When the weather has been as stiflingly hot as it was in Europe this June, most people agree that the ideal outfit is one that includes as few clothes as possible. How then, to best express a sense of personal style? At the end of the three-city romp that was men’s fashion month – which saw designers and brands present their S/S 2027 collections in Florence, Milan, and Paris – Wallpaper* has collated the standout accessories of the season, from playful jewellery to statement shoes, which will elevate even the simplest of looks.

Dior’s bold brooches

Jonathan Anderson chose to trompe-l’oeil some of his accessories this season, but the jewellery was very much real, and for S/S 2027 the Dior man is wearing a brooch. Dior was not the only place we saw brooches this week, but the oversized sparkly pom-poms pinned to jumpers, and the large metallic foxglove with coloured bead petals, worn on a jacket lapel, were among the standouts for the season.

Simone Rocha’s ballet pumps

In the run-up to Simone Rocha’s first standalone menswear show, held as part of Pitti Uomo in Florence, the designer told Wallpaper* that it was ‘contrast’ and ‘tension’ that excites her most about fashion. Nowhere was this better expressed in the show at Teatro Della Pergola than in the shoes: punky studded derbys were countered with soft ballet pumps, the latter replete with elastic strap and bow, and an occasional pearl-drop detail.

Prada’s belt bags

It was a highly streamlined affair from Muccia Prada and Raf Simons this season, and, as such, accessories were ‘integrated within these overall structures’, for maximum efficiency. In practice, this meant bags – some practical zip-up nylon, others in squishy leather – hung from belts via carabiner, swinging at the hip, a part of an outfit rather than an add-on.

Celine’s colourful cummerbunds

Michael Rider’s first menswear proposition for Celine was dictated by his own taste, and creating garments he and his team would wish to wear themselves. Cue the cummerbund, a standout piece in a collection teeming with highly desirable accessories, including chunky wooden bead necklaces, spangled fringe scarves, jangly belts and jumbo pins. The fuchsia silk sash offered a colourful contrast to a neutral-toned ensemble, and a version in turquoise worn over a black long-sleeve and white slacks made a case for incorporating the cummerbund into a daytime look.

Ralph Lauren’s statement belts

If the Ralph Lauren gentleman doesn’t have a cable-knit jumper or a striped neck-tie slung around his waist, no matter, he is not short of statement belt options for the season. There was a bit of an emphasis on the accessory at the dual-Polo and Purple Label show in Milan, with an eclectic offering including a brown leather belt with cowboy-esque buckle and studs, a version in black with a clip-on chain, and skinny, woven iterations in contrasting colours, the straps either tucked neatly through D-rings or left to hang loose.

Dolce & Gabbana’s bejewelled slippers

What do you get the man who has everything? Why, a pair of Dolce and Gabbana S/S 2027 bejewelled slippers, of course. One pair came in blue suede with matching beading, another pair positively barnacled in crystal in golden setting – contrasting with the easy, lightweight cotton and sensual linen garments proposed for a vacanze Siciliane.

Paul Smith’s undone ties

Nostalgia for summers gone by was a major theme of this season’s Paul Smith collection – one which takes place in the designer’s 80th birthday year. In the accessories, as in the way they were styled, this theme took us back to Smith’s childhood: memories of his grandfather’s relaxed approach to suiting translated into unknotted neck ties that hung loosely, as if they’d been undone at the end of a hot day. Charms cast in pewter and brass were worn on pins and on necklaces and were shaped like pennies (that a kid might collect), and seashells and sailing boats – the idyllic imagery of long ago school holidays.

Saint Laurent’s see-through shoes

The contentious see-through shoe has been mainly the preserve of womenswear discourse before now, but, thanks to Anthony Vaccarello, men too can join in the conversation. Saint Laurent’s footwear offering for the season included an elongated Oxford dress shoe with its upper portion crafted from transparent vinyl. For proving one’s fashion chops, even if it does mean giving away foot content gratis, there is no better option.

Auralee’s holiday beads

Evocative of the kind of easy souvenir one might pick up on holiday in the tropics, multi-coloured beads the size of seed-pearls were woven on strings and into micro-charms for Auralee’s S/S 2027 presentation – worn as anklets, belts, and even looped through eyelets in lieu of shoelaces.

Louis Vuitton’s surfboards

Pharrell Williams made a convincing argument that the ultimate accessory for the season is one on which you can ride the waves. For the surf-inspired show, which featured neoprene-clad models, the usual leather goods were almost upstaged by LV-monogrammed boards, an impossibly chic addition to any beach look.

Dries Van Noten’s animal-print lace-ups

An 1876 poem about a fantastical creature, half-man, half-animal, was Julian Klausner’s inspiration for Dries Van Noten this season. Presumably it was the bottom half that was the animal, for amongst the shoes featured was a series of slender brogues in photorealistic cheetah print, an effect which was also mimicked on gloves and capacious pouches.

Wooyoungmi’s laundry bags

If doing the washing doesn’t feel like an automatic association for a collection centred around joy to suggest, allow Wooyoungmi’s take on a laundry bag to make you reconsider. An array of striped versions with contrasting leather handles and piping featured throughout, reinforcing the way heung, a Korean concept based on optimism, joy and spontaneity ‘can be evoked through meditative manifestation in every area of life.’

‘Splitting the collections up rather than showing them together has really changed the way I’ve thought about menswear. It’s been great to give it this undivided attention to detail, because menswear is so much more detail-orientated than womenswear anyway. There’s really nowhere to hide with it.’ This is Simone Rocha talking, over video call the week before her first standalone menswear collection was unveiled at Pitti Uomo. In March it was announced that Rocha was to be the guest designer at the historic Florentine fair, following in the footsteps of Giorgio Armani, Raf Simons, Craig Green and more. This evening (18 June 2026), it finally happened.

Menswear has been a part of Rocha’s offering since 2022, but until now, shown in conjunction with her celebrated womenswear designs, which are rooted in a romantic yet oftentimes dark femininity, with references to folklore and her family’s mixed heritage. How would this interplay translate in a fully realised menswear collection?

Simone Rocha at Pitti Uomo S/S 2027

‘What I love the most in design is contrast, or tension,’ Rocha tells Wallpaper*. ‘Just as I’m always trying to conjure a femininity that’s not too sweet, with menswear I am drawn to the more tender aspects of masculinity. I’m trying to peel back the layers and see what sensitivity and poetry is available to play with.’ This has resulted in subversions of classic men’s shapes: a two-button jacket with classic break, which has the back scooped out and a tie fastening that echoes the strap of a waistcoat, but also calls to mind apron strings. The ubiquitous cotton poplin shirt is translated into broderie anglais, and an embroidered jacquard motif is engineered into a Fair Isle knit. Traditional underwear like long-johns, gingham boxer-shorts, and dress socks is not concealed, but worn on full display.

Speaking of how her Chinese and Irish family heritage finds its way into her work, Rocha shares that her maternal grandfather was in her mind throughout the creation of this collection. ‘He was a pharmacist in the Irish midlands, and because he was the pharmacist he was also the person who had the darkroom – everyone in town would take their pictures to him to develop, and he was also an incredible photographer himself. He had an amazing eye for composition. But it’s interesting to me that, because he was always behind the camera, there are very few photos of him. So the idea of being viewed versus being the viewer is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.’

This theme was furthered by the show’s venue – the Teatro Della Pergola, supposed to be Italy’s oldest opera house. Rocha has made opulent show locations something of a calling card, with previous outings at the restored Victorian theatre of Alexandra Palace, the official lord mayor’s residence at Mansion House, and even The Old Bailey. ‘I’m very sensitive to where I show,’ she says. ‘I see it as an extension of the collection. I think the Teatro might actually be too romantic to use for a women’s show, but for men’s it’s perfect. Behind the stage is this window to the outside, which is pretty unusual in a theatre, and so you have this wonderful shaft of light coming in and hitting the stage. It’s that bright light of Florence that I remember from visits to the city as a child.’

The Tuscan capital has infiltrated the collection in other ways too. ‘I am a Merchant Ivory obsessive!’ Rocha enthuses – explaining the cornflower motif that appears throughout the collection, a nod to the blossoms that appear in the 1985 adaptation of EM Forster’s A Room With A View, set in turn-of-the-century Florence. ‘There’s so much whimsy, and rebellion, and innocence in that story. It’s set in a different time but touches on so much contemporary feeling.’ Would actor Julian Sands’ unconventional, free-spirited George Emerson have been a Simone Rocha boy? It’s a nice thought.

This evening (16 June 2026), guests will gather in the cloisters of Florence’s Santa Maria Novella Church for a dinner hosted by the Umbrian designer Brunello Cucinelli – a twice-yearly tradition that marks the opening of Pitti Uomo, the historic Florentine menswear fair. And with it, the beginning of Men’s Fashion Month: after Florence, there are stops in Milan and Paris across a 12-day schedule which will see S/S 2027 menswear offerings from fashion’s biggest houses – among them Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent – as well as a raft of newer names. By the time Paris wraps up on 28 June 2026, we will have the blueprint of how menswear might look a year from now, and no doubt plenty to mull over: this looks to be a season of consolidation and world-building as relatively new creative directors settle into their tenures and others steady the ship amid the backdrop of a global luxury slowdown.

And, while the schedule is certainly lighter than its womenswear counterpart (the S/S 2027 women’s shows will take place in September, and traditionally have a busier line-up), plenty of intriguing moments remain – from Simone Rocha’s first dedicated menswear show (she will be a guest designer at Pitti Uomo, showing in the historic Teatro Della Pergola), to calendar shift-ups, designer returns and (a small handful) of debuts. We've picked the eight moments to look out for this Men’s Fashion Month S/S 2027 below.

Simone Rocha will be Pitti Uomo’s guest star

Historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo, taking place in Florence twice-yearly, marks the start of Men’s Fashion Month each season, centring around the 14th-century Fortezza da Basso. But alongside the main fair – where you will find stands from Brunello Cucinelli, Herno and the like – organisers invite a number of guest designers to show each season in locations around the city (previous guests have included Raf Simons, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, alongside numerous fashion houses). This time, it is the turn of Irish designer Simone Rocha, who will host her first dedicated menswear show on Thursday 18 June at the 17th-century Teatro Della Pergola, an opera house and theatre that is one of the oldest in Italy (previously she has presented menswear as part of her womenswear show, or via lookbook). ‘I would like to thank Pitti Uomo for their generous invitation to present my first independent menswear show on the men's calendar,’ she said when the news was announced, elucidating that she will use the moment to show ‘the length and breadth of [her] menswear proposition... [and] a new chapter in my work and world.’

Two menswear greats will return to Milan

Milan is well known for its sartorial prowess – particularly when it comes to men’s tailoring – something that has drawn two legendary international designers back to Milan Fashion Week Men’s this season. They are Paul Smith, who has shown in the city for a handful of seasons now, and Ralph Lauren, who returned to the Milan schedule in January of this year, marking the American designer’s first Italian menswear show in two decades. Both will show in their headquarters in the city: the former on Viale Umbria, the latter at Palazzo Ralph Lauren, which resides in an imposing 1941 Mino Fiocchi-designed building formerly known as Casa Campanini-Bonomi. Both will likely be celebratory affairs: particularly for Smith, who will turn 80 in July and use the latter half of the year to celebrate the landmark, including the release of an autobiography, Threads: My Life in Style, in September.

While Thom Browne will make his Milan Fashion Week Men’s debut

American designer Thom Browne has adopted something of a travelling schedule for his runway shows in recent seasons, showing between Paris and his native New York, as well as a one-off show in San Francisco earlier this year to coincide with the Super Bowl (Browne’s tailoring is a favourite among American athletes, and NFL players DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Jefferson and Steeler Marcus Allen walked the show). This season, though, he is breaking new ground: a runway show in Milan on Monday 22 June will mark his debut in the Italian city. Apart from the venue, the neoclassical Palazzo Serbelloni, little has been revealed about the show – though, if his previous outings are any indication, expect his usual eye for fantasy and play (his last menswear show, in Paris, for example, featured enormous glittering alien heads, worn by the models as masks).

Saint Laurent is back to opening Paris Fashion Week Men’s

Last June, Saint Laurent opened Men’s Fashion Week with a S/S 2026 collection that transported guests from ‘Paris to Fire Island’ amid a serene installation by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection (it comprised a circular pool on which a series of bowls floated across its glimmering blue surface). This season, the house will return to its first-day slot (for A/W 2026, in January, it ended proceedings) with a menswear show that is expected to take place in the contemporary art gallery. It will be followed that evening by another blockbuster show: the latest Louis Vuitton menswear collection by Pharrell Williams, which will take place at 9pm in an as-yet-undisclosed location.

All eyes will be on Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Men

Three seasons in, Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has succeeded in making Dior one of fashion’s most talked-about houses: case in point, a Hollywood-inspired Cruise 2027 in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in May, which alongside a starry front row (Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and Al Pacino were all in attendance), featured collaborations with artist Ed Ruscha and milliner Philip Treacy (fittingly, one of the headpieces spelt out ‘Buzz’ in feathers). On Wednesday 24 June, he will return to Dior’s home city for his S/S 2027 menswear show – arguably the most anticipated on the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule, following an acclaimed A/W 2026 show that drew inspiration from the outré stylings of couturier Paul Poiret and his infamous Belle Époque dinner parties.

Sarah Burton will reveal her vision for Givenchy menswear

Sarah Burton has shown three womenswear collections on the runway since the beginning of her tenure at Givenchy (she came to the house from Alexander McQueen, where she succeeded the eponymous designer as creative director); this season, in Paris, she will begin to expand her Givenchy universe with her first dedicated menswear presentation. Because, despite overseeing commercial collections – as well as dressing figures like Timothée Chalamet for the red carpet – she is yet to formerly introduce her menswear vision for the Parisian house. What to expect? Some great tailoring, no doubt – Burton is adept when it comes to a pin-sharp suit – alongside the bold flourishes of colour and print which defined her critically lauded A/W 2026 womenswear show last season.

At Celine, Michael Rider will host a dedicated menswear show

An intimate presentation of Michael Rider’s first dedicated menswear collection for Celine – presented earlier this year in the brand’s headquarters – was one of the highlights of the A/W 2026 season, despite a lack of models and runway (the clothing was instead staged in a series of playful tableaus, while guests snacked on Celine-branded popcorn). For S/S 2027, the American designer – formerly of Polo Ralph Lauren, as well as Celine during Phoebe Philo’s tenure – will host a dedicated menswear show on the final Sunday of Paris Fashion Week. Expect the infusion of Parisian insouciance and Ivy League stylings that have become his signature – and won him a devoted legion of fans, as well as thousands more aping the look in Instagram GRWMs, from colourful sweaters slung around the waist to rugby shirts and sliced-away ties.

London label Studio Nicholson will make its runway debut

This menswear season is suprisingly light on debuts, either from fledgling labels or major houses welcoming a new creative director. Studio Nicholson is an exception, though it also doesn’t fit into either camp: founded in 2010 by Nick Wakeman, the London-based label has already established itself as a cult destination for those who favour a simplicity of design and high-quality fabrications. But, while the brand has undertaken high-profile collaborations with the likes of Zara, it has never hosted a traditional runway show, something that will change this season: Wakeman has opted to present a collection during Paris Fashion Week Men‘s. Taking place on Friday 26 June at Hotel d’Evreux in Place Vendôme. Comprising her men’s and women’s collections for S/S 2027, it is a new addition to the Paris Fashion Week Men’s schedule – others include Meryll Rogge’s first menswear presentation, 2025 LVMH Prize winner Soshiotsuki and Australian brand Song for the Mute.

The historic menswear fair Pitti Uomo, which takes place twice-yearly in Florence, has a long tradition of drafting guest designers to be its headline act.

This stop on menswear month – it begins proceedings before editors travel onwards to Milan and Paris – attracts them with the opportunity to show in some of Florence’s eclectic landmarks, from Renaissance palaces and church cloisters to countryside piles and disused tobacco factories.

There was Craig Green, who showed in the Boboli Gardens at dusk; Grace Wales Bonner, who lined the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with an installation by artist Ibrahim Mahama; and Martine Rose, who turned an ancient marketplace into an Italo-disco nightclub. Raf Simons, Virgil Abloh, Yohji Yamamoto and Paul Smith, as well as fashion houses Givenchy, Fendi and Jil Sander, have also previously been part of the line-up.

Simone Rocha will have her menswear moment at June’s Pitti Uomo

And today (18 March 2026) it has been announced that Ireland-born, London-based designer Simone Rocha will be the first guest designer for the S/S 2027 season, which will take place this June. Known for her transporting collections that marry the sweet and the subversive – often drawing on folklore and traditions from her native Ireland – Rocha established the eponymous label after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2010, winning numerous accolades, including British Womenswear Designer of the Year at the 2024 Fashion Awards.

Rocha first introduced menswear in 2022, shown concurrently on the runway with her womenswear offering as part of her S/S 2023 collection (she has done so at her presentations since). ‘There is a crossover of ideas and emotion, and influences of fabrications and silhouettes – they are coming from one place but each is their own individual character that responds and reacts to [the other],’ she explained to Wallpaper* at the time.

Her menswear pieces find similar juxtapositions to those of her womenswear, marrying utilitarian garments – cargo pants, bomber jackets, parkas and the like – with more romantic flourishes, from floral prints and embroidery to beaded and pearl embellishment, as well as a use of lace and tulle. They are pieces she hopes ‘challenge the archetypes of masculinity’.

The Pitti Uomo show, though, will mark Rocha’s first standalone menswear presentation. ‘I would like to thank Pitti Uomo for their generous invitation to present my first independent menswear show on the men's calendar,’ she said in a statement today, noting that she will use the occasion to show ‘the length and breadth of [her] menswear proposition... [and] a new chapter in my work and world.’

As yet, it has not been announced where in Florence she will choose to hold the runway presentation; though, having shown in numerous historic addresses in London, including the Old Bailey, former royal residence Lancaster House and the Alexandra Palace Theatre, expect the location to be suitably dramatic.

‘From the very beginning, Simone Rocha’s garments capture the eye, ignite the imagination, and stir emotions,’ says Francesca Tacconi, special events coordinator at Pitti Immagine. ’At a time when part of menswear seems to be leaning toward more cautious stylistic choices, Simone remains true to herself and to her vision. She does not follow trends, she creates them and draws us into her world.’

Pitti Uomo will run from 16-19 June 2026 in Florence.

uomo.pittimmagine.com

A review of the beauty looks from the A/W 2026 season, which finished in Paris earlier this week, contains a surprise: a lot of it was a mess. That’s not a put-down. Rather, the intriguing messiness of the season was deliberate, with even some of the most consistent purveyors of sleek, minimalist beauty, like Hermès and Alaïa, featuring hair that had a ‘I just got out of bed’ quality.

A similar look was seen on the Prada runway, with models in smudged raccoon-eye make-up and hair in half-done ponytails that had strands haphazardly escaping. The show had a novel concept: 15 models, wearing 15 looks, with each model changing four times throughout the show to create a new composition of the previous look. The beauty complemented the idea by suggesting a woman always in motion, always in a rush, too busy to refresh her make-up or even redo her ponytail over the course of the day.

