The Top 9 Collections of London Fashion Week Spring 2019
London’s designers outdid themselves for Spring 2019, with collections which will be delivered at the very moment that Britain is to go over the brink and leave Europe early next year. Creatively speaking, the still volatile and undecided political situation is only bringing out the best in them. The designers who have emerged here over the past decade now own their spaces with maturity and uncompromised statements of self-expression.
There were hats and veiled faces, grandly romantic ball gowns, and often stunning feats of embellishment from Erdem, Simone Rocha, Mary Katrantzou, and the newcomer Richard Quinn. The impulse to escape—surely a generalized spiritual longing not limited to living in the British Isles—was channeled in Molly Goddard’s happy summer holiday collection. On another level, JW Anderson aligned craft with thought-out wearability; bohemian sophistication, if you will.
Sophistication was a watchword of Riccardo Tisci’s, too. The city’s confidence was boosted by his mega debut at Burberry, where he refocused the brand on generation-spanning appeal. Victoria Beckham scored her own London first, too—top marks for the age-inclusive casting in her elegant 10th-anniversary show.
Sex and resistance to societal norms are alive and kicking. Christopher Kane’s show pressed erotic buttons. Meanwhile, Matty Bovan, standing up for creative freedom, managed to bring together art, craft, and ball gowns in one exuberant collection, admired by Vivienne Westwood, who declared him a punk after her own heart. Only in London.
JW Anderson
“Jonathan Anderson has hit a stride with his own brand, evoking a believable kind of womanhood in motion. His Spring show made peace with that difficult conundrum: how to make complex, crafted clothes that are simultaneously relatable and simple to wear. He will probably bridle at that description—it sounds so ordinary—yet legion are the women who will witness the frustrations of trying to find interesting clothes that don’t verge on fashion victimhood. Perhaps better to say that Anderson is now successfully serving a sophisticated boots-up package for women who hate the very idea of fashion prescriptions.” —Sarah Mower
Victoria Beckham
“It’s funny to think that VB is an icon in the memories of millennial and Gen Zers in their 20s, and, simultaneously, a wardrobe-inspirer to women of her own 40s-and-above generation. With her anniversary show, held in a gallery right next door to her Dover Street store, she recognized that: focusing all the hoopla around her anniversary on asserting the age-inclusivity of her brand. . . . Whatever Beckham wears, women race to buy. She knows that. . . . Her talent is being able to create the feeling of a relationship with her customers. . . . The more women are able to project themselves onto the person wearing the clothes, the more likely they are to leap at buying. Seems basic, but it felt like a liberating breakthrough for Beckham as she faces the next 10 years of growing her brand.” —S.M.
Erdem
“One way or another, London designers are showing their resistance to the forces of right-wing conservatism. In Moralioglu’s book, it was a reason to give full rein to all his signature penchants—puffed sleeves, velvet brocades, fragile boudoir satin and lace, gorgeously sweeping gowns. Noel Stewart, his milliner friend, supplied the veiled hats that evoked the shielded mystery of glamorous creatures moving through society by day or night. The clothes ticked all the boxes which will satisfy his loyal customers—trouser suits, decorative coats, amazing evening dresses. But how inspiring it was to see this champion of old-school romance using his influence to uphold freedoms that matter so much today.” —S.M.
Christopher Kane
“A woman’s options for sexy dressing are at a pretty low ebb right now, what with the dominance of high necklines, full-length sleeves, and ankle-grazing dresses, and the continuing impacts of #MeToo. Christopher Kane is a lone outspoken voice in that wilderness, an advocate for the empowerment of women and girls through clothes. . . . Kane has been attuned to thinking about aiding and abetting the primal forces of attraction in clothes since he was a student. For Spring 2019 he’d switched channels—to Discovery—and called the show Nature and Sex, merging subliminal fragments of Attenborough’s running commentaries on mating and Monroe’s thoughts about being a sex symbol on the soundtrack.” —S.M.
