London Fashion Week: The Northern Lights

Published on Thursday 25 February 2010 20:30

AS London Fashion Week draws to a close, designers from north of the Border have again left their mark. From PVC and lace to furry trainers, leather kilts and snakeskin, we round up the highlights of the Scottish collections at Britain's premier showcase

Pringle of Scotland

WE'VE heard whisperings over the past few months that Pringle is returning to its more traditional roots, and this was clear from a distinctly Scottish autumn/winter 2010 collection.

The fashion heavyweights were all in attendance at Monday evening's show at the Serpentine Gallery (including Carine Roitfeld, editor-in-chief of French Vogue), as were celebrities including actress Tilda Swinton, Glasgow artist David Shrigley and Peaches Geldof, daughter of Bob (who spent much of the show looking bored and fiddling with her mobile phone).

Creative director Clare Waight Keller contrasted urban luxury with country tweeds, sending models out in leather kilts with sheepskin details, oversized knits, cashmere dresses and deer-fur mittens. The colour palette seemed inspired by the Scottish rural landscape, with moss-greens, blacks and muddy browns featuring heavily. Splashes of bright colour were provided with mustard velvets, while traditional argyle patterns were given a youthful twist, featuring on sexy, pleated mini-dresses. It's clear Pringle is finally using its rich heritage, while keeping things youthful and just a little rock'n'roll, as evidenced by the ultimate rock-chick Courtney Love sitting front row. This is tough urban armour that can withstand a few rolls in the heather.

Jonathan Saunders

Glasgow's own Jonathan Saunders has made a name for himself effortlessly marrying sophisticated prints with cutting, gaining him an A-list following, with fans including Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Sienna Miller, Michelle Obama and Thandie Newton.

He usually shows in New York but returned to London last season and has hung around to show his autumn/winter 2010 collection here.

While temperatures were uncomfortably low, Saunders, inset, received a warm reception from the fashion pack on Tuesday when he showed a sophisticated collection that departed a little from his usual fare. The collection has a strong sportswear bent, with oversized parachute silk parkas in pale greys or black. Indeed this is a surprisingly restrained collection from a man known for his use of bold colour combinations.

However, there was mastery in his injection of colour to an otherwise fairly neutral palette. We saw chalky blues and strong reds as well as greens and lilacs, and even a flash of silver leather. Full skirts with gathered waistbands sat low on the hips, tunic dresses were laser-cut and dainty white skirts featured shivering tassels that stopped at the knee. The could almost be mistaken for a spring collection, thanks to its delicacy. We saw Saunders' fondness for print in abstract cloudy sky prints, but otherwise, this collection felt new and a little experimental.

Another star turn for a man who's already the toast of New York and has proved he can conquer London, too.

Christopher Kane

WHAT to deliver when you've already exceeded expectations time and again? This is a conundrum that faces Christopher Kane every season. The fashion world loves him, and without fail he delivers collections that are both edgy and commercially viable. It all adds up to a lot of pressure. I'd say the audience were on the edge of their seats waiting to see what Kane would do next at his show on Monday, but the room was so packed most people were standing, many on tiptoes, just hoping to catch a glimpse of the Motherwell boy-wonder's work. As ever, he didn't disappoint.

Kane cited the Women's Institute, juvenile delinquents and Priscilla Presley ("before Elvis got his hands on her") as his influences, and this was certainly a collection of contrasts, with homely floral embroidery layered over hard-edged black leather and lace, and one of Kane's strongest collections to date. There were Scottish touches in black kilts and sheepskin details, and there was a delightful good girl/bad girl contrast, as if someone had pulled the best pieces from Sandy from Grease's wardrobe both before and after her makeover and threw them together. Delicious.

Louise Gray

GRAY'S autumn/winter 2010 presentation was all about fun. Models – with crimped hair and blue eyebrows – danced around the room to the heavy beats provided by a DJ dressed in bright blue fur, while the designer herself chatted to guests.

Eccentric pieces were hung from boards around the room, with cut-out spaces for visitors to put their heads through, thus trying the clothes on in an abstract way.

Gray's passion for embellishment evolved into complicated techniques with textiles. We saw sophisticated 3D textures and experimental quilting; textures, colours and prints clashed deliberately, and pieces were bold but wearable and largely androgynous. Indeed, this collection is an orgy of texture, with everything from orange furry hi-top trainers to ruched leggings, chunky knits and cut-out felt.

Influences include "the collages of Peter Clarke, the textiles of Shirley Craven, Mubuti tribal art and the Danceteria scene from 80s New York", and Gray, below right, told me that this collection was all about her own evolution. This had to be one of my favourite collections: strikingly original and (particularly if you look at pieces on an individual basis) extremely wearable.

Holly Fulton

EDINBURGH College of Art graduate Holly Fulton has proven something of a star in the making over the past 12 months. She's won a string of awards of late (including the Next Young Designer award at Monday evening's prestigious Elle Style Awards) and her designs will be worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the upcoming Sex and the City sequel. She's shown twice at London Fashion Week in the past, as part of Fashion East, which helps budding young designers to put on shows, but she has now graduated to the main schedule, showing in the small showrooms at Somerset House. It was one of the most packed shows I attended, and I found myself sitting on a windowsill just to get a view of the catwalk. What followed was a collection that took Fulton's passion for art-deco themes and moved it in a more mature direction. She kept the silhouettes simple, focusing instead on print and embellishment, the latter of which, in particular, she's come to be known for. On our invitations were written the words "I know it's only black and white, but I like it!" but this was a collection that built on a strong monochrome backbone with deep turquoises, yellows and oranges. We saw snake-print shift dresses, disc-print T-shirt dresses and oversized pieces of crystal jewellery, and clever touches included snakeskin inserts on jackets and jewellery, and Fulton's signature Swarovski crystal dresses. An accomplished collection from a growing talent.