The best beauty looks of A/W 2026

In New York, Collina Strada took messy hair to the next level with hairstylist Mustafa Yanaz giving models bed-heads that looked like they took many sleepless nights to achieve. While in London, the teased, matted hair at Simone Rocha was paired with punk details in, of all places, the eyebrows, such as multiple eyebrow rings and a black-pencilled eyebrow that curved dramatically at the edges. The result was an unkempt, delinquent appearance that complemented the bow, taffeta and glitter-heavy femininity of the clothes.

Yet, when it comes to this season’s messy beauty, no one did it better than the contingent of Japanese designers who show at Paris Fashion Week each season. At Comme des Garçons, hair by Takeo Arai and headpieces designed by HIZUME, combined to create a fascinating, strange beauty, with matted worms of hair – for lack of a better term – emerging from what looked like ripped sheer tights or oily bird’s nests.

At Yohji Yamamoto, black lips were paired with excessively gelled, Siouxsie Sioux-style hair. While at Junya Watanabe, hair stylist Eugene Souleiman and make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench created plastered-down, finger-wave wigs and streaming black eye makeup for a memorable 1920s-flapper-after-a-really-terrible-night look.

A similar look was also seen on the Saint Laurent runway, although more sleekly done, with hair gelled to helmet-like perfection and a flawlessly executed smoky eye and dark red lip (here, though, the inspiration seemed to be the severe beauty of Helmut Newton’s photographs of Saint Laurent in the 1970s). Demna’s first Gucci show also featured contoured cheeks, saturated red lips, and fanned-out smoky eyes. The most noteworthy saturated lips and smoky eye combination, however, was perhaps those at Tom Ford, where the velvet lips engineered by Lucy Bridge were so richly pigmented they looked almost fake.

Speaking of fake, there were those like Matières Fécales and Rick Owens who ostentatiously subverted beauty conventions with the use of prosthetics. The Matières Fécales collection, which satirised the style of the one per cent, translated the ideas behind its clothing into fake black eyes and faces practically deformed by plastic surgery.

While Owens, always one for bold beauty, built on the codes he’s been developing for years with make-up artist Daniel Sällström, to create eyes obscured by colour contacts and extra-long fake lashes that were emphasised by painterly strokes of neon eyeshadow. Sällström was also the make-up artist behind Vaquera’s white painted faces and multi-winged cat eyes, which combined to create a kind of modernised 18th-century aristocrat. The show also featured one model with lime-green pubic hair, which was, if nothing else, memorable.

But when it comes to the most memorable beauty look of the A/W 2026 runways, the winner might be a brand that was more playful than provocative. We are, of course, speaking about one of the most lauded shows of the season: Matthieu Blazy’s sophomore ready-to-wear outing at Chanel.

As the show progressed and the clothes transitioned into more iridescent evening wear, the subtle beauty of the runway looks began to take an iridescent sheen as well. Models’ slicked-back hair appeared covered in a glittery, chromatic coating with matching metallic eye make-up, while one particularly noteworthy look featured long, mermaid-style pastel locks with matching pastel eyeshadow. All in all, a shining end to the season.

All change! So could be the motto of the S/S 2026 season, which heralded the arrival of 15 new creative directors at fashion’s major houses – from Dior to Chanel.

It led to a sweeping feeling of freshness and renewal that would define the season, one that Wallpaper* captures in a new series of images by photographer Nicole Maria Winkler and Wallpaper* fashion & creative director Jason Hughes.

S/S 2026’s standount looks in the fitting room

Originally featured in our March 2026 Style Issue, they capture model Valerija Kelava dressing up in a series of S/S 2026’s standout looks – whether the rising Belgian design Julie Kegels’ collaged layers (she said she wanted the collection to feel like it had a life of its own) or a sweeping white gown from Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior collection, delicately edged with flowers.

The setting is a surreal imagining of a fitting room by set designer Kim Harding, Winkler’s longtime collaborator. Within it, we explore the transformative power of a new season of looks. Keep scrolling to shop the story.

Model: Valerija Kelava at Oui Management. Casting: Esther Boiteux at EB Agency. Hair: Moe Mukai using Oribe. Make-up: Sunao Takahashi at Saint Luke using Byredo. Set design: Kim Harding Studio. Digi tech: Anna-Sophia John. Photography assistants: Josh Rea, Elliot Humbles. Set design assistant: Austeja Gokaite. Fashion assistant: Lucy Proctor. Production assistant: Danielle Quigley.

A version of this story appears in the March 2026 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, available on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News + now. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

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On the third day of London Fashion Week A/W 2026 (22nd February 2026), Simone Rocha invited her audience to ascend the slopes of North London to view her latest runway collection inside the Alexandra Palace Theatre. Built in 1872, the location’s history is befitting of the Irish designer’s penchant for melding romance and realism; not only did the building burn down a mere two weeks after it opened (it was rebuilt two years later), but the theatre was renowned for its special effects, with performers of ballet, pantomime and opera magically ‘dissappearing’ or ‘flying’ over the 3,000 seats below them, all thanks to a network of intricate machinery behind the scenes.

‘I know it’s a procession to get here, but I really wanted to show the collection in the round,’
said Rocha backstage, explaining that the theatre, which is now in a state of ‘arrested decay’ after refurbishment in 2018, provided the ideal backdrop for this season’s clothes. ‘I wanted to strip [the venue] back, because a lot of the pieces were quite ornate, quite intricate, and romantic.’

Simone Rocha at London Fashion Week A/W 2026

Rocha also drew on three distinct sources for A/W 2026, with the show then split into three sections accordingly. The first act referenced Jack B. Yeats’ 1936 oil painting ‘In Tír na nÓg’, depicting the Celtic otherworld and the ‘land of youth and beauty’, with verdant brushstrokes reminiscent of the trees and grasses visible on the climb to Alexandra Palace. ‘Then [with the second part], I wanted to cut through the mythology with some realism,’ she said, noting that artist and family friend Perry Ogden’s seminal 1999 photobook Pony Kids was brought in to do so.

The black-and-white photo series documents the Traveller and Settled youth living in the estates surrounding Dublin’s Smithfield Market. Here, they would congregate on the first Sunday of every month to sell, buy and exchange their ponies. ‘I had three fillies, white fillies, that day in Smithfield. I was trying to get sale for them that day so I just rub them up a bit and so you came on the scene like and I was full of hairs like,’ says one ‘Pony Kid’ on the pages of Ogden’s book, a quote that Rocha selected for her shownotes.

The third act examined the legacy of Elizabeth and Lily Yates. The siblings of Jack and William Yates would found Cuala Press in 1908, a women-led printing press publishing new work by Irish writers. Cuala’s needlework department produced embroidered textiles and tapestries as part of the Irish Arts & Crafts movement. ‘They were coined “The Weird Sisters”,’ explains Rocha, alluding to the pointed nickname given to them by James Joyce in Ulysses. ‘There’s all this amazing imagery produced by Cuala Press depicting the Hill of Tara, and I really wanted to bring that earthiness into the mix.’

Opening with a diaphanous ivory look, representing ‘the white horse of Tír na nÓg’, the A/W 2026 collection unfolded into a blockbuster bursting with distinct Rocha motifs. Lightness – lace, tulle, silk, satin, delicate florals, twinkling embellishment – danced with the weight of thick wools, nylon, suede and shearling. The latter took the form of chunky Aran knits, double-breasted outerwear, and hardy bomber jackets cinched at the waist. Curly brown faux fur trimmed coats, or became sleeves. Some of these sleeves even appeared to be cut off and paired with a charcoal grey cocktail dress, as a strange twist on evening gloves. A bar-style jacket, part of a twinkling black skirt suit, was given a bustle, also decorated with the same permed trim.

Elsewhere, tailoring arrived in relaxed blazers teamed with kilts, or floor-skimming trousers belted and worn with a satin bralette. Ribbons were omnipresent: affixed to garments in patterns, or tied onto them in bows, and woven through eyelets on corset-like slices taken out of what Rocha called ‘monster ballgowns’. And also in rosettes, that not only swung from bags and belt loops, but even multiplied to form a blossoming, scarlet mini dress.

‘As I’m showing menswear, womenswear and sportswear [this season], I wanted them to come together and form a new thread,’ added Rocha. Sportswear entering the Rocha arena for A/W 2026 marks the first time she’s explored the category: a debut of a new partnership between Simone Rocha and Adidas Originals. ‘It feels very natural to me, from being a teenager and wearing Adidas under vintage tutus. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time; a feminine perspective on sportswear,’ she continued. ‘I love the idea of giving it license to cut through some of the heavier pieces, or the more fragile pieces, and the opportunity of something new.’ Rocha notes that Adidas Originals gave her complete creative licence, seen in the resulting lace boilersuits, frilly tracksuits and ponyskin sneakers studded with pearls. (She was even permitted to rework the brand’s Trefoil logo, wreathing it with a ribbon).

Follow our London Fashion Week coverage here.

So the story goes, in 1936, when the Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim displayed a cup and saucer covered in gazelle fur as part of an exhibition at New York’s MoMA, such was the impact of the surrealist object that a woman fainted right in front of it. ‘She left no name with the attendants who revived her – only a vague feeling of apprehension,’ reported the New Yorker of the incident at the time.

This is fur’s visceral power: when worn, it becomes a heady meeting place of signifiers – luxury, wealth, power, but also protection, armour against the elements, an ancient and primal urge to be swaddled in the spoils of the hunt. It can provoke equal outrage and desire, but also an underlying perversity – the surreal wrongness of wearing another’s skin, one which Oppenheim‘s work duly captures. ‘[It is] one of the perverse and pleasing sculptures of the 20th century,’ wrote the critic Andrea K. Scott.

And, Oppenheim’s legacy lives on: as part of the recent Frieze week in London, the buzzy Irish-Australian artist and jeweller Leo Costelloe presented a deer-pelt-covered jug as part of his exhibition ‘Kitchen’ at The Shop, Sadie Coles HQ. He called it his ‘ode to Meret Oppenheim’, part of a series of works which mind the ‘fantasy and unease’ of the domestic realm. ‘I’m naturally drawn to themes that tread the line between aspirational fantasy and desperate reality,’ he told Wallpaper*.

Fur was all over the A/W 2025 runways, too – in illusory form, at least. For the past decade, fashion’s luxury houses have largely done away with the use of fur in their collections: in 2021, the Kering group – which owns Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Balenciaga, among others – banned fur, alongside brands like Prada, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino. Whether evoked through hyper-realistic imitation furs, cleverly manipulated shearlings (shearling is a by-product of the meat industry, rather than farmed) or fluffy fronds of feathers, it was the undeniable material of the season, appearing on both the men’s and women’s runways.

In the collections, designers mined fur’s connotations, suggesting at once a heady, bygone glamour, but also a want for protection against the elements – whether real or existential. At Prada, which featured shearling ‘fur’ trapped under layers of clear plastic or erupting into strange protrusions at the neckline of a coat, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons said the material evoked the ‘raw glamour’ at the heart of the collection. ‘Glamour was something we were attracted to, instinctively, and its connection to femininity,’ said Mrs Prada at the time. ‘We asked ourselves – what is feminine? What is feminine beauty? What is femininity today? It is a constant questioning, an examining of femininity – what does it mean?’

Here, as selected by the Wallpaper* style team, ten imitation fur and shearling pieces – from classic coats to bandeau tops and accessories – which capture the raw, twisted glamour which ran through the A/W 2025 collections.

A wild, animalistic mood permeated the A/W 2025 collections, where a frenetic collage of clashing animal prints, slices of faux fur and shearling, and fronds of feathers suggested a need for escape and release. This was the starting point of the cover shoot for the September 2025 Style Issue of Wallpaper*, an exploration of the uninhibited, subversive glamour which ran through the season, where tropes of luxury were twisted, or turned on their head.

Photographed by Austrian image-maker Nicole Maria Winkler and styled by Wallpaper* fashion and creative director Jason Hughes, the shoot sees model Costanze Van Rosmalen – who made a memorable runway debut at Prada’s A/W 2025 show, titled ‘Raw Glamour’ – inhabit a surreal domestic scene, a hallmark of Winkler’s work (for Wallpaper’s March 2025 Style Issue, she created a liminal apartment complete with disorientating trompe l’oeil wall coverings, part of an ongoing collaboration with set designer Kim Harding).

‘What I find exciting is creating deconstructed settings which emphasise the model’s performance for the camera. It doesn’t feel like her natural habitat but a constructed scene,’ she says. ‘In this instance, the double-height stage resembled a domestic set-up – a living room complete with sofa and TV and a bed on top. In another setup our model Constanze casually speed-walked on a treadmill wearing thigh-high Acne Studios boots – one of my favourite moments.’

‘Faux animal furs and reptile skins were really prevalent this season,’ adds Hughes. ‘For this shoot, I liked this idea of clashing them to create these surreal hybrid combinations, layered up in a single look. They are also textures synonymous with traditional glamour and luxury – we wanted to play with them to create a modern way of dressing up.’

Explore the shoot below.

The September 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Backstage at Simone Rocha’s A/W 2025 show, which took place yesterday (23 February 2025) over London Fashion Week inside Goldsmiths’ Hall, key make-up artist Thomas de Kluyver talked Wallpaper* through his vision.

‘This season, Simone was inspired by the children’s story The Tortoise and the Hare, so we wanted to keep the make-up playful,’ he said. ‘You know when you were a teenager and you’d pluck your eyebrows to be really thin? We referenced this but also kept the Simone Rocha narrative in there with colourful bugle beads. Embellishment has always been a signature of the Simone Rocha beauty look.’

Simone Rocha A/W 2025: Beauty by Thomas de Kluyver, Holli Smith and Ama Quashie

A/W 2025 began with creating a ‘raw’ yet luminous canvas for all models, with skin prepped using products from Dr Barbara Sturm. ‘We’ve kept the skin very fresh, with details then added on top such as the beaded eyebrows or a dark lip,’ De Kluyver said, who had blocked out natural brow hair before etching a thin line onto which pearlescent bugle beads in pale pink, red or black were glued.

In other looks, brows remained natural and fluffed up, exaggerated with Byredo’s Ultra Definer Brow pencils. Neutral tones inside the fragrance and beauty brand’s Desert Road eyeshadow palette, along with a lick of black Astronomical mascara, gently defined eyes. Viynl, satin and matte-textured lipsticks, in shades such as September, On The Edge, Lost Letter, Molasses, Auburn and Calmer, had been daubed onto the likes of Alexa Chung and Andrea Riseborough who, alongside Fiona Shaw, were cast in the show by Julia Lange. A few of the lipsticks also doubled as a blusher. ‘I like to think of each part of the make-up look as fashion accessories on the face,’ said De Kluyver.

This season, hair was taken care of by American stylist Holli Smith, who cut her teeth as an assistant to Guido Palau before attaining a legendary status in her own right. A/W 2025 marked the first time that Smith had worked on a standalone Simone Rocha show, having joined forces with De Kluyver and London-born nail artist Ama Quashie – also present backstage yesterday leading a team of manicurists – on the runway beauty for Simone Rocha x Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture S/S 2024.

‘We wanted to ensure that everyone had something a little different with their hair and the models kept a sense of individuality,’ Smith explained. ‘Although the one thing that tied everything together was making sure that everyone’s look is kept away from the face. But nothing is flat or severe. There’s some messiness, too,’ she continued, noting that Bumble and Bumble’s Thickening and Surf sprays were essential in keeping a nonchalant feel. ‘When these products are combined, it gives a lightweight wet look to the hair, but it’s also quite starchy and structured, so holds its shape and is malleable for playing around with.’

The collection also spoke of Simone Rocha’s teenage schooldays in Dublin, as Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss notes in his A/W 2025 London Fashion Week report. So Smith also gave some of the models hair bunches, before nonchalantly securing them at the nape of the neck using thick black rubber bands. ‘Everyone has the same rubber bands, it’s nothing too special,’ says Smith. ‘We made it look like they did it themselves, almost.’

From rubber bands to Tipp-Ex, in the form of playful yet minimal nails by Ama Quashie, who has been the key nail artist for Simone Rocha shows over the past several seasons. ‘For A/W 2025 we’ve used white polish with a mattifying top coat in full and half-moons and there are some red half-moons in the mix, too. And even though we wanted to keep it youthful, it still has to be perfect,’ she said. ‘It’s a simple, look but sometimes it takes even more work as there’s nowhere to hide,’ Quashie continued, adding that meticulous cuticle prep, hydration and a uniform shape are the foundations of her technical process.

‘The way I work is knowing when to exercise restraint and simplicity, or when to go bigger. But always, it’s important to master the foundation: a perfect, really clean nail,’ Quashie told Wallpaper* in 2023, echoing this sentiment. ‘It’s the groundwork for every manicure. And from there, everything else is added in line with the creative vision … When I work with Simone Rocha it’s often about going with your gut instinct.’

simonerocha.com

Despite some notable absences – among them Molly Goddard, Chopova Lowena and JW Anderson – London Fashion Week A/W 2025 arrived in the city with a five-day schedule of presentations and runway shows, buoyed by the energy of its stalwart names, from Simone Rocha to Erdem. There was plenty of new talent, too: Fashion East showcased its latest class of emerging talent on Friday evening (21 February), while Talia Byre, Paolo Carzana and Jawara Alleyne each offered intriguing perspectives, and are ones to watch. Though with many younger designers choosing to show only once a year, September looks set to be a busier edition.

Elsewhere, Burberry proved the week’s biggest draw, with Daniel Lee choosing to show his latest collection for the British heritage brand on Monday evening (24 February 2025) with a blockbuster show at Tate Britain which saw him inspired by country house dramas and ‘weekend escapes’. Meanwhile, other brands are choosing new ways to present their collections: Marco Capaldo revealed his 1980s-inspired A/W 2025 collection for 16Arlington at an intimate dinner on Saturday evening at Almine Rech Gallery, while Stefan Cooke hosted a presentation at its east London studio (complete with an enormous cherry-studded cake). Roksanda, Kent & Curwen and Conner Ives rounded out the schedule.

Here, reported from London, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss picks the best of London Fashion Week A/W 2025.

London Fashion Week A/W 2025: the best of

Burberry

It was an impressive transformation: for Burberry’s latest outing, which closed London Fashion Week yesterday evening, the interior of London’s Tate Britain was entirely swathed in floor-to-ceiling drapes of cloth, their bucolic scenes evocative of tapestries found in British country houses (and perhaps some of the landscapes in the institution’s own hallowed halls). There was no doubt that this was a statement of intent from Burberry: here was Daniel Lee’s first real blockbuster show at the heritage house, from the set – conceived with Paris-based production agency Bureau Betak – to the starry front row, the names too numerous to mention (though the wall of camera flashes outside the venue were a hint to who was inside). There were stars on the runway, too, namely Richard E Grant, Lesley Manville, Jason Isaacs and Elizabeth McGovern, each loosely chosen by Lee to evoke the grand tradition of the British country house drama, from Gosford Park to Downton Abbey.

