Fashion Week
S/S 2012

Collections Editors' picks News Videos Past shows

Day 1

Vivienne Westwood Red Label Jonathan Saunders

Day 2

Margaret Howell Richard Nicoll Marios Schwab Paul Smith Acne

Day 3

Peter Pilotto Pringle of Scotland Christopher Kane Burberry Prorsum Giles

Day 4

Mary Katrantzou Roksanda Ilincic Kinder Aggugini

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

Westwood has always worn her political agendas, literally, on her sleeve, and this season was no different as she campaigned towards protecting the rainforests to fight climate change. The grande dame of British fashion sent models out in matted topknots, chunky plaits and garishly glistening make-up for a look that was equal parts cyber punk and Rastafarian. In spite of the tribal styling and exotic prints, Westwood's signature was easily recognisable in cowl-neck blouses, angular jackets and draped, pin-tucked skirts - with low-slung, paper-bag trousers thrown in occasionally for good measure. She mixed in more athletic pieces, such as piqué cardigans, jaunty jersey dresses and plaid golf-style trousers for textbook British eclecticism at its best

Writer: Pei-Ru Keh

Vivienne Westwood Red Label

Jonathan Saunders

Colour theory is Jonathan Saunders's strongest suit. Working in a Floridian palette of aqua, peach, turquoise and lime, Saunders delivered a mouthwatering vision of full skirts, painter jackets, pyjama blouses, square-necked pinafores and gauzy knits against the West London skyline surrounding Paddington Central. There was whiff of the 1950s in the air, with silhouettes kept demure and most lengths dropping below the knee. There was no doubting the modernity of the collection, however, as models sported exaggerated Amy Winehouse eyeliner and low ponytails. Highlights included jacquard dresses emblazoned with a modern take on the paisley print in ice blue and lemon, and sheer, long-sleeved dresses embroidered with flourishes reminiscent of wrought-iron railings. They were made all the more provocative with a little satin ribbon fixed down the open back

PRK

Jonathan Saunders

Margaret Howell

London Fashion Week, Sunday morning in Marylebone, it has to be Margaret Howell. Her 'studio' presentation, held in her daylight-filled Wigmore Street store, was as pared down as the clothing she makes: tied-back hair, some lipstick and one style of shoes throughout made for a trick-free show. It's always an evolution rather than a revolution here. So if there was any major message this season, it was shirts and graphic colour in the form of stripes and spots. The study of shirts also included some fine shirt-dresses with half sleeves and dropped waists, the gathers, pleats and plackets just so. Stripes appeared on blue and white linen Breton-style knits with one brick-red stripe at the neck. The red stripe was also shown on the edge of neckerchiefs, worn scout style twisted round the shoulders and neck, and on fine cotton or silk poplin, fashioned into shirts and shirt-dresses. The polka dots were also well worked, spread so widely apart they looked completely new. One can imagine the amount of time that went into perfecting the layout of the spot design

Writer: Nick Vinson

Margaret Howell

Richard Nicoll

It's not easy to create the perfect blend between sexy and demure, but this season Richard Nicoll seemed to achieve just that. Hard-wearing fabrics like scuba gear, neoprene and plastic were applied with poetic colours and paired with floaty georgette skirts. There were floral pyjama suits, puff-sleeved chiffon dresses and rose-coloured Lurex knits - a lot of it underpinned by cone-bra bodices and structured hoop trim. The parts sound as disparate as see-through plastic and silk jacquard can be. Nevertheless the collection came together brilliantly, confirming Nicoll's prowess at blending contradictory aesthetics to create minimalist glamour spiked with a modern twist

Writer: Lauren Ho

Richard Nicoll

Marios Schwab

Marios Schwab may have been looking to Mediterranean neorealist cinema for cues this season - everything, from the swept-back, wavy hair and graphic cat-eyes to the halter-neck dresses, revealing trench coats and black-leather gloves, pointed to the film-noir heroine - but this was certainly not a plain-sailing love story. His collection referenced the grittier side of seaside life: crosshatched fishermen's-net patterns brought an ingenious hard edge to dresses that showcased much more than Schwab's mastery with a woman's curves. Even when a smattering of feminine pastel shades appeared they were sheathed in black veiling, evoking those enigmatic 1940s film characters in veiled hats - intriguing, but ultimately untouchable.

