Pic: Ameena wears vintage dress by Vintage Secret, and knitted scarf by Bryan Flavin.

Stylist and RR blogger, Ameena Kara Callender took a peek at the London Fashion Week.

LFW celebrated 25 years of fashion this season! The champagne was flowing and all eyes were peeled and ready to soak in the new clothing trends from our beloved designers’ Autumn/Winter 2009 collections.

Often reported to be the best for new emerging talent and most innovative and energetic of the four fashion capitals, LFW attracted a sea of international fash’ press, bloggers, photographers, buyers, c’lebs and generally fashionable clacker types to see the jam packed schedule of shows. And off course not to miss the exclusive fashion parties in the capitals’ finest clubs and venues, while others were blissfully content to soak up the atmosphere and ‘pap’ the trends outside the BFC tent beside the Science Museum.

There was talk of the recession and of the compromise to condense LFW into fewer days due to the needs of the New York Fashion Week, but despite the financial climate and scheduling pressure London’s fashion military worked extra hard to present wonderfully inspiring and exiting collections.


House of Holland

Agnes Deyn walked for her buddy Henry Holland this year for his quirky ode to Pantone colour shades and Dulux charts. Wool gaberdine double breasted suits for the Men and Tibetan Lamb wool bomber jackets, and cashmere dresses for the Ladies.

Nick Cave’s son, Jethro Lazenby, was modelling a pink Pantone graduating long shirt with matching pink bow tie, his pale hairy wisps of legs twitched and scuffled down the catwalk and skip-hopped off at the end carrying his trendy undercut hairdo with him.

Peaches Geldof was strobed by the flash of Paparazzi on entering the venue and set the tone for the House of Holland A/W 09 collection. It was a most entertaining show, not particularly ground breaking innovation or in line with ‘the trends’ but definitely a show, theatrical, possibly wearable and with a smattering of celebrity appeal.




Peter Pilotto designed by Peter Pilotto (surprise) and Christopher De Vos created one of the most beautiful and innovative collections that week creating a look of slick power dressed glamour reminiscent of Yves Saint Laurent 1984.

Inspired by the big bang theory they used fragmented colourful images and explosions to create printed fabrics and shapes. A sculptural tailored silhouette of strong shoulders with a slightly lowered shoulder seam embellished with gold or azure beading creating a dramatic rich surface texture. Big shoulders and strong colours being a key trend going forward this year.

Another designer with a similarly strong emphasis on the colour direction and silhouette was Marios Schwab. He referenced minerals and poetic body shapes in his work using the buxom curves of the 50’s in shorter, sharper dresses and two-piece outfits in bright hues of turquoise and 3-D comic reds. I saw echoes of Alexander McQueens fragmented crystal fabric prints from his Spring Sumer 09 collections here.


Peter Piloto

The new collection titled Burn in Hell was one of the strongest to date from Anne Sophie Back. She referenced 80’s American teen horror films including Freddy Kruger style slashed tops and used black velvet, white lace, leather dungarees, Pixie boots, shoulder pads, stone washed denim, 80’s rock hippie, monochrome brown, dream catchers, deathly pale faces and white contact lenses

High waisted trousers also featured as a very wearable and flattering shape which seems to be coming back to mask our dear old muffin tops. Oversized long jackets with square shoulders carried the Anne Sophie Back signature twist of alternative tailored lapel shapes. The styling was spooky which got a big thumbs up from me and the look was overall re-worked grunge which is a key trend to look out for.

Next show was Peter Jenson, regular collaborator with Top Shop, he had his first collection of womens’ wear shot by Tim Walker for Italian Vogue, and has continued to blossom into a rather big cult label with his brand sold in 22 countries. After an inspiring trip to Greenland, this season's quirky new muse, is Aunt Jytte - a chip shop owner from Nuuk. The show saw vintage gypsy rose print topped boots, hand knitted bobble hats, playful short skirts, padded jackets and 70’s shapes - think Scandinavian 70’s hippie!

Day five was devoted to the menswear showcase.

The B-store showed us preppy chic. Tim Soar wowed us with impeccable tailoring, quilted floral Barbour style jackets to beautiful chunky knit Portland style jumpers, black PVC and rubber suits.

Carolyn Massey referenced military archives to present contrasting black PVC and leather with camel coloured wool trousers, navy double breasted jackets, capes and again bold knitwear. One of my favourite pieces from this collection was a large Black PVC cape with attached French police style hat. AMAZING!


The Carollyn Massey show

I have mentioned so few designers in the grand scheme of things but perhaps just enough to whet the appetite for the season ahead and to inspire and illustrate the creativity and diversity encased in our own London Fashion Week. It’s all there, the reflections of recession, evolution in technology and boom in creativity from hippie 70’s retro chic, hand knits and preppy boys and PVC capes. A re-working of grunge and power dressing women with big shoulder pads. Let’s stampede towards the 80’s let’s bathe in it and make it good again – ‘just can’t get enough!’ Hoorah for us!


The next London Fashion Week will be from Friday, 18th – Tuesday, 22nd September 2009 when the spring/summer 2010 collections will be presented.