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London Fashion Week is refreshingly short coming off of the seemingly never-ending New York shows—more like a long weekend, really. The city's claim to Fashion Month fame is its hotbed of young, wacky talent and its sparse count of big name brands.
It's also a Fashion Week that can be navigated from a few very different perspectives and, despite its short time frame, is dense with great stuff. Here we've rounded up all the big happenings to put in your back pocket before heading to Milan: the major collections that made waves, the celeb kid model debut, and that sequined Kimye sweater.
Topshop Unique showed an appropriately sellable selection of sporty looks for day and sheer sequined dresses for evening. Cara Delevingne took the runway, of course, as did Jourdan Dunn, Suki Waterhouse, and blast-from-the-past (or, you know, the mid-2000s) Lily Donaldson. Hailey Baldwin (17-year-old daughter to Stephen Baldwin, and cousin to Ireland) made her runway debut at the show, adding to the tally of famous kids getting serious modeling jobs (see also: Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid). Meanwhile, front row, this happened:
Trench coat powerhouse Burberry took a weird, uh, youthful direction, showing patterned coats cinched with tulle, sheer pleated skirts with shrunken denim jackets, and an onslaught of brightly colored sneakers and, yes, Birkenstock-esque sandals. Hues were largely subdued—dusty blue, soft yellow—but spanned the rainbow from magenta to celery. Not exactly what we're gunning to wear come spring.
Tom Ford, however, stayed true to his sexier-than-sex aesthetic, sending out a heavily-mascaraed troop of girls in sparkly ensembles featuring the most delicate of nipple decor. Flower pasties and black sequined strips just barely covered the models, who were notably un-busty. Outside of the peek-a-boo moments, the designer did some incredible '70s disco flares, fitting slim to the knee and then kicking out to full-on elephant bell. Expect to see this silhouette replicated by allllllll the high street brands.
In other sequin news, Ashish showed a sparkly Kimye portrait sweater. The internet exploded accordingly.
Accessory designer Sophia Webster, a regular collaborator with J.Crew, showed her graphic heels and wordy clutches in a scene that melded jungle with rave. Models wore bikinis, dreadlocks, and white face makeup in an electric scene of neon palms.
Erdem also went the jungle route, but in a dark, sensual, Victorian botanist way. The collection had critics and Instagrammers gushing over its gorgeousness—do yourself a favor and click through the gallery above for closeups of the collection, which Style.com's Tim Blanks called "career-defining."
Hunter—the brand that makes your rain boots—is trying to pull a Coach, which is to say expand from the product category they're known for (rain gear) into a full-fledged fashion brand. Alasdhair Willis, husband to Stella McCartney, is at the head of the operation and showed his second collection for the brand this season. The color palette was a great summary of what we'll be seeing across the board in stores for spring: lots of olive, muted primaries, and dusty pastels.
Mulberry unveiled a new bag, the Delphinium. The brand is currently without creative director, and is coming off of two major "It girl" brand ambassadors, Cara Delevingne and Alexa Chung, each of whom have bags named for them. They also recently launched a less-expensive brand extension called Tessie, which includes four handbag styles starting at $860. Despite offering a full ready-to-wear collection, Mulberry is still clearly banking on accessories to save their sliding sales.
· This Was the Fashion Week Nobody Won [Racked]