There was only one show in London this weekend and it was Queue. But the London Fashion Week catwalk was alive and well.
After the JW Anderson show, designer Jonathan Anderson said, “It’s time for London to come together, and now some of the city’s young designers are in danger of losing their businesses, so it’s time to keep going.” I felt that it was important.
A black t-shirt printed with the words “Her Majesty The Queen 1926-2022” was worn by model and author Emily Ratajkowski with a mini dress made from plastic computer keys assembled in a mosaic of letters. It was included alongside a pair of plastic shark fins.
The catwalk started on Soho Street, where a crash barrier held back the crowds that filled central London before making its way through a video game arcade.
In the dressing room after the show, Anderson cheerfully defended the discordant combination of looks.
“London has felt so amazing this past week. But they are very kind, very British.”
A late addition, the t-shirt uses a font copied from Transport for London tribute posters that were displayed at bus stops across the capital on the night of the Queen’s death. When you look at the photos of this collection 20 years later,” he added.
The dilemma of whether to risk looking corny by putting a tribute to the Queen inside a party dress or to look disrespectful by not doing so has bisected London Fashion Week.
As it happens, Stephen Stokey-Daily’s show was about privilege, gender and dysfunction in the British upper class, but it had nothing to do with the Queen. In the magnificent Victoriana of the St. Pancras Hotel, actors read excerpts from the love letter between Vita Sackville-West and Violet Trefusis.
The 100-year-old sayings of two women from a patriarchal society were accompanied by the kind of gender-fluid clothing that 1930s queer gardeners used to care for Sissinghurst. .
The mood for Sunday’s show was low key. A tray of champagne came out. Her designer, Nensi Dojaka, instead gifted each guest with a sprig of white hydrangea. But a front row of celebrities made an appearance at Regina Pyo’s show, with actor Sharon Hogan and singer Jessie Ware showing up to support the young designer.
On the 28th floor of the City of London’s new skyscraper, Pyo said he was thinking about Tolstoy’s maxim. , he thought only of men.
Pyo, who influences the fashion world with her edgy tailoring and light-hearted cuteness, wanted to celebrate what life is like for women who combine work and love. Lace dresses were paired with low sandals in lemon, sage, duck egg blue, and occasionally black.
Michael Halpern’s show began quietly, with models wearing coronation-length pale blue cloaks and silk headscarves tied under their chins.
The American-born designer, who will soon become a British citizen, wanted “a quiet moment to thank the country for giving me a career, friendships, and an entire life.”
David Bowie’s Cat People started playing as the dress left the catwalk, and a strapless leopard print gown changed the mood.
