by Lauren Brown
I’ve never really deemed myself a Fashionista and consequently never understood the hype over London Fashion Week. This year, I decided to give it a go. I purchased an electric blue jacket in Topshop’s chaotic sample sale, crushed my giant feet in my pointed heels and stumbled along High Holborn into The De Vere Grand Connaught rooms where Fashion’s Finest hosted a number of great shows.
Rose Appleton’s Elegant yet rustic collection proceeded first, displaying an array of lilac and blues on light flowing dresses, most of which had a dip hem, boasting bunches and ruffles. The accessories were very interesting, with the corsage and head pieces made from lavender; it even appeared, surprisingly, in the heels of shoes, associating the designs very closely with nature. Even the designer’s name: Rose Appleton connotes nature, elegance and simplicity with strong parallels to her timeless pieces.
Akame’ s designs were next to grace the catwalk, showcasing a bold 70s 80s fusion. The bright pinks, electric blues and black halter neck shift dress, sculptured with what looked like many individual shards of plastic gave the collection a real disco vibe. The party dress made me wish she’d substituted the straight faced catwalk strut, with a cheeky shimmy and ‘going back to my roots’ would blast from the speakers. This collection was fun vibrant and eccentric,
Kim Tiziana Rottmüller was certainly the most memorable of the day with cleverly deep rooted symbolism in each and every piece. The fusion named ‘Bittersweet’ is a collection combining two very contrasting themes: ‘Prison’and ‘Barbie’, the former, extremely difficult to ignore with the outlandish iron bars in weird and wonderful places. The iron head garment of course symbolises entrapment, contrasting with the pink flamboyancy and overstated ruffles. The collection demands that we should celebrate femininity, hence why the ruffles are so overstated, as if they are trying to break out from the restrictions of society; the literal restrictions of the iron bars. The black and pink are perfectly contrasted, representing the conflict between mental restrictions and mental freedom.
What I learnt about LFW is the importance of subjectivity. It’s not the tent dangling over their body, but the meaning of the tent. And yes, some things may be completely unwearable, but at least they’re memorable. What one person deems an absolute sham, another finds the meaning of life….. or something like that. It’s all a bit OTT if you ask me…
