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subscribe to style file blog via RSSlondon resort collections take off
June 23, 2008 4:08 pm
Never underestimate the competitive energy of London’s new generation of designers. Not content to be consigned to the sidelines as weightier labels get their teeth into Resort, a few canny Londoners have got their acts together and designed pre-collections for the first time. OK, it might be a tentative beginning (no one can afford shows), but Erdem, Richard Nicoll, Roksanda Ilincic, and Aquascutum have all stepped up to mark with bright-looking ideas to lob into fashion’s crucial new in-between season.
Erdem
After a couple of years taxi-ing on the runway, Erdem Moralioglu’s collection is suddenly flying. The more he relaxes into his propensity for print and lace, the better he gets. Vivid, summery blue and pink dappled maxidresses; strapless white dresses smothered in black Chantilly; and little ivory damask shorts suits with silk print blouses all clinch the charm and freshness of a look that’s already won over Keira Knightley, who wore a purple plissé Erdem number to the premiere of “The Edge of Love” last week.
Richard Nicoll
It’s hardly surprising that Richard Nicoll is extending his summer offerings: He might live in London, but as an Australian, his understanding of warm-weather dressing is innate. “I guess it’s effortlessness. I wanted to inject color, dynamism, and simplicity. Something laid-back, optimistic, and real,” he says. For Resort, he’s tweaked his double-hem silhouettes, reworked his high-waist carpenter pant, and added giant breezy silk T-shirts and tank dresses, turning up the color dial to orange and hot pink, blocked against navy.
Roksanda Illincic
“This is my first big pre-collection,” says Roksanda Ilincic. “Fifteen looks, long or knee-length. I wanted to do more of what people liked last season—my draped dresses. And I tried to make them hard to resist!” The result: flowing silk satin cocktail numbers redolent of Ilincic’s off-hand chic. “I’ve used yellows, navy, ivory; solid color but then with a crazy bright accent, like a bright red belt.”
Aquascutum
“It’s 40 shades of blue,” declares Michael Herz of Aquascutum’s first Resort collection. “It began with a shower-proof silk trenchcoat, and we’ve built it up from there, into all sorts of tailoring, shorts, and sweatshirts.” Standouts are the navy and white color-blocked dresses, which, Herz promises, are the starting points for the more elaborate patchworked and embroidered pieces he and Graeme Fidler will show on the London runway in September.
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