Dreamers of revelry

The new cohort of labels that know how to spin a party piece have a unique verve in common. Look no further to find new ways to dress for evening.

Amina Muaddi flares the heel of her creations so they are almost a caricature of party shoes; Michael Halpern of Halpern smothers almost everything fearlessly in sequins; while Marco and Kikka Capaldo of 16 Arlington do a pair of gloss pants as slick as melted wax. Welcome the next names in evening attire, foregrounding frivolity over exceedingly demure agendas. Make no mistake, though, they pay respect to the past icons of aftereight. Halpern exploded in a profusion of sequins straight out of the design blocks from Central Saint Martin’s only two years ago, but his mother used to dance at Studio 54 and he’s actually a New York native, so has an authentic, not imagined connection, to the days of disco. Kikka’s sensibility is ‘Scandi understatement’, so tempers the flou of feather-trimmed gowns at 16 Arlington with uncomplicated silhouettes. They don’t sit at the heads of huge business operatives just yet, but they make up an adventurous cohort, unafraid to stick to their own perspectives. Like Les Héroïnes by Australian-born Vanessa Cocchiaro, now based in Paris, a designer who embraces the ultra romantic and renders the majority of her floor-skimming gowns and jumpsuits in free-flowing fabrics – nothing tight, nothing gauche. And London-based label Rixo, which carved a niche in high-quality silk print dresses at accessible prices (look out for its shell bags come spring). They all prove sticking to your thing is a winning formula.