(London) From streetwear to ultra-sexy evening dresses, London Fashion Week designers on Saturday offered a complete wardrobe to dress women for spring and summer 2024.
The invitation to designer JW Anderson’s fashion show was not a simple cardboard box, but a block of clay, which inevitably aroused curiosity.
The first models arrive in clay-molded Bermuda shorts and hoodies. They are reminiscent of moving sculptures. Then come looks in bright colors in a shiny material, like plastic, then crochet dresses, and also feathers worn as belts and on sleeves.
Jonathan Anderson creates bomber jackets, like cocoons, long enough to cover the thighs. Trenchcoats continue into long skirts. “This is how you can use your coat as a dress, in a very simple way,” the designer explained after the show.
We imagine his looks worn in the street, by young, trendy people.
His show, a staple of London Fashion Week, attracted several celebrities, including British actresses Suki Waterhouse, Sophie Okonedo, Jenna Coleman as well as Ncuti Gatwa, who notably starred in the series Sex Education.
The designer, who is also the artistic director of the Spanish house LOEWE, owned by the luxury group LVMH, counts among his guests Anna Wintour, the head of American Vogue. At his side, Edward Enninful, the editor-in-chief of British Vogue, who announced his departure next January to take a role as global advisor within the Condé Nast group, of which Vogue is a part.
According to several media, relations are strained between these two fashion powerhouses, but in front of the photographers, nothing appears so.
David Koma is known for his extremely sexy evening dresses. It’s short, it’s tight, low-cut, low-cut. The models are very thin, with endless legs. They parade to the music of Beyoncé loudly, which the designer, a Georgian who moved to London in 2003, has dressed on several occasions.
Unsurprisingly, he favors black, but also offers mauve and orange looks. He tries the neon pink dress, and touches of tangy green and flower prints. Some asymmetrical dresses, short in the front, long in the back, are worn with boots that can go up to mid-thigh.
Women looking for a sexy dress can also turn to designer Feben, a recent graduate of the prestigious Central Saint Martins University in London and considered a promising London talent. She notably created dresses made entirely of pearls, largely transparent and ending in fringes.
Korean designer Eudon Choi was inspired by the “dreamy” paintings of French impressionist artist Berthe Morisot for this collection.
The model who opens the show must be around sixty years old. The designer has in fact chosen models of all ages. The collection, presented in the garden of a church in central London, is elegant and refined.
The designer wanted to “freeze a precise moment in time”, in the manner of Morisot in his paintings.
Looks are often monochrome, with a “soothing” neutral color palette. The tones evolve according to moods, going from the softness of powder pink to the total look of anthracite satin. The designer thus moves from daytime outfits to nighttime outfits, combining transparency with other more opaque fabrics. For some looks, the designer still dares to use a floral print, or the contrast of black and white.
The founder and artistic director of Roksanda, Roksanda Ilinčić, originally from Serbia, was inspired by the aesthetic of the monasteries of her native country and the paintings that can be found there.
Imposing hats recall the aesthetic of the head coverings of Orthodox priests. The straight, almost austere lines of some pieces are broken up by a vibrant pop of color or feathered heels. Silk dresses and capes are accessorized with huge body jewelry, almost becoming part of the garment. The silhouettes are sometimes straight and narrow, sometimes fluid and moving, sometimes imposing and rigid.
Fashion Week continues on Sunday with Masha Popova and Erdem among others.
