September 24th 2010

“More, More, More – how do you like THAT?” Part II

Prada proved that for it to be a well and truly bombastic summer, there needs to be colour and plenty of it.  I won’t extoll how well and truly powerful that S/S 11 Prada show is just yet as we’re about to turn the seasons and go into autumnal leaves and gusty winds overdrive.  However, it does have some bearing on the London designers who went before, particularly these two who also favoured straightforward prettiness and interpreted a juicy summer in their own ways giving me the sort of eye candy where I just clasp my hands and go “I want to wear, that, that and that…” and is visual treat to be taken in with a beaming smile. 

In both case’s, it’s the sort of prettiness that doesn’t need asking over its origins of inspiration and in Erdem’s it’s even simpler.  Poppies, lace and brush-stroke florals and plenty of it – worked and re-worked into ways where because of the proximity of dresses to those seated, you ended up wanting to reach out to touch the lace inserts and the various ways of embroidery.  I’ve never actually had the chance to cover Erdem up until now and it all needs seeing in person for believing.  It’s the type of prettiness where you just can’t shun or deny it.  It’s achingly so.  So pretty that by the end of it, I may have felt a little unworthy, that only pretty and coltish ingenues (there’s no other word for it…) need apply to inhabit such dresses of prettiness.  Still if white and red lace and embroidered skirts aren’t to be, then a printed shirt and mis-matched trousers are right up my alley…

(Some detail shots from Vogue.com – others, my own)

Jonathan Saunders also went awash with abounded prettiness albeit in his own crisp and clearcut way which I think has finally honed his prints as well as commercial sensibilities into one of his best collections yet.  Those camo-prints which could also be light filtering through trees and shrubbery are saturated with colour and then further crispened up with plenty of colour blocked shirting and accentuated with double belts.  I love how the brights have been weighted down with neutrals like beige and grey as well as sensible shapes.  Still however much crispness and sharpness there is, the overall effect is still that of jovial prettiness, and joviality is something that can’t be contained next season…

(Detail shots from Vogue.com, Backstage photography by Morgan O’Donovan for Dazed Digital)

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