Lee said these were ‘potent touchstones’ of the collection, which imagined the faded romance of country piles and ‘weekend escapes’ from London, here figured in enveloping outerwear, which was undeniably the focus (new CEO Joshua Schulman has his attention on the pieces Burberry is known for, among them outerwear, scarves and umbrellas, which several models carried in their hands). There were faded tartan overcoats, worn with matching scarves, embroidered leather blousons and enormous shearling jackets, and of course plays on the trench (here, bulked up in heritage wools). And, though there was certainly an outdoor mood, flourishes of glamour – from velvet suiting to bell-sleeved 1970s-inspired dresses which gathered at the collar – were inspired by the wild, bohemian parties in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and the eccentric dress codes of Britain’s upper classes (‘the way the whole thing was super twisted,’ he elucidated after the show). In this vein, there was even a knight in armour who sat front row – like a country house reveller playing dress-up – an addition which ensured Instagram ubiquity post-show.

It was a reminder, after what has largely been a quiet – even uneventful – London Fashion Week, that the city can still conjure the type of spectacle of its counterparts in Milan and Paris (the latter where several British designers have escaped in recent seasons). It was also a reminder of Lee’s own ability to rebrand: in fashion’s fast-moving landscape, it is easy to forget the way he transformed Bottega Veneta into a major fashion player nearly overnight. If Burberry has not been so instant – prompting nagging rumours of his departure – last night his vision began to take shape. ‘Things are definitely improving, and I think we’re all in a really positive place,’ he said after the show. ‘I love the brand, it's an incredible brand. It's really an honour to work for Burberry.’

READ: First look at Burberry’s A/W 2025 show set, which is inspired by the tapestry-draped interiors of country houses

Erdem

Erdem Moralıoğlu’s latest collection, presented in the atrium of the British Museum, was centred around a collaboration with the Scottish figurative painted Kaye Donachie. Moralıoğlu and Donachie had attended London’s Royal Academy of Arts at the same time, but a more recent connection – Moralıoğlu commissioning the artist to paint his late mother’s portrait – provided the impetus for this new collaborative venture. Inspired by the ‘poetic licence’ that Donachie took while painting somebody she had not known, what followed was a collection that was not only adorned with the artist’s work but also captured the ephemeral ‘veil between imagination and reality’ that defines her oeuvre. As such, the collection became one of free-flowing ideas and looks that appeared like apparitions, from garments overlaid with lustrous sheer layers of organza to sculpted-waist gowns and swathes of glimmering spike-shaped paillettes. The collection was presented with a quote from Virginia Woolf – ‘and as she dipped into the blue paint, she dipped too into the past there’ – which speaks not only to Donachie’s ability to conjure the past in her paintings but Moralıoğlu’s own impulse to continually reimagine historical silhouettes in vibrant and contemporary new ways.

Simone Rocha

There was something stripped back about Simone Rocha’s A/W 2025 collection, which despite its typical flourishes of romance (a delicate beaded eyebrow, pearlescent tortoise-shaped clutch bags, rabbit-shaped stoles, and, as ever, smatterings of pearls and crystals) had a feeling of directness, encapsulated in the primitive slices of faux fur and slashed pleats that became motifs throughout. In part, this came from memories of her time at school in Dublin, a period of sartorial experimentation albeit confined by uniforms and rules. Gathered gowns were pierced through the neckline with bike locks (a reference, Rocha said, to going ‘behind the bike sheds’ with a teenage crush), while rugby shirts, school scarves and ‘twisted twin sets’ were all references to school days, twisted and adorned in Rocha’s signature style. The show – which was also partly inspired by the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, a nod to Rocha’s working at her own pace after 15 years in business – was presented on a cast of both models and actors, among them Minha Kim, Bel Powley, Andrea Riseborough and Fiona Shaw, who played the role of domineering headmistress in typically arresting fashion.

Roksanda

The voice of late sculptor Phyllida Barlow provided the soundtrack for Roksanda Ilinčić’s A/W 2025 show, held for the second time on one of the circular upper floors of Space House, a Richard Seifert-designed brutalist office building in London’s Holborn (as such, the show’s backdrop was an impressive 360-degree-view of the London skyline). ‘Space is malleable, it’s a material, it’s not just an empty vacuum,’ said Barlow on the recording, ‘And I suppose for me, sculpture, whatever sculpture is, it isn’t just the object; I think it’s a sentient physicality of something that replaces us with our own physicality.’ Ilinčić, who has long referenced artists – particularly women artists – in her work, said she drew inspiration from Barlow’s exploration of ‘fragility, impermanence, and physicality… creating work that feels in constant motion and transformation’. This was perhaps most evident in the collection’s closing looks, a series of gowns constructed from a bouncing collage of cut-out neoprene, their shapes inspired by the offcuts made when cutting pattern pieces from fabric (Barlow was known for her use of discarded objects). This exploration of tactility and experimentation ran through the collection, whether in the enormous paillettes (some of which became masks to conceal part of the face), delicate wisps of tulle, or the colourful, unruly painted strands of raffia that captured the dynamism of Barlow’s work. Among the more dramatic show pieces, elegant tuxedo-inspired tailoring, silk bias-cut dresses (in typically painterly hues) and cocooning knitwear will no doubt cater to her devoted clientele.

S.S. Daley

Steven Stokey-Daley’s A/W 2025 show came with something of a delay: originally slated to show in Paris during the city’s menswear week this past January, a last-minute switch saw him stick with his adopted home town, opening proceedings on Friday morning (Stokey-Daley is originally from Liverpool, but has lived and worked in London since graduating from Westminster University’s fashion course in 2020). The show, which was set to the soundtrack of Pet Shop Boys’ 1986 hit ‘West End Girls’, continued Stokey-Daley’s interrogation of Britishness and its dress codes, with several of the looks riffing on heritage outerwear, from the duffle coat to the donkey jacket (the latter came with a cocooning rounded shoulder and enormous front patch pockets). Other pieces continued to explore the uniforms of the upper classes – Stokey-Daley has long used the trappings of high society as a jumping-off point for his collections – seeing black-tie dressing warped with enormous elongated shirt collars, ruffled-front blouses, and feathers that emerged romantically from beneath blazers.

The show’s palette and prints, meanwhile, were drawn from the work of the Scottish Colourists – particularly Francis Cadell’s portrait Ioana Croft, which was replicated on a felted trench coat – an artistic group Stokey-Daley chose for their synonymy with ‘craft, textiles and forms’ (indeed, elements of beading and intricately printed organza spoke to a greater focus on make this season). Though it was the late British musician Marianne Faithfull who was the spiritual figurehead of the collection, with Stokey-Daley noting how her ‘willingness to experiment and explore different genres of music, poetry and spoken word helped pave the way for other artists to push boundaries’. One sweater was scrawled with ‘Stay Faithfull to Marianne’, while her 1979 song ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’ – originally recorded by Dr Hook & the Medicine Show earlier in the 1970s – soundtracked the finale, providing an emotive final refrain.

Fashion East

There was a surprising mood of restraint at Fashion East this season, the Lulu Kennedy-led fashion incubator that has usually swayed more towards the unconventional and the outlandish. It was no bad thing: all three designers, Olly Shinder, Louther and Nuba offered clever proposals for real-world dressing nonetheless instilled with elements of subversion – like a pair of trousers from Nuba with pockets on the crotch, as if the model’s hand was stuffed into their underwear. Nuba is led by co-creative directors Cameron Williams and Jebi Labembika, and in their second outing at Fashion East they talked about conjuring the feeling of waking up from a dream, figured here in cocooning forms constructed from ribbed knitwear or soft-to-the-touch wools, which felt more gentle in approach than their debut last season (the designers called the pieces ‘cross-seasonal’ and ‘foundational’, an exploration of ‘functionality, environment and desire’). If occasionally the collection called for a little more refinement in cut and finish, Williams and Labembika are developing an intriguing vision: here, it was captured in an unexpected colour palette of slate grey, deep brown and cooler moments of cyan blue, the last inspired by the hospital scrubs one might see when waking up from a coma.

Louther, which is led by German designer Olympia Schiele, worked closely with the Polish visual artist Helena Minginowicz this season, whose own dreamlike works have been called ‘ambiguous’ and 'ephemeral’. With this collection, Schiele was particularly inspired by the idea of illusion in Minginowicz’s work, here evoked in an interplay of textures (trousers appeared flocked across their surface; various gauges and weights of knits were stitched together on a single cardigan; flourishes of faux fur came in dual-tone colours) and hazy, airbrush-effect motifs, a signature of Minginowicz’s oeuvre. Silhouettes, meanwhile, were largely generous and oversized, reflecting Schiele’s roots in street and skatewear (though here, that sense of volume called to mind labels like Lemaire, as one editor remarked). It made for a collection of clothes with real-world appeal, and was a definitive push forward from her debut last season. So too was Olly Shinder’s latest collection, his best as part of Fashion East so far (the collection was his fourth, and presumably final, with the incubator). Shinder is inspired by queer clubwear and corporate attire, often mashing them together; this season, he found a new sense of clarity, moving away from overt expressions of fetish towards a more subtle undercurrent of perversity. Consider a pair of trousers sliced across the back with a panel of sheer fabric – evoking a pair of women’s tan tights – or a terrific raincoat in black wipe-clean rubber.

Dover Street Market is celebrating two decades of ‘beautiful chaos’. Opening its doors in London's Mayfair in 2004, the radical concept store was founded by Comme des Garçon’s Rei Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe with a simple mission: to offer a shopping experience without definitions. Departments were intentionally mixed up, windows changed constantly, and visual arts institutions and creatives were invited to bring their subversive ideas into the space. Moving to the cavernous site in Haymarket below Piccadilly in 2016 – potentially an act of retail suicide that luckily paid off – while expanding to outposts in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles and Paris, Dover Street Market has, over the years, come to represent so much more than a store. It's the beating heart of Comme des Garçons, a touchpoint for a global community of creatives, and an incubator for emerging design talent. Never sticking to convention and always evolving, it is above all a place where people can connect with one another and feel inspired.

Incredible displays have been a part of life at Dover Street Market since the beginning. In a practice linked to its Tachiagari turnover – where the store closes for a few days each season to be reimagined anew – everyone from Ai Weiwei to Karl Lagerfeld has been given free rein over the space. In efforts that have often kept staff working through the night, these interventions have seen Stephen Jones festoon hundreds of hats from the ceiling; artist Matt Clark sail a captainless boat through the window; and a huge wooden structure with positive aphorisms penned by Kawakubo, made in celebration of DSM’s tenth anniversary, which very nearly got vice president Dickon Bowden arrested by Westminster City Council. ‘Storytelling is not just one thing,’ says Joffe, when asked why these installations are a vital part of DSM’s world. ‘Experiences are better when deeper and wider.’

Marking 20 years of radical retail, the store has planned a carnival of displays and special releases with Undercover, Cav Empt, and more, set to be unleashed in Haymarket this week. As celebrations get underway, here Wallpaper* looks back at the most memorable installations in Dover Street Market’s history.

Two decades of Dover Street Market installations

Heaven by Marc Jacobs, 2022

In 2020, Marc Jacobs channelled his inner teenage angst into the launch of the diffusion line, Heaven. Drawing upon subcultures like grunge and rave, the youthful offshoot of his namesake label was a stratospheric success from the word go, and has since caused frenzy with rebellious collaborations alongside Kiko Kostadinov, Dilara Findikoglu, and Isabella Burley’s Climax Books. In 2022, the brand found a spiritual home in the basement of Dover Street Market, the area of the store that houses fledgling brands and where DSM’s youngest customers can access a piece of its world at more affordable price points. Brought to life by John Scharbach, the installation resembled a suburban teenage bedroom on acid, complete with a wall made from hundreds of teddy bears, a plush colourful carpet and logo neon light. No parents allowed!

Simone Rocha, 2021

After several lockdowns and a year of working, for the most part, at a distance from others, the start of 2021 marked a year of strange seclusion around the world. Livestreamed from an empty Gothic Revival church in central London, Simone Rocha’s ‘Winter Roses’ A/W 2021 collection was a product of these disjointed months, fusing the formality of school pinafores with airy, dreamlike dresses and looks of a darker mood. As ever with the Irish designer, it was about being tough and tender at the same time. In celebration of ten years of her brand, and after having to show the collection digitally, the designer decided to bring the church to Dover Street Market, where a sturdy house-like structure was erected on the ground floor. Its walls were printed with the angelic figures found in the stained glass windows of St John’s Hyde Park.

Martin Parr, 2019

Few photographers have captured the quirks of British identity as prolifically, and with such accuracy, as Martin Parr. In 2019, a retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery celebrated the seminal photographer’s enduring fascination with people, bringing together some of his most recognisable works from the past five decades with never-before-seen photographs. To coincide with the landmark Only Human show, Parr designed an installation at Dover Street Market that brought the unbeautiful charm of his images into the 3D realm. Channelling the sunburnt splendour of his iconic 1980s series, The Last Resort, the photographer brought objects of English coastal nostalgia into the store, such as a plastic Mr Whippy ice cream cone, toy capsule vending machines, and a weather-beaten wooden bench.

Hello! 30th Anniversary, 2018

Over the past 20 years of Dover Street Market, frequenters of the store have learnt to expect the unexpected. The gossipy headlines of Hello! magazine might feel like a universe apart from the conceptual beauty of Comme des Garçons, but nevertheless, in 2018, DSM had its fun celebrating the British tabloid’s 30th birthday with an installation imagined by visionary set designer Andy Hillman. Emblazoned with red and white signage that read ‘Haymarket!’, a temporary newsagent stall sold items that started at the price point of 75p, including notebooks, mugs, and bottle openers.

Comme des Garçons, 2016

Rei Kawakubo’s A/W 2016 collection for Comme des Garçons was a particularly memorable display of the designer’s genius. Sending a procession of floral warriors down the runway in exaggerated silhouettes made from rose jacquards, leather bondage, and upholstered armour, it drew upon the spirit of punks and the revolutions of the 18th century. Imagined by Kawakubo herself, an austere metal structure that resembled a temple was built in the store, under which her warriors stood proudly in formation as if ready for battle.

Loewe, 2015

In 2022, Jonathan Anderson released his viral pigeon clutch – perhaps the year’s most headline-grabbing accessory – which was made even more famous by its cameo on And Just Like That in 2023. Hardcore fans of the designer will know, however, that the Irish designer’s love for bringing animals into his surreal world stretches back some years. Before the pigeon and his frog-shaped Wellipet shoes, Anderson invented the adorable – and now mainstay – Elephant crossbody bag for Loewe, which realised the curves of the gentle giant in supple calfskin leather. To mark its release, Anderson teamed up with Dover Street Market to create a life-size elephant in cheerful technicolour stripes, which towered over 10ft tall on the ground floor of Haymarket.

JW Anderson, 2016

Jonathan Anderson created his first window installation for Dover Street Market ten years ago. On the precipice of becoming one of the most important British designers of our times, that year Anderson’s men’s and women’s collections had an architectural quality to them – all strange angular cuts and dramatic silhouettes – and he described the men he imagined for S/S 2014 as ‘columns.’ With the ancient act of building on his mind, it made sense that his debut installation at DSM resembled a town, seeing sky blue walls and turrets snake together in a conceptual city for passers-by to admire in a window adjacent to DSM’s iconic white spheres.

Octopus, 2008

The gallery-like proportions of Dover Street Market have allowed space for installations of impressive scale. The team has taken advantage of this in manifold ways over the years. One particularly playful example saw a gargantuan octopus sculpture take over a corner of the shop. Created by Les Trois Garçons back in 2009, the piece was carved by hand and finished with glossy black resin and metal disks for suckers. Its tentacles wrapped around the walls, as if the mollusc was making a move to ascend the wooden spiral staircase at the heart of the store.

Tim Walker, 2008

Dover Street Market is a place where fashion’s most inventive fantasies can be experienced and touched; where you can lose yourself for a little while in a thousand different stories told by clothes. In 2008, the store celebrated an escapism of a similar kind, marking the release of Tim Walker’s now-highly collectible book, Pictures. Drawing upon the fairy tales that have shaped the legendary photographer’s ambitious tableaux images, a human-scale wooden drummer puppet sat in the window display with a dozen hand-painted drums tumbling around him, a copy of Walker’s fashion tome sat at his feet. While it may not be the biggest or brashest project the team has pulled off, the poetic display was, however, one of the store’s most beautiful – and also one of Joffe’s all-time personal favourites.

Simone Rocha: When faced with only picking one meal in a restaurant, I find it hard to choose. But I have always loved La Chaumière, tucked in off the side of the road up a mountain above Nice.

The feeling of arriving at dusk after a salty day in the sea and finding its tiny sign in lights is always magical. I’ve been many times over the last 20 years with my family and friends, from being a kid rolling around in the boot of the car on the way back down, to bringing my daughters and them drawing on the table. I love the room. It is simple, with stone floors, small tables with white tablecloths (my favourite), and metal chairs with woven wicker bases.

The room centres around one open fire with a wooden block in front where the meat is prepared. It is very relaxed and feels low key. You could be in someone’s living room.

Everything is cooked on the fire, essentially magical meat and potatoes. To start, I would recommend the giant wicker basket of crisp crudités. Then the côte de boeuf and potatoes. And finally the apple tart, which is accompanied by a massive bucket of cream that is spooned onto your plate. Perfect!

This article appears as part of Laila Gohar’s guest editor section of the October 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 5 September on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

September, so said legendary American Vogue editor Candy Pratts, is the January of fashion. Following a brief summer break after the conclusions of menswear and haute couture – which took place over June and July – Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025 arrives in New York next week on September 6 2024, with subsequent stops in London, Milan and Paris. Think of it as a new fashion term.

The schedule is now set, with a few surprises along the way. Among them, the news that Pieter Mulier will show his next Alaïa collection in the city on September 6, heralding the start of fashion month. It is over four decades since the house’s eponymous founder, Azzedine Alaïa, first showed in the American city, when he presented a collection in September 1982 to an audience which included Andy Warhol and Paloma Picasso. No doubt Mulier – who has garnered plenty of high-profile devotees of his own – will draw a similarly starry crowd. Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren will show the day prior with a special show in the Hamptons on September 5. London-based label Cos has also announced a return to New York, having shown last season in Rome.

Elsewhere, it will no doubt be the season of debuts: chief among them is the much-anticipated arrival of Alessandro Michele at Valentino, who will show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Eyes will also be on Givenchy, Chanel and Dries Van Noten which – at the time of writing – are each without creative directors.

Here, everything Wallpaper* knows about Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025.

Women’s Fashion Week S/S 2025: what to expect

New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 (6 – 11 September 2024)

New York Fashion Week S/S 2025 will begin – unofficially – on September 5, as American fashion behemoth (and member of the Wallpaper* USA 400) Ralph Lauren presents his latest collection in an exclusive show in the Hamptons, the beachside Long Island locale which has long played host to the rich and famous. ’The Hamptons is more than a place,’ said Lauren in a statement. ’It’s a natural world of endless blue skies, the ocean, green fields, and white fences, rusticity and elegance with a quality of light that drew artists here decades ago. It has been home, my refuge and always an inspiration.’

