London Fashion Week Spring 2023 LFW SS23

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Today's episode is on London Fashion Week Spring 2023, listen to or watch my previous episode on New York Fashion Week- video is available on spotify and youtube, and visit Subversive.Style Fashon Beauty and Lifestyle Blog for the full post with galleries. Admittedly, London Fashion Week (LFW) has always been my least favorite of the fashion capitals- I have always felt like the silhouettes are often a bit grotesque and the proportions are far out. For London Fashion Week Spring 2023, it seems nothing’s changed in that regard- I have saved but twenty-nine photos from eight collections: to put that into perspective, I recall having to re-name and tag hundreds of photos in seasons past…and 3 of them ended up being from a New York Fashion Week Spring 2023 collection taking being posted during London Fashion Week of course. While there are collections with exquisite fabrics, beading, and embroidery, for example, I find them to be out of place, dated- and not in a cool way- uninspired, boring, run-of-the-mill… Perhaps that’s the problem with commercialized ready-to-wear, it’s become more about costers and buyers, investors and shares, and what sells (aka boring mall clothes) versus true fashion-forward fashion design. That’s what happened with Anne Demeulemeester– this really androgynous futuristic creative designer’s house had its aesthetic diluted- the spirit of the designer was sucked dry and the result was lackluster apparel… Alas, as I write this in the early hours of the morning, I thought I’d seen hope as I found myself thinking a particular show meant there was hope in the last moment for London Fashion Week…but it was the mirage of the beginning of Milan Fashion Week, you see.

Chet Lo Spring 2023 3D Shibori (think popcorn fabric), layering, low-rise trousers, sheer fabrics…there’s a continuation of the 90s and 2000s aesthetics from New York Fashion Week. The color palette includes kelly green, powder blue, salmon, scarlet, baby and bubblegum pink, fuchsia, off-white, light teal, pumpkin, white, cyan, magenta, and chartreuse. Seamless knits with subtle yet gorgeously ergonomic prints hug the body in an organic fashion, used on halter neckline dresses with shrugs in kelly green and periwinkle. This isn’t your auntie’s popcorn top…it has a full mask attached and sleeve-stirrups, a matching bag, and is paired with low-rise single-welt front pocket boot-cut polished cotton trousers with curved sideseams and curved knee darts…all in a monochrome baby blue. Linear halftone floral prints graced not only the dresses, drill jean boatneck jackets and pants…but also the models’ skin, which is such a modern and playful touch it makes one do a double take. Cutouts with sheer inlays, shrugs, tube tops, pencil skirts, freyed unfinished edges of sheer fabric, a pink overdress in sheer synthetic gauze, and matching stiletto nails…this collection served up some eye candy to be sure.

Christopher Kane Spring 2023 Christopher Kane has continued to elevate his collections, and this appears to be his most high-fashion and well-edited yet. Monochrome mint or baby pink skirt suits made with georgette jackets and charmeuse slip skirts with white lace scalloped edge appliqué; charcoal heather jersey tees and sweater jackets with clear vinyl buckle or dog-leash clip closures; accordion pleated crepe de chine skirts; a rib-knit body suit was given the straight jacket treatment in lieu o snaps; vinyl and buckle harnesses paired with stick-on lacy bralette cups; buckle up side seam pants of a charcoal silk wool suit; cut-outs; clear vinyl overdresses… there’s a hard-edged modernity to this collection. I do like the way the cold-shoulder lace dress is constructed in panels of lace with bia