SS14: London Fashion Week highlights in a nutshell!

Yes we do love Paris (it’s Marie France‘s home after all) but when it comes to the battle of the fashion weeks, London wins hands down!

Why? Simple really. It’s truly the most refreshing and dare we say, original of all of the big weeks.

If you’re looking for trends, you go to Newy York Fashion Week (NYFW) but London Fashion Week (LFW) is not for the herds and followers. It’s for those designers who dare to dream and shine with off-the-wall creativity and most significantly – prints (more of that later).

For spring/summer 2014, the colourful parades didn’t disappoint and indeed we got to see some covetable items which we can’t wait to get our hands on. In summary, it was from the sublime to the ridiculous. The runways were either a riot of colours and prints or extreme, monochrome and all-white looks.

But for those of you who didn’t get the time to monitor the highs and lows from LFW, don’t worry, Marie France Asia was on hand to guide you though what was hot, and what you might be wearing next year:

Prints, prints and more prints:

From Peter Pilotto to Mary Katrantzou – the London-based designers never fail to amaze – and sometimes shock – us with what they come up with when it comes to prints.

Mary Katrantzou’s shoe-inspired prints stole the show this year, so did Pilotto’s floral patterns. Both showed innovation and proved that prints are not dying as skeptics might say. In fact, they are still going strong – and forward for that matter. Michael van der Ham and Mulberry joined the prints parade this year – florals in this case – however their  prints were more understated and took on a slightly ‘mature’ direction. What’s our preference? We say go bold or go home!

However the utmost twist on ‘floral’ prints came from Christopher Kane who based his collection on elements of flowers after stating backstage that ‘florals are done to death’ and wanted his collection to show a different way to be done. He focused on petal cutouts and botanical drawings which added a fresh look onto flowers. The result? Interesting and original.

Business meets boho

We love it when we see clever trends that we can wear everyday for work and play, strut down the runways. It looks like designers Matthew Williamson and Jonathan Saunders have been reading our minds and as a result succeeded in combining tailored looks with sheer feminine feel. We love the juxtaposition of bold tailored pieces (jackets and Bermuda silk shorts at Saunders and full suits and trousers at Matthew Williamson) with floral chiffon printed shirts and blouses, but we LOVE the clever layering, colour combinations and textures which makes it look fashion forward yet wearable without trying too hard.

the usual suspects

Tailoring continues in the legendary Paul Smith‘s slouchy suits, where bright hues were mixed with minimal houndstooth and tartan prints to add geometric feel. Meanwhile, Vivienne Westwood’s signature asymmetrical tailoring took an even more punk twist and in other cases a floral makeover.

Romantic

Both Burberry Prorsum, Temperley London and John Rocha put on a romantic show of floral details, embroidery, lace and lady-like shapes which took on a fantasy twist. We love the colours which range from pastel green and blues to dusty pink and fuschia.

Black and white – again

Although London is not really the place for monochromes, we were pleased by the faultless looks from David Koma’s sleek and sexy geometric collection and equally beautiful – yet more masculine-meets-romantic– collection from Erdem. We’re not sure how they did it and topped off last summer’s monochrome overdose, but they surely added a much-needed soul to this trend and made us fall in love with it at last.

Newcomers

Arguably the premiere playground for upcoming young designers, LFW didn’t disappoint this year with the amount and diversity of talent.

The Fashion Scout has traditionally been the place to find the brightest new talents. The winner of this year’s Merit Award was Yulia Kondranina, whose collection showed stunning cotton dresses looked as light as feather and demonstrated her technical mastery. It follows on from her standout collection last season which was all about fringe perfection.

Other labels to watch for came from upcoming designers Haizhen Wang (photo right) – who counts none other than the incredible Christopher Bailey as a mentor –  with a sports luxe, simple and wearable monochrome collection.

Rana Wehbe-Flinter

* More Fashion Week reviews: New York – Milan – Paris.