The day afterwards, Pieter Mulier will show his latest Alaïa collection in New York, four decades after Azzedine Alaïa first showed in the city in 1982. It will be his second time showing outside of Paris – an intimate show at the designer’s brutalist home in Antwerp, Belgium took place in 2023 – and will no doubt be one of the highlights of the schedule. ’A city close to Pieter Mulier’s heart and the maison’s,’ said Alaïa on Instagram. It will be accompanied by ‘a series of exclusive moments’ which will take place in the city from 6–8 September. Meanwhile Cos – which last season showed at Corsie Sistine in Rome – will return to New York with a show on September 10 in Brooklyn. ‘New York is a dynamic city with so much character – it’s a place of inspiration, full of interesting and creative people,’ says the brand’s design director Karin Gustafson. Another new arrival is Off-White, who under creative director Ib Kamara will swap Paris for New York, showing on the afternoon of Sunday 16 (the title of the show is ‘Duty Free' and will take place at Brooklyn Bridge Park). Nanushka will also debut at the week, showing on the afternoon of September 7.

Elsewhere, expect a continuation of the Tory Burch renaissance as the designer presents her S/S 2025 collection on the evening of Monday 17, while New York stalwarts Coach, Michael Kors and Carolina Herrera will all show during the week. Wallpaper* USA 400 members Willy Chavarria and Peter Do, the latter showing his third collection for Helmut Lang, will round out the schedule, alongside rising names Zankov and Diotima. Tommy Hilfiger has also confirmed a spot on the week’s schedule, having initially been absent. He will show his latest collection at 6.30pm on Sunday 16.

London Fashion Week S/S 2025 (12 – 17 September 2024)

Beginning slightly earlier this season to avoid a clash with Milan Fashion Week (which starts this season on September 17), London Fashion Week will continue its 40th birthday celebrations with a packed schedule comprising the usual slew of energetic, emerging labels amid a smattering of more well-established names. Of the latter, Burberry will remain the chief draw for international editors visiting the city – Daniel Lee will show his fourth runway collection for the British label – while JW Anderson will present another agenda-setting collection on Sunday morning, his usual slot.

Other names showing this season are Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Erdem, Ahluwalia and Aaron Esh, alongside a new edition of London-based incubator Fashion East (participants are yet to be announced). Watch out for Derrick – Luke Derrick’s burgeoning London-based label had plenty of buzz last season for its sleek, contemporary riff on men’s tailoring – and Nensi Dojaka, who returns to the schedule after a hiatus. Feben will also return to London, having shown last season with the support of Dolce & Gabbana in Milan. Look out too for the rebirth of Kent & Curwen, with the British label having been purchased by Chinese golf brand Biem.L.Fdlkk Garment in 2023.

London Fashion Week will also have a new home this season, the central Newgen space moving from Old Selfridges Hotel back to 180 Strand.

Milan Fashion Week S/S 2025 (17 – 23 September 2024)

Milan Fashion Week will run a day longer this season, part of a re-jigging of the fashion month schedule led by Camera della Moda, the week’s organising body. ’I’m very satisfied with this synergetic effort by the four main players on the fashion circuit,’ said the organisation’s president Carlo Capasa. ’[We] had for some time been asking for an extension of the Milan Fashion Week, given its calendar of over 200 appointments.’

As such, the week will begin with Fendi on September 17, the Roman house presenting its S/S 2025 collection at 3pm (this time, the show will take place on a Tuesday, as opposed to its usual Wednesday). Elsewhere, expect a continuation of Prada’s ‘fairytale ravescape’ set which it revealed as its menswear show in June (the house’s womenswear sets usually riff on their menswear predecessors ), alongside similarly blockbuster shows from Gucci, Versace, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana and Bottega Veneta.

Absent from this season’s schedule is Tom Ford – after the departure of creative director Peter Hawkings earlier this month – and Giorgio Armani, the latter showing in New York off-schedule in October. Also currently absent are MSGM and Blumarine (David Koma will show his debut as creative director next season), while Central Saint Martins graduate Susan Fang will show with the support of Dolce & Gabbana on Sunday morning.

Paris Fashion Week S/S 2025 (23 September – October 1 2024)

No doubt the biggest moment of Paris Fashion Week will be the arrival of Alessandro Michele at Valentino, who will present his first runway show this September (the ex-Gucci creative director’s first collection for the house, titled ’Avant les Débuts’ was revealed in a surprise lookbook drop this past June). ‘It’s an incredible honour for me to be welcomed at Maison Valentino. I feel the immense joy and the huge responsibility to join a maison de couture that has the word “beauty” carved on a collective story, made of distinctive elegance, refinement and extreme grace,’ said Michele in a statement issued after his appointment in March 2024. He will show on the afternoon of Sunday 29.

A number of other houses – among them Givenchy, Dries Van Noten and Chanel – are currently without creative directors. Givenchy is absent from the schedule (the new creative director will likely debut in February 2025), Dries Van Noten is slated to show on the afternoon of Wednesday 25 (it will be the first show since the eponymous creative director exited in June), and Chanel will retain its usual spot on the morning of Tuesday 1 October. An otherwise busy schedule – as has become the norm for the city – will include shows from Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, Dior, Saint Laurent, Hermès and more. Balenciaga, meanwhile, will show on the evening of Monday 30, shifting from Sunday morning.

In other news, Paris label Coperni will host its S/S 2025 show on October 1, 2024 at the so-called happiest place on earth – Disneyland Paris. Founders Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer have said the collection will blend ‘magic with reality, paying tribute to the beloved Walt Disney Animation Studios movies of our childhood’. Meanwhile Ganni, the stalwart of Copenhagen Fashion Week, will shift to Paris this season, following the appointment of Laura du Rusquec, previously of Balenciaga, as CEO this past April.

Stay tuned for more from Women’s Fashion Month S/S 2025.

London Fashion Week A/W 2024 heralded the 40th anniversary of the event that, despite earlier iterations, was inaugurated in the early 1980s by British PR maven Lynne Franks (Franks was said to be the inspiration behind Absolutely Fabulous’ Edina Monsoon). Since then, the week has held its unique balance of rising stars – perhaps best represented by fashion incubator Fashion East – and the city’s blockbuster names, from Vivienne Westwood to Burberry (and even featured an appearance from Queen Elizabeth II, who attended a Richard Quinn show in 2018). 

This latest edition continued the week’s legacy, beginning on Friday evening with a return to London Fashion Week from historic British house Dunhill after four years (it heralds the arrival of new creative director Simon Holloway). Elsewhere, the two biggest draws were JW Anderson – its eponymous designer Jonathan Anderson first rose to prominence at Fashion East in the 2010s – and Burberry, where Daniel Lee showed his third runway show for the historic British label in Victoria Park on Monday evening. Rounding out the schedule was a mix of the week’s stalwarts, including Molly Goddard, Simone Rocha, Roksanda, Erdem and Ahluwalia, alongside a raft of next-generation talent, from KNWLS, Aaron Esh and Conner Ives to the Central Saint Martins MA fashion show.

Here, reported from the shows, Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss rounds up the best of London Fashion Week A/W 2024.

The best of London Fashion Week A/W 2024

Burberry

It was a return to the great outdoors for Daniel Lee’s third runway collection for Burberry, shown yesterday evening in a vast tent erected in east London’s Victoria Park (on the floor were woodchips, while guests sat on enormous fleece cushions). It has been a thematic link that has run through his opening triptych, initially inspired by tents and outdoor-wear from the late-19th and early-20th centuries that he found in the British house’s archive. ‘Burberry’s heritage of the outdoors continues to inspire me,’ said the Yorkshire-born designer in a series of quotes issued after the show. ‘[This season], I wanted this collection to feel warm and protective.’

Soundtracked by a collage of Amy Winehouse clips and music – Lee said backstage that he was inspired by her tenacious desire to write about her life, in her own way – the collection doubled down on Burberry’s synonymy with outerwear, seeing a funnel-neck moleskin version of the trench coat, abbreviated parkas and puffers, and hefty shearlings appear throughout. The mood of textural richness was inspired, Lee said, by British and Irish wool and fabric (also used across long pleated skirts, zip-front trousers, and myriad enveloping, homespun knitwear). ‘[It’s] functional – these pieces are made for the outdoors,’ he said. The line-up of models, including Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson, Lily Cole, Naomi Campbell and Edie Campbell, recalled the 2010s, when Burberry was at cultural ubiquity. 

Backstage, after the show, Lee noted the trickiness of designing for a brand that is made to appeal to huge swathes of people: from royalty to football fans. With this collection – which was full of seductive propositions for real-world wintertime dressing – Lee made his strongest push yet. ‘I have to have a point of view,’ he said. ‘You can’t just make a simple trench coat forever.’

Aaron Esh

A brilliant winter collection from rising London-based designer Aaron Esh, inspired by the dress codes of his inner circle, closed out Sunday evening in an intimate show at east London’s Sarabande (Esh recently became part of the foundation, which was set up by Lee McQueen and offers studio spaces to emerging artists and designers). Building on his runway debut in September 2023, staged at Tate Modern against views of the London skyline, the designer once again noted the influence of his native city and its ‘rhizomatic’ streets. ‘It’s the clothes that I see when I’m at a house party; or the clothes someone would wear to do an off-licence run – big shades, ripped jeans, a blouse thrown over her shoulder,’ he told Wallpaper’s Hannah Tindle at the time.

It lends his work a kind of dishevelled sensuality, where slinky bias-cut dresses, smeared eyeliner, sunglasses, caps and hoodies meet intriguing tailoring, like a wide-lapelled tuxedo cut with a poker-straight hem (later, it evolved into an expansive overcoat), or the pinched hooded tailored jackets that the models grasped closed with their hands. Esh says that he hopes the ease of his clothing belies the craft and construction behind them, something that felt achieved here: his models looked as if wandering home from evenings out, or perhaps the morning after. Skinny jeans, meanwhile, heralded the return of a silhouette introduced by Hedi Slimane in the 2000s while at Dior Homme – the French designer’s singular, subculture-infused approach no doubt an influence on Esh’s growing oeuvre. 

JW Anderson

Nosy neighbours, M&S knickers, horse riding trophies – after the show, Jonathan Anderson laid out the nostalgic inspiration points for his A/W 2024 collection, presented this season at Marylebone’s Seymour Leisure Centre in a shift from The Roundhouse. ‘It was something twisted, in terms of the woman next door,’ he said, a mood elaborated in the press release as ‘a grotesque everydayness, in grotesque distortions and proportions’. So there were knit dresses with enormous stitches, trails of blown-up haberdashery adornments, layers of everyday ribbed underwear and vests, house slippers, and brassy grey curly wigs. In its strange banality it was surprisingly affronting, a further demonstration of Anderson’s ability to traverse the seductive and the ugly (the designer is perhaps only equalled by Miuccia Prada in his ability to strike this dichotomy so successfully season on season). 

Other pieces were designed to recall interiors, like a series of twisted dresses which evoked curtains and curtain ties, looping elegantly around the model’s bodies (their evolution into a version in pearl made for a convincing proposition for a contemporary wedding gown). Outerwear recalled British heritage styles, here blown up in size and slightly dishevelled, pulled up at the sleeve to reveal the lining beneath, while everyday staples like the striped sweater and sweatpant shorts appeared throughout. Anderson elaborated backstage that it was in part a consideration of Britain, a strange refraction of the country’s past – at once nostalgic and subverted, likening it to the slew of recent songs that have risen up the charts years after they have been released. 

‘Young people are discovering nostalgia,’ he said. ‘And then they glorify [things from the past], and it becomes a kind of future thinking in a didactic way. They’re like mixing things that my parents know, that we all know, and reconfiguring them. It makes nostalgia not such a scary thing.’

Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha described her A/W 2024 collection as the closing chapter of a triptych of works which began with last season’s ‘Dress Rehearsal’ – capturing the anticipation and fraughtness of the evening before a wedding – and continued with the designer’s haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier shown in Paris last month, which was titled ‘The Procession’ and looked towards the nuptials themselves. Presented in medieval church St Bartholomew-the-Great in Smithfield, the conclusion was titled ‘The Wake’, with Rocha beginning the collection by looking towards the mourning attire of Queen Victoria after the death of her husband Prince Albert (famously, she would mourn the loss for over four decades of her life). It made for fertile ground for the Irish designer, whose collections have long had a swelling undercurrent of darkness despite the beauty of their execution. Here, pelts of faux fur sat on the shoulders of delicate, near-transparent tailoring, while corsets – adorned with shimmering crystal embellishment under the chest – seemed a continuation of her collaboration with Gaultier. Unexpected accessories came in the shape of soft-toy lambs carried in the models’ arms, a nod to the mythical animals which serve as church guardians, while mourning blacks were reimagined in tie-hem anoraks, worn with faux-fur stoles adorned with crystals. ‘This was the final piece of the triptych, because I was working on these collections at the same time,’ explained Rocha backstage. ‘I’ve been looking at a lot of preserved garments, a lot of archives, and I really wanted to take that and place it today.’

Molly Goddard

A vast mural by London Group artist Ivon Hitchens provided the colourful backdrop for Molly Goddard’s latest collection, staged at the main hall of Cecil Sharp House, the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in north London. The collection itself reflected the work’s freewheeling composition – Hitchens took three years to complete the 1954 mural, which depicts a mass of abstract figures dancing in a mythical woodland – with Goddard noting that this season she once again began the collection with an ‘experimental fitting’. In these, the designer takes vintage pieces, samples from her archive and toiles and begins to combine them as a starting point for the collection (she also noted inspiration from her eBay watch list, which with two young children is currently comprised of colourful baby and toddler wear). Here, it led her to a consideration of form – ‘shapes on top of shapes; garments combining – pulling in, pushing out, smushing’ – in part inspired by the haute couture silhouettes of Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior, though relaxed with elasticated and tie fastenings for the everyday. Meanwhile, a continuing exploration of tulle – this season, Goddard described their construction as ‘blobs’, tightly ruffled shapes which provided dramatic silhouettes across skirts, shirts and dresses – met slouchy sweaters, cowboy jackets and polka-dot tops and bustiers in a collection of refreshing levity. 

Roksanda

Earlier this week, Zendaya wore a Roksanda look to Dennis Villenvenue’s Dune: Part Two London premiere: a plum-hued suit, jacket nipped in at the waist with exaggerated shoulders and loose-cut trousers, layered with a knee-length skirt. It turned out this was a sneak preview of the A/W 2024 collection presented yesterday, against the backdrop of the Tate Britain. (The suit opened the show with Law Roach, the actor’s stylist, watching on from the front row).

This season Ilinčić said she had been inspired by Le Corbusier, one of the Serbian-born designer’s ‘heroes’, and that she had recently spent time at the architect’s tiny holiday cabin, Cabanon de Le Corbusier. It was constructed in 1951 and located in Cap Martin, a coastal commune in the South of France. The interiors, and most notably the murals in the entrance hall, were subsequently referenced in the tapestries swathing around the body and trailing dramatically along the runway. Melton wool, a fabric ‘used in interiors and homes, places that provide refuge and comfort’, formed the opening suit and additional tailored pieces, where boucle, fil coupé jacquard, and a smattering of faux fur also lent themselves to the embrace of soft furnishings.

Roksanda is renowned for her considered use of colour, and of course, A/W 2024 was no different. The show notes reeled off a descriptive list of shades, reminiscent of the names that one might find on tins of expensive emulsion: Chartreuse-Verse, Canvas, Dark Flamant, Grey-Melange, Bleu-Cair, Pale-Lime, Light Hibiscus, Antique Rose, Peche-Clair. There were also sportier nods to windbreakers and wellingtons (footwear was produced in collaboration with Fit Flop), with the closing looks of the show taking the form of huge taffeta dresses that appeared almost tent-like, as though held up with a framework of poles. They conjured the idea of spending a windswept day along the coast, before returning to the warmth of a lavishly decorated home. Hannah Tindle

16Arlington

Writer and curator Charlie Fox’s 2019 exhibition My Head is a Haunted House, presented at Sadie Coles gallery, provided the starting point for Marco Capaldi’s A/W 2024 collection for 16Arlington. At the time, the group show was described by Fox as an attempt to recall ’the hallucinogenic memory’ of a childhood obsessed with werewolves, bats and monsters; here, Capaldi gave the monstrous a more elegant twist, seeing his sharp, streamlined vision for the brand enlivened with flourishes of strangeness, like swathes of shaggy faux fur or the clattering tinsel looks which closed the show. A pair of diaphanous white dresses, meanwhile, seemed to conjure Frankenstein’s bride, while shirts and sweaters tied around the neck in lieu of scarves suggested a mash-up of parts. ‘It’s not about Halloween – it’s about human nature,’ Capaldo said. ‘Hence the title of the show, I’m Not Sorry, It’s Human Nature, borrowed, of course, from Madonna. Those who go against conventions are often ostracised, but there’s so much strength and power and beauty in rejecting norms. These are the people I design for.’

Dunhill

For its first runway show since 2020 – and the first collection from newly installed creative director Simon Holloway – Dunhill chose the Duveen Wing of the National Portrait Gallery, a series of rooms inaugurated by King George V and Queen Mary in 1933. The historic venue hinted a return to classicism for the British brand (itself in its 130th year), a mood also captured in show’s the layout, which with its low-lit individual tables, gin martinis and dainty plates of cucumber and caviar sandwiches nodded towards traditional salon-style fashion presentations of the early 20th century.  

’This collection celebrates our origins and subsequent evolution into a unique British luxury house,’ explained Holloway of the A/W 2024 collection, which sought to capture Dunhill’s rich tailoring heritage and tradition of dressing figures from stage and screen (earlier in the week, the brand hosted a star-studded pre-BAFTA party, a hint towards this new direction). So the collection itself ran the gamut of what Holloway called the ‘finer things in life’ – whether motor racing (recalled in the suede field jacket worn by model Kit Butler, or the leather driving gloves throughout), jaunts to the great outdoors (gabardine chinos, blazers in heritage checks and cord, aran-stitch cashmere sweaters) or a swathe of evening wear, including an elegant ivory riff on the tuxedo with matching bowtie and overcoat (worn here with a sneaker).

‘[These are the things] we have always done best,’ concluded Holloway of the collection, which felt like something of a palette cleanser for his tenure ahead. ‘I hope we have re-captured that spirit, one that is at once refined and international,’

Fashion East

There was an interesting synchronicity to this season’s Fashion East designers Olly Shinder and Johanna Parv – the latter in her third and final season at the talent incubator – who both provided their own distinct riffs on the nine-to-five wardrobe. Shinder, who last season presented a debut collection of pieces inspired by the sporty, sleazy nightlife uniforms of Berlin and London, where the designer splits his time. Soundtracked once again by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, here Shinder turned his attention towards the corporate uniform, which was ‘queered... displaced, subverted and refined’. So there was a take on ’middle managerial’ shirting, which appeared to have been grasped at the collar and sliced down the back, while other pieces continued Shinder’s more familiar exploration of workwear, with clean-lined functional sets with PVC at the sleeves and over the trousers, as if models were about to deal with hazardous materials (indeed, Shinder likened his studio this season to a lab). Completing the lineup were pieces primed for the dance floor: slick, semi-shirted latex bodysuits, or abbreviated mini shorts in black and silver. Judging by buzz, he already has an audience for these clothes.

