LFW AW17 - Day III

I do apologise for the delay in the rest of these posts, on this day, I went to evening shows and they are always more like parties. As such, I was wiped when I got home and couldn't face writing the day up and the next day I flew home in the evening. It's been a bit hectic, to say the least.

Saturday and Sunday were my busiest days and by the time I got to the Sunday, my legs hurt and feet were blistered, typical fashion week fatigue. I know the serious fash pack are probably chauffeured and all that but I still can't imagine doing fashion month - I barely get through the week! Although, if anyone wants to pay me to do the month, I'd stifle my complaints somehow...

Day three began with me scooting in to the Felicities PR Press Lounge first thing to pick up an Olympus Pen to play around with. I was really excited to try it out and direly fell in love with the thing over the course of the day. Once I had signed the camera out, I had to rush on to my first show of the day, which was THEO VII STUDIO; a collection of neat tailoring, careful layering, a restrained neutral palette and unexpected pops of sunny yellows.

Next was the Haluminous presentation and I was totally into the creepy but romantic vibe that saw an acrobatic model perform under red lights in a circle of flowers, twisting unnaturally, as the rest of the troop came out and stumbled around her, before lining up on stage. The story that guided the presentation was of a kind of cult of young women who longed to abandon their human bodies in favour of the simplicity of becoming flowers. I was totally into the red and black colour scheme, dressed-up hoodie aesthetic and slick, edgy styling, as well as the theatrical presentation. And I was obsessed with the story and my desire to know if it was inspired by Booker Prize Winner Han Kang's The Vegetarian, I saw the designer, Ms Kim, very briefly and wanted to ask her about it and sate my curiosity but she quickly disappeared and I missed my chance...

Continuing my quick dash of the day, I pottered on to the Annderstand show that was all slick tailoring, sexy cocktail dresses and elegant trenches. Not quite a wardrobe for me or my life but smoky, edgy and cool. From there, I ran like a lunatic for public transport to get to Central Saint Martins for the Jamie Wei Huang show. I've loved the brand for several seasons now and I was delighted to finally be around for one of their shows. I was even gladder to be met with a cocktail and a "boobie" steamed bun from Bao (admittedly, the bun looking so like a boob actually threw me off) after all the running around. The distinct use of primary shades was present as per plus extra-long sleeves, sixties silhouettes and prints, turtle-necks and killer clunky-heeled boots.

Suddenly, after all the chaos, I had a six hour break so I met friends for a late lunch and another for cocktails before meeting yet another to bring to my final show of the day: Kristian Aadnevik. We sipped champagne, chatted and then took in all the dresses designed for lives much more Gossip Girl than ours would ever be.

And once we got home (it was a friend I was staying with) we sat around chatting before I fell into bed to do it all over again the next day.

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LFW AW17 - Day II

Today, things started early and hurried. I dashed into the Paula Knorr presentation where she was serving up an essay on the creative process and spangled, vibrant garments - not to mention a gig and collab with experimental pop duo MADSIUSOVANDA. Then I scooted right along to CECI where the palette was decidedly more muted; all navy and black billowing satin, restraint, denim, super-wide-legged pants and cropped faux fur. To cap off the morning, I hurried along to Sabinna's ode to first loves. Little bouquets sat on the seats for the first few rows and things like "be mine or go away" were scrawled across garments and under the eyes of the models. And the clothes? Romantic, corseted, hand-crocheted flowers, silk, velvet, dungarees, embroidered coats and pretty dresses. Love's young dream but with a twist, a little cooler and more than just pretty.

Lunch was prolonged and leisurely and spent with my best childhood friend. It took up the next three hours but it felt like only a moment and then I was back in another queue, waiting for another show. Said show was Katie Ann McGuigan, a young Irish designer that sent swaggeringly confident and vibrant technicolour down jackets, leather dresses, oversize knits and sweeping coats (and a cloak). Upon leaving and grabbing a tea, I came to the realisation that my next to shows were too close in time and far apart in distance to make it to both. As my feet ached, I chose the closer of the two. When I met Trinity students and we bonded over my alma mater, in the line for the next show, it made the forty-five minute wait a little easier to bear - though it was hard to ignore the fact that I definitely could have made it to the other show and back given the extra wait. But the wait was very much worth it as Han Wen's collection is my favourite I saw at LFW this season, so far. Edgy, cool, full of leather, flowing bell-bottoms, trailing ribbons, bold colours and on it styling: it's basically as cool as I want to be and look in a collection.

Right, my eyes are almost falling out of my head. Halfway through now....

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LFW AW17 - Day I

Day one of LFW started off slow and calm, which is great, considering how mad the next few days are going to be. I couldn't sleep in as much as I wanted as I was plagued by dreams of being late for shows, waking up a whole day late. I have no idea why I was so worried about time this season but I was. Maybe it was just general stress catching up with me all of a sudden.

Once I got into the city, I went and checked out the press lounge I'd been invited to use (which is in the incredibly swish ME Hotel) before grabbing lunch. And at this point, I was nice and chilled out and ready to take things a little easier this season. Which was when things suddenly took a turn.

I arrived at my first show for the day, a presentation for Haizhen Wang, and while I loved the industrial-looking set, performance of the models , the silhouettes and styling, the whole thing was rather ruined by the jostling crowd that was largely made up of non-industry individuals. I don't begrudge their attendance of the show but it was very hard to see anything and very frustrating for those of us there to work. I stayed for two rounds of the models passing through, lingering for around an hour total, in order to actually see everything and get some photographs for the social media posts I was required to contribute.

