LAST LOOKS: BEST OF LONDON, FALL 2016
Change is in the air throughout the fashion industry, as designers adjust to an increasingly impatient consumer base unwilling to wait six months for the clothes they see on the runway to arrive in their closets. See now, buy now is allegedly the way forward, but London’s labels proved that there are still plenty of things that are worth the wait, as proved by our ten favorite Fall 2016 collections below.
Burberry, of course, has been one of the main drivers toward immediacy, with their announcement that, come September’s show, the clothes will be available for purchase instantly. To mark the end of an era, as it were, Christopher Bailey’s latest collection had an appropriately English appeal, with plaids and patchwork with a military inflection that spoke unimpeachably of London’s cool heritage. Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen also had the British capital in her sights, moving the show back from Paris (temporarily, for now) to present designs that had a magical, ornate appeal, embellished with sparkles and butterflies with the kind of whimsy McQueen himself was best known for injecting into England’s then-stolid æsthetic. Simone Rocha reached back further into British history, pulling silhouettes and details from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and adding a personal touch, as a new mother, with references to nursing and swaddling in the way her stoles wrapped around her gauzy dresses.
Gareth Pugh brought a hard edge to his aggressive collection, with Eighties power suits and Hannibal masks that evoked female strength and dominance. Jonathan Anderson went for eclecticism and individuality at JW Anderson, showing his command of construction with ruffles, capelets, and swirling sculptural shapes. Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos sent out Nordic embroidery on shimmering dresses and geometric knits for a feeling that was feminine and craftsy, but had a very contemporary appeal. Mary Katrantzou had a similarly effusive flair, taking the childhood icons of the cowboy and the princess as starting points, showing her signature intricate prints on dresses in various shapes and sizes against a glinting silver runway.
The look for Erdem Moralioglu came from the earlier half of the twentieth century, with sparkling flapper dresses, Jazz Age shifts, and World War II tailoring, all made new through the designer’s careful detailing and a dark sense of delicacy. Marques’Almeida’s Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida dressed their friends in their original designs, which ran through a full range of colors and shapes to offer a vision of what a real woman would wear today. And, as the newest designer in the pack making her début at Fashion East, Amie Robertson of AV Robertson proved her facility with embroideries and prints with dresses adorned with stripes and flowers, at once both strong and soft. If the fashion industry is, as many argue, undergoing a revolution, these were all collections that promised something to look forward to.
See our top ten Fall 2016 collection from New York Fashion Week here.
