The Runway Rundown Part 2: Catwalk City
By Dovile Grybauskaite | Oct 10 2018
Dovile Grybauskaite reviews the eccentric and elegance at London and Milan Fashion Week.This month, cityscape became the catwalk as London Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week returned, giving a preview of what to expect for Spring/Summer 2019. Kicking things off at London Fashion Week, debuts and milestones were among the spectacles. Greek designer Mary Katrantzou celebrated her tenth anniversary in the business, presenting what she called the “collection of collections”. The show featured updated versions of her most iconic pieces, alongside fresh designs, and in true maximalist Katrantzou fashion, her collection was a kaleidoscope of colour, prints and inspiration. Moving from New York Fashion Week to London for the first time in the brand’s history, Victoria Beckham also showed a collection which celebrated the brand’s ten-year anniversary. Beckham’s show celebrated what her clothes have become known for; bold colours paired with sleek designs, exploring the line between feminine and masculine. The show aimed to celebrate women and empower them to be who they are as well as being age-inclusive, achieving this by featuring fresh faces like Edie Campbell, as well as 90s icons, such as Stella Tennant. Riccardo Tisci unveiled his first collection as the newly appointed creative director of Burberry. Tisci’s Burberry debut paid homage to the British fashion house’s roots, while infusing it with his own kind of international sophistication. Having already updated the Burberry brand logo, and presented a new version of their iconic trench coat, it seems Tisci is confident in his vision for the house. The focus of the show, which featured no VIPs sitting at the front row, was the clothes with 131 looks for different generations of the Burberry consumer to choose from.At Milan Fashion Week, Prada artfully brought shock value and spectacle of the highest quality. A crowd collected to catch a glimpse of the many famous faces attending Miucca Prada’s latest show, which included actors like Jessica Chastain and filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola. The vibe at Prada was grandiose: the venue was a multipurpose performance space at the Fondazione Prada, with lime green walls and techno music blaring. Prada has long been synonymous with intelligent fashion and her ability to turn a runway show into an art performance piece, this collection being no different. With strong influences from the 1960s and 70s, the show was still modern; the current neon trend looks even better when on a Prada runway. Another Italian great, Versace, showed a fun collection celebrating multigenerational fashion. While the current crowd of supermodels, including the Hadid sisters, Binx Walton and Kaia Gerber all walked the runway. Donatella Versace also managed to convince an elusive 90s icon – Shalom Harlow - to make a return. The collection featured themes associated with Versace ever since it was Gianni’s Versace: colourful leather, loud prints, all finessed with Italian elegance. At Fendi, the reign of the 90s and more importantly 2000s fashion was not over yet, with the return of the brand’s iconic Baguette bag, the sporty silhouettes and the FF “logomania” still going strong.