The 14 best shows from LFW: the trends to try now

London Fashion Week was back in style this week, celebrating a return to freedom and dressing up. From 1960s elegance to Monet-inspired florals, these are the standout collections and looks to love

ANNA MASON

Anna Mason is renowned for her mastery of frills, florals and ruffles – all deliciously pretty details which occupy their own fashion permaspace these days. Her latest collection was no different: after spending lots of time in the garden during lockdown, she’d looked to Claude Monet’s own outdoor refuge at Giverny for inspiration, commissioning the artist Jonathan Schofield to create a painting which became a print on her designs. “We’re finding that people want to make everyday feel special, they want to dress up for occasions they’d have gone casual for before,” she said. BH

TEMPERLEY

Alice Temperley opened her World of Temperley in Ilminster a year ago, inviting visitors into a shop, design atelier, training workshop, cider bar and bakery. “We have a whole village now,” she said at her presentation. It’s given her a new title (she’s a Visit Somerset ambassador) and perspective. Instead of occasionwear, she’s focused on “easy-to-wear pieces, with a lot more daywear and cotton”. For SS22, that means 1970s-inflected dresses in a camouflage print strewn with Agatha Christieinspired sunglasses; khaki suits and palm-printed evening separates. Ideal for a Somerset safari. Emily Cronin

SIMONE ROCHA

Trust Simone Rocha to find the beauty in nursing bras. “It’s been a real push and pull and that tension of infatuation and distress,” said Rocha, who recently gave birth to her second daughter. “I wanted to bring the clash into the clothes.” There were exaggerated embroidered collars (the biggest at LFW), ribbonthreaded layette knits and lacetrimmed, pearlembellished cotton shifts. And of course those haute nursing bras, flaps folded down to reveal jewelled tulle panels. All conveyed a sense of coming undone over one too many 3am feeds – an apt metaphor for a world tiptoeing, blinking, into a new reality. EC

PREEN

“We all watched too much TV,” Justin Thornton shrugged at the brand’s presentation. He and Thea Bregazzi got to thinking about screen time. “What people now don’t realise is that television used to end – there used to be static or a test card.” The idea of static fed into splicedtogether black-andwhite stripe-andcheck dresses, while test-card colours showed up in ultrabright plisse dresses and colourblocked separates. Upcycled patchwork knits fit for children’s TV presenters and ruffled bustiers gave it a Netflix energy. EC

MOLLY GODDARD

Molly Goddard was at home with her four-monthold son while her latest collection was being presented at LFW, and his influence – and that of the experience of pregnancy and new motherhood – was apparent in her designs. Though her voluminous tulle dresses have always been been kind to all shapes, this time they came with stretchy tracksuit bottoms layered underneath, while smocked tops inspired by vintage baby clothes were teamed with relaxed jeans. Other hits were bright patterned cardigans and

beautifully tailored coats adorned with bows which would look as good on children as adults. Bethan Holt

NENSI DOJAKA

If you’re sceptical about bra tops, consider Nensi Dojaka’s more wearable take. Dojaka is the rising star (and LVMH prizewinner) whose wispy, criss-crossing little nothings have won over Bella Hadid and Dua Lipa.

Her first solo show on Friday had all the petal bras, sheer cutout leotards, miniskirts and sexiness her star clients could dream of, plus a more covered-up moment: a long-sleeved black dress with a triangular cutout over the sternum. She also boasted the first power front row of LFW, with everyone from Sabrina Dhowre Elba to Dina Ashersmith nodding along to the hot girl spring / summer ‘22 uniform. EC

ROKSANDA

Roksanda Ilincic turned her show outside the Serpentine Gallery into an art happening, as befits her bold and artsy clothes. Entitled Women in Motion, this lived up to its name. Voluminous shapes, long fringes, the occasional oversized tailored suit and new kinds of bonding that made hems bob like jellyfish, it was glorious to watch. Back in the showroom there are dozens of more wearable pieces, but even there, colour is the message. Bubblegum pink, lime, mauve, crimson and camel are some of her favourites – a palette that is proving influential everywhere, from interiors to make-up. She did it first. Lisa Armstrong

