The last day of London Fashion Week’s womenswear shows brought a theatrical finale. Hundreds of stemmed carnations formed a knee-high floral catwalk carpet...
The last day of London Fashion Week’s womenswear shows brought a theatrical finale. At Mary Katranzou and Meadham Kirchhoff less was definitely not more. Hundreds of stemmed carnations formed a knee-high floral catwalk carpet at Katrantzou. With a saturated colour palette, she reworked floral prints on suiting and her signature structured dresses. Further references to nature came in fish, plumage and coral reef motifs juxtaposed with industrial material prints. The closing dress featured crushed tin cans and car parts arranged in diagonal stripes of block colours; the dress took five people to carry before being sewn on to the model backstage.
Later in the day, Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff stretched the definition of theatre. They opened the show with Courtney Love-alike girls who gaggled down the catwalk, applied lipstick en masse before performing an energetic routine under the balloon archways that covered the catwalk. Models then strode out in sugary lace dresses, cartoon appliqués, miniscule broiderie anglaise shifts and fluffy marabou coats – finished off with ice-cream coloured hair that matched the balloons (also see Mulberry) and sparkling, frilled and fluffy platforms. The second act opened with a ballet routine peformed by young girls dressed in tutus. Models then appeared behind a dropped curtain atop a giant cake dressed in showgirl outfits with sequined hot pants and Marie Antoinette structured pieces – addressing another take on feminism. “I wanted to do something that felt happy and sedated; the joy and sickness of girls having to be this pretty little thing,” explained Meadham. And like any successful theatre performance the show received a unanimous round of applause and cheer, before fashion’s leading duo took their bow.
Text by Lucia Davies
