Trends from London Fashion Week

Feb 20, 2013
Dani Smith • Fashion

During Fashion Weeks around the world, each city gets a chance to shine, and most recently, London showed off its fashion persona at London Fashion Week. Unlike New York Fashion Week, its predecessor, London Fashion Week was full of color and bold prints, which a pleasant surprise coming from the very dark color palate of New York.

The week also showcased some new, very buzzed about designers. Pop Star, Rihanna, debuted her River Island collection which was very 90’s inspired and garnered mixed reviews, while model –turned-designer, L’Wren Scott’s coming out collection of bright and powerful designs yielded rave reviews. Though the designer has shown in New York before, it was her first show in London. London also showcased some British favorites including: Burberry Prorsum, Mulberry and Temperly London, whose collections were all stunning and truly depicted the heart of London Fashion. All in all, this year, London Fashion Week set itself apart with its use of trendsetting creativity.

London really outdid itself this year with its use of bold prints. Models of almost every major show pranced up and down the runways sporting prints from all kinds of inspiration—geometric, ethnic and even animal. Peter Pilotto, L’Wren Scott and Tom Ford were three designers that took the trend and made it their own in their collection.

Fall and winter collections are notorious for being dark. And coming off of New York Fashion Week where almost all the designers used a very dark palate, it was quite the surprise to see London designers adding zings of energetic color into their collections—if not by way of brightly colored prints like Tom Ford, than by incorporating solid pieces the way L’Wren Scott and Temperly London did.

For those who played close attention to New York Fashion Week, the fur trend crossed the Atlantic into the U.K. Though, not as widely used as in New York, fur made its way over mostly by way of accents. From collars to vests and even décor on jackets, fur accents could be found on most designer runways.