Parv, meanwhile, is a designer who looks towards the functionality of sportswear through toggle and adjustable fastenings, and technical fabrics, attempting to replicate them across the full gamut of a woman’s wardrobe. This season, a polished collection continued this approach with what she said was inspired by the ‘topography of the city’, and the demands of urban life. The mood was darker, and more sensual than previously – the skirt suit was sliced open at the front and shoulders – while zip-up mini dresses were featherweight in their fabrication. As ever, a series of clever accessories accompanied in the form of leather bumbags and handbags with an adjustable nylon strap, evocative of those found on a backpack. It will be interesting to see what Parv does next.

‘I’m always quite sensitive to the past while feeling more detached in the present,’ says Irish fashion designer Simone Rocha, one of three protagonists of a new fashion exhibition at MoMu Antwerp which explores the emotional link between fashion and memory – what meaning do we attach to the clothes we wear, and why? And how does clothing shape the way that we remember the past? Of her own works – several of which have recently been acquired by the institution, having reopened after a major renovation in 2021 – Rocha says the idea of memory is woven into every garment. ’History, nostalgia, remorse, emotion... I pull those ideas into the reality of today and see how they reveal themselves.’

Titled ‘Echo. Wrapped in Memory’, the recently opened exhibition places Rocha in conversation with two other women artists, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and prolific French sculptor and painter Louise Bourgeois. MoMu calls it a ‘conversation’ between the three women, who despite working across mediums and time periods, nonetheless share a fascination with clothing, fabric and the body, and the way that interplay shapes the way we understand our personal histories. Alongside, MoMu has selected a number of historical pieces from its vast archive – now numbering over 38,000 pieces – which bear marks of their wearer’s lives, whether stains, smells, or tears (one extraordinary weighted satin silk bodice from the late 18th century is eerily shredded across its surface).

‘Echo. Wrapped in Memory’ fashion exhibition at MoMu Antwerp

Bourgeois – who described art as ‘the re-experience of a trauma’ – clothing became a particularly important part of her practice in the final two decades of her life, whereby she would incorporate items she had owned and worn into her sculptural works. Fabric was a lifelong fascination for the artist (her parents were tapestry restorers in France), and often became a metaphor for the psychoanalytic process which would come to define her oeuvre, the process of stitching and weaving associated with a desire to mend the past. ‘I have always had a fascination with the magic power of the needle,’ she once said. ‘The needle is used to repair the damage. It's a claim to forgiveness.’

One such work by Bourgeois, titled ‘Blue Days’ (1996) – on display in Europe for the first time – features in the exhibition and comprises a number of pieces of the artist’s clothing, all blue, hanging from an industrial metal armature (she also created a corresponding work called ‘Pink Days’, suggesting the traditionally gendered clothing children are given at birth; when displayed, they are to retain the natural creases of the garments). ’It gives me great pleasure to hold on to my clothes, my dresses, my stockings, I have never thrown away a pair of shoes of mine in 20 years,’ Bourgeois wrote in 1963. ‘The pretext is that they are still good – it’s my past and as rotten as it was, I would like to take it and hold it tight in my arms.’ 

Both Rocha and De Keersmaeker note an affinity with Bourgeois, who died aged 98 in New York in 2010. Rocha first encountered Bourgeois aged 16 at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) – ‘hanging bodies in the terry-cloth towelling fabrics suspended from the ceiling’ – while De Keersmaeker remembers various encounters, including exhibitions at Palais de Papes in Avignon and Dia New York. ’As a female artist, her work speaks to me – as a choreographer and as a woman,’ she tells Wallpaper*. ‘I admire her lonely trajectory, if you will, how she stubbornly went her own way.’

An admiration is also shared between Rocha and De Keersmaeker, who had previously planned to collaborate before Rocha became pregnant with her first daughter. ‘It is very fitting we are finally together in this show, sharing works which reflect memories and mothering,’ says Rocha, referencing the various archival pieces which recall motherhood in the exhibition – like a series of 18th-century pregnancy corsets. ‘I’ve always admired her work, her brain, her influence.’

‘I met Simone about ten years ago. Rosas [De Keersmaeker’s dance company] is regularly invited to perform in London and when we were working on Work/Travail/ Arbeid at the Tate Modern, curator Chris Dercon suggested getting in touch with her,’ adds De Keersmaeker. ‘Looking into her work, I was very much inspired by the unique way in which she approaches clothing, fashion, and narrative. At a certain moment, we considered collaborating on Così fan tutte, a performance I created for the Paris Opera in 2017. The timing wasn’t right. But we did stay in touch and met again on different occasions: I did a photo shoot in her clothing, and Simone came to see our shows in London. I follow her work, and she follows mine.’

‘Memory has a very particular meaning when one works in dance,’ she continues. ‘Dance is ephemeral. We are continuously confronted with the question of traces: is it necessary for our work to leave traces, or do we accept the ephemeral aspect of dance? In dance, the body is a tool but it is also at the core of our identity, and clothes are literally close to the body... the practice of dancing is thinking about time, dealing with time.’

Archival footage of De Keersmaeker’s choreography sits alongside works from Rocha and Bourgeois, as well as a slew of other pieces exploring the idea of memory – including contributions from artists including Cassi Namoda, Laila Gohar and Liz Magor, alongside designers Raf Simons, Helmut Lang and Dries Van Noten. ’The invitation was unexpected, but it inspired me to revisit my trajectory as a choreographer as well as the Rosas repertory from a completely different perspective, [which was] extremely stimulating,’ she says. ’The relationship between the body and memory, between the body and clothing – it is such a beautiful and thought-provoking idea.’

‘Echo. Wrapped in Memory’ runs from 14 October 2023 until 25 February 2024 at MoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp.

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‘There is a crossover of ideas and emotion, and influences of fabrications and silhouettes – they are coming from one place but each is their own individual character that responds and reacts to [the other],’ says Ireland-born, London-based designer Simone Rocha on the relationship between her womenswear and menswear offering, the latter of which was introduced as part of her S/S 2023 runway show in September 2022. 

‘It felt like the right time to start exploring the relationship between my womenswear and menswear, [but also to] introduce my codes to their own menswear identity,’ she continues. As such, the menswear pieces – interspersed throughout the show, which took place in the grand central hall of London’s Old Bailey – saw Rocha marry the sweet with the subversive, a juxtaposition that has been at the heart of Rocha’s collections since the inception of her label.

Simone Rocha menswear arrives at Dover Street Market

The poetic collection notes talked about ‘harnessing a feeling’, channelling ‘fragility, remorse, anger and nature’: a cocooning bomber jacket was worn over a ruffled white apron, cropped tailoring with a bridal veil, voluminous T-shirts embellished with naive illustrations of flowers. Tougher utilitarian elements accompanied pieces throughout – whether a proliferation of adjustable straps, or zippers which ran the length of a pair of trousers.

‘My favourite look was a fine wool-tailored suit with a pageboy collar edged in pearl; the strictness of the tailoring diffused by the veil,’ says Rocha. ‘[I also loved] the oversized egg bomber with the dropped frill taffeta apron escaping underneath. But my favourite piece was the shawl collar jacket with the voluminous bomber sleeve – I felt this was a reflection of my introduction to menswear.’

Coinciding with the collection’s arrival in store, the London outpost of Dover Street Market is hosting a special installation created in a collaboration between Rocha and Irish artist Rory Mullen (it coincides with the boutique’s seasonal changeover). ’I met Rory through his work with director Hugh Mulhern and was very inspired by his process, [and the] scale, physicality, and sincerity of this work. He is also from Ireland, like me,’ says Rocha, who wanted to create something ‘large and imposing which also felt fragile and delicate’. The result was an enormous inflatable daisy chain, decorated with sequin embellishment. ‘These contrasts featured heavily within the collection and we felt that having something inflatable was a great way to harness that energy.’

A zine-cum-campaign, photographed by London-born image-maker Rosie Marks, accompanies the project. ’I wanted to show the collection in a human way, setting scenes that would portray the emotion of the everyday,’ says Rocha of working with Marks, who is known for her idiosyncratic portraiture and documentary photography that seeks to find the ‘unusual within the everyday’. ‘We wanted to make pictures that shared emotion and questioned the archetypes of masculinity. Rosie has an inquisitive sensitivity to people and characters, showing their authentic selves and as this collection was driven from emotion, I wanted the photos as a way to share that.’ 

Rocha is slated to show her next collection during London Fashion Week in February 2023 at Central Hall Westminster. Rocha has confirmed that menswear will once again feature. ‘It’s very exciting to work [in a new medium] and at a time when there is a much more natural crossover between womenswear and menswear,’ she says. ‘Going forward I’m designing them under the same body of inspiration, but each with their own role and identity.’

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A multifaceted approach to the female gaze is explored in an exhibition curated by fashion designer Simone Rocha.

‘Girls Girls Girls,’ taking place at Lismore Castle Arts, unites work from a diverse selection of artists including Sophie Barber, Louise Bourgeois, Elene Chantladze, Petra Collins, Sian Costello, Dorothy Cross, Genieve Figgis, Iris Haeussler, Eimear Lynch & Domino Whisker, Roni Horn, Cassi Namoda, Sharna Osborne, Josiane M.H. Pozi, Cindy Sherman, Alina Szapocznikow, Harley Weir, Francesca Woodman and Luo Yang.

A juxtaposition of media forms, encompassing art, sculpture and photography, subvert the traditional concepts of femininity. In ‘Stilletos’ by Dorothy Cross, shoes in cowhide and cow teat muse on the role of the absurd in fashion. Unsettling issues of identity take shape in Francesca Woodman’s self-portrait. Classic motifs are given a subversive twist in Sian Costello’s self-portraits in oil, while Elene Chantladze’s images on stone have a nightmarish quality.

‘I wanted to bring together artists who make powerful, provocative work and have them together in the space, sharing the underlying femininity of the pieces,’ says Rocha. ‘I wanted to explore the works of these inspirational artists and for them to share a space together.’

The exhibition brings established artists such as Cindy Sherman and Roni Horn together with those emerging, including Sophie Barber, Luo Yang and Genieve Figgis. When viewed collectively, the works tap into a disturbing alternative reality, with haunting self-portraiture reflecting an internal narrative unique to each artist. The contrasting media, when viewed together, presents a multi-faceted exploration of femininity.

It is a dichotomy Rocha herself explores in her own work, juxtaposing traditionally feminine silhouettes against masculine tailoring. ‘The female spirit and experience have been a strong focus of my work from the beginning,’ she says. ‘I am always pushing to make something traditionally feminine in a modern, off-kilter world. In this exhibition, I wanted to explore the works of these inspirational artists and for them to share a space together.’

INFORMATION                                                                                                                                       The Listmore Castle Arts 2002 exhibition takes place April 2 - October 30 2022
lismorecastlearts.ie

It’s been eighteen months since the London fashion crowd stomped the streets in idiosyncratic, head-turning looks, flitting between shows in cultural landmarks across the city, and celebrating the British capital’s spirit of creativity and community. A lot has changed since then. Brands have shuttered, boutiques have closed and our means of communication have shifted. The London Fashion Week schedule has become gender free.

But a warm optimism and anticipation filled the seats at S/S 2022’s shows and presentations, as viewers celebrated the joy of seeing a new clothing collection in real life: the vibrancy of a colour, the texture of a fabric, the drape of a silhouette, by burgeoning brands and behemoths, from 2021 LVMH Prize Winner Nensi Dojaka to Erdem, SS Daley to Roksanda. Here’s eight things to know about the British capital’s return to fashion form and London Fashion Week S/S 2022.

London Fashion Week S/S 2022: all you need to knowLFW : ‘F’ is for friendship

A sense of community is integral to London's fashion scene, a unity brought into focus by talent incubator Fashion East, which celebrated its 20th anniversary at London’s The Standard Hotel. For S/S 2022 Goomheo, Maximilian, HRH, Jawara Alleyne and Chet Lo made up the burgeoning talent roster, Asian-American designer Lo making his debut with a series of futuristic 3D-knit designs, inspired by the vibrance of holiday. Elsewhere, Simone Rocha celebrated her brand's tenth birthday with a party with long-time collaborator Dover Street Market. A stained glass church installation housed a special celebratory collection, featuring archive pieces, and upcycled tableclothes crafted in collaboration with Luncheon magazine.

Matchesfashion celebrated its Innovators initative, a conversational project that sees its latest roster of emerging talent, including Harris Reed, Chopova Lowena and Grace Wales Bonner speak to their creative heroes. At a party at the retailer's majestic Carlos Place townhouse, guests snacked on cute mini pizzas housed in boxes printed with its signature marbled motif. 

Richard Malone – fresh from a turn as gallery curator – marked his collaboration with Mulberry with a show at the Victoria & Albert Musuem. Models strode against a backdrop of breathtaking Renaissance artworks sporting sculptural spliced designs, from cut-out ruched dresses to patchwork leather coats, made using upcycled Mulberry fabrics. They also carried the designer’s accessory interpretations for Mulberry Editions – bold, graphic takes on the brand's ‘Bayswater’ and ‘Darley’ bags. 

Another way to absord the community-focused energy at London Fashion Week? The whoops and cheers from the audience as Nensi Dojaka took a bow on the runway at her S/S 2022 finale, or the hug Maximilian Davis’ mother gave him post-show, in view of the smiling guests.

The city still lives in splendour

After long months of lockdown and social and physical restriction, the British capital is slowly but surely getting its buzz back. Nothing exemplified this more than the diverse locations in which London's brands chose to stage their shows. In celebration of his eponymous label's 15-year anniversary, Erdem hosted an intimate runway show outdoors amongst the classical colonnades of the British Museum, framed by a rainbow that appeared at the show's finale.

Rejina Pyo hot-footed across east London, staging her show at the Zaha Hadid-designed London Aquatics Centre in Stratford, which hosted events during the 2012 Olympics. Simone Rocha showcased her collection at the medieval church St Bartholomew the Great. Roksanda returned to her regular Serpentine Galleries location. And Kiko Kostadinov looked to the rooftop of the Selgas Cano-designed workspace Second Home.

More gritty, Knwls took guests to a dimly lit underground car park behind Oxford Street, while Edward Crutchley shone colourful lasers and smoke across the unfinished concrete interior of Collins’ Music Hall. Saul Nash brought memories of going to school in Hackney to his idiosyncratically performance-focused runway show, with male models sporting hybrid tracksuits and Nikes and getting changed in front of the audience at bus stops.

Skimpy is chic

Let's hear it for flaunting the female form. Following on from the glamour and body-sporting chic at New York Fashion Week S/S 2022, a host of brands embraced unabashed body-con silhouettes. Supriya Lele brought a confident, grown-up mood to her colourful, 1990s-centric shapes, with cut-out halterneck dresses in soft leather, daring bodysuits paired with wrap skirts and cropped bomber jackets. Inspired by archetypal silhouettes, she reinterpreted a man's oversized vest as a sheer sequined net dress, and reimagined a pair of capri pants in sheer mesh that tied at the navel. ‘The collection is about evolution and pushing the brand forward,’ Lele told Wallpaper*. ‘It's about reaffirming what we are good at.’

Nensi Dojaka, who scooped this year’s LVMH Prize, evolved her signature lingerie-centric LBDs, updating her transparent strappy pieces with pinks and browns and adding knitwear elements and tailoring, such as tuxedo trousers and oversized blazers. Elsewhere, Knwls brought heavy-metal biker-girl glam to its sexy skin-tight silhouettes, with bleached denim, cracked leather, sand-splashed hues and cowboy hats.

Menswear is in the mix

S/S 2022 saw the men's and women's catwalk schedule physically merge. Cue Saul Nash's school-inspired sportswear take, complete with Nikes, Kickers and tracksuits printed with the Hackey-born designer’s TFL travel pass; plus Molly Goddard's menswear evolution, which saw silhouettes inspired by children's clothes, and models sporting heart-motif intarsia knits, thigh-revealing shorts and ballet pumps. Upcycling wunderkind SS Daley's debut catwalk show featured whimsical, upcycled silhouettes, from paisley suits to rugby shirts, voluminous trousers to dressing gowns, while Stefan Cooke looked to classic wardrobe pieces, like tracksuit bottoms, polo shirts, vests and bomber jackets, reintrepreting them with trompe l’oeil effects, light-hearted dancing-women motifs, cable-knit appliqué and chainmail.

Set your sights on far horizons

Unsurprisingly, a host of designers set their sights on escapist scenes. At Fashion East, Maximilian looked with a nostalgic nod to the sun-soaked colours and vibrancy of life on the islands of the Caribbean Sea, inspired by memories of family visits to Trinidad, presenting ocean tones, reds inspired by the island’s scarlet ibis bird, and outfits riffing on carnival attendees.

Chet Lo's innovative knitwear also looked to sun-drenched sojourns, the tones of tropical cocktails and the outlines of pool inflatables.

Laura and Deanna Fanning looked to the streets around north London that they walked during lockdown for Kiko Kostadinov's A/W 2021 collection; but for S/S 2022 they looked to the sunny shores of their native Australia, where they have not returned since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Looking to beach literature by Kathy Lett and Tim Winton, the brand's collection referenced surf, salt-baked tones from sand to oceanic blues, the undulating shapes of waves, and the relaxed ease of beach living. Wrap skirts were embellished with shells, blouses had flowing handkerchief shapes, and ribbed knits were imagined as upside down cardigans. ‘For many Australians, the coast is such an ordinary aspect of growing up that can be a fetishised and commercialised norm. In saying that, there are so many beautiful parts of the coast that really give you a sense of perspective, relief and a moment to reflect in its calmness and sparsity. Not being able to return home, we really felt a sense of longing for the calmness and balance that coastal trips and moments provide for us,’ the sisters told Wallpaper*.

The show must (not) go on

Not all brands were back on the official schedule, with notable exceptions from September's London Fashion Week being Burberry, Christopher Kane and Chalayan. Margaret Howell skipped a physical show in favour of a film and a small collection of accompanying appointments – the perfect way for the brand to allow editors to touch the tactile, time-honed fabrications and attention to cut and comfort that the label spends hours deliberating over. Chalky, paint-like textures were central to the men's and women's collection, which featured pastel-hued simple striped dresses, Mackintosh-designed boxy cagoules, casual unlined tailoring and schoolish-inspired styling. ‘Each season, there's a lot of tweaks that go on,' Howell told Wallpaper* of silhouettes that nodded to heritage styles in the brand's extensive archive.

Prince of partywear Halpern also eschewed a physical show, in favour of a digital film created in collaboration with The Royal Ballet. At the Royal Opera House, dancers twirled in fluid silk gowns and dresses drenched in colourful fringing. JW Anderson also skipped an IRL show, debuting instead a collection film and in-store activations at the brand’s 6a-designed Soho boutique. 

Christopher Kane and Burberry chose to hold their runway shows through livestream in October, parallel to Paris Fashion Week. The former, presented an offering that meditated between minimalism and more tongue in cheek silhouettes, featuring dresses in fluid metallic pleats or with architectural volumes, satin coats with 3D folds, chainmail tops and jumpers and shirts embellished with the figurative characters that Kane dreamt up during lockdown.

