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IIf there’s one part of fashion that embodies tradition and stuffiness, it’s formal wear. The type where a CEO keeps on working, or the type where a typical office drone keeps moving. Of course, suits, shirts, ties and everything else “smart” are ripe for subversion. Like a sleep-deprived hedge fund manager in the final minutes of a game, they too can snap or crumble at the slightest change. So it’s no wonder that tailoring is heating up a bit under the pressure of surviving in a fashion industry as fractious as London’s.
Indeed, London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary feels more like a sigh of relief than a celebration. If Burberry hadn’t caused a huge uproar in the press from the United States and the continent, things could have been dire. Yet here we are, ready to turn something serious into a big, sexy knee-up in true British fashion. Just as rules and professionalism are flouted at office drinking parties and Jenny and Mike from HR get carried away over the copier, Savile Row cuts and subdued elegance are on the runway these days. Liked. Forget the boredom of quiet luxury. This season is monotonous and dirty.
Following New York, where the NSFW office attire trend first emerged, think Lure’s giant double-breasted leathers, Tory Burch’s transparent flasher mac, and Thom Browne’s literally bursting boardroom blazers. London designers further strengthened their perverted corporate core. tendency. Edward Crutchley, a London darling known for his femme brocade silks and ironic vulgarity, takes ordinary jacquard overcoats and embellishes them with whimsical animal prints inspired by wildlife. That was a great example. african dog She topped it off with a cowboy hat in the same animal print designed by Stephen Jones. Are you carrying something cowboy-friendly to work? perhaps.
Elsewhere, Crutchley proposed a simpler, tailored overcoat. It featured sloping, caricatured shoulders and was styled by the always cheeky Julien Ganio, who decided to forget the shirt underneath. The London exhibitionist in question had a cigarette in his mouth as he walked, exuding post-coital nonchalance. At first glance, she seems like an effortlessly cool French woman. However, behind that exterior was a custom-built fiberglass construction. She “wanted to widen her shoulders as much as possible without adding stiffness or structure to her garment,” Crutchley explained. “So instead of incorporating it into her coat, we decided to incorporate it into her body.” Something sensual!
At Sinead O’Dwyer, her executive employees arrive in lopsided outfits with lots of lacy lingerie, explicitly referencing the workplace dress code before fully piecing it together. So her signature plaid bodysuit was paired with Ecco’s cheeky derby care, with a cotton shirt patchworked around her chest. Halter-neck dresses, on the other hand, replaced the vocabulary of dress shirts with knots inspired by Japanese bondage. Her bodice had the exacting pleats typical of Charles Tyrwhitt’s non-irons, and her actual double-button collar shirt had darts down the front that traced her pecs. Some incorporated ties and stretch corset knits into the design itself.
“I love menswear, shirting and tailoring, but I was thinking about the situation in London feeling a little bit hostile right now. It’s really difficult at the moment,” O’Dwyer explained backstage. “For some reason, it felt like such an everyday mundanity would be an interesting reference, but I needed to plunge into this fantasy about something that wasn’t corporate.” Box-pleated skirt in salmon or beige , flipped over at the top to reveal buckled accessories reminiscent of loose trousers’ braces or garters, and roll-neck knits were cut to reveal a modest but pronounced chest contour. Again, this duality of restriction and sexual liberation is not so much juxtaposed as seamlessly transformed into one another by Swarovski-encrusted stretchwear.
Sinead O’Dwyer’s signature lattice bodysuit
(Sinead O’Dwyer)
Arguably the raunchiest show of the day, Fashion East’s show was more an all-out office orgy than a flashy interpretation of JP Morganites. This multi-designer show started with her usual girlfriend Johanna Parv, who favors cycling-inspired gear. Here she wore an upturned collar with an invisible zipper across her shoulders, widened to a ruched effect. Such high-tech pieces include a cycle-her-office skirt layered with shorts underneath, and a micro-her skirt combination with a blazer with under-cut lapels. A sexy secretary who takes advantage of the bicycle commuting system? Why not?
The show was followed by a big fetish fashion hit from Olly Synder, filled with patent leather fisherman pants, stretchy gauntlets and sophisticated tailored workwear. Here, the icing on the cake is the steely, office-friendly glasses that adorn each model, and the twisted tie shirt darted along the front to convey a boring fragility and quirky interpretation of modern corporate style. was. Imagine meeting a colleague in a darkroom in Berlin. That was the atmosphere.
So a well-tailored, work-appropriate vulgarity seems to be the answer to London’s evictions. As the cost of living crisis eats away at designers’ budgets and, worse, forces a return to conservative dress, London’s innate desire to twist it with a wink or a nod remains. I’ve never been transfixed by a pro class dress, but it’s a uniform and what could be sexier than that?