London Fashion Week Part 1

Mark Fast

With Mark Fast's SS23 collection, we witnessed a designer who is constantly evolving but who is also comfortable exploring the signature silhouettes and neon colour palettes which characterized previous collections and which are very much part of the brand DNA.

It was good to be back at 180 The Strand, London Fashion Week's official hub in pre-pandemic times, and it was even better to be there watching a Mark Fast runway show which took us back even further in time to the halcyon days of embryonic club culture and the 80s fitness scene. Think London's star-studded Limelight club meets the sadly departed Olivia Newton-John.

With SS23, Mark Fast continued to channel the party people who influenced his AW22 collection while taking his creativity in a new direction to embrace the 80s addiction with aerobics and the advent of sportswear as day wear. It was a collection that heralded the evolution of the bodycon dress synonymous with the designer and saw him elevate 1980s sportswear chic to 21st-century club chic; a design sensibility with the objective to empower a generation who love the spirit of the 80s but not necessarily the societal mores which defined it.

These influences further manifested themselves in bold and beautiful graffiti prints, knitted hoods and the reconceptualizing of that most iconic of the decade's fabrics, stone-washed denim. A ubiquitous 80s textile that Mark Fast reimagined, serving us club-ready stone-washed denim miniskirts, which he paired with other ruched and elasticated denim pieces. All accompanied by Fast's customized trainers-into-heels shoes, the perfect footwear to take the wearer from the mundanities of the 9 to 5 existence to the marvellous mayhem of the club.

Mark Fast's latest collection draws on inspirations from recent hedonistic history to show us the exciting possibilities of a future that is no longer confined by the restrictions of recent years. A future where we can all be whoever we want to be.

Paul Costelloe

It was a show which commenced in reverential dignity as Costelloe's children sang in commemoration of Her Majesty before the pieces from his SS23 collection entitled "A Painters Palette of Dreams" glided down the gilded runway.

And what painterly pieces. They came in an array of primary colours, sunshine yellow, bright orange and pillar box red. Pieces that more than fulfilled Costelloe's desire to envelop us in a watercolour dreamworld and transport us to the flower-strewn paradise which the Egyptian Room had been magically transformed into.

For SS23, Paul Costelloe gave us a collection demonstrating the very best of relaxed and elegant summer dressing; there were statement coats and jackets crafted in summer woven fabrics and the most graceful midsummer dresses. Cotton layering and refined cable knits complimented exaggerated trousers and long flowing skirts. At the same time, there was a lightness and whimsicality to the flounce silhouettes, which were presented to us in textured jacquards and luminous silks. All of which were accompanied by the most exquisite accessories with oversized weekend tote bags in the most lustrous of shades and beautifully beaded printed cotton clutch bags.

It was a collection as opulent as the surroundings under whose chandeliered ceilings it premiered. A collection that again demonstrated Costelloe's exemplary craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail. One which was undeniably Paul Costelloe but which also showed us an industry icon who is forever developing and adding more dimensions to his masterly and innate gift of design.

As he told us, "Fortune favours the brave", and it was our good fortune to be present at his show.

FJU Talents

FJU Talents is an initiative launched in 2017 and sponsored by the College of Fashion and Textile design education institute at Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU). Its raison d'etre is to support and nurture the College's alumni as they enter the global fashion industry.

Key to that philosophy of nurturement is their partnership with the award-winning international consultancy platform "Fashion Scout", which provides four selected FJU designers with the opportunity to showcase their work as part of the Fashion Scout schedule of shows and presentations which run alongside London Fashion Week.

With Fashion Scout returning to a physical presence this season after a pandemic-imposed digital hiatus, four FJU alumni were invited to show their collections under the FJU Talents banner to an audience of industry insiders and established fashion creatives. It was an opportunity they grasped with open arms and enchanted the guests who attended the show at the Fashion Scout post-industrial show space in Shoreditch.

Alumnus Timothy Chou's collection was inspired by indigenous Taiwanese cultures, and his garment's silhouettes drew from the square shape of the Austronesian tribes' traditional clothing. It was a concept that allowed the pieces to interact freely with the body and signalled a deeper story, that of the freedom-loving spirit and indefatigability of the indigenous Taiwanese people.

Timmy Chou

His fellow alumnus Chao-Ruei - Wu's collection titled "The Deviation" was inspired by the information overload era that we live in and how differently people perceive what is ostensibly the same information. Using the shape of a Hexahedron as the basis for his silhouettes, his collection was rich in a variety of different textures and materials, such as glossy rayon and solid felted knits.

