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Who would have thought that 'antique celluloid' - a fluff of tinsel at the neck - would be the leitmotif of the London autumn/winter 2020 show season that has just closed.
The puff of cloudy, vaporous material was hardly more than a gesture from JW Anderson, but it was an important way to show that fashion in 2020 is not so much about radical change, rather a mark of identity.
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
Christopher Kane does not exactly own sex-on-the-catwalk, but it is his favourite way of garnering attention, for adding wit and glamour to the runway. No wonder that the music was a repetitive beat ofGarden of Eden.
Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Getty Images
The important point is that this forceful season in London has focused on designers who have carved out a position and are now consolidating it. They have all had a taste of international expansion, while Kane has backed away from his support from Kering and decided to manage his business on his own.
Here is an appraisal of two London powerhouses - and how they fared this season.
JW Anderson: Clear vision
JW Anderson had no doubt about his message.
“Making an entrance is the starting point - the idea of when you enter a room - what do you want to say,” announced JW Anderson, listing all the attention-seeking pieces.
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
“Playing with volumes - textures and volumes - blowing up and then reducing it. 'NouveauChic' - like that moment in the Twenties when everything resurged and rebounded again,” the designer said.
“I was playing with mixtures of fabrics we have in the studio that we hadn’t explored before. So this collage look with ruffles and antique celluloid which looked like ice...with celluloid tapes that went into sequins. The idea was of something different - optimistic volumes!”
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
What that meant on the runway was graphic shapes, even for knitwear, which the designer said he had not explored for a long time.
"I kind of like this idea of odd, modular shapes,” JW (as he is known) continued. “We haven’t explored industrial knits for a long time, and the large structures were built out of circular knitting.
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
"The dress which has the pink, purple and turquoise is all a new technique in knit with new volumes. Some of my favourite things are a shawl-collared tuxedo when you have these moments of excess as if women were individually walking into the space.”
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
That was the story, but it seemed so much less complicated as the models walked briskly in-and-out of the show 'corridors' with each well thought-out garment having a special element - a vast opera-sized leather coat with an equally giant collar framing the neckline; a graceful silken dress patterned with beer cans; and most striking of all, the fuzzy 'sleeves' that looked like candy floss floating down bare arms.
JW named the collection 'Nouveau Chic' - a slightly ironic reflection of the fact that he shows his other collection for the Spanish Loewe company in Paris. The designer has quietly become an international powerhouse, selected by Italian brand Moncler to be the latest designer to collaborate as part of itsGenius project.
JW Anderson ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
The designer deserves to be recognised as exceptional for he has succeeded in making clothes with modern meaning and with a difference that never makes them seem weird.
Christopher Kane: Adam and Eve
Sex is never very far from the runway at a Christopher Kane show. For this autumn/winter show, the voice of Dick James singing the Fifties' hitAdam and Eveblared through the collection, accompanied by triangle patchwork dresses andtriangle bralet slips.
Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
Kane was disingenuous in suggesting that “it wasn’t deliberate or intentional”, as if the clothesjust appeared.
Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
“We started playing with saucy underwear and then triangle shapes began to appear,” explained the designer. "And as we did a patchwork with triangles - the strongest shape in nature. Then, suddenly, the eye of God came into it and it had a menacing, devilish satanic point.”
All sorts of strange things were introduced, including harness implants - an orthopaedic piece used to enhance the bust line.
Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
“It’s the whole idea of protection and the idea of man, feeling and nature today. It’s become exploited and artificial but we like to keep it feminine, so there is always a bust as a constraint.”
Triangles at Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
All that seemed very complex for what we actually saw, which was not some familiar lingerie-based outfit, but rather a development of the triangle shape, whether they were draped angel-wing like across the front of dress, or triangle shaped bows with the lacy lingerie tops.
Sometimes the triangles were just that - patterns on coats and dresses with bold shoulders. Or there were simple little black dress with a transparent plastic rib below the bust above a strip of naked flesh. The same idea was replayed with sparkling flower-shapes lined up alongside the liquid-filled plastic. It all re-called the designer’s early stages when so much suggested a hospital bed, both clinical and sensual.
Christopher Kane ready-to-wear autumn/winter 2020.
© Gorunway
So Kane, who has separated from the Kering group, is carrying on alone and reinforcing his original fashion vision: spirited, fresh, young clothes that are just a touch kinky.