The world is a stage (and a swimming pool)

Theatricality was high on the agenda for a host of immersive, performance-focused shows. At London Aquatics Centre in Stratford, Rejina Pyo showed a colourful print-splashed collection, featuring Canadian tuxedos, puritan-collar dresses, ruched skirts and oversized tailoring. At the show’s finale, models ascended the space's diving boards and were joined by members of the GB diving team, who wore bold swimming costumes and performed breathtaking dives into the swimming pool below.

Roksanda returned to her favourite Serpentine Pavilion venue – designed for 2021 by South African architecture practice Counterspace, using Portuguese cork and bricks made of construction waste – with a show-cum-performance, created in collaboration with choreographer Holly Blakey. Dancers ascended seating, crawled across the floor and clambered onto each others shoulders in a performance inspired by layered human emotion and tension, wearing the designer's colourful, motion-fuelled pieces, like bell sleeve gowns, fringed dresses and slouchy suiting.

Menswear designer Steven Stokey-Daley – whose star began to ascend after his whimsical, upcycled designs were sported by Harry Styles – enlisted members of the National Youth Theatre for his brand SS Daley’s debut catwalk show, with a performance that riffed on notions of masculinity, stereotypes of public and private school, power structure and class. The designer developed these fascinations when studying at the University of Westminster, which has a campus overlooking Harrow School's rubgy fields. Meanwhile, Charles Jeffrey returned to dramatic form, staging ‘Portal' at the gritty Metalworks in Islington, with models striding amongst laser beams and sporting century-spanning garments, headpieces ablaze with burning candles.

Mum’s the word

Simone Rocha recently gave birth to her second daughter, and for S/S 2022 she had motherhood on her mind. The designer referenced  ‘Sleep walking, mothering',  ‘Communion dress’, ‘Baby teeth & lack of sleep' in her collection notes, which featured voluminous cotton nightgowns edged with brocade and broderie anglaise, girlish ballet shoes, ethereal layered petticoats, ribbon detail cardigans and beaded crowns. Spring spoke of vulnerability and strength.

Elsewhere, Molly Goddard – who is on maternity leave after giving birth to her first son – subtly alluded to her new role as a mother, looking at the baby and kids’ clothes she has collected over time, and blowing up silhouettes such as smock dresses to grown-up proportions.

‘Slowly something is mounting, some more desire and excitement,' Miuccia Prada said in her A/W 2021 post-show discussion with collaborator Raf Simons, and it's certainly true that there was an enthusiastic undercurrent running through many of the beauty looks in the A/W 2021 shows.

The season's helmet haircuts, body paint, face stickers, crayola colour palettes, goth extremism and other inventive takes on beauty, suggested a readiness to get playful, to experiment. Skincare and wellness dominated the conversation last year, but this season hints that there is ‘desire and excitement' around the return to a bolder makeup.

Below, we share some of the most memorable looks from the season to inspire your own cosmetic creativity.

Burberry 

One of the chief inspirations for Riccardo Tisci’s latest Burberry collection was the Arts and Crafts movement of early 19th century Britain, which saw artists like William Morris rebel against the rise of industrially produced goods in favour of handmade craft with wildlife motifs.
 
To translate this aesthetic into cosmetics, Burberry’s Global Beauty Director, Isamaya Ffrench, built on the hyper-minimalist makeup of last year’s show, maintaining the same high-polish skin and no-makeup makeup, but this time faces were scattered with delicate silver stars and face crystals. 

To complement the look, hair artist Jawara Wauchope created a series of military-style buzzcuts and gelled back styles so severe they looked almost as if they were painted on. 

Molly Goddard 

There’s always been a certain playfulness to Molly Goddard’s work, and that sensibility was complemented this season by Luke Hersheson’s whimsical hair, and colourful makeup by Miranda Joyce. Bundles of candy-floss hair were accompanied by crescent moons of neon-pink blush around the eyes and bright red lips.

The effect is like an artistic take on a child’s first experiments with their mother’s makeup cabinet. Hair blow-dried to the max and makeup applied freely and experimentally, without following any rules about where it should go. Its one of the many looks this season that suggests extravagant makeup and hair will be on-trend come autumn 2021.

Ahluwalia

The spraypainted prints of Priya Ahluwalia’s A/W 21 collection were reflected in the airbrushed steaks of colour that adorned models faces. London-based makeup artist Bari Khalique accented cheekbones, brow lines, and chins with strokes of iridescent blue for a painterly take on cosmetic colour application. 

Simone Rocha

Some of the most memorable hair looks of the season came courtesy of hairstylist Cyndia Harvey at Simone Rocha. Rocha was inspired the naivety of adolescence for this collection and Harvey’s long rows of plaits harked back to the uniform hairstyle of many school girls.

Yet, the formation of those braids into gravity-defining sculptures added an edginess to the delicacy, in a nod to Rocha’s signature blend of fragility and ferocity. That mixture was echoed in Lauren Parsons’ makeup, which features sweet, peachy lips and brown eyes that added a suggestion of sleepless nights. Ama Quashie nail art, featuring delicate flowers on a clear base, was a particularly delightful detail. 

Prada 

Within the first few seconds of Prada’s A/W 2021 digital show, the camera turns and follows the model through the OMA-designed set, showcasing her helmet of slicked-back hair. The extravagant minimalism of the look is the perfect foil for the exuberant textures, patterns, and colours that characterised Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ latest collection. While Pat McGrath's clean, barely perceptible makeup added an element of understatement. 

Salvatore Ferragamo 

The beginning of Paul Andrew’s A/W 2021 collection for Salvatore Ferragamo started off with beauty not all that different from the looks in many other shows this season – minimalist makeup paired with slicked-back hair. Yet, as the sci-fi inspired show film, continues shimmers of something different appears.

A model emerges from the white-lit tunnel, a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with splotches of silver paint around her lips, the same appears again, until by the end of the show, models emerged almost entirely covered in silver body paint that complemented a matching silver trench or a revealing chainmail gown.

Yohji Yamamoto

Spooky is probably the best word for describing the hair and makeup in Yohji Yamamoto’s latest A/W 2021 collection. The show’s mixture of 19th-century structures and contemporary streetwear influence was reflected in beauty looks which walked the line between Romantic-era ghoul and modern-day punk.

Long black mains were crimped and flipped into Edward Scissorhands-style disarray, bouffant hair-dos are deflated and tinged with streaks of grey, shorter updos were styled into elaborate braids or gelled upwards and dyed blue, red, and black.

The gothy-punk hairstyles were accompanied by exaggeratedly pale skin and blanched lips for a corpse-like pallor.

Christian Dior

Maria Grazia Chiuri called her latest collection for Christian Dior ‘Disturbing Beauty' and it's true that there was a certain element of creepiness to the beauty looks Peter Philips and Guido Palau constructed for the show.

Philips' created a black smoky eye that was dark around the eye's corners and more lightly shaded across the crease for a withdrawn, eerie effect. Palau's hair emphasised the drama with a severe middle part or curtain of glossy bangs.

Dries Van Noten

It’s near impossible not to catch sight of the slightly smeared, vinyl lips in Dries Van Noten’s dance-filled A/W 2021 film. Ranging from rosy pink to brick red and deep berry, the punchy lips were emphasised by slicked back hair, minimal eye makeup, and the occasional bleached eyebrow.

Paired with free-flowing choreography and a Massive Attack soundtrack, the bold cosmetics of this collection offered some much-needed inspiration for the evenings of party makeup that, hopefully, aren’t too far away.

Two weeks before London Fashion Week kicked off its first fully digital-only men’s and women’s showing, a group of fashion insiders, from Paul Smith to Roksanda Illincic, wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson and the British government detailing the incredible hardship experienced by brands post-Brexit. In the wake of the United Kingdom leaving the EU in December, brands have been left floundering in the face of ascending import and export chargers, customer dissatisfaction and new expenses encountered from producing within their home country. 

With the UK currently in its third lockdown, labels are also still grappling with the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, with brands operating with revolving skeleton teams in their studios, or from their homes through Zoom. Brands big and small are also grappling with whether to present their collections according to London Fashion Week’s official calendar, or simply later when their collections are naturally completed. In the wake of this new informality, fashion week schedules are overlapping for the first time, with Tom Ford’s A/W 2021 show in LA (part of the New York Fashion Week schedule) taking place after London Fashion Week has begun.

Despite a deluge of socio-political drama, the concept of community remained a focal point of the A/W 2021 London shows. Nothing showed off this sense of unity more than the Institute of Digital Fashion and Soho boutique Machine A’s, A New Future project, which allowed the public to view the latest collections from brand’s including Richard Quinn, Eftychia and Martine Rose, through an AR Instagram filter, replicating a shop floor. Scannable QR codes were plastered on billboards around the city, from Shoreditch to Peckham, Notting Hill to Camden, alerting Londonders on their daily constitutional of the technology.

‘In a time where the fashion calendar feels very flat and with the industry questioning what fashion means today, we wanted to elevate the voices of talents, dissecting just that,’ says IoDF co-founder Leanne Elliott Young of A New Future. ‘An important part of our work and mission is to democratise the fashion landscape, evaluating how tech can be used to push past some of the archaic structures that the fashion industry as a whole is transfixed upon.’

One designer who finds the streets of a city essential to her output is Molly Goddard. She references the stalls of Portobello market or Japanese street style in her designs. ‘Usually I go to the library, pull research from everywhere, go to markets,’ said Goddard. For A/W 2021, she embraced a more concise development process from home, pulling from her own archive research folders and oft-referenced books including Tina Barney’s Europeans, David Douglas Duncan’s Goodbye Picasso and Terence Conran books featuring stylish people in wonderfully designed spaces. Her collection had an exuberance, optimism and ease, that celebrated British fabrics and mix-and-match thrift store eccentricity, featuring her signature mille-feuille tulle dresses, Pink herringbone tweed mini skirt suits, tartan kilts and Fair Isle sweaters, and also revived its recently launched menswear.

Optimism was also essential to Milan-and-London-based label Colville, which since its inception has embraced an effusive melting pot of references, and created covetable, well considered clothing that evolves each season. For A/W 2021, founders Molly Molloy and Lucinda Chambers created fluid silk dresses in vibrantly marbled and Arts and Crafts prints, sleeping bag coats, graphic floral shirting and chunky costume jewellery. ‘We start from a position of what we love and put on,' Chambers explained. ‘No one needs another black handbag.'

Colville's collection also tapped the 2021 fashion trend for a wardrobe we'll want to revel in when the world emerges from lockdown. This is a mindset adopted by the doyen of dramatic dressing Michael Halpern, who created a glamorous collection suited to how many see themselves emerging on 21 June, when the UK is purported to be loosening all of its Covid-19 restrictions. The designer's signature 1970s flares and mini dresses shimmered with sequins and bodysuits were swathed in leopard print. On the Fashion East catwalk, Nensi Dojaka also embraced an exuberant mindset, bringing, for the first time, flecks of fuschia to her underwear-inspired, and body-celebrating designs.

Erdem Moralioglu also posited on our post-pandemic wardrobes, with a collection that fluctuated between lounge and formal wear. In a balletic show video, the designer paired 1950s pleated skirts, round-shoulder jackets and bejewelled shirting with grey ribbed garments like leggings, sleeveless gloves and cardigans and silk pyjamas. There was a soft protectiveness to fabrics, like flows of feather trim and mohair knitwear, and models carried soft blankets instead of handbags.

‘Unashamed self-expression' inspired designer Harris Reed, who before his first show at London Fashion Week after graduating from Central Saint Martins, had already created custom clothing for Harry Styles in American Vogue, released an Instagram filter and a MAC Cosmetics make-up collection. Reed's gender-fluid and form-celebrating collection of demi-couture pieces embraces the decadence and glamour of early Noughties fashion, and featured twill tailoring frothing with ombre twill and gowns with layered petticoats, worn by male model Momo Ndiayen.

In London, designers unpacked the concept of isolation and liberation in equal measure. Eftychia's ‘Life Before Birth' video, lensed by Polly Brown, which featured an office attire-clad woman stuck indoors in a seemingly endless creative tailspin or purgatorial state of writer's block, a take on the designer's struggle with spiralling low mood during lockdown. Bianca Saunders' collection of shrunken silhouettes and water splashed-suiting, inspired by Jean Cocteau's experimental black and white film The Blood of Poet, which considers the role of the artist and influence to unnerving uncanny effect. Roksanda celebrated the power of familial companionship, shooting three generations of women, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson and Daisy Bevan, in voluminous brushstroke-swathed gowns and sleek tailoring, enganging in moments on union and solitude against the backdrop of their countryside home during lockdown.

At Burberry, Riccardo Tisci was fascinated by the concept of freedom, even sending a branded picnic chair for guests to take a seat in while watching the brand's show from their homes. Tisci's menswear-focused offering – presented in a sleek gallery-inspired setting at the brand's Regent Street flagship – touched on the unrestrained expression, featuring deconstructed trenchcoats and duffle coats and gender-fluid kilts and pleated tennis dresses. Tisci was also inspired by the nature-inclined mindsets of Arts and Crafts artists, incorporating wild motfits into his designs, photographic feather and fur prints to leather trainers with uppers resembling hooves.

As Tisci reintrepreted the outerwear codes essential to Burberry's DNA, so Tod's also dived into its own design history. The Italian luxury specialist used London Fashion Week as the platform to showcase its Legacy project, a collaboration with Central Saint Martins, which saw its signature codes, from its ‘T' logo to its Gommino stud, reinterpreted by 35 students. The research and development results are part of a digital exhibition.

Priya Ahluwalia – the London-born menswear designer who launched her label in 2018 – was awarded 2021’s Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design (in recent years an accolade won by Alighieri, Bethany Williams and Richard Quinn). There’s a fierce finesse behind her steetwear-inflected garments, which for A/W 2021 were presented in a film by Stephen Isaac-Wilson. The collection featured colourful sportswear with spraypainted prints, corduroy suiting and patchwork denim, and incorporated upcycled and eco-aware fabrics including bamboo silk and deadstock shirting. Ahluwalia was inspired by Home Going, Yaa Gyasi’s 2016 novel about two half-sisters born in the 1700s and separated at birth to dramatic socio-political effect, thinking about the symbology of migration maps, and the nature of aesthetic elements plucked from different places. Colours in her collection also evoked the vibrant tones in art works by Kerry James Marshall and Jacob Lawrence.

Ahluwalia is one of a group of emerging designers with a strong interest in repurposing fabrics. For A/W 2021, fellow Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design winner Bethany Williams created a gender neutral capsule collection of coats exclusively for Selfridges, crafted from colourful recycled blankets, sourced around the United Kingdom. For his third collection, Bulgarian designer AV Vattev presented a retro-futuristic vision of landing on the moon, inspired by 1970s silhouettes and the style of David Bowie and Grace Jones. Fifty percent of the fabrics in his collection are sustainable, including upcycled Bulgarian Halishte.

For his sophomore outing on the Fashion East line-up, Maximilian Davies also looked to the futurism of the Sixties and Seventies. The designer looked to family photographs from when his grandmother emigrated from Trinidad to Manchester, combining the Sunday Best aesthetic of her dressing for church with a Space Age Courrèges-centric spin. Davies A/W 2021 offering featured psychedelic print bodysuits and mini skirts, silk satin body-hugging suiting and round-shouldered leather jackets, that took the notion of Sunday Best but for going to a nightclub. Davies also nodded to the beach-to-party outfits sported by his sisters in Trinidad, like swimming costumes and feathered head pieces. ‘What comes to mind when you think of the sixties and seventies fashion with the mindset of Carnival? Showgirls,' Davies explained. ‘I wanted to take what exists, but make it my own. I’m reclaiming these iconic moments and references for the Black community.'

‘The fragile rebel' is how Simone Rocha described the woman behind her A/W 2021 offering: part punk part pretty, representing both the soft and thorny facets of a rose. ‘I wanted to explore new ideas that had clarity and identity,' added the designer of the collection which incorporated shorter skirt lengths and leather, like cocooning biker jackets and poufy tulle and lace mini skirts. Despite not showing her collection to a physical audience, Rocha was keen to adhere to the usual narrative pace of her collection, which flowed from harder and more protective shapes into softer silhouettes and back again. 3D roses and floral embroidery were a focus, whether trailing along the lengths of patchwork day dresses or bringing structure and volume to ruffled tulle jackets. Conscious that her collection would first be viewed through a screen, Rocha was keen to bring even more adornment and attention to detail to designs, so when they are finally viewed in store, their embellishments will astound ‘I wanted to push through the screen,' she said.

Mood board: For A/W 2020, Rocha looked to the 1904 play Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge. The play, set in the Aran Islands, captures the loss experienced by Mauyra, a grief-stricken wife and widow who loses her husband and five sons to the sea. ‘It was about birth, life and loss,’ Rocha said backstage of a collection split into three sections, like a procession of eveningwear, tailoring and knitwear that summated on the patchwork of experience, through deconstructed Aran knits which trailed from the body like nautical ropes, scallop edged nightgowns, ceremonial coats with satin bows and gauzy rose print and sacred heart embroidered dresses. ‘You can’t look at Ireland and not look at Catholicism’, she added.

Finishing touches: ‘I wanted the whole collection to be layered and tied with things taken from the sea,’ Rocha said. This meant shoppers strung from beaded pearls and macramé net bags with huge pearl clutches inside. Rocha’s signature pearl and beaded earrings were ultra long, like strings of bounty found inside shipwrecks.

Best in show: A series of bridal looks closed the collection, with models sporting ceremonial lace veils and beaded headbands. The pieces referenced a funeral procession in Riders to the Sea, but instead of imagining the looks in mourning black, Rocha opted instead for lustrous ivory. ‘Life isn’t so final, that’s why the looks aren't black,’ she concluded. An uplifting end to the third day of London Fashion Week.

Mood board: Rocha’s Irish Chinese heritage is bound up in her design output. When the designer curated an issue of A Magazine last year, it featured contributions from Seamus Heaney and the first female Irish Prime Minister Mary Robinson. ‘The Irish Wren Boys would traditionally hunt the wren on St Stephen’s day,’ said Simone of the inspiration behind her S/S 2020 collection, referring to the tradition of boys dressed in straw suits going from door to door on 26 December asking for money. Rocha drew not just from ‘strawboys’ folkloric costumes, but also from the chintzy, fading interiors of the houses they knocked at. Her signature gauzy, ruffled dresses were imagined in Delph prints embroidered onto ivory tulle, or broderie anglaise stitched with daisies, dress coats were overlaid with weaved wisps of raffia and silk jackets were imagined in detailed upholstery-like brocade.

Scene setting: Folklore, faded grandeur, beauty and something subtly sinister were all elements in Rocha’s show. The designer emphasised the theatricality of the wren boy tradition by holding her show in a recently restored Victorian theater at Alexandra Palace, complete with gold walls and cornices, high ceilings and a heightened sense of time-lost splendour.

Team work: Last season Rocha was applauded for her knockout casting, which included Chloë Sevigny and Jade Parfitt. For S/S 2020 she recruited a cast of Irish characters, including theatre actresses Olwen Fouéré, Jessie Buckley and Simone Kirby.

