Alison Catchpole
- Oct 21, 2015

FASHION WEEK, STRONG

Crazy not to share.

London Fashion Week must seem an age away for anyone still on the Milan/Paris/post New York treadmill. Too many lattes and not enough shut eye must surely make a dull read for any devoted fans. Most of the journalists, after all, get back and file their copy, send off photos, and provide and instant digest on the day’s hemline news.

Yet party on dudes, they do.

Colour themed sandwiches at Matthew Williamson’s Bruton Street store

For those of us privileged to attend in a less immediately pressured capacity, the trends can be digested. Not in the hotel lobby, but in the comfort of our own homes. With the guidance of other journalists and fashion week attendees or our online choosing rather than just by seating arrangement.

Take, for example, the sage words of the terrific Jing Zhang at the South China Morning Post: sex (yes that), flowing gowns, pleats and today’s especially relevant ‘futuristic’. Her London based colleague Francesca Fearon has a well-pitched counterpart view of the fashion weeks that Jing isn’t able to get to and this compact team covers the globe.

Recently reinvented Suzy Menkes, now International Editor for Vogue, seems to globe trot as if there were already a cloned version of herself. It’s tiring even thinking about her hectic schedule, but with only limited administrative support, Suzy’s views are always worth looking at. At over seventy, she has a lot of context to bring to them.

London Fashion Week always feels strong. It sends a wave of energy through the city’s fashionably inclined inhabitants, and this season’s change to the slightly unlikely Brewer Street Car Park venue seemed to pay off. There wasn’t too much rain, and the proximity of Soho to the buzz of so many central areas was an improvement on the wilds of Embankment, though sadly without the elegance and history of Somerset House.

Highlights for me included Peter Pilotto, which I watched through an open doorway, and the Giles show which had the most extraordinary Gothic vibe and unbelievably gorgeous models, many, at close proximity.