(25 Feb 1999) English/Nat
Downbeat, anti-glamour mood continues in London
London Fashion Week launched Saturday with more than 40 British designers taking part showing their collections. Despite a generally downbeat mood before the shows, with top name designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Antonio Berardi abandoning the week in favour of New York and Milan, the hype was still present. However, the overall impression at the end of the first day was that the spirit of grunge had returned – and that glitz and glamour were in short supply.
British television personalities JOHNNY VAUGHAN and KELLY BROCK opened the RED OR DEAD show. The spirit of the collection was young and fun.
Gypsy fabrics, tailored trenchwear and textural tweeds were combined in a street funk style featuring a lot of black with contrasting touches of bright colours.
The choice of models was also eclectic and included larger sizes as conveyed by the “unique” appearance of Tiny, the lead singer of rock band Ultrasound.
“We’re obviously approaching a very important time, it’s the end of the nineties. The nineties have been a very boring decade I think in terms of fashion. We wanted to kind of look at the best things from the past thousand years and look towards the next thousand years and not just look totally futuristic” said designer WAYNE HEMINGWAY.
High energy hats mingled with “green couture” with eclectic shows by British designer PHILIP TREACY and Irish knitwear queen LAINEY KEOGH.
Outragious singer GRACE JONES embodied the image of Philip Treacy’s futuristic, “techno-glamour” look for the 1999 winter season. Always one of the highlights of the week, the milliner showed caps which changed colour depending on the light.
With inspirations ranging from animal heads to cityscapes to hanging mobiles by Joan Miro, it was a collection aimed at the person keen to attract some attention from the neck up as opposed to the neck down. .
In an earlier catwalk show, Irish knitwear designer Lainey Keogh presented a collection she said was inspired by the natural world.
Keogh says she chose to show her collection at London’s Natural History Museum — her models winding their way down stairs towards a giant dinosaur model — to serve as a reminder of the fragility of life on our planet. The models wore muted greens and browns — sporting richly weaved fabrics she said were inspired by everything from spider’s webs to plants.
“Life, fire, earth, air. Everything that is life and forming life and living. And you know for us to become a little bit more green in how we evolve as a society.” said the designer ,
London Fashion Week continues on Wednesday.
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