As a recurring theme in their work for Jil Sander, Luke and Lucie Meier once again took nature as a driving force of their spring 2019 collection, which comes in a colour palette of neutral hues, ranging from almond to sky blue and sage. Left in their raw appearance, the minimalistic shirts and dresses are made out of natural yet sturdy fibres, such as leather and canvas, while skin-tight knits and soft draped skirts also leave freedom for the body to move naturally. A human touch then comes to enliven the jumpers and shirts, through pencil sketches of a nude female form hand embroidered on the pieces, emphasising the refined and delicate spirit of the collection.

Acne Studios

Dance is the main inspiration behind Acne Studios’ SS19 collection. Fluid silhouettes in sheer jersey accentuate a dancer’s movements, while more voluminous pieces are worn over the light slip dresses and tank tops after a rehearsal in the studio. Creative director Jonny Johansson used graphics and prints from old ballet posters patched onto T-shirts and blouses, while pencil drawings of grand opera houses create a toile de jouy effect on leggings and long shirt dresses, enhanced with golden lamé. Drawing on the legendary Swan Lake ballet, Johansson created a print which at first glance seems to be watercolour waves on a white canvas. The pattern then takes form of a swan motif, also reflected in the swan-shaped crystals adorning the garment. 

Plan C

Debuting the first collection for her own label Plan C last September, Caroline Castiglioni – heir of the Marni dynasty – introduced an aesthetic of timeless staples mixing feminine elements, such as ruffles, sundresses and crochet, with oversized silhouettes from the men’s wardrobe, to celebrate a strong and self confident silhouette. There is also something very personal about this collection found in the naïve artworks printed on sweatshirts and clutches which came courtesy of Castiglioni’s young daughter Margherita. Representing her brother Filippo and friend Bianca, the two characters were brought to life from paper to garments making them quirky, fashionable friends to carry around.

Roksanda

Inspired by the work of artists and architects, Roksanda looked at how their art goes beyond their main discipline to influence other crafts around them. On top of the list stood Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s tapestry, murals and ceramics, which had a direct impact on the hand drawn feminine artwork used as a common thread throughout the airy dresses and colour block cotton tops. ‘Our own interpretations of his abstract illustrations are applied in several techniques from hand embroidery to patchwork dresses, and the same emotive figures appear again screen printed onto silk scarves and knits,' explains Roksanda. ‘These studies of the female form are part of my commitment to exploring the art of feminine recalibration.'

Simone Rocha

Born from an Irish mother and Chinese father, Simone Rocha drew on the second half of her heritage, and especially her experience in Hong Kong, to compose her summer collection. Flower brocades and embroideries punctuate the bubble hem gowns with puffball sleeves, giving volume to the overall romantic flair. The real focus of the garments however sprung from ancestral references such as 16th-century Chinese ladies from the Tang dynasty and vintage portraits of concubines Rocha found in a market in Hong Kong. From these images, the London-based atelier created red and gold illustrations traced onto the delicate silk dresses, while elsewhere, artworks were directly printed on the whole garments. A delightful mix of East and West. §

Mood board: Since Simone Rocha presented her first collection during London Fashion Week in 2010, the designer has been lauded for cultivating an aesthetic that combines the girlish with the gothic, the romantic with the quietly rebellious. Louise Bourgeois, and her powerful interpretations of femininity – explored in artworks such as the 1946-47 painting series Femme Maison – has long inspired the designer. Bourgeois’ artworks are found in Rocha’s New York City store, and last February she created an imagined working uniform for the artist.

At an earlier stage in her life Bourgeois was known to wear blue clothing when she felt melancholic and pink when she felt happy, and these tones featured more notably than usual in Rocha’s collection, in shapes like pretty puffball dresses and opera coats. Bourgeois’ deeply personal sculptures also often featured an array of undergarments and so here gauzy dresses with fleshy layers had a nuance of négligée, while in a new take on styling, silk bra tops were layered over Rocha’s signature dresses and coats.

Best in show: A series of colourful graphic prints recalled the abstract octagonal forms Bourgeois outlined on the female figure in her 2002 fabric sculpture The Woven Child and her 2006 fabric book ‘Dawn’.

Team work: The diverse casting in the show was stellar, and post event, Instagram was awash with images of Rocha’s models walking in the runway finale. Catwalk veterans Chloë Sevigny, Jade Parfitt and Lily Cole all walked the catwalk, as did the cherubic rising talent Tess McMillan. 

Bodil Blain: How do you take your coffee?
Simone Rocha: Black with ice. On a doily. Anyone who spends a bit of time with me leaves knowing how to crochet.

BB: When did you first realise that you were creative?
SR: I always worked in my dad's studio, who was a designer. He had a full fashion studio in Dublin and I was always just hanging around from about the age of 13. I was never going to do anything academic, but it was probably when I went to art college in Dublin and one of the tutors persuaded me to take the fashion module. I did my project on nurses. I printed all these images of how they used to make the old nurses’ hats and wondered whether I could make skirts out of that type of construction. My brain just started working. I realised then that that was how I could make emotion, through clothes.

BB: Who’s been your biggest influence?
SR: I’ve always been obsessed with Louise Bourgeois. Sadly she died before I got the chance to meet her, but I was lucky, I got a chance to visit her home and I do a lot of work with her foundation. I’ve done printed matter with Bourgeois images in it, and there are some of her pieces in my store on Wooster Street in New York.

BB: Your work always tells a story. Where do you find your stories?
SR: It comes from something personal. For one collection, I was in Japan, I was pregnant, feeling a bit weird and there was cherry blossom everywhere. I felt alienated, out of place and I started the collection from that feeling. I was thinking about how I could integrate the cherry blossoms into the fabric. At Château La Coste in Provence (W*214), I saw this amazing Louise Bourgeois spider on the wall. I made some of her shapes into embroidery, some into 3D shapes. So it flip-fops between the two – it can be a specific artist or item, or it can be a place. It’s hard to describe.

BB: It's one thing to be an artist, but with your work, it goes onto a person and becomes embodied by them.
SR: Exactly! That's what's so interesting to me about fashion, it’s physical, human, it’s functional. You have to be able to put your head through a hole, you know, and walk around in the work. I always want my clothes to integrate into someone else’s personality and style. That’s why people in their sixties wear my clothes, people who are sixteen wear my clothes. It’s not about a certain architecture I create, that I want other people to fit into, but the other way round.

BB: Who do you design for?
SR: My last winter collection, Marching Roses, was based around the concept of strong women and I wanted all different types of women to embody that. It comes from the clothes. It’s not like ‘OK, I need Kate Moss.’

BB: I feel like there's a strong vein of creativity that comes from being displaced from your homeland, whether forced or by choice. Is ‘home' part of what you do?
SR: I'm very proud of being Irish. I go home a lot, actually – it's very close and my other half is Irish as well. I love going back now, but I have to admit, I hated a lot of growing up there. Then when I moved to the UK, I got very homesick, romantic and nostalgic for my Irish upbringing. I started getting interested in the history of Ireland, I got obsessed with Irish writers and poets, which is really funny, being dyslexic. Half the time, I'd have to go back and read over what I'd just read, but I loved it so much, it didn't matter. I read a huge amount of almost exclusively Irish novels now.

BB: You've come a long way in a short time, does it feel that way?
SR: Yeah, it happened so fast. At school I wasn't very academic, but I loved college, it gave me so much energy. I kept working and got all these amazing opportunities. I moved to London for my MA and the fashion world was print-orientated, but I did my MA show all in black, inspired by the Aran Island mourners off the coast of Ireland. When people died, the women used to wear their petticoats on their heads as a mark of respect. It was all-black tailoring with these petticoat hats, quite restrained but it felt right for me at that time. I had no idea what to do afterwards, when I got a call from Fashion East and it built from there. Then I just focused on making really good products for DSM until I got my own store.

BB: What do you think guided you through that rise?
SR: I'm very decisive. I've always been like that. I have no patience, which is something I'm not proud of, but work-wise is quite good. And the more I do, the more energy I get from it. It's a really exciting job to have.

BB: Who would you most like to collaborate with?
SR: Astier de Villatte, because I love their plates. It's amazing I get to work with amazing photographers, filmmakers and friends on a long-term basis. I like working with my husband, too [cinematographer Eoin McLoughlin]. We made a film with photographer Jackie Nickerson two years ago in Zambia, called Patchwork, Work.

A version of this article originally featured in the November 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*236)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Simone Rocha’s website

crukafe.com

A procession of petticoated Victorian hikers traversing crumpled paper mountains; 6.5m-high mechanical cylinders resembling steaming underwater pistons; a monastic chapel hanging with paintings by artist-monk Sidival Fila. These are just three of the eight scenes, hidden beneath huge tents of silver fabric, which greeted guests at Moncler’s Genius Project debut, in the cavernous Milanese stadium Palazzo delle Scintille in February.

The premise? A roster of designers – from Simone Rocha (winner of a 2018 Wallpaper* Design Award, W*227) to Craig Green, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Rei Kawakubo’s protégé Kei Ninomiya – were invited to put their creative spin on the brand’s signature padded down jacket. Their creations were to be released in line with a new retail strategy, one that disrupts the traditional seasonal cycle with fresh drops of product put on sale each month (a model that nods to the selling strategies of street and sportswear brands such as Supreme and Nike).

‘I started looking at images of women wearing voluminous silhouettes among really rugged landscapes,’ says Rocha of the 19th-century Alpine trekkers, such as Maria de Mont Blanc and Henriette d’Angeville, that inspired her collection’s fusion of ‘femininity and practicality’. For the Milan presentation, the London-based Irish designer created a scene of hikers, milling against shadowy paper peaks, clad in gauzy petticoat layers, lampshade dresses in padded down, shiny puffer jackets with frills and frothy finishes, and marabou-trimmed accessories.

‘I’ve long been intrigued by Rocha’s sophisticated and hyper-feminine aesthetic,’ says Remo Ruffini, chairman and CEO of Moncler. The brand’s original, now ubiquitous, padded down jackets were first conceived in 1954, and Rocha brought her mastery of airy fabrics, such as organza and cloqué, to their ultra-light construction. ‘What was so surprising was that I could manipulate the fabric like taffeta or tulle,’ Rocha explains. She saw the padded garments as a ‘jigsaw’, the seams of which could be pieced together to create voluminous shapes – such as an A-line coat, its linear puffed sections widening towards the knee, and a jacket with undulating ruffles sprouting from its seams.

Ideas of growth and blossoming were essential to Rocha’s design concept, which worked to assimilate outdoorsy garments into their natural environments. ‘I was looking at foliage and flowers growing up through rocks,’ she explains. Signature handwork, such as beading, sequins and embroidered flowers, appears to push through seams or cluster around the graphic Moncler logo. ‘I used pearls to evoke a snowy mountain palette,’ she adds of the collection, which is realised in white, powdery pink, red and black.

An element of protection is often evident in Rocha’s designs for her own label, her romantic silhouettes offset against militaristic cross-body belts and oversized cushiony bags. In her accessories for Moncler, she has emphasised functionality, creating nylon hiking backpacks that buckle around the waist and padded ski mittens. ‘It’s something I’ve never done before in terms of manufacturing,’ she enthuses. Her experimentation with technical fabrics is also seen in signature flaring dresses and soft double-breasted coats reinterpreted in nylon.

‘The Moncler Genius Project was very much about everyone having their own identity but being part of the brand’s voice,’ Rocha explains of unveiling her collection amid offerings as diverse as Craig Green’s padded men’s diving suits and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Madonna-inspired flaring capes.

‘We’re establishing a dialogue with consumers, talking to different audiences and continuing to evolve,’ adds Ruffini.

Included in Rocha’s collection is a range of sunglasses. Ski goggle-inspired and ovular, they appear as if circled with black droplets of water. Functional yet feminine, made for the outdoors yet opulent, they serve as a symbol of Moncler’s multifarious vision. §

As originally featured in the September 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*234)

INFORMATION

4 Moncler Simone Rocha is available from mid-September. For more information, visit the Moncler and Simone Rocha websites

Mood board: Twice-yearly shows present an intriguing conundrum for designers in these fast moving times. So much can change in the months between a collection going on sale and the next one winging its way to the stockroom. Each is a premonition for what we might need next. Rocha’s feminine vision takes all of the hallmarks – the textures, the colours, the poufy shapes, the pearls and sweetness – and skews it. So pockets are lined with marabou, lapels are layered that extra time, sheer fabrics are thrown on top of outfits, lending a subversive kink. The season ahead has a palette of pure white, pale lavender, shocking Argento red and bright black. Femininity is constructed with humour, elegance. The puff-ball dresses and closing strapless gowns were stuffed with joy.    

Scene setting: What better time for a splash of modern-day glamour in these dreary days? Rocha knows what joy is locked in the glint of a metallic textile, the wink of a swinging hem. The Simone Rocha woman is eccentric – she wears flat pointed mules lined with marabou fur, carries a pearl studded handbag and loves flowers and hats and a frill. And as is befitting for a label so well loved for its lavish quirkiness and off-kilter couture-ish kitsch, Rocha invited guests back to Lancaster House mansion in St James, a stand-in for Buckingham Palace in TV and film.

Best in show: The collection took the meaning of Sunday Best and ramped it up into a magical froth of poetical, dreamy clothes. There were suits that put cropped trench coats with matching below the knee skirts. Wallpaper brocade and rich floral tapestries were cut into operatic frock-coats and cheongsam blouses or tailored long shorts. Silk taffeta balloon skirts and giant puffy sleeves extended from tiered, tweaked, scalloped dresses. 18th century paintings of Chinese women were blown up onto the front of dresses, their faces half obscured with a layer of sheer silk.

Fashion week is not just the time for brands to showcase new collections. It’s also the schedule from which they experiment with new formats, be it presentations or video debuts, the merging of men’s and women’s lines or the showcase of see-now-buy-now collections. Last night on 20 February, Italian label Moncler debuted the latest chapter in the narrative of its creative vision, unveiling the ‘Genius Building’, a magnificent show at Palazzo delle Scintilla, made up of eight individual presentations by a roster of Moncler’s latest collaborators, including Craig Green, Simone Rocha and Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli.

‘Since the beginning, Moncler has been constantly been looking for new means of expression,’ explains Remo Ruffini, Moncler’s chairman and CEO. Until last year, the brand had presented its Thom Browne and Giambattista Valli directed Moncler Gamme Bleu and Rouge lines on the men’s and women’s fashion week schedule. It has also collaborated with a roster of creative talents including Jean Philippe-Delhomme, Greg Lauren and Off-White.

Last night, Moncler bought its diverse and evolving approach to collaboration to a majestic crescendo. Eight separate presentation galleries were cloaked in futuristic silver fabric, like huge draped theatre curtains or interplanetary oil cylinders. As guests entered each space via entrances like tunnel or porthole, they were greeted with eight diverse set-ups, which featured imaginative reinterpretations of the brand’s classic down jacket.

Take Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose ethereal installation featured a range of gently flaring and multicoloured duvet coats on elongated mannequins, their widening silhouettes taking on a couture meets Handmaid’s Tale sensibility. Or Simone Rocha, whose set-up featured models dressed as Victorian climbers walking amongst a snowy mountain landscape.

Rocha, who is renowned for using gauzy and lightweight fabrics like lace and tulle, was fascinated by Moncler’s signature down fabric, presenting quilted asymmetric dresses with marabou trim, and scarlet coats with fronds of ruffles. 'It was amazing to work on a project that required a new level of expertise,’ she says. ‘I wanted to work with materials that were signature to me like twill or cloqué, and balance those pieces with the down.’

‘We had real freedom,’ says Craig Green, whose presentation space featured two undulating mechanical structures, designed by London-based set designers Isabel + Helen, which resembled steaming pistols or globulous jellyfish. Green has a long fascination with underwater imagery, and his architectural padded designs resembled huge deep sea diving suits that protected the body. ‘They’re like crazy Moncler flotation devices,’ he adds of the pieces, which were presented against a dark backdrop of eerie mechnical noises, like the sounds of a submarine miles below the surface of the sea.

Moncler has always taken its catwalk set-ups to amazing heights. For its A/W 2017 show in New York, the brand recreated a majestic Viennese Ball at Hammerstein Ballroom, and for its S/S 2016 Gamme Bleu show in Paris, its regatta-inspired show set featured a catwalk installed with rowing boats. The Moncer Genius Building debut was a creative culmination of this performance-focus. Produced by Villa Eugénie, it also comprised of a Karl Templer curated installation featuring a giant patchwork sea of Moncler jackets, Sandro Mandrino’s presentation of models moving as if inside a huge reflective kaleidoscope, and Comme des Garçons’ protégé Noir Kei Ninomiya's darkly minimalist set-up, which featured mannequins clothed in innovative knitted down.

‘I believe that creativity has no boundaries,’ Ruffini says. ‘I conceived the Moncler Genius as a hub of exceptional creative minds, that will work together under the same brand, keeping Moncler's DNA alive.’

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Moncler website

Mood board: There was considerable progression to Simone Rocha’s poetic womenswear this season. In tulle aprons, tinsel-flecked tartan skirt-suits and sturdy loafers from which to make practical strides, Rocha’s woman gave the impression of confidence, strength and pragmatism. Even the lightest and most sultry of lace or tulle dresses were grounded by canvas utility belts with miniature pouches. A delicate flower? Think again.

Best in show: A glossy olive trench coat with enlarged ruffle trims set the benchmark for outerwear, yet there was something beguiling about the nude tulle apron dresses, which this season Rocha had separated at the back and then tied together again using thick black grosgrain ribbons. This new design detail also carried across into jackets and voluminous skirts. Elsewhere, the designer’s own version of a power skirt-suit – rendered in shimmering black bouclé or vivid tartan – was a force to be reckoned with.

Finishing touches: In what was an unlikely but successful union, Rocha paired long, crystal-embellished wool gloves with ethereal evening dresses. She crafted soft, super-sized totes in the same fabric as the look they accompanied, creating an elegant form of camouflage. Also of note: the small, structured leather handbags that sharpened her trademark romantic silhouettes. 

When we pay a visit to the architect Farshid Moussavi in her temporary-ish offices in the City of London, she is wearing a pink Commes des Garçons top with what might be described as architectural interventions at the elbow. She was more than happy, though, to sport Simone Rocha, her pick for Best Women’s Fashion Collection A/W 17, in our shoot. Moussavi is a long-time fan and customer. ‘I first saw a few of her pieces in Selfridges,’ she says. ‘And this was before she was in Dover Street Market or had her own store.’ For Moussavi, Rocha works very much in the tradition of the great Japanese designers, while adding her own particular spin. ‘She does what the Japanese designers do in terms of the play with form and structure, but adds femininity and fun.

‘I think with Simone you are awarding an attitude that is more enduring,’ she adds. ‘It’s a bit like Commes des Garçons or Junya Watanabe, they don’t really work in fashion. And you can wear them forever. It is the right approach in terms of sustainability.’

Her pick for Public Building of the Year is also a case of smart and sustainable reuse – Thomas Heatherwick’s Zeitz MOCAA museum in Cape Town. ‘He transformed an existing building and showed a real boldness and confidence,’ she says. ‘I think it was difficult and brave and well done. The original building was so powerful and strong and he responded with equal strength.’

