After a sunny week in a blue-skied New York, touching down in dismal, damp London for the second leg of the SS17 shows can be pretty disheartening. Thankfully, day one of London Fashion Week opened with some of the most vibrant, energetic young designers on the schedule, offering plenty of playfulness, creativity, colour and of course British sense of humour. Here are our highlights...
Ryan Lo
Ryan Lo's shows are typically an exploration of maximalist girliness, with candy colours and frothy frills but most importantly delicate designs fit for the most fashion-forward princess. This season Ryan Lo transported us to exotic locales through the prism of his Hong Kong upbringing. The collection was inspired by the anime and Cantonese music videos the designer watched in his youth, but for SS17 his girls had grown up slightly, embracing oversized clown-like harem trousers and floral jacquard coats as well as his signature tiered dresses. For the first time Ryan Lo collaborated with iconic milliner Stephen Jones, creating marabou trimmed tricorn hats that were a bit New Romantics, a bit Victorian pirate and colourful bejewelled headbands. This collection though wonderfully pretty packed a punch too.
Ryan Lo
Ryan Lo's shows are typically an exploration of maximalist girliness, with candy colours and frothy frills but most importantly delicate designs fit for the most fashion-forward princess. This season Ryan Lo transported us to exotic locales through the prism of his Hong Kong upbringing. The collection was inspired by the anime and Cantonese music videos the designer watched in his youth, but for SS17 his girls had grown up slightly, embracing oversized clown-like harem trousers and floral jacquard coats as well as his signature tiered dresses. For the first time Ryan Lo collaborated with iconic milliner Stephen Jones, creating marabou trimmed tricorn hats that were a bit New Romantics, a bit Victorian pirate and colourful bejewelled headbands. This collection though wonderfully pretty packed a punch too.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Shrimps
Every which way we turned during the first day of LFW, we saw Shrimps. Be it a fluffy coat, a faux fur trimmed jacket, a cartoon print shirt or a furry bag, Hannah Weiland's designs were inescapable. And rightly so. In just three years the young designer has carved out her own instantly-recognisable brand, adored for its fun prints and illustrations, and those fluffy coats on the back of everyone from models and fashion editors to front row celebrities. The theme of this season's collection was “Modern Marie Antoinette, Playful Opulence, with Gauguin and Edward Wadsworth influences,” featuring lace and Broderie Anglaise alongside the signature Shrimps faux fur. The fluffy flirtiness and tonal, pearl-coloured pyjama pieces and exquisite, voluminous dresses were perfectly complemented with four custom-designed Shrimps x Converse sneakers in textured shades of green, pink and blue, adding a new dimension of cool to the collection. Shotgun a pair in deconstructed gingham!
Every which way we turned during the first day of LFW, we saw Shrimps. Be it a fluffy coat, a faux fur trimmed jacket, a cartoon print shirt or a furry bag, Hannah Weiland's designs were inescapable. And rightly so. In just three years the young designer has carved out her own instantly-recognisable brand, adored for its fun prints and illustrations, and those fluffy coats on the back of everyone from models and fashion editors to front row celebrities. The theme of this season's collection was “Modern Marie Antoinette, Playful Opulence, with Gauguin and Edward Wadsworth influences,” featuring lace and Broderie Anglaise alongside the signature Shrimps faux fur. The fluffy flirtiness and tonal, pearl-coloured pyjama pieces and exquisite, voluminous dresses were perfectly complemented with four custom-designed Shrimps x Converse sneakers in textured shades of green, pink and blue, adding a new dimension of cool to the collection. Shotgun a pair in deconstructed gingham!
Ashley Williams
For SS17, Ashley Williams invited us into her teenage dream, caught somewhere nebulously between reality and fantasy. The showspace was transformed into an adolescent bedroom by set designer Tony Hornecker, replete with JLS posters, an unmade bed and three models who took and printed pictures throughout the show.
For SS17, Ashley Williams invited us into her teenage dream, caught somewhere nebulously between reality and fantasy. The showspace was transformed into an adolescent bedroom by set designer Tony Hornecker, replete with JLS posters, an unmade bed and three models who took and printed pictures throughout the show.
Pink haired goth princess, Fernanda Ly opened the show in a '90s-inspired T-shirt dress, adorned with a picture of River Phoenix, worn under a beaded bralet and finished off with crystal-studded, sparkly creepers. Adwoa Aboah followed in a purple, ruffled shirt dress and a white, fluffy cat bag, decked in glittering drop-down earrings and again those creepers that are top of our wish list for next season.
There were also baseball jackets stamped with cherubim and 'Firstborn' badges, hoodies emblazoned with the word 'HAIRCUT,' denim dungarees, boxy two-piece suits and '80s puffball dresses and skirts, put together by stylist Julia Sarr-Jamois. This nostalgic, eclectic collection, which fused skater fashion with frilly femininity, re-imagined past pieces and prints from earlier collections, cementing Williams' signature and house DNA.
Street cast models confidently stomped down the catwalk in the collection which challenged conventional ideas of gender and sexuality, sporting everything from buzzcuts to yellow waves and pink waist-length hair, held back with sparkly 'GIRLS' grips. Ashley's army, as ever, was ferociously cool and fiercely individual, wearing the eye-catching, tongue-in-cheek statement pieces all of London's savviest kids will be wearing next year.