Expats Geoffrey J. Finch and Ashe Peacock launched Antipodium at London Fashion Week back in 2006. Their seventh year showing on the overseas circuit saw creative director Finch looking toward the future with a collection inspired by cyborgs and the idea of women morphing into beautiful shiny robots. The label has already found a strong following from the likes of London tastemakers Alexa Chung, Susie Bubble, and Pixie Geldof, and this season’s collection of delicate blush power suiting and luxe metallic dresses is sure to strike a chord with the same: think shiny Christmas wrapping, only the sort you’d get from some rich aunt you’d never met and remove extra carefully so you could recycle it for years to come.
Femmebots were also on the runway at Dion Lee’s first ever London Fashion Week runway show. Lee presented in London last season with a presentation, but it’s in motion where his technical prowess is at its most mind-boggling. Style.com called his three-dimensionally printed dresses and suits, fabricated via careful consideration of geothermal mapping and body hot zones, an engineering marvel, though noted, as Lee himself has been cashing in on for a couple of seasons now, that his simpler work is equally impressive.
Sass & Bide and Willow have been showing on and off in London for years, their confidently feminine designers resonating strongly with the locals and the press. This season, Kit Willow showed a dreamy mix of wispy dresses and tailored separates, and also toyed with the idea of lingerie as outwear in a series of corset tops and built-in bras. Actual outerwear, which was both rigid and transparent, bumped the lucidity factor up another notch. An insane pair of glitter trousers pretty much summed up Sass & Bide’s show, a monochromatic collection heavy on fresh tuxedo suiting and glimmering metallics.
Backstage at Sass & Bide: IMAXtree