Best Women’s Fashion Collection winner, Simone Rocha A/W 17. See the winners of our Judges’ Awards here

It is Moussavi’s patience as much as her strength that is being tested by her largest current project. By now, the building which houses Moussavi’s pop-up office on Fenchurch Street should have been razed to the ground to make way for a 17-storey mid-rise tower with a fluted black glass façade. Brexit has temporarily stalled the development and Moussavi has had to smartly accommodate budget cuts. (This after wrangling with the City’s planning chiefs, who weren’t keen on her gradiated black glass, preferring the optics of transparency.)

Moussavi, co-founder of Foreign Office Architects and with a solo CV that includes the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland and the Victoria Beckham store in London, remains sanguine, accepting it all as part of the journey with major projects. And the practice has plenty in the way of pleasant distractions, including a re-design for Harrods’ Toy Department. ‘They called and said, “Do you want to have a go?” It has been a great opportunity for us.’ For Moussavi, it was also a chance to be part of the re-thinking of bricks-and-mortar retailing. ‘It’s interesting because the space is going to be slightly smaller than their old toy department, because they are editing the offer down and trying to concentrate on things that you don’t really buy online.

‘We have tried to simplify the environment and play with colour,’ she continues. ‘With fashion stores you have to approach it like a gallery. It has to be a unique and precious setting, but also stay in the background. But [with] this the space has to be stronger than the toys. And they are already really colourful.’

A version of this article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*227)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Farshid Moussavi Architecture website

Scene setting: From Southwark Cathedral to Lancaster House, Simone Rocha has often staged her catwalk shows in storied locations. For S/S 2018, the designer looked to the law inns around Temple, where the grand Elizabethan interiors of Middle Temple Hall formed the backdrop to her latest outing, complete with oak panelling, coats of arms, marble busts and an oak double-hammer beam roof.

Mood board: The designer is known for her romantic and Victoriana inspired collections, which feature gauzy fabrics, lace, bow-details and ruffles, and Perspex-detailed accessories. For S/S 2018, she was inspired by the figurative paintings of Belgian artist and filmmaker Michaël Borremans, whose portraits evoke 18th-century artworks. The ruffled smocks, ties and button up details seen in his paintings were reflected in frilled and ruched silk dresses. Oversized broderie-anglaise smocks and net petticoats nodded to Victorian nightwear, while silk or see-through trench coats and blazers tightened diaphanous silhouettes at the waist. Floral details, seen in sparkling sequinned petals or hand-painted orange flowers denoted a flouncy femininity, one subverted by the unnerving details of red dolls – holding hands in chains – and stitched in glittery thread into the cascading frills of dresses.

Finishing touches: In recent seasons Rocha’s earrings, often imagined as trailing beaded designs, have become eagerly sought-after accessories. For S/S 2018, the designer amped up her offering, and models sported piled up rhinestone hair clips and dazzling drop earrings. A nod to the doll details in her ready-to-wear, crimson beaded earrings dangled from the ears and neck and beaded bows hung from gauzy ruffle detail dresses. Sinister or saccharine? Spots of blood or spots of jam? This ambiguity emphasised the uneasy elegance of the collection.

Scene Setting: This was the second time that the palatial confines of London’s Lancaster House have played host to a Simone Rocha runway show. It’s an assured setting for an equally assured designer, who presented a confident and well-rounded collection for A/W 2017. Models paraded on plush, crest-woven carpets through gilded doors, revealing an inspired line-up of military-inspired outerwear, fuzzy-toed Lucite heels and novel variations on her signature Victoriana dresses.

Mood board: After the show, the Irish-born, London-based designer spoke of her desire to ‘be inclusive’ with her output. This was not only reflected in the versatile separates on display, but also in the model casting – which featured a dynamic spectrum of women of all ages. Seasoned talents such as Jamie Bochert, Jan de Villeneuve, Cecilia Chancellor and Audrey Marnay walked alongside this season’s emerging faces, delivering an empowering message of unity and strength. ‘Armour, camouflage, foliage. Peace, peace of mind,’ affirmed the poetic programme notes.

Finishing touches: On the whole, shoes and accessories showed great progression this season. There was something to satisfy the appetite of every woman: jewelled sliders, tweed brogues and soft cuddle clutches in the shape of flowers and bows. Yet it was a quiet cross-body bag that spoke volumes – rendered in supple black leather with discreet fastenings.

London-based fashion designer Simone Rocha has opened her first US retail space at 71 Wooster Street in Soho, surrounded by neighbours like Céline, Chanel, Thakoon and Byredo. ‘This neighbourhood is perfect for my label, because there are lots of very interesting people within it,’ Rocha explains. ‘It’s creative as well as being commercial, so it really felt like the right fit for me.’

‘I wanted a space that was filled with my inspirations, but also somewhere that the collections could evolve,’ Rocha says of her approach to the 2,400 sq ft space, which she conceived with the help of her father, the fashion designer John Rocha. Chalky-white rose cornices of her own design outline the interior walls, which are complemented with Pae White-designed matte white chandeliers, evoking both a sense of whimsy and romance.

Furnishings are a mix of the classic and contemporary. A cashier’s desk comes carved from a huge block of pink onyx, while chairs are crafted in Italian crema marfil marble, designed by John Rocha, or come in Joe Colombo’s mid-century Kartell design, in white wood and cream leather.

A white cage also acts as a display case, which will rotate looks from Rocha’s collection. Perspex plinths also showcase footwear, accessories and jewellery. ‘I always work in Perspex, so it’s a nice way to house the collection,’ says Rocha, whose transparent heeled shoe designs have become synonymous with her material-focused aesthetic.

Once housing an art gallery, Rocha has incorporated her own love of art into the space. A geometric beeswax sculpture set inside an acrylic cube, greets visitors at the store’s entrance, created by the Chinest artist Ren Ri. A 1982 collage by Robert Rauschenberg, complete with Chinese characters, features alongside 25 silkscreens created by Louise Bourgeois, made up of abstract red shapes against a white background.

Other hints of red reflect Rocha’s own runway history. Red arches are displayed in the front windows of the space, a reference to her Southwark Cathedral show venue for S/S 2017. ‘It just really feels like the right time to show my vision all under one roof,’ Rocha says.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Simone Rocha website

ADDRESS

71 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012

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The 20th anniversary of Wallpaper* this year has called for celebrations of all kinds – among them a staff knees-up for everyone who had ever worked for the brand, a pop-up gallery on Mayfair’s Cork Street, and a panel discussion at the V&A. But best of all was an intimate dinner at Claridge’s recently. Joining forces with Dom Pérignon and its chef de cave Richard Geoffroy, we gathered some of our closest friends, representing all the creative disciplines we cover – design, architecture, art, fashion, food and, of course, fine wine.

Wallpaper* was founded in 1996. And as we washed down food by chef Simon Rogan with successive glasses of Dom ’96, we realised that, as Francis Albert Sinatra would say, it was a very good year – for all present.

Barber & Osgerby founded their studio in 1996 and created the ‘Loop’ table, which would attract the attention of their first major patron, Giulio Cappellini. John Pawson, who designed our subscribers’ cover this month, published his seminal book Minimum in 1996. And Amanda Levete, then at Future Systems, brought architectural finesse to London’s Docklands with her West India Quay Bridge.

1996 also saw Ron Arad reinvent the wheel. Not literally, but with his rolling circular bookcase, while Tom Dixon conceived his iconic ‘Jack’ light. Peter Saville, being Peter Saville, moved into his outlandishly louche Mayfair flat. ‘The Apartment’, as it was known, was perhaps a prototype for the Wallpaper* aesthetic. ‘I should have bought it,’ he quipped.

A young Ben Evans, now director of LDF, was working behind the scenes in 1996 to propel a similarly young Tony Blair to 10 Downing Street. Gregor Muir, now director of Tate’s international art collection, was laying the groundwork for his book of record on the YBAs. Lucky Kunst! That’s the title of the book – not a comment on Gregor’s fortunate double decade. Conceptualist artist Joseph Kosuth put the finishing touches on The Boundaries of the Limitless, which remains one of Japan’s largest works of public art.

Our younger friends were well on their way to success in 1996. Artist Conrad Shawcross finished his foundation course at the Chelsea School of Art. Simon Fujiwara was a boarder at Harrow, where he would be mentored by his eventual muse Joanne Salley – now the subject of his video installation at London’s Photographers’ Gallery. Designer Beatrix Ong was interning at Harper’s Bazaar and hot British fashion talent Simone Rocha was just celebrating her tenth birthday.

Finally, 1996 was also a very good year for Dom Pérignon. It was the year that Richard Geoffroy took the helm, and produced one of the brand’s best vintages. So it was fitting that we toasted its newest release, the P2, an exceptional champagne in its second Plénitude (stage of maturation).

It’s hard to improve on a classic, but whether among champagnes or creatives, maturity clearly has its perks.

As originally featured in the December 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*213)

INFORMATION
The December 2016 issue of Wallpaper* is out now! Subscribe here

Mood board: Simone Rocha’s brief show notes made it clear that she had hard graft on her mind. Robust perspex-heeled footwear referenced gumboots and white latex gloves – however dainty they looked with broderie anglaise detailing – had a distinct housework feel. 

Scene setting: Foregoing her last shows’ regular venue of St. James’ Palace, Simone Rocha held this S/S 2017 show in Southwark cathedral, a decidedly more solemn venue, but no less imposing.

Best in show: The silhouettes that emphasised garment construction demonstrated Rocha’s skill in tailoring. A grey Prince of Wales check suit played with formal deconstruction even with a feminine blouse underneath, as did a beige trench coat slashed in half to reveal a nude tulle dress.

INFORMATION
Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Mood board: As usual, St. James’ Palace provided the perfect backdrop to Simone Rocha’s unapologetic opulent, but laid-back offering. Ghost-like Victorian sheer dresses covered checked tweed finished with gold thread opened to a haunting soundtrack in the grand rooms.  

Best in show: Crochet knits in black – either the geometric square kind or the flowery kind – gave the impression of spider webs enveloping the models. One dress completely left the wearer no room for arm movement, enclosing the sides which were adorned with oversized pockets. 

Finishing touches: Asymmetric drop earrings, longer on one side than on the other, added a sense of imperfection, as if the outfit was hastily put together by a moody woman, who dragged her fur stole behind her on the floor as if she came out to this noble  venue reluctantly.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Set story: The magnificent setting of St. James’s Palace – regardless of whether it was in the so-called stables – was a familiar return to the designer’s luxurious handling of materials. Rocha managed to set it off by using more relaxed, leaf prints that were almost tropical.   

Mood board: Typical Simone Rocha themes dominated this collection: sheer white or black dresses, with polka dot details and floral motifs. But, renewed floral patterns still took centre stage, with a new wind blowing throughout. Simone experimented with leaf prints that were bordering on the tropical, a definite nod to a more a wearable – even resort - direction.

Finishing touches: Transparency was an overreaching theme throughout almost every look, from flimsy silver sandals, large ornate Perspex drop earrings hanging from earlobes and miniature handbags handles.

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

Since her London Fashion Week debut in September 2010, Simone Rocha's fashion star has been rapidly rising. Her bold interpretation of femininity and ability to blend craft techniques with contemporary textures and materials has seen her label scoop a sizable haul of accolades, including the 2013 'Emerging Designer' British Fashion Award, 'Young Designer of the Year' at the Harper’s Women of the Year Awards 2014 and the 2014 British Fashion Award for 'New Establishment Designer' (not to mention our very own 'Best Future Fashion' Wallpaper* Award in 2013).

This year marks the next step in the young designer's career, with the opening of her first eponymous store on London’s Mount Street. Elaborating on themes from her collections, as well as featuring sculptures and furniture previously seen in her shop-in-shops in Dover Street Market, and installations in Colette and IT Beijing Market, the new store’s design and displays explore subjects of art, family, nature, Ireland and Asia.

With whitewashed walls, concrete floors and light flooding in from windows at either end of the space, the open-plan layout has the feel of an art gallery. Thus, it seems fitting that Rocha has filled the space with artworks as well as fashion.

Displayed alongside Rocha's ready-to-wear, bags, shoes, knitwear and jewellery are furniture pieces and artworks including a glazed ceramic chandelier by Los Angeles artist Pae White, a set of three original lithographs by Francis Bacon from 1984 and a set of four of Easy chairs (Model 4801) designed by Joe Colombo for Kartell in the 1960s. Artworks created by Rocha herself include a special decorative floral plaster cornice and a pink onyx desk, while her father John Rocha has designed an impressive set of curved seats, carved from Italian Crema Marfil marble.

In the window space sits a giant stainless steel mesh and acrylic plastic sculpture by Simone Rocha and Janina Pedan, covered with hand-stitched pale pink and scarlet embroidery flowers, echoing those found on the designer's A/W 2015 tulle dresses.

Rocha plans to evolve the display each season and create a product offering exclusive to the store. To coincide with the opening, shoppers will be able to pick up a limited edition book by the designer that features new and existing work created by her many collaborators, alongside other inspiring artists including Perry Ogden, Louise Bourgeois and Ross McDonnell, to name just a few.

ADDRESS

Simone Rocha
93 Mount Street
London, W1K 2SY

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Fashion week, nowadays, is about much more than just the collections. Showmanship is the name of the game, and in the meticulously executed sartorial extravaganzas, the sound space is an element that no producer or designer can afford to overlook. Music royalty - past, present and future - is enlisted to ensure a full assault on the senses. Here, we bring you London Fashion Week's catwalk mega-mix from the S/S 2015 womenswear collections.

FRIDAY 12/09

Eudon Choi
'Cosmogony' by Bjork; 'Workinonit' by J Dilla; 'Still Water' by Four Tops; 'Sir Greendown' by Janelle Monae; 'Stay Tuned' by Robert Wyatt; 'The Roadette Song' by Kilburn & The High Roads; 'Numbers' by FKA Twigs; 'Rocket Number 9' by Sun Ra; 'Valentine' by Tricky; 'Aht Uh Mi Hed' by Shuggie Otis; 'Holiday' by Micachu and The Shapes; 'Caravan' by Blur; 'Air Makes My Day' by Elmore Judd; 'Little By Little' by Radiohead
Music production: Peter Duffy

SATURDAY 13/09

Hunter Original
'Witness The Fitness' by Roots Manuva; 'Bear Hug' by 2 Bears; 'Underwater Love' by Smoke City; 'Reservoir' by Metronomy; 'Sea Of Love' by Marty Wilde; 'Only Happy When It Rains' by Garbage
Music production: John Gosling

JW Anderson
'Unfurla' by Clark; 'Get Me What You Want' by Bok Bok & Tom Trago
Music production: Michel Gaubert

SUNDAY 14/09

Margaret Howell
'Feeling Good (Nicholas Jaar remix)' by Nina Simone; 'Here Comes The Sun (Francois K mix)' by Nina Simone; 'Ain't Got No…I've Got Life' by Nina Simone
Music production: Paul Thomas

Richard Nicoll
'Aurora (Instrumental)' by Bjork; 'I Close The Door Upon Myself' by Susumu Yakota; 'Born, Never Asked' by Laurie Anderson; 'Sieben Stucke fur 2 Xylophon' by Carl Orff; 'Anjos' by Julianna Barwick; 'Little April Shower' from Bambi 2

Paul Smith
'Coplita (Instrumental)' by Chancha Via Circuito; 'Everything Belongs To The Sun' by Psapp; 'Alright To Me' by Eckoclick; 'Bad Luck' by Eckoclick; 'Everything Belongs To The Sun' by Psapp
Music production: Andrew Hale & Peter Smith

Mary Katrantzou
'Amarant 8' by Scanner; 'Trippin' With The Birds' by Stereolab & Nurse With Wound; 'Another Wave From You' by M83
Music production: Frédéric Sanchez

Jonathan Saunders
From the soundtrack of film 'Under The Skin'

MONDAY 15/09

Burberry Prorsum
Live performance by James Bay playing 'Clocks Go Forward', 'When We Were On Fire' and 'Scars'

Christopher Kane
'The Shining' by Wendy Carlos; 'In The Upper Room: Dance II' by Philip Glass; 'Can't Be Beat' by Quiet Village Project; 'Rendez Vous at 2099' by Marco Passarani; 'At The Dark End Of The Street' by Diamanda Galas; 'Can't Be Beat' by Quiet Village Project
Music production: Simon Halsberghe

Peter Pilotto
Untitled composition by Michiel Helbig

Tom Ford
'Addicted to Love (acapella)' by Florence And The Machine; 'Addicted to Love' by Theresa Miele; 'Turn Your Light On Me' by Lucy Schwartz; 'Hey Pretty' by Poe; 'Two Men In Love' by The Irrepressibles

TUESDAY 16/09

Simone Rocha
'Polonaise' arranged and played live by Cloud Castle Lake
Music production: Max Rocha

Seated within the church of St Andrew Holborn for Simone Rocha's spring show we awaited a final awakening to congenially conclude the London collections. Yet, in spite of the scriptural setting, the young designer steered clear of religious riddles and instead presented a Rocha evolution, signposted by the introduction of floral print and fur trimmings. In previous seasons Rocha’s detailing du jour has ranged from white pearls to amber beading. For spring, she spliced her undulating, curved hemlines with ‘fluff’ (as she deemed it) that kept her more ethereal looks on the right side of edgy. Transparent watered silk tailoring in noir and apricot got a similar treatment, as did her kitten-heeled brogues – tufts sprouting around each shoe’s sole like street sweepers. And then to keep us on our toes, ruby red ‘mad flower’ dresses signalled a frenzied floral explosion. Pale pink organza was embroidered with 3D scarlet flowers, while blooms of guipure (hands down the lace of the season) were scattered around sheer black and white shifts and trenches. Picking up where her fur fringing left off, scalloped lace was similarly inserted into translucent panelled dress seams, as skirt volumes once again expanded to ethereal, Elizabethan proportions.

This season, recent Wallpaper* Design Award winner Simone Rocha shot a rebellious streak into her Elizabethan-inspired collection, once again uniting her unique blend of contemporary cool with stealth-luxe sophistication. On the runway at the Tate Modern, meticulously finished bonded wool coats with engorged ruffled sleeves were finished with encrusted amber beads. These clusters were then extended to the scooping necklines of full-skirted black wool dresses. On one, the tightly beaded clusters continued down to the top of the dress' ruffled skirt, marking out where the era's corset traditionally ended, and would also go on to jewel fawn-hued fur. The thing about Rocha is that she does edgy elegantly, whether it be A/W's black pony skin skirt suits, a bomber of yellow snakeskin - which also covered pointed slippers, lace-up boots and her updated brogue - or gold embellished tartan. One look had ruffles protruding from a tube top, fusing Rocha's innocent schoolgirl and punk anarchist aesthetics. And, as usual, her fabrics were impeccable. A grown-up red mini-crini dress, cut from latticed brushed wool and tulle, was spliced in the middle, with a flash of skin smartly restoring the designer's youth appeal. Her signature high-tech metallic finish was also in the mix, drawn into 'The Tudors' theme by brushing up against a plush fur gilet. Just as many of her queenly models wore a beaded tiara on top of their braided de-wigged hair.

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans