J.W. Anderson, Simone Rocha, Erdem, and Roksanda

London Fashion Week’s Sunday is always its busiest day, as it features shows by the four most critically acclaimed indie fashion houses in the UK today: J.W. Anderson, Simone Rocha, Erdem, and Roksanda.
 
 

J.W. Anderson: Trompe l’oeil and trance

Talk about a tight focus at J.W. Anderson. Just four fabrics, repetitive shapes and trance music throughout, but a wealth of ideas in a very powerful show.

A packed One Billingsgate Market on a sunny morning, with the audience perched on white cubic boxes and an upper gallery crammed  with standing room.
 
Composed in leather, cashmere, silk and sequins, in a show ignited by first looks featuring very slinky, very mini cocktails, composed of trompe l’oeil sequins, one featuring a mock sweatshirt with strings, another in faux denim with false patch pocket.

“Using the same material in different looks so its looks like something completely different…. Hand knit, denim knit or woven. Girly, but with a toughness. A non-comprisable look so it was a very tight silhouette. Narrowing your mind into just four materials was an interesting exercise,” explained Anderson post-show.
 
In a show staged right next to the Tower of London, Anderson also sent out bouffant bell-shaped silk dresses, recalling Beefeaters and Tudor courtiers. Before he unleashed his big idea – the zany leather tutu. Tutus. cut so high one could see the crotch underneath. Made in the stiffest of calfskin, sometimes as a mini paired with leather vest; times with cashmere sweaters. 
 
However, his most eye-popping idea were a series of intreccio dresses and tops, made in four-inch wide woolen straps. Like most looks anchored by chunky workerist boots, with back zips all left open. Followed by a series of wickedly good handkerchief sequined cocktails – all great magazine cover looks.
 
Asked by FashionNetwork.com about his obsession with trompe l’oeil, Anderson responded: “I’ve used it for a long time in my work. An obsession with painters who have used it in Italian Modernism. I have always liked a bit of trickery, that double take, in this case 3D printed so it has an even greater depth of field.”
 
Knubby silked flight jackets, made voluminously as short cocktails were also impressive in a fast-paced event backed up by driving trance tracks like ‘Obsessed’ by Sophie Powers & Grimes or ‘Valentina’ by Fred again…
 
His final look was another stiff calf leather sheath on which was printed excerpts from an essay by Clive Bell, writing of Mesopotamian Civilization, though really discoursing on whether art and design should sit together. Which this show sort of answered. Of course, they should, and did today at Billingsgate.
 

Simone Rocha: Sexily satirical

Pearls, yards of satin, acres of tulle, gauze, crystal, ducks for handbags, elephantine jeans and lots of carnations were the juxtaposing elements in the latest great collection by Simone Rocha.

See catwalk

In the hands of a lesser talent, this could have been a mess, but Rocha is such a subtle creator the whole ensemble came together with great panache.
 
Staged inside the Old Bailey, underneath frescos of Solomon and scores of famous judges, with names like Lord Chancellor Sir Heneage Finch, this show was loudly applauded by the learned judges of fashion – critics, editors, buyers and fellow designer, Craig Green.
 
Above all, Simone’s skill in draping led to a marvelous trilogy at the finale – bouffant bows that morphed into astoundingly diaphanous gowns.  Though Rocha always knows how to leaven grandeur with a dash of disheveled punk, seen in cutaway cardigans that revealed flesh colored bras. 
 
Though the key to the collection was the carnation, in silk as an embellishment, or in real actual flowers sewn inside flesh colored mesh dresses. Very angelic yet subversive. All the way to a great new array of footwear – a fresh collaboration with Crocs; and a series of sure-fired best sellers combining perforated crocs, and Simone’s love of contrasting laces, Pearly Men fantasy and large crystals.
 
In a co-ed show, guys sported carnations too, inside pink tulle safari jackets or see-through gauzy lab coats worn over knickers. 
 
“Screaming, crying, laughing, dying, flirting,” opined Rocha in her stream of consciousness program notes. Flirtation in evidence as models wafted by in floor length silk columns slashed at the side and made in sinful boudoir red, or even Clongowes Wood College purple. Satirical, outrageous but always poetic, and as ever one the single most important reasons one comes to London Fashion Week. Rocha rules again.
 

Erdem: Radclyffe Hall renaissance

Erdem Moralıoğlu completed a trilogy this season. Making a third collection inspired by a  uniquely visionary woman, in this case Radclyffe Hall, and presenting the results again at the British Museum.
 

See catwalk

Hall is most famous for two things, her semi-autobiographical novel ‘The Well of Loneliness’, and her lifestyle, as a very public lesbian back in the 1920s.
 
Published in 1928, The Well of Loneliness – like ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ – was actually banned until the 1950s. But today Hall’s unique style, obsession with Savile Row tailoring and partnership with Una Troubridge all helped make this a great collection.
 
One year ago, Erdem was inspired by Deborah Mitford, last season by Maria Callas. “This is the third installment,” explained Erdem, calling The Well of Loneliness “a queer lesbian bible… The Well of Loneliness is the first book describing a trans relationship.”  
 
Born Marguerite, Radclyffe went by the name of John, and this collection was all about the push and pull of masculine and feminine. 
 
Hence, Erdem recovered 1920s dresses, split them open and then turned the results into screen prints,  which he then used as re-embroidery on flat pieces of linen.
 
Creating drop-waist Entre Deux Guerres shapes, for a straight, slouchy silhouette.  Which referenced Hall’s very femininely attired partner Una via semi-sheer silk negligee dresses, embroidered with chains and crystals, through which black bras were apparent.
 
Erdem even used denim in folded looks, dyed and bleached and re-dyed into almost glowing frocks. And wrapped many of his cast in silk coats, some finished with the gay symbol of the green carnation.
 
While Radclyffe’s love of suiting was recalled in banker’s double-breasted chalk-stripes on whose left forearm was a cotton patched printed the banned book’s original cover.
 
All together an artily elegant manner to recall a great writer and a pathbreaking individual, just like Erdem in this collection.
 

Roksanda: The pursuit of poise

No designer is quite as refined today in London as Roksanda Ilinčić, who invited her guests to Space House, a new circular office building offering fabulous view over London.

See catwalk

Like the skyscraper, Roksanda concentrated on spherical shapes, ginormous ruffles and vast undulating meters of faille silk. Though famed as a great colorist, her opening looks were monochromatic suits and topcoats cut with grandeur, and sliced and slashed open at the sides.

Few people can drape a handkerchief skirt as well as Roksanda, who produced beautifully proportioned versions topped by batwing blouses.
 
Before suddenly going into overdrive with abstract expressionist print cocktails or some totally bravura patent leather town-coats – often anchored by absurdly fluffy feather shoes.
 
Given the view of skyscrapers – The Shard, Razor or Cheese Grater   – it almost felt like a New York show, except for the soundtrack, a string ensemble.
 
Ever since she first appeared on the fashion radar on Fashion East almost two decades ago, Roksanda has carved out unique place in fashion. This collection kept up the momentum.