London Fashion Week A/W 23 review: Burberry, JW Anderson, Simone Rocha
Daniel Lee showcases his new vision for Burberry as London Fashion Week takes over the British capital.
It’s fitting that the most British of all British fashion brands was this season’s most anticipated show at London Fashion Week. Daniel Lee, former creative director of Bottega Veneta, finally debuted his vision for Burberry, one he told American Vogue he hoped would be an ‘iconic chapter’ for the heritage house. “I really would like [people] to see the new vision and feel reassured,” he said of his plans. “Like, ‘Oh, yeah, this makes sense: This is what Burberry should be.’”
Last night the new chief creative officer from Yorkshire, gathered the fashion pack in a marquee in Kennington Park south London for his big reveal, but not before providing guests with a hot water bottle and a good wool blanket for their knees. There was no doubt that this was the hot ticket of London Fashion Week. We had already been given a taste of what Lee might do in early February with the release of his first ad campaign including British icons – both buildings and people. It also revealed the new electric blue version of the classic equestrian knight in Burberry livery, flag flying emblazoned with ‘prorsum’ meaning forward. The Burberry typeface was also replaced with a finer version – also in electric blue.