Chao Ruei

"Captivity and Liberation" was the thought-provoking title of Chia-Lin Hsu's collection, one which was inspired by his exploration of 90s surrealism and humanities struggles within the confines of societal constructs. This subject matter was expressed through his use of curtains, chains and a monochrome palette, a palette chosen to reflect the juxtaposition between the rigidity of social frameworks and our natural spirit.

The final designer of this quartet was Chi-An Yu, a student majoring in design at FJU. His collection was inspired by human-centric cultures and the contradiction between how we dress and how we view how we have dressed. Expanding on this theme to examine the link between clothes and the body, this was reflected in a collection of free-flowing sculptural pieces.

Chi-An Yu

These FJU alumni, with the support of organizations such as Fashion Scout, have been afforded a high-profile platform to showcase their designs, a level of practical experience, and media exposure which will be of enormous benefit as these hugely talented young people continue on their fashion careers.

Edward Crutchley

While the title of Edward Crutchley SS23 collection, "The only constant in life is change", was not conceived in response to the United Kingdom's period of national mourning; it was a title that seemed both poignant and redolent of the atmosphere which enveloped London and London Fashion Week.

Instead, it was inspired by Greek mythology and the Greeks' complex relationship with the reality of the ever-changing sea and the impossibility of a human being able to step into the same waters twice.

This channelling of pre-Socratic philosophy was juxtaposed by the venue chosen for the accompanying runway show. Staged in a central London underground car park, it evoked memories of 90s queer raves and the delicious decadence of those days.

When the models took to the car park catwalk, those Greek influences were to be seen in an assemblage of free-flowing and ethereal silhouettes served in the most tempting of textures and most fabulous of fabrics. Diaphanous holographic shape-shifting pieces were enriched with iridescent lurex. At the same time, aluminium was added to cloque jacquard to create ripples in the garments, which were reminiscent of the very seas, which motivated Crutchley's creative process.

The most dramatic and exquisite full-length ballgowns shared the runway with multicoloured statement coats and bodycon dresses, replete with the most sensual peekaboo cutouts. In a collection which was a homage to camp and gloriously gender-fluid male identifying models wore crystal bedecked thongs, sequined bras and under pec crop tops with luscious lurex trousers.

It was a collection which married Greek mythology with a gay sensibility. A tour-de-force which married camp with couture. As Edward explained

"I am not trying to pretend I am making couture, but I have had experience working in it over the last year it has shaped my approach. Couture - for me - is where you can push your ideas to the farthest point."

Edward Crutchley has reached that point, a point of artistic and artisanal excellence that we who were there were privileged to witness.

Chris Yates

TOGA Archives

This season TOGA decanted from their usual London Fashion Week habitats of Mayfair and Marylebone to stage an interactive video-based presentation in the achingly trendy East London hotel, One Hundred Shoreditch. It was a change of locale but not a change in the perfectly cut gold-standard tailoring and chic sensibility which defines the brand.

Designer Yasuko Furuta named her collection "Skin, underwear, spacious", and while it remained faithful to that TOGA DNA, it also showed a designer exploring an edgier and more experimental aesthetic. Furuta took inspiration from one of Japan's earliest woman photographers Eiko Yamazawa who, in the 1920s, specialized in the art of studio portraiture and subsequently embraced the use of colour photography to create the most vivid technicolour, kaleidoscopic images; this manifested itself throughout the collection through images from the photographer's iconic portfolio appearing on T-shirts, as patches on tops, on swirling crinoline skirts and on one particularly showstopping poncho.

The skin element of Furuta's mantra "Skin, underwear, spacious" revealed itself through an abundance of décolletage with models wearing tops and dresses with midriff plunging necklines while their male counterparts were dressed in halter neck pectoral skimming shirts. Underwear came in the form of bustier under sheer or slashed to the waist tops. While the spacious component of this Toga triumvirate showed itself in the most shimmering of voluminous silk skirts and oversized jackets. An aesthetic that extended to the brand's signature knitwear which featured big, buttoned crochet cardigans and tops with overblown sleeves.

Video - Katz Sasaki

It was unequivocally TOGA Archives but TOGA with a twist. A TOGA collection which had an air of unsuppressed sensuality and sass about it. One which had an unexpected but wholly welcome edge and which featured several pieces which were gloriously gender-free. It was a collection that remained true to Yasuko Furuta's design philosophy but pushed its boundaries and was all the better for it.

In looking to the 1920s for her inspiration, Yasuko Furuta gifted us a collection that cements TOGA Archives' place as one of the most interesting and innovative brands of the 2020s.