LFW A/W 2012, Spijkers en Spijkers

The first show I attended on Saturday was Spijkers en Spijkers, which I already followed last year for the Spring / Summer 2012 collection. (see this other post for background information about the designers)

This time, instead of taking place at Il Bottaccio, the show was organised 

in the Vauxhall Fashion Scout's main room.

 

Edie Bouvier Beale (American socialite, fashion model and cabaret performer), a “bird of paradise” according to Dutch people’s expression to describe eccentricity, was the main inspiration behind this collection.

 

Spijkers en Spijkers seem to be following a particular scheme: each collection you can find back a specific geometric shape used for most of the clothes (last year the star shape was used for the S/S collection, and this year it is a kind of round scale shape which can be found on most dresses and skirts), as well as a few specific colours combined (last year pale pink, yellow and purple, this year a trendy orange, dark purple and dark yellow), with the black colour usually here as a base.

 

         

         

Another characteristic of the designers is that they work mainly on silk, using various versions of this material: silk dupion, silk satin samudra, silk-wool blends and printed silk-wool maple. Other fabrics used include striped wool jersey crepe and crepe de chine. On some pieces ostrich and bird feathers were added to recall the eccentric influence of this collection.

 

            

            

Some of the other pieces created were very classy dark suits with trousers reflecting the willingness of the designers to create clothes for active and modern women who rewrite the rules of their status.

 

  

The whole show was accompanied by a cabaret style cover song of Peggy Lee’s “Is that all there is”,

which gave the fashion show's atmosphere the eccentric touch needed.

I will write next about Alice Lee, Bernard Chandran, Ashley Isham 

and other designers of the LFW A/W 2012

LFW A/W 2012, JENA.THEO

The last show I saw on Friday was the presentation of JENA.THEO at the Somerset House in the evening, but this time at the embankment gallery show space.

Background information:

JENA.THEO is a duo consisting of Jenny Holmes and Dimitris Theocharidis. They both studied at the London College of Fashion and became well-known after winning the Fashion Fringe competition in 2009 (see my former post about the Fashion Fringe on 17^th Sept 2011 for an explanation on the competition).

Roy Peach from the London College of Fashion was in the front row at the show to observe the brand’s progress and support the designers, as he belongs to the usual jury of the London Fashion Fringe.

Pandemonia also made a quick appearance before the show, but didn’t attend it in the end.

This season the designers have been exploring geometric shapes with an asymmetric and edgy finishing for this collection named “Heavy Metal”. Raw leather, fringes and prints constitute the JENA.THEO look of the modern woman, with her strengths and energy.

 

  

The large and asymmetric shapes of the blouses and tops created were in permanent contrast with the stretch classical looks of the leggings and jeans (in tones of grey, black and bleached blues) chosen to match it.

               

   

For this collection JENA.THEO collaborated with O.Two for the creation of the print designs. Different paints have been mixed and applied to surfaces, in order to create expressive landscapes all over the clothes.

                   

The main trademark of the brand is to combine luxury (through materials chosen: silk and leather) and street style (through bold shapes and wild looking prints), in some way to bring the catwalk to the people.