Photography © Asia Werbel 2012
I decide to kick off the day with a wander around Somerset house. I ask a friendly looking man the directions to a particular exhibition and of course I don’t get the directions, instead I get a peep into another avenue of LFW. The exhibitions. Part Art installation, part Fashion there are extraordinary things to discover around every corner of Somerset house. Henry, the friendly looking man, is standing in front of a collection of seven-foot tall “Couture Monsters”. Each Monster has a look unlike any of its other monster friends. Made entirely out of second hand clothing the students at Kingston University have breathed new life into landfill items and the effect is staggering. Looming over Henry are four figures who I certainly wouldn’t want to bump into late at night, or for that matter, early in the morning. One has latex covered guts spilling from its stomach, and a hooded visor, his friend however sports a more jaunty tartan look. Maybe I could hang out with him. Or not. They stand as reminders of the waste our fast paced lifestyle produces. With each new look we discard an old one. With each new toy or gadget we dispose of the last one. And so it goes… I remember reading an article where the phrase “throwing something away” was shown to be an anathema. That it doesn’t exist as a real idea as there is no “away”. There it is. Saying the same thing in seven-foot monster shapes. There is no “away”. Thank you Henry, I was glad I bumped into you this morning. It was the tonic needed. I read the literature he gave me as I make my way to the fashion scout building and found that the contributing artist to this work is a brand called Dr Noki, a sustainable and ethical fashion Brand. I hope Dr Noki and I cross paths again.
Dans La Vie promises us a “new way of popism”. Well they get the soundtrack just right, I so wanted to get up and shake my stuff. The models were all wearing those John Lennon-esque round glasses with blue-mirrored shades, of the type we sported in the 90’s. I got mine from Camden market. The silky material draping the models had a design that I was desperate to get a closer look at. A pastiche of images…flamingos, arrows, Japanese willow pattern, orange and black targets, and if you look really, really closely tiny images of the Mona Lisa framed in locket shaped ovals. The detail reminded me of the mysterious waves and curls and images on bank notes. I am thinking about money. Hitting targets. Dancing after too many rum and cokes. Then Kylie’s hood from the iconic video “Can’t get you out of my Head” arrives on stage. Oh goodness me my need to shake my stuff intensifies. You can’t get anymore “Popism” than referencing the Queen of Pop herself. 
The next show, by Alice Lee, is held in the room upstairs. A beautiful cathedral space with Iron gates and chandeliers. I peek at the literature in which Alice includes Dante’s poem “Sudden Light” as inspiration for her collection. This is the perfect setting for something gothic and romantic. The girls in front of me are discussing whether it is possible to tie-dye your hair. I love LFW for these snippets. The conclusion is that yes it would be possible if your hair was long enough and you found a suitable dye in a mousse form. I’ve seen a woman with leopard print hair before so I am in agreement; I reckon they are on to a good thing there. However tie-dye hair won’t be the right styling for Alice’s collection. In fact her models have their hair wrapped over their faces like shrouds. They walk unseeing into the space. Like Phantoms or sleepwalkers in a gothic story. The models look so much more fragile without their eyes, they have to trust that there is space in front of them. The clothes are simple and beautiful. Fragile and wearable. I could drift around in Alice’s knitwear no problem. Knitwear can by sensual and elegant and can contain secrets too. Shining leather woven into the knit adds a bite like a zip, a rope detail clings to the shoulders of the simple LBD which turns it into something else. The ropes become snake-like and images of Medusa come to mind. Then the ropes become golden threads that weave their way richly into the fabric and end up twisted around a wrist as an elegant bangle. Little Dragon has been playing all this time, one of my favorite Artists, mysterious and feminine. The final outfit comes complete with a gimp mask made of red white and black latex roses. The unseeing women in Alice’s world; challenging the viewer to look when they can’t see a thing.
We go to a speakeasy in New York with the sisters Spijkers en Spijkers. The soundtrack is a glorious amalgamation of the jangly piano one might hear in Fat Sam’s, a crackly voice-over from a middle-aged New Yorker (who I am guessing was hot stuff in her time) and a story of a young woman in search of Love in the big city. After every experience she is left feeling empty and sings “is that all there is? Then let’s keep dancing, let’s break out the boots and have a ball!”. With that sound track this has become a full-blown theatrical event, well it’s the only show that contains a black out for goodness sake! So so so the fashion .. I’m getting to it I promise… post war America, silk slip dresses with pretty scalloped edges, in mustard, purple and orange. A showy feather collar. A deep V back. Then 70’s patterning arrives in the form of blouses and jackets in the same colour pallet and then those lovely leather belts made out of circles threaded together on a string, that your Mum wore before you were a twinkle in her eye. Then I think Tallulah came on to the catwalk in a crazy coat and long gloves. It’s as if the Dutch duo want to take us back to an aspirational time. Before we had Internet dating sites and facebook and could stalk people from our past as if it was still today. A time when things turned on a sixpence, you won or you lost. When, even if you lost, you put on your lipstick and got back out there! Oh yes we still do that bit don’t we girls!!!!
The man who dresses Lady Gaga and invites the flamboyant latex queen Pandemonia to the front row of his A/W collection is going to be hot stuff. Bernard Chandran does not disappoint. He surprises. I was expecting high drama but Chandran gave us sophistication with just a touch of humour. The collection was beautiful; simple high necked dresses with a touch of glamour. Be it a spray of beading or a hint of flesh beneath the lace paneling. All in deep blues, blacks, greys and metallic silver. I noticed a sliver of flesh peeking through a gap where the shoulder panel meets the sleeve. A deliberate disconnect; a detail that runs through his collection. Just when we had got used to noticing the subtle changes in tone we are arrested by a crystal covered scarlet collar. A shocking addition to the collection, made more shocking by the context of delicate shapes and colours. Chandran is a designer who loves to surprise!
My final show of the day was Carlotta Actis Barone. I had this circled in red in my planner. This was of great interest to me as Carlotta often bases her collections on significant social issues. The “Couture Monsters” had started me thinking earlier this morning and this collection ended the day on a similar thoughtful note. Her inspiration was the Holocaust; where people were striped of their clothes and of their dignity and their lives. How can fashion address this deepest violation against humanity? Carlotta starts by simply looking what it means to be clothed. To be warm. To have an identity beyond a naked starved body. Her models shudder on to the catwalk through dry ice. The iconic “model walk” looks like the shuffle of exhausted beaten souls. Their thin frames take on a new meaning. There is a flesh coloured body stocking bearing the slogan “Work Liberates” repeated over and over. This was the slogan painted over the camp gates at Auschwitz “Arbeit macht frei” read by every person who entered. I see silk dresses and coats wrapped over the body stockings in an attempt to remember what it was to have clothes, to go to work, to have an identity. This is what I came away from the collection thinking. How clothes help to define us, to set us apart, and to keep us warm and protect us. They have a practical and social meaning. That’s why we come together to watch and be part of LFW. It is part of being a human being. To say, “I’m here”.
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