LCM Friday highlights
By Jo Phillips
Cent Magazine’s LCM Highlights from Friday 8th January.
Our favourite TOPMAN show for a while, we loved the textures and tones along with the boys wearing embossed floral velvet. Construct, deconstruct, reconstruct was the main pitch for the first show of London Collections Men. Celebrating the reinvention of fashion design. Extra long sleeves with pop of floral infusion, a wide variety of fabrics creating contrasting textures created an overall 70’s and 90’s vibe. Overall Topman displayed a mixture of different cultural aspects making it an interesting collection.
Nazir Mazhar showed some spectacular pieces, taking a new adaptation of ‘total coverage’. The collection displayed various shades of black adapted by Nazir in a purely creative way. This is the second season Nazir Mazhar has taken the approach of showing a shadowy interval with an inward focus yet has released that this is strategic and there are new exciting things to come for the next collection.
Wales Bonner took us to a different world in the opening of the MAN show. Bonner did what she does best and experimented with black male sexuality and identity clashing traditional mens tailoring with beautiful diamond details.
With Charles Jeffery taking over the ICA last year within this presentation this year was a total transformation. With a quick set design the catwalk was transformed into a beautiful party show with compliments from bold designs and colours within the collection. It is clear that inspiration was taken from the new romantic trend and 90s style as seen throughout all aspects of the collection, particularly some of the hair and makeup.
This collection continued Green’s interest in themes of restriction and release. Elegance is set against the uncompromising and alien. His love of uniform and utility is shown in a new perspective aiming to imbue a sense of memory. The deconstructed garments follow a loungewear theme along with pillow-like accessories.
Universal works presentation fused fun with sophistication. Elements of the traditional travelling fair included bagged fish, candyfloss and popcorn, alongside the beautifully relaxed collection featuring layered autumnal essentials such as high necks, sweatshirts and borg collared coats.
We saw 3 parts to Nigel Cabourn’s collection, AUTHENTIC, LYBRO and THE ARMY GYM. New textiles were used across the lines. A dry wax finished ‘Hybrid’ Harris Tweed, which had been specially developed by Cabourn in collaboration with waxed fabric specialists, Halley Stevenson, was often featured in Nigel Cabourn Authentic.
Private white V.C. brings us The Mayfair Collection to commemorate the first anniversary of their flagship store on Dover Street. This collection has the elegance of Mayfair using luxurious fabrics with highly technical finishes. Private Whire used ECOSEAM throughout this collection; this is the world’s first eco friendly fabric. ECOSEAM is a water and stain resistant cloth that is extremely durable.
Alex Mullins presentation was comparable to the journey of the creative mind, more specifically at the stage of “Boredom”. Indeed the whole collection is based on this feeling, reflected by the combination of bright and dark colours. Moreover, there is a strong 90’s influence on Mullins’s collection, through the uses of beautifully printed and deconstructed denim and the “splashes” of ‘arty’ colours.
Keeping within their comfort zone CMMN offered a warm, inviting and carefree collection. The theme of 70’s and early 80’s retro is paired with modern cuts and technical fabrics. The main inspiration for the collection is taken from scandinavian interior design this is shown through clean cuts and shades of browns.
