No matter the price of fuel or the level of terror, designers and tastemakers are eternally jetsetting off to the next catwalk, eternally irrelevant in their own stylish way. From Sept. 18 to 22, Fashion Week moved to London where over 50 designers sent models traipsing through tents at the National History Museum. Maybe the British Fashion Council, which owns and organizes the event, felt this added some semblance of gravitas to weigh down artistic flourishes in silk and gauze. With this, my second article focusing on the spring 2007 ready-to-wear collections this month, I feel a little more frivolous than usual. Hence the slight cynicism and my recent penchant to tote around thick, pretentiously-titled tomes. But back to fashion.
The biggest show this week in both name and scope was Emporio Armani. Giorgio Armani is one of the most prolific and successful designers even at age 72, and this season he took his line one step farther into the realm of philanthropy. It was a show in every sense of the word, taking place in the Earls Court exhibition center and featuring the performance talents of Beyonce and 50 Cent, and speeches by Leonardo DiCaprio, Bono and Alicia Keyes, among others. Such fanfare was not for clothing, mind you, but for (RED), the organization founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver to partner up with brands like Armani and donate percentages of (RED) products to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The fashion show was secondary to the cause, but Armani's clothes were still tailored and classic in a palette of white, black and (coincidentally?) red.
Armani does not typify London Fashion Week Fair. Most designers are young -- less established, more iconoclastic. Many of the names have not reached the average American's ears, and I highly doubt that many of their creations will find their way into the casual shopper's wardrobe. It would be hard to find an event for Giles Deacon's ensemble that was less an outfit made of black feathers than a pod. Gareth Pugh was the most extreme -- his models, who were covered in latex literally from head to foot, became sexless hangers for clothing that looked vaguely human in shape. Had I been 10 years younger, pictures from that show would have fueled nightmares for weeks. Other designers, though, managed to just barely avoid that kind of excess and remained both imaginative and unique. For instance, Roksanda Illincic, a young Serbian designer, took the padded forms of 18th-century Marie Antoinette fashions and turned them into charming, feminine cocktail dresses.
Ensuring that the unique creativity seen on the runway continues, London hosted its third annual Fashion Fringe, a contest that provides financial and technical support to the country's most talented young, cutting-edge designers. Four finalists showed collections this year, and 23-year old Gavin Douglas was deemed the winner. The Birmingham native was inspired by black Victoriana, an all-too-obscure segment of British culture and history that he hopes to illuminate through his work. New Generation Support, currently sponsored by the famous London clothing store Topshop, is another source of funding for up-and-coming designers, many of whom showed collections this past week. London, perhaps more so than any other city, wants to nurture its homegrown talent and create a veritable renaissance on the runway, the fashion sense of its denizens already widely admired and regarded as hip (see: Miller, Sienna, et al.).
One of the most anticipated shows was not some 20-something designer breaking all the rules, but Biba, the definitive store of the swinging London of the 1960s. It closed in 1976, only to be reincarnated in a line of bags and shows 30 years later. This spring, designer Bella Freud added apparel, inspired by archives but made with a 21st century buyer in mind. That said, re-launching Biba was clearly following a trend, not trying to start a new era of dressing. There was nothing that had not been done before -- mini dresses, vests, a-line everything, vaguely retro prints, blah. Wearable, but, given the hype, one would expect more.
Finally, the last bit of news to emerge from the London Fashion Week involved Kate Moss doing something more productive than inhaling her paycheck. Moss, who would probably make Crocs fashionable if a paparazzo caught her in them, has officially partnered with Topshop, the aforementioned Anglo hotbed of style, to create a collection that will be sold internationally in April 2007. Style mavens everywhere are already delirious with excitement to grab at an actual Moss-designer item of apparel, rather than a mere imitation. But the fashion machine plugs away and who knows how long it will take for Topshop to become the next Biba.
