Deckchair Dresses

Fashion East has long ruled supreme as one of the industry’s top talent incubators, with their storied alumni including Gareth Pugh, Craig Green and J W Anderson (they sure now how to pick ’em). And this season was no exception. Richard Malone’s beachy collection was full of super feminine pieces, most of which came in blue and white deckchair stripes with dashes of canary yellow. Far from the dark grittiness we might expect from Fashion East, the pieces spoke their directional credentials in a softer way, through technically impressive cutting, pattern matching, and architectural structures. Ruffled, bow-like back details undulated like some optical illusion whilst paneled dungarees and cargo pants were triumphantly original.

Clubland Couture

The show highlight for most was undoubtedly Caitlin Price’s collection which continued her fascination with British club kids and nightlife codes but added a dash of formal sophistication. A white, oh-so early ’00’s down jacket came cropped to show some midrift but was paired with a matching skirt that was full cut and fell to the floor with a newfound elegance; there’s many designers offering clothing influenced by British youth and their streetwear inclinations, but few do so as wittily as Price with her abundance of zip necked crops and a bubblegum pink ensemble of matching skirt and track jacket that seemed to put the suit in tracksuit.

Stratospheric Front Row

With Marc Jacobs, Amie Robertson’s old boss looking on, the new kid on the Fashion East block served up heavily embellished and crystal laden designs that were purportedly inspired by aliens. There was certainly a little otherworldly glamour about pin stripe narrow cut dresses paired with some very modern takes on ballgown gloves (imagine a bomber jackets sleeve and then invert it: ribbed cuff at the elbow). All this is to say nothing of Mimi Wade’s presentation that kicked the whole thing off; it was a B-Movie ‘n’ motorcycles inspired range of printed pieces that played wryly with notions of exploited and empowered femininity – see the move poster graphic “Please Murder Me!”