Writer: Apphia Michael

Marios Schwab

Paul Smith

Paul Smith's show was short and to the point, a collection in two halves, connected by the poplin shirt. On one side were the boys-for-girls combos Smith does so well and is really known for: shrunken blazer, shirt and short trousers worn with colourful loafers. And on the other were wrapped or waisted full-skirted shirt-dresses shown with a chunky, higher heel. They both worked in a soft, relaxed and easy way. The palette - sunflower teamed with grey and peach or tangerine, plus brick-red accessories - kept it feminine. Smith explored familiar territories also traversed in his recent men's collection, including a play on smoking, in which he paired leopard-print pony-skin loafers with pyjama pants or cream wool trousers with grosgrain ribbon running down the side. It was just 35 looks in all, short but most definitely sweet.

Paul Smith

Acne

After excusing himself in the show notes ('I know a trip is boring, but sometimes it's what you need'), Jonny Johansson confessed that a recent journey to Marrakech got him started on a multicultural vibe. Don't mistake that that for anything even vaguely literal, though. Instead, the 'melting pot of cultures' Johansson tapped into produced a 1950s-style double-silk prom dress matched with a sleeveless biker jacket punched with stars. And a thermo-bonded kaftan with fluorescent pocket detailing. Wide, loosely gathered Zouave pants were shown under sporty parkas, and bonded denim, silk, leather and vinyl were finished raw and used to create uncompromising architectural shapes. The colour palette was equally eclectic.

Acne

Peter Pilotto
It was evident the Peter Pilotto duo were motivated by the lush, tropical foliage of Indonesia for their Spring/Summer collection. Celebrated for their digital prints, they paired this season's anamorphic leaves and flowers with an incandescent colour palette of vivid blues, reds and canary yellow. Shown with fluorescent Perspex-heels by Nicholas Kirkwood, the result was a resplendent collection – enhanced even further by intricate embroidery and beading. And it all clung to the softly sculptural silhouettes and nipped waists that are so characteristic of the brand.

Peter Pilotto

Pringle of Scotland
Finally, a heritage knitwear brand that shows knitwear – and great knitwear at that. When Alistair Carr, Pringle's new design director, sent out look number one of his debut show – a grey fine-gauge sweater with an innovative and colourful take on traditional intarsia at its yoke, worn over pair of grey flannel trousers and a fierce pair of shoes by Chrissie Morris – he established where he is taking Pringle. And that means plenty of modern, and very covetable knits. He may also have cracked the its-hard-to-sell-knitwear-in-summer conundrum with a series of tops and dresses that are open in the back, like back-to-front cardigans. Carr has a very modern outlook (he trained at Balenciaga) and he worked intarsia, jacquards, degradé beading and devorée, all classic techniques, in totally new ways.
NV

Pringle of Scotland

Christopher Kane
Christopher Kane has moved on from the darkness of his Fall collection, and judging by the shimmering haze of pastels and golden embellishments he's just sent down the runway, the summer's looking pretty bright. Flouncing out to the haunting tones of Lana Del Ray's ‘Video Games', Kane's girls were a perfectly poised assemblage of wispy-haired, fresh-faced young things kitted out in luxurious brocade shift dresses and skirts. The Scottish designer has always been one to inject an element of weird into his overtly beautiful clothes, and this season was no exception: his chunky, flat slip sandals, last seen violating fashion codes at a local beach near you, bordered on the macabre, but worked. Almost every piece of clothing – from the short dresses to the sheer silk jackets and even a pair of ripped jeans – had some sort of flower motif. But before things turned into 'flower power' territory, Kane reined it in by slashing into sleeves, skirts and necklines, and then folding the fabric geometrically to create an ingenious origami effect.

