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A look from the Harris Reed Fall ’23 couture show at London Fashion Week.
There was a lot of skin on display at London Fashion Week but the ideas expressed went more than skin deep as designers embraced the body inside and out.
Winner of the LVMH Prize and poster girl for the revealing dress, Nensi Dojaka offered a more elevated view of the catwalk and swept the path of Kendall Jenner’s trend. Floor-grazing fishtails came in the lightest lace chiffon and fine gossamer tulle finely tuned with sculpturally detailed bodices and “adding crystal adds to the illusion of even more Shine” said the backstage designer.
Bodysuit or catsuit versions also addressed her desire to push the needle to “see how we can make evening dresses in a cooler and younger way that felt fresher.”
“We’re entering a smaller phase,” she continued, adding that she’s been expanding her wardrobe as she continues to embrace the body with more knit pieces than before “to what’s to bring in what we’re doing every day.”
A ‘naked dress’ look from the Nensi Dojaka Fall ’23 show at London Fashion Week.
A bodysuit look from Nensi Dojaka’s Fall ’23 show at London Fashion Week.
Christopher Kane is inspired by our biology and what lies beneath the skin. Taking a more refined look at the visible thong trend, his mock cocktail dresses ensured the bottom took center stage. But anyone who accepts historical reference should know that Kane has a lot more left when it comes to his influences.
The shape was actually inspired by unraveling intestines, he explained. “It started last season because I was playing with body parts like the muscles,” he said. “I didn’t want the bustle to be a nod to Victoriana.” Science fiction is another of Kane’s constants – he presented a talk earlier this week at the Vogue x Snap AR exhibition, “Redefining the Body” – but this time it became science fact as he began experimenting with artificial intelligence. Some of his prints including pig prints were computer generated. Why pigs? “When it comes to our DNA, we’re 98% the same.”
A look from Annie’s Ibiza Fall ’23 collection at London Fashion Week.
A look from Annie’s Ibiza Fall ’23 collection at London Fashion Week.
Ibiza Annie Annie Doble staged her first show during the week. Her beloved brand Kate Moss has on speed dial, she started her life selling vintage clothes on the grounds of a fortress in Ibiza and opened a store in London’s Carnaby Street in 2020 with a mix of emerging vintage labels like Miley Cyrus’ best with you Miss Sohee. and now her own designs as well.
The hedonistic, party-centric collection is all sourced and, where possible, produced in the UK using dead stock and sustainable fabrics. However, many of the body baring looks are designed to be worn over a bikini in Ibiza. Just call it a beach bug.
A look from the Dilara Findikoglu Fall ’23 show at London Fashion Week.
Dilara Findikoglu Fall ’23 was about to regain control of the body. The designer was inspired in part by the Iranian protests sparked by the murder of Mahsa Amini for violating the country’s arcane dress regulations.
Don’t shy away from controversy Findikoglu celebrated women’s bodies of all shapes and sizes with feathered bikinis and nipple baring corsets often in fabrications and large veils that were also a nod to the burka. “Women’s bodies have been exploited too much,” she said after her show at An East London church. “I wanted to play my part and raise my voice as a woman.”
A corset adorned with resin-dipped flowers was titled “Not Your Typical Flower”, a technique she developed in her graduate collection – a statement on the objectification of the body like flowers in a vase. The collection itself was named “Ní Críoch Fear.”
Footwear by London-based vegan shoe label Piferi featured on both the Annie Ibiza and Dilara shows. The brand, known for its high octane designs, has previously collaborated with Ludovic de Saint Sernin.
A look from the Dilara Findikoglu Fall ’23 show at London Fashion Week.
A Harris Reed who showed demi Couture off schedule on the eve of the week. The designer who will present his first collection for Nina Ricci in Paris next month during Paris Fashion Week introduced second skin pieces with sculptural elements to create new supernatural and exaggerated silhouettes.
The visuality and expressive, transformative nature of costume is central to Reed’s oeuvre and actress Florence Pugh opened the show with the title “All The World’s A Stage,” a line from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, which went on to wear a custom piece. by Reed for Nina Ricci a few days later at the BAFTAs.
The collection began, the designer said, with fabric, a pair of gold lamé curtains up cycles from a theater production company in London and thus continued to “explore performance wear, clothing and the body as a second skin on theatrical way.”
Florence Pugh and Harris Reed at the designer’s Fall ’23 show at London Fashion Week.
(tags Translate)Christopher Kane
