LONDON. London Fashion Week celebrated its 40th anniversary for the second season in a year, this time celebrating the capital’s fashion with the spring/summer collections for the coming 2025. J.W. Anderson dominated the scene with a provocative and conceptual collection. His oversized and sculptural pieces play on volumes and proportions, mixing artistic elements with defined and tailored cuts. The Irish designer, recently returned from the Venice Film Biennale alongside Luca Guadagnino for whom he designed the costumes for the latest film in competition “Queer”, gives himself very precise rules: a single fabric, silk satin, a single yarn, cashmere, a single skin and a single type of embroidery. The only decoration is in the lace at the edges of dresses on the décolleté and oversized knots in knitwear that almost reach the floor. A text covers mini dresses and satin bodices with a title that runs along the front and reads “Simplification and Design”. That is, the simplification of design to arrive at an essential result that opens real conversations on shape, material and line.
The other Irishwoman expected on the catwalk is Simone Rockdaughter of the acclaimed John Rocha, presented a gothic and poetic collection, constantly exploring the duality of strength and fragility. With dramatic volumes, ethereal transparencies, lace and pearls, Rocha paints powerful yet vulnerable women, modern romantic warriors with a flower in hand, this time a bouquet of pink carnations. The ability to mix robust and delicate fabrics creates a tension that transforms ballerinas in pink lace tutus into determined heroines in tuxedos.
Romance, pearls and black lace also for Erdemwhich, with its typically nostalgic features, has brought the beauty of the past back to life with clothes that tell forgotten stories. This season, it tells the story of Stephen Gordon, who in 1928 filled the pages of Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness” with his impossible story of a woman who wants to live as a man in an era in which she is not allowed to. Romantic silhouettes with elaborate embroidery and bright fabrics parade: hyper-feminine evening dresses mixed with tailored suits with decidedly masculine features. Here too, a white carnation sits on the benches waiting for guests.
The great awaited finale remains Burberry by Daniel Lee, who brings the collection to the National Theatre on the South Bank, on the banks of the Thames. The building, part of a brutalist architectural complex that has become an icon of the city, becomes the emblematic choice for a simple, to-the-point and accessible collection. A show that makes you dream but within everyone’s reach: garments that can be worn in looks or alone like long-necked leather jackets, trench coats that become day dresses, all-over checks and denim on skirts and cargo pants. A black and white striped scarf transforms the models into theatre actors against the backdrop of the aquamarine set created by the iconic English artist Gary Hume. The title of the show reads «In London it was summer». The beginning of a new chapter for the next season.
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