Downing a glass of Prosecco as I left in order to ease my stress, I launched into the madness of the line-up of shows that I had over the course of the afternoon. Next, I hit up the Roberta Einer presentation in the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, an architectural delight. The collection was a game of contrasts; pretty pinks and hot fuschias, leather and satin, power suits and sweet dresses, pouty sex-pots and bashful maidens. Indeed, the strong contrasts and clear characters gave the models the freedom to have fun, rather than merely stand about, and the whole presentation clearly reflected the playful and cheeky ethos of the brand.

After that I scooted over to the Paul Costelloe show at the Waldorf, messing up my original plans, as the lines and madness I'd faced all day had set my schedule right back. But the Costelloe show was just what the doctored ordered, a salve to the chaos: champagne (the real deal), front row, a stunning hotel. And, of course, the collection wasn't half bad either. In fact, Mr Costelloe's little dance with a model as he did a curtain call, reflected the renewed vigour and energy he showed this season. A/W is always more interesting as it gives him freedom to work in the tweeds, knits and leathers he utilises so well but also allows for layering and bolder, edgier looks. This season was a blend of 80s cocktail dresses, Gossip Girl tweed dresses, romantic billowing shirts and high collars, and dramatic hoods, sleeves and silhouettes. All in rich autumnal shades and bright pops of colour. Costelloe's energy and enthusiasm continues to put us all to shame.

From there, I dashed on to the Milo.Maria show in King's College, which presented a very cool office. Devil Wears Prada, eat your heart out. But, also: thank God I don't work in that environment. I can't imagine looking that cool and composed in the office. Think preppy sixties tones and silhouettes, tailored, dramatic outerwear, slinky satins, pussy-bow blouses and glimpses of flesh.

And, then, I finally finished the day with my beloved Sadie Williams, where her signature use of multiple bright colours and geometric patterns in looks, sportswear inspiration and foiled fabrics was still in place, as per, but there was also a more casual, relaxed and streetwear-inspired vibe...

Tomorrow's the long day so I'll sign off now and get some sleep! Look forward to my next post, it's bound to be a good one.

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The internet and style - The Migration of Subcultures

When I was fifteen, I fell madly and utterly in love with the Ramones and, quickly thereafter, The Clash, The Damned, The Sex Pistols and a whole host of other punk bands. The music lead me to the style and suddenly gave me something to focus on. Through my love for punk, I refined my own sense of personal style and found an "identity".

I've discussed this before, but a friend and I once had a conversation about this period of our lives, years later. We hadn't known each other then but both felt that, upon reflection, we had embraced subcultures as shields. When people weren't nice to us and we were lost and confused, stuck halfway between child and adult, these subcultures made us part of something bigger and we didn't have to feel so adrift. When people weren't nice to us, it was because of the music we liked and how we presented ourselves, not because of any flaw in our personalities, not because we were unlikeable. Subcultures fueled our bullies but hardened us against them at the same time.

Subcultures were a way of wearing "who you are" on the outside. They were a way of being able to identify potentially like-minded people at a glance.

But subcultures as we once knew them are dying.

The internet means that you don't have to wait until you go to a bigger town for a day, for a gig or merely dressed in your genre, in order to find like-minded people. It means that anyone, anywhere can find people with similar interests and outlooks - no matter how niche they might be.

And, so, it has been documented that subcultures are dying in the way that we used to know them. People don't need to clothe themselves in their identities anymore and they don't need to focus on one thing, they have access to a world of possibilities and references, even more than I did just a few years ago. When I first read about this vanishing of fashion subcultures as we knew them, I was sad, incredibly sad. Will teen movies no longer have goth kids and skaters and preps and nerds? Will the tribes that created a landscape of visual interest disappear? While they haven't been such a pronounced thing in Ireland for some time now, the idea of them being gone made a fashion nerd like me a little nostalgic and achey. The slow reduction into tropes to be recycled and taken from context on runways, turned me into a grumpy old man, hankering for times gone by (and, in many cases, long gone before I was even actually born, if I'm to be honest).

Yet, while this downturn has been documented by design historians and sociologists alike, even the layman can see that it is not necessarily the absolute end for fashion subcultures. The internet has long been a second home to subcultures, a place where new fashion tribes are bred and born. And, now, Instagram, Tumblr and Youtube mean that physically vocal proponents of subcultures and styles can be given a platform, hone their look, record it to perfection and, even, become a star because of it. Hell, their look might even become their career.

These new and reimagined subcultures may not be spotted lingering outside certain Dublin buildings, causing a nuisance, any more but they are out there, dotted across the globe, crafting a sophisticated image, quoting sources left and right and living on. Take Lolita, for example, a subculture that has divided into endless sub-genres and subcultures of its own and which has moved from the streets of Tokyo to a vast online community worldwide. In fact, in moving online, it has been given new life, perhaps sustained life, and spawned niches so specific that it can boggle the mind.

Subcultures aren't truly dead yet. They've been reborn as something more personal, more professional and more cultivated. They no longer seem to be born of unified ideas and movements belonging to specific and different generations but, rather, are at the beck and call of this generation, who have developed the skills to morph and manipulate according to their own desires. Perhaps the goths and skaters, as we once knew them, are largely invisible on the streets nowadays, but they have not died out. They have merely migrated.

And, maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get to see a rare mass-gathering IRL for a con or event.

Sarah, a friend and lover of Lolita styles

Josie, another friend and lover of Lolita

Gothic themes and inspired makeup being adopted at a fashion show

Paul Costelloe taking a cue from punk a couple of season back

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