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It all started with a smile. On the catwalk! True, an almost unheard of occurrence in the straight-faced business of modelling. The girl in question was prancing down Dame Vivienne Westwood’s catwalk and –boom! – out of nowhere, a beautiful, broad, toothy smile.

And so it was that by the time Nathan Jenden’s models stormed the catwalk at the end of his show – dancing, leaping, laughing and encouraging their audience to do the same – there was no question that London Fashion Week (which ended on Wednesday) was in the grips of an optimistism pandemic.

“They all did it spontaneously, even in rehearsal,” said a breathless Jenden backstage. “It’s all about having fun; fashion should be fun.”

There was much to feel good about – a spectacular new show venue at Somerset House, a landmark anniversary celebrating 25 years of London fashion and an international front row, spearheaded by US Vogue’

s all-powerful Anna Wintour, who had flown in to see what all the fuss was about. Luckily, the designers they had come over to see did not disappoint. How embarrassing might it have been if Christopher Kane had presented a dud or Erdem had started over two hours late? But there were to be none of the usual LFW antics; in their place a slick, professional schedule and polished shows of an international class. Phew.

But more than that, a powerful buoyed-up feeling of positivity. London’s 25-year celebration – a kind of coming of age for the fashion city known for producing sapling talent only for it to leave and make a name for itself elsewhere – could even be felt in the stitches of the clothes. There was a sweetness to the London collections, not just with the proliferation of sugared- almond colours and so many pretty dresses, but also because designers actually used the word ‘pretty’ and talked of wanting their customers to feel ‘uplifted’. Antonio Berardi – a huge talent who came back to London having shown his collections in Milan and Paris for the past 10 years – described his show venue, St Mark’s Church in Mayfair, as ‘euphoric’

.

“Women need to feel an emotional attachment with the clothes they buy,” said designer Marios Schwab. “I want them to feel good. It’s the only way people are really going to buy clothes now.”

So the biggest new trend to come out of London this season? Optimism.

CRIB UP ON THE SPRING/SUMMER 2010 TRENDS WITH THE LFW DAILY’S SNEAK PEEK OF WHAT YOU’

LL BE WEARING Compiled by Cat Catalogue in the following posts…

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Compiled by Cat Catalogue

Photography by Catwalking.com

The hot new hues for summer? Sun-faded and pretty, sugared-almond shades. Think lilac, pistachio, baby blue, lemon or peach. Either wear one colour head to toe, as at Louise Goldin [see above] or several in one go, Christopher Kane-style. You’ll look a treat!

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Compiled by Cat Catalogue

Photography by Catwalking.com

She’s on the cover of art/fashion publication V, was the toast of New York Fashion Week and emerged as the left-field style icon of the London shows. Yup, Lady Gaga will have a lot to answer for come next season. Her signature PE-style, high-waist pants cropped up at almost every other show [see House of Holland, above]. Sounds mad, we know, but the high street will be awash with skimpy shorts come spring.

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Compiled by Cat Catalogue

Photography Tyrone Lebon

Want to make your current wardrobe Spring/Summer 2010-worthy without a shopping splurge? Rustle up some ankle socks and team them with platform sandals or slingback kitten heels. Big at LFW, fashion eds were working the look by day two of the six-day event. Cute!

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Compiled by Cat Catalogue

Photography by Catwalking.com

As if inspired by the Japanese art of origami (paper folding), designers draped and cut fabric into delicate, angular folds, creating a new silhouette for summer. Sounds complicated. Is for them. Isn’t for those wanting to dip their toe in the trend. Just invest in a drapey shift or a skirt with rippling folds over the hips. Divine.

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Compiled by Cat Catalogue

Photography by Marcus Dawes

Whether super-sized [Luella, see above], graphically bold [Danielle Scutt] or slightly blurred and Tipp-Exy [Kinder Aggugini,] polka dots look set to be the print of choice for Spring/Summer 2010. Playful, girly and ever so slightly eccentric, spots broke out last week over practically every item you can imagine. Channel next season by snapping up a dotty print now – you’ll look so fashion forward!

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Report by David Hayes.

Photography by Catwalking.com

You might have thought that your body parts were fixed exactly where they were. Barring major surgery, of course, that your hips would always be below your waist, your chest above, shoulders, two arms at the side, that kind of thing. You are wrong, of course.

Every couple of seasons, fashion rearranges the natural order of things, changing proportions, dropping waists, widening shoulders, generally mucking about with Mother Nature. This season, waists are up, quite literally. The high waist was a strong statement at many shows – usually accompanied with corsetry or clever cutting, to make them look waspishly thin.

Erdem tailored his pretty, floral dresses with a step of wider fabric jutting just below the ribs – like an inbuilt cropped top – that made the nipped-in waists below appear even smaller; Marios Schwab sliced the body in three, with outfits changing fabric on a high waistline and across the hips; and Mary Katrantzou used sculptural pleats, fanning out across the chest and narrowing in to the waist, on her collection of printed party frocks. Elsewhere, designers either puffed out skirts to bell-like proportions (Luella), or used ruffles or origami pleated skirts (Pringle of Scotland). Christopher Kane’s approach was far simpler, but just as effective. His gingham dresses came with built-in, boned corset panels – often in contrast colours – to cinch in a high, positively svelte-looking waistline.
All clever stuff. Let’s hope these looks work just as well in a size 12, when they hit the shops next season.

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Report by Isaac Lock.

Photography by  Catwalking.com

Hooray! Thanks to a new menswear day that tagged on to the end of London Fashion Week in a joint initiative between the British Fashion Council (BFC), new-designer umbrella Fashion East and Topman, menswear in London is becoming something of an intimidating force. The day was made up of MAN (a group show for three new designers and Topman Design), a show from the designer boutique bStore, presentations from Savile Row tailor E Tautz, installations from 14 new men’s designers, and a runway show from James Long and Carolyn Massey [see below], who were the first designers to receive support from NEWGEN MEN, the addition to NEWGEN – the designer initiative that has been supporting womenswear design talent in London for 16 years. Phew!
“I think this explosion in menswear talent in London has been bubbling away at the surface for a long time,” claimed Fashion East/MAN founder Lulu Kennedy outside the show, “but since we started the men’s day and created an outlet it’

s just snowballed. We started out with four installations last year, and now we have 14!

I think great menswear talent is something that London is starting to really be recognised for.” The other thing that menswear is getting London recognised for is a co-existence between fashion and commerce, which only exists in this way in the UK. At the MAN show the business end of things was taken care of by Christopher Shannon, who has managed to farm out his contemporary sportswear for collaborations with brands including Reebok and Eastpak; in the middle there was JW Anderson, who caused a real sensation with a beautifully made, incredibly focused collection of contemporary tailoring and menswear with intriguing feminine touches. At the purely creative end there was Katie Eary, who has landed one of her jackets on the cover of October’s Vogue and frantically described her collection before the show as “William Burroughs! Naked Lunch! Bones printed on tights and tops! Stripes! Sailors! Rent boys!”
The same was true of the 14 installations; young designers with a real abundance of sometimes unbridled creative talent, showing alongside more business-minded brands, with neither presence undermining the validity of the other. So, luxurious, embellished young tailoring from Casely-Hayford at one end of the scale sat next to block-coloured latex bondage vests and shorts with matching spiked gimp masks (and matching coloured cup cakes) from Jaiden rVa James at the other. “At the moment, we’re just interested in being creative and expressing ourselves,” said the designers. “And this has given us an opportunity to do that. We are working on establishing our vision, and will develop our business later.”

London is perhaps the only place in the world where they can make that happen.

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