Men's fashion week

Kicking off on Monday 7th January, London’s first fully dedicated Men’s Fashion Week came to town. The ‘week’ technically only lasts three days, but it’s a massive step up from the previous day tagged onto the end of Women’s fashion week.  This means that

Racking your brains about where you’ve heard about J.W. Anderson before?  That’s because he collaborated with Topshop last year.  His wacky designs aim to bridge the gender gap with dresses, pleats and the trademark knee-high boots – showing a lot of leg for a sex so hairy.

Winner of the 2012 Menswear Emerging Talent Award, Jonathan Saunders was always going to bring big things to the catwalk.  Clashing colours, a broad range of textures and some very practical A/W layering, Saunders made a designer collection very wearable.  He also jumped on the horizontal stripe bandwagon with the likes of Oliver Spencer, Hardy Amies and Shaun Samson (all names to look out for over the next few years).

Thought you knew oversized? Think again.  Sibling do oversized and they do it well.  Their flowery “please kill me” motif on super soft knitwear seems so incongruous, but it works.  The designers Sid Bryan, Joe Bates and Cozette McCreery love juxtapositions like their intrusively bright red leopard print trousers against cute and cuddly baby blues and pinks.

Richard Nicoll’s spaceman theme seemed to transcend all earthly fashion boundaries.  As an award winning womenswear designer we were on tenterhooks anticipating his first menswear collection.  He delivered with metallic jumpsuits, structured bomber jackets and the hue of A/W13: “safety orange”. Plus, we all love a good beanie.

First published by Spark* Newspaper: http://sparknewspaper.co.uk/fashion-beauty/mens-fashion-week/

AW13 London Collections

With Fashion Week just around the corner (15-19th Feb), we’re looking back at the AW’13 mens collections from a couple of weeks ago to get us in the mood. Here are some of the pieces that caught our attention of a few of London’s hottest designers.

After winning the Emerging Talent Award for Menswear at the 2012 British Fashion Awards, we were expecting big things from Jonathan Saunders. He did not let us down. A kaleidoscope of bright colours and a nod to 90s sportswear dominated his presentation.

Richard Nicoll is an award winning womenswear designer, but how did he fare during his first menswear collection? He must have done something right as his standout “safety orange” was later named the hue of A/W13.

Soft baby blues and pinks clashed with vibrant leopard print reds and mixed monochrome in the Sibling collection, the designers aiming to subvert convention through their flowery “please kill me” motif.

Androgynous knee-high boots, complete with ruffles, are the trademark piece of J.W. Anderson’s “Mathematics of Love” collection. Creating male curves using peplum coats, pleated shirts and fitted mini dresses the designer pushed gender, sex and fashion boundaries.

First published by bengtfashion.com: http://www.bengtfashion.com/blog/mens-london-collections/