BEST OF LONDON FASHION WEEK FALL 2014

There was, it seemed, no end to the complaints about the wintry weather here in New York during the Fall 2014 shows, but, viewed optimistically, all those thick coats coming down the runway ended up looking that much more desirable. Our fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks demonstrate a strong season for outerwear, with an emphasis on texture and shape over pattern that gave the season a sense of pared-down ease.

There was a strong strand of elegance in the air in Paris during the recent Fall 2014 men’s shows, with a panoply of innovative takes on classic suiting and long overcoats with a clean, grown-up air. The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks demonstrate the range of the city’s talents, from classic pinstripes to vibrant shine and shimmer.

There was a clean simplicity to the clothes that came down the runways during the recent Fall 2014 shows at Milan men’s fashion week, as demonstrated by The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks.

More than Milan and Paris—and even ever-youthful New York—London has always had a special lock on the current moment.

Spring 2014 has seen a worthy variety of prints, palettes, and silhouettes over the past month, culminating in the wealth of options on display a week ago at the Paris shows, which presented a shimmering variety of possibilities with a strong emphasis on texture, as can be seen in The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks. Dries van Noten decorated his intricate designs with ruffles, pleats, and embroidery to dazzling effect. The vision at Maison Martin Margiela was one of rich showmanship, with sparkling beading adding a glimmer to the sharp menswear-inspired pieces. Rick Owens presented a uniquely creative twist on his classic draping, wrapping his dresses around college steppers whose snarling expressions and carefully choreographed performance rejected all notions of what a fashion show should be. Haider Ackermann put a low-key shine on his strong, emphatic designs, with a range of soft metallics that had a burnished glow. Rei Kawakubo soared over the boundaries between fashion and sculpture at Comme des Garçons, offering designs that each had their own individual forms that pushed beyond a standard understanding of “clothing.” Hedi Slimane brought a new feminine glamour to the updated rocker æsthetic he has been mining so successfully at Saint Laurent. Riccardo Tisci offered a stripped-down vision, eschewing the iconography and idols of previous collections for a clean purity of distinctive shapes that had a subdued elegance. Raf Simons continued his reinvention of the house of Christian Dior, injecting the label’s storied history with a jolt of vibrancy and progressivism that pushed provocatively forward without losing a sense of the past. Sarah Burton’s show for Alexander McQueen had an evocatively eclectic range of vigorous prints that demonstrated her respect for the name on the label while still proving she has her own independent vision. And Phoebe Philo, in a season that hummed with the tension of designers pushing against expectations, reinvented her thoroughly modernist minimalism with a vivid riff on graffiti that proved that even the Old World capital of Paris continues to surge in vital pursuit of the future.

Spring 2014 was a sporty season in Milan, accentuated by long silhouettes that hit well below the knee and sharpened by a stark, graphic palette, as seen in The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks. The arch-minimalist Jil Sander offered her customary clean cuts and sculpted shapes, with effortless coats and trousers […]

London Fashion Week has always been the one with a little extra youthful spirit, and that difference has never been as prominent as it was with the riotous floral prints and colors and unconventional designs that showed up for Spring 2014, as The Last Magazine’s fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks demonstrate. Giles Deacon […]

The biggest news out of New York from the Spring 2014 shows was a certain pared-down calmness, with smooth lines and loose silhouettes that exuded a quiet sort of confidence, according to The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s top ten looks. Over at Proenza Schouler, Jack McCullough and Lázaro Hernández offered long lines with […]