Highlights From London Fashion Week: Burberry! Christopher Kane! Peter Pilotto!

Across the pond designers were serving up a major dose of color along with plenty of florals and some powerful prints for a fun, optimistic look ahead for Spring 2018. Mixed in was a healthy serving of British humor and a dash of punk. Below are some LFW’s best.

Burberry

Christopher Bailey is tasked each season with giving the U.K.’s most recognized heritage brand an update and this season was better than ever. Burberry’s classic check came loud and proud in ultra cool and urban trenchcoats, raincoats, and overcoats. A tartan was shawl thrown over a chicly clashing slit floral print skirt and knits were woven in a wild mixture of patterns and paired with combat boots. There was plenty here to assure buyers that Bailey has his finger firmly on fashion’s pulse.

Christopher Kane

Proper at first glance, Kane’s girl is throughly naughty underneath. Lace trim, pastel ladylike coats, and soft pink knits came sliced and cut or see-through to reveal her true colors. Kane was thinking of Cynthia Pane, a famed brothel owner from the ’80s that was busted for entertaining members of Parliament. Beneath overtly squeaky clean facades often resides, a penchant for the dark side. There was plenty of subversive sex appeal for Kane’s cool girl following and those rhinestone tasseled booties will surely be the must-have accessory of the season (and are much preferable, in our book, to his crystal-encrusted crocs).

Roksanda

In a season all about color, Roksanda Ilincic was sure to reign supreme. Slinky silks in monotone hues of tangerine and lemon with hints of ruffles in all the right places were the sort of second skin pieces women will adore. The floral prints and accents were the kind meant to make an entrance and there were some seriously sleek trench-style power pantsuits that could double as dresses sans pants. Strong feminine sophistication with a flirty appeal.

Peter Pilotto

Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos kept the silhouettes simple and the prints loud this season to winning effect. Japanese simplicity and zen were on their minds after a visit to Okinawa, so big Japanese ’70s style florals adorned modern assym silhouettes. Striped tops took on the new shirting trend, but this time in silk and paired with track pants. Far flung travel and R&R provided an abundance of inspiration.

Erdem

It was a royal outing at Erdem this season. There were brocade coats with Watteau backs. Ribbons adorned the bodices and shoulders of courtly looking silhouettes and pearls adorned collars and buttons. There were suits for the more modern but still buttoned-up queen alongside fringed lamé dresses that suggested a penchant to let loose a little. The inspo? Queen Elizabeth II and her love of jazz along with the stars of the era from Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald. A collection that surely deserves a bow, a curtsy, and a twirl. 

Anya Hindmarch

Anya Hindmarch has been known for her cheeky accessories long before Instagram was a thing. Back in the day, say the early 2000s, some of her best-sellers often featured bags with prints of pets (which could also be personalized to the owner). This season, she revisited that notion with big totes featuring some pretty purrrfect feline faces. Other fun accessories included colorful round bags that looked like the tops of tufted ottomans and of course, new versions of her hit furry slippers with googly eyes. But Hindmarch has recently become known for her clothes—this season an ode to ’50s housewives—as well as her set design, a giant replica of a white-fenced suburban manse.

Marques’Almeida

Western wares done the British way! Marques’Almeida’s cool punk attitude was applied to classic country Americana, which resulted in pieces like an ultra cool moto jacket done in a subtle cow print (well, not subtle, but not too overtly bovine) or a picnic plaid prairie dress whose pattern waved along its assym high-slit shape. There were also breast plates with woven leather trim worn over feminine floral dresses that gave off serious ‘tude with a bit of a wink. These were looks for city slickers with a pioneering spirit.