The Irish did London Fashion Week with some serious style
‘IT’S NOT OFTEN that two of the most prestigious names in fashion up root to London to show at Fashion Week. First up Armani kick-started the buzz around the city with a new store flagship store opening on Bond Street, before showing his collection at a former tobacco wharf in East London. The breath-taking event had a star-studded front row, black carpets, chiselled doormen in black tie and a catwalk of softly-tailored striped suits alongside pink vest dresses, t-shirts coats, jersey skirts and embroidered parkas in sea-bed prints. Two days later it was Tommy Hilfiger’s turn and the designer flew his team in along with Gigi Hadid and her sister Bella for a circus-style extravaganza. It was Hadid’s third collection with the American designer, arguably the most talked about highlight.
Kooky Wexford native and Central Saint Martin’s graduate Richard Malone got the Irish shows under way first at the BFC show space near Somerset House, presenting another sculptural take on shapes and geometric patterns. His sorbet colours were inspired by discount shopfronts in his home of Ardcavan in Wexford. Malone showed at the Create exhibition last year and proved at big hit with the Brown Thomas buyers who snapped up his whole collection.
Dunnes Stores treasure Paul Costelloe changed up his iconic Friday presentation for a Monday morning event where where the star of the show, Vogue Williams, proved a roaring success and closed the Grand Salon of The Waldorf Hotel in a show-stopping floral embroidered pink dress that draped at the back. Costelloe was inspired by New York and Carnaby in the sixties and Paris, where he trained with and imagined Jackie Kennedy walking Avenue Victor in couture. ‘She more tasteful, a little less provocative,’ he said on his heavy use of heritage linen and silky jacquards on ruched sleeves button up coats, sixties inspired dresses and jumpsuits.
Simone Rocha transformed Middle Temple — a 16th century historic library — with virginal white gowns and bunched up skirts. The 31-yearold designer is exclusively stocked in Havana in Dublin’s Donnybrook — her pieces aren’t cheap but they are special and worth every cent particularly as alternative bridalwear.
The last of our homegrown talent at London Fashion Week was Northern Irish designer JW Anderson who took his latest collection to Russell Square. His designs are stocked in Brown Thomas and the new collection went back to basics — a contrast to his usual architectural gender-bending shapes with a selection of simple and wearable knitted vest dresses, bardot tops kaftans and trousers which were inspired by the linen cloths used to polish glass in Irish hotels.
Vogue Williams proved a roaring success for Paul Costelloe