Christopher Kane

Burberry Prorsum

Back in June in Milan, Christopher Bailey introduced raffia into the winning Burberry formula, bringing a colourful, whimsical and folksy feel to the collection. Today he took the fibre even further: as summer 'fur' on collars and stoles; knitted into Fair Isle yokes; and laced into trim on waist-clenching belts, outerwear and even on sunglasses. The handcrafted theme was expanded to include coloured-wood beading as large as children's toys and richly patterned African batiks, given the Burberry treatment for a series of ruched dresses (now a brand staple) and parkas. All this – plus specially crafted cloth, knitted or woven out of raffia and leather, in a multitude of stripes and chevrons – made for a varied and spicy colour palette. This being Burberry we cannot forget the trench coats (cut super-tight on the bodice and high under the arm) and the dresses, which had that 1950s couture-cum-prom dress vibe that is racing through London, with big dirndl skirts and fitted bodices.

Burberry Prorsum

Giles
Opening and closing his show with spectacular, towering, swan-shaped headpieces by milliner Stephen Jones, with a collection part inspired by showgirls, superstars and society ladies in between, Giles Deacon proved his imagination runs far from the ordinary. Deacon took the theatrical 'excesses' of Cecil Beaton, Andy Warhol, club host Leigh Bowery and filmmaker John Maybury as his starting point. He presented the gowns and grown-up tailoring he has come to be known for in a palette of silver, red, white and a little peachy pink, imagined in swan-printed satin, tulle, Swiss lace, laser-cut and shredded-metallic leather, silk brocade, embroidery and, most dramatically, cascading ostrich feathers.

Giles

Mary Katrantzou

Promising petal, metal and of course print, Mary Katrantzou channelled the beautiful and brutal sculptures of John Chamberlain and contrasted all that crushed car metal with nature. Photographic prints and complex knit jacquards featuring metal drums, bolts, car parts and tin cans met cherry blossoms, fields of flowers, coral and other marine life – all on a single dress. This is Katrantzou's thing, and she uses a kind of puzzle of pattern pieces to construct deceivingly simple garments out of gloriously clashing pattern. The finished 'man meets machine meets Mother Earth' effect is a highly successful maximalist visual feast

Mary Katrantzou

Roksanda Ilincic

The epitome of effortless elegance, a Roksanda Ilincic show is always a pleasantly reassuring experience. This season the flawy silhouettes and long, dramatic evening dresses took on a few structured shapes in the form of bell sleeves, cuffed trousers and collarless silk shirts - all paired with colourful block heels. Never one to shy away from eye-popping colour, Ilincic used magenta, mustard and turquoise, complemented by shots of neon orange, bringing together a well-executed collection catering to fans old and new

Roksanda Ilincic

Kinder Aggugini

It's a famously rocky road from gawky schoolgirl to elegant lady, but if there is one designer who's captured the tricky subject of girls in transition, it's Kinder Aggugini. This season the designer wasn't concerned with that polished ‘butterfly moment', but rather the angsty caterpillar stage of tension between a girl's experimentation with a new way of dressing and her defiant refusal to let go of hard-edged childhood rebellion. The contrast between hard and soft ran energetically through the show, with flirty, flowery, hand-painted prints and elegant double-crepe georgette dresses alongside bright, colour-block leather biker jackets with chunky, exposed zips and oversized studs that could almost be mistaken for sequins. Leave it to anyone else and the concept might fall into the trap of becoming gimmicky. But Aggugini's strong point is tailoring, and his eye for detail had us squinting for a closer look at the superbly placed floral appliqué (abundant but not overwhelming), exposed seams in jackets and tailored, boy-style silk lapels. Which he then ripped to shreds for good measure

AM