Hot on the patent heels of New York Fashion Week, London’s own spring/summer showcase kicked off on Friday. The biannual show usually generates orders of over £100 million ($158 million) and is one of the fashion world’s “big four” events, along with the New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks.More than 5,000 visitors are expected to attend the five-day show, which has a reputation for avant-garde quirkiness compared to its more commercial New York cousin. U.K. fashion bastions are always present, and big names at this year’s show include Burberry, Christopher Kane, Erdem, Mulberry and Tom Ford.
Jonathan Anderson has seen his fashion credibility skyrocket. With his Versus last spring and reported interest from luxury giant LVMH, His spring 2014 collection delivered on his reputation as London’s new-ideas man. Anderson delved deeper into the conceptual minimalism he’s been developing for the past few seasons, here with a pronounced influence from the Comme des Garçons family.
He started with the relatively feminine: sheer babydoll tops and long skirts — one white, one black — that were banded to create soft tiers of blouson pleating. From there, Anderson built “textural landscapes” that teased the eye.
“Is it leather, is it silk, is it organza? ” he asked backstage. In fact, all of those fabrics made appearances, as well as nylon and pleather. They were sculpted into 3D chevron pleats and puckers on stiff tops and wraps skirts that were short in back, long in front. The more engineered fabrics had a DIY finish to them. (After all, Anderson doesn’t have luxury conglomerate support yet.)
There were great moments of strange beauty, often quite wearable, too. A seersucker column gown with an exaggerated obi belt was striking, and printed sequin skirts were pretty. Everything was worn with leather shower sandals — the sensible shoe of the season.
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