Molly Goddard
“Goddard scooped the British Fashion Council/Vogue Fashion Fund Award this past May, and she is clearly in expansion mode. Her latest collection spoke to the width and breadth of her talents with an offering that encompassed easy day separates (the cropped floral knits and ruffled cotton maxi skirts were the picks of the bunch) and the full-on drama of evening (see the tiered floor-length dress that was a glorious explosion of ruffles). Further proof that this brand is going places.” —Chioma Nnadi
Matty Bovan
“[Bovan’s collection] was a celebration of something quite deep in the rebellious British psyche: When backs are against the wall—Brexit, austerity, and social inequalities roiling as they are now—creativity will come out fighting. In Bovan’s press release he stated it: ‘I have a lot of conflicting thoughts, a lot of unrest about the political climate we live in. A lot of people do. The only thing I can do in response to that is bang a drum, hard, for the idea of being yourself.’ The worry with Bovan is that his shows thus far have could have been categorized as all scene and styling, a cover for a raw prodigious talent which might not result in much commercial potential. But with this one, something else came through. Looking at the slim, multi-patterned, multicolored jersey dresses and sweaters—after all, that was his specialty at Central Saint Martins—you could clearly see what he can sell.” —S.M.
Burberry
“It began—as it had to—with a trenchcoat, this one knee-length, buttoned up, and cinched with a broad elasticated belt. The belt read as a typically Tisci-esque shape-defining touch—his classic woman seen not as an all-over-the-place English eccentric, but as an adherent of neatness, pussycat bows, silk dresses—in the new Peter Saville–designed TB-logo-print pencil skirts, polo shirts, and piped blazers. Tisci said he’d been looking into the archive—this section, at a guess, must have been gleaned from the Thatcher-era ’80s, when Burberry catered for sensible, horsey women in the country. Head scarves were knotted as belts and became incorporated into the side seams of a raincoat. Yet it’s been 20 years or more since Burberry was only concerned with serving the safe tastes of the British middle classes, and Tisci has been hired as a top-flight fashion titan whose tastes and skills are internationalist. His gloss on the look of the English bourgeoisie comes with a fashion accent—his tailored men, too, had close-to-the-torso suits and smart parkas which will be read as internationally ‘smart.’” —S.M.
Simone Rocha
“Simone Rocha invoked something rich, delicate, and somber on her carpeted runway at Lancaster House tonight. Broad-brimmed hats dripping with chiffon lace–trimmed veils; prints of antique paintings of Tang dynasty beauties; crazily chic shoes sprouting feathers: This time, in her allusive, nonlinear way, she was exploring the Chinese side of herself. . . . ‘I was also thinking about Qingming, the Chinese equivalent of the Day of the Dead, when everyone goes up the mountain in Hong Kong to clean their family’s gravestones. I was there this Easter when we went up to visit our grandparents,’ [said Rocha]. . . . The matters of this world and the next, intimations of spirituality and the supernatural: Somehow these concerns have started to filter into the imagery of fashion. In the case of Simone Rocha’s Spring collection, it created a hauntingly resonant moment that won’t be forgotten.” —S.M.
“Quinn has been diligent about incorporating a sense of community into his work, inviting students and fellow designers to use the printing facilities at his studio in Peckham. This season he pushed his technical-design smarts to dazzling new extremes, beyond the wallpaper prints he’s become known for. He heightened the drama of the presentation with a little help from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as models in velvet ski masks opened the show in black tutus and heels. With a video projection of gathering storm clouds as a backdrop, the tension was Hitchcockian. Out of the darkness, however, emerged a series of glittering, embellished floral looks, starting with a 1950s-style cocktail dress entrusted with sparkling red roses. The passage of drop-waisted frocks, some in pale blue satin, others printed with hothouse flowers, were perhaps the pick of the bunch. They added a languid touch to evening that would flatter a wide range of body types—no Spanx required. That said, the marabou-feather numbers were pretty showstopping, too—who would have thought that feathered evening pants could become a thing?” —C.N.
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