London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2015: Our highlights

We’ve arrived at our favourite part of fashion month, which is the melting pot for creativity – London Fashion Week. The biggest point of contention during this week probably had to do with Vivienne Westwood‘s show. It wasn’t so much on the designs though as it was on her political references. Knowing that the vote for Scotland’s independence will be going forward tomorrow, Vivienne Westwood clearly signaled her preference for Scottish Independence by sending her models down the runway adorned with a ‘Yes!’ badge – bold statement indeed!

Political inclinations aside, this season designers were on two opposite ends of the spectrum – either they went with a subtle and minimal colour palette or simply detonated all the colours of the rainbow onto their designs. Additionally, some of the silhouettes that graced the runway were a clear ode to the 70s, think flared pants and shift dresses, decorated in florals and of course metallic finishes.

So, even though the collections have been squirreled away for when Spring actually swings around, there’s no harm in planning ahead by way of scoping out covetable trends for the coming season.

Clean Whites/ Sheer Nudes

Spring’s obvious imagery may be laden with saturated colours which signal the beginning of everything fresh and vibrant but if we were to strip away the colours and introduce a clean all-white palette then Spring will still look just as crisp.

Almost every runway show this season had a couple of all-white looks, from Erdem to Mary Katrantzou and David Koma, this virginal shade was quite the favourite. And for the rest who preferred a little subtle hint of colour, nudish hues were introduced into the mix – from the likes of Marchesa and Simon Rocha.

Metallics

Despite the pristine drops of white, London still knows a thing or two about sparkle. Leading the pack was US designer, Tom Ford who took to London with a whole slew of shimmery metallic mini dress, trousers, shoes and pasties – Miley Cyrus inspired perhaps? Following that, there was Giles, Marchesa and Vivienne Westwood who did the high shine finish with impeccable finesse.

For now, metallics seem to be a recurring trend for Spring Summer, which means there’s no need to throw out all the fancy disco-ball-esque pieces in your wardrobe.

Flower Power

Nothing exemplifies spring more than florals – as much as it’s not a groundbreaking trend, it’s still irrefutably a must have trend. For this season, flowers were either printed on in Matthew Williamson, embellished as appliques ala Simone Rocha‘s red poppies or intricately designed through threadwork on Marchesa‘s tiered ruffled dresses.

Also, taking inspiration from the hippy 1970s, the exuberant British label, House of Holland had floral shift dresses and accessories vibrantly adored with posies – this was flower power without question.

Rainbow Explosion

While there were designers who stripped away colours, there were also those who wholeheartedly embraced varied shades and prints without restraint. Championing the trend was Peter Pilotto‘s youthful mix of bold and pastel colours, shapes and prints – even though his base was mainly black. The silhouettes may have been rather simplistic for Pilotto but that was what gave him a clean canvas for experimentation – from heat pressed florals on organza to woven threads – allowing his bold creativity to shine through.

Others,  like Emilio de la Morena and Roksanda, were sightly muted on the clashing front but were nonetheless equally striking in terms of the colour palette.

Read more on our fashion week highlights:

New York Fashion Week SS15
Milan Fashion Week SS15

Tarandip Kaur