ERDEM

This is Erdem Moralioglu’s 15th year in fashion, which he marked by featuring adaptations of clothes from previous collections. But it was also more pared back than any of its antecedents. Lessons have been learned during the pandemic, not the least of which is that dressing up can have earthy, simplified elements. Enter maxi skirts and dresses with pleated inserts for comfort and movement and plenty of cottons, albeit refined with delicate embroideries, or broderie anglaise. Separates were strong, including brocade waistcoats that work mismatched or with their coordinating skirts. Exquisite, but grounded in reality. LA

VICTORIA BECKHAM

Victoria Beckham may have spent much of lockdown in Miami, but it was the easy elegance of a European summer that was the starting point for this collection.

“I liked the idea of a couple sharing their holiday wardrobe,” she said. Inspiration came from “Leo in linen, Ray Liotta in Goodfellas – the string vest and unbuttoned shirt – then of course Mr Beckham himself ”. Most surprising were the towering peeptoe platform heels, – very early 2010s Victoria. Tamara Abraham

DURO OLOWU

Sick of ubiquitous floral prints? Look to Duro Olowu for a graphic alternative. This season the designer was inspired by Britishargentinian surrealist painter Eileen Agar, whose work was recently exhibited in London’s Whitechapel Gallery. The resulting prints are 1970s-tinged and offer the injection of colour that every optimistic dresser will want in their wardrobe next summer. Applied to all manner of silhouettes, the boxy printed shirt offers perhaps the most relaxed and easy-towear dressing solutions of all. Caroline Leaper

REJINA PYO

“This collection was about feeling free, after having our freedom compromised for so long,” said Rejina Pyo of her spectacular show, held at the London Aquatics Centre. While scouting out the venue, Pyo had met Team GB’S divers, a conversation which led to a trio of them

– Josie Zillig, Emily Martin and Robyn Birch – performing in Pyo’s zingycoloured swimwear. Nothing epitomises freedom like twirling dives into a pool, a message reinforced by a collection that veered from sexy to modest, witty to serious and bright to pared-back. “Women are so busy now, I just wanted to show them clothes they can wear,” Pyo declared. BH

EMILIA WICKSTEAD

Emilia Wickstead, seems to have a bottomless pit of elegant midcentury muses to draw upon. This season it was 1961 film Last Year at Marienbad, the stars of which became inspirations, with women rushing to copy their artful flicked eyeliner and impeccable chignons. “Surreal, haunting and romantic” was how Wickstead summed up the mood of the film, to which she made her own tribute, filmed on the Badminton estate. The clothes were sophisticated and somehow timeless yet modern – tailored jersey, light-as-acloud cotton and long, lean waistlines which will delight her clients. BH

ROLAND MOURET

Roland Mouret, the man with the technical skill to make every woman look their best in his clothes, has softened his silhouettes since the days of his Galaxy design, but his dresses are no less flattering.

His latest collection, released as a film, shows a cast of models on a Greek island holiday, sightseeing in bright, citrus hued shirt dresses and dancing under bougainvillea in colour-blocked halternecks. It all looks carefree, but these are garments that would also make for an impeccable summer work wardrobe. TA

PALMER HARDING

Specialists in shirting since they founded their label in 2012, Matthew Harding and Levi Palmer have softly switched focus for the spring 2022 season. Their signature waterfall sleeve blouses – now deconstructed, shoulderbaring, and in some cases with sleeves held in place by a thread – were still there. But the interest in clavicle cut-outs led the duo to further develop figureflattering drawstring jersey dresses. The strategic angles of the ruching, and the use of fabric to conceal and reveal the decolletage, make these some of the sexiest dresses around for next summer. CL