Party Like It’s 1999
In a well judged follow up to last season’s 1980’s tribute, for AW17 Topshop Unique has its sights set on the 90’s. Here Moby and the Stone Roses both made soundtrack cameos, as the bulk of models – amongst them heavyweights like Lily Donaldson and relative newbies like Lottie Moss – adopted poker straight hair; elsewhere the kind of bias cut, cowl neck silk frocks that would have once turned Jennifer Aniston on made their mark, and grunge get ups did good on partnering khaki and plaid.
Living For The Weekend
Unless your lifestyle calls for it, partying remains for the most part the task of the weekend, and eveningwear, styled by Beth Fenton with coats and mini bags a la real life in winter months, was prevalent at Topshop. Those pieces that didn’t fit the more traditional after dark narrative (read: weren’t silk, strappy or boasting splits) stayed on point with motifs that referenced rave culture and heavy weekenders. Nods to the aforementioned were also achieved with oversized heavy knits that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the set of E4’s ‘My Mad Fat Diary’.
Keeping It Zipped
An anomaly of sorts against the 90’s backdrop was the army of tops making their way north with zipper fastenings up front. Fitting close to the body and in a rainbow’s worth of colour, the overriding vibe was initially more 70’s in nature; the addition of circular pull tabs however brought things back to the design team’s decade of choice, while read differently the styles were likewise reminiscent of the trackie tops beloved by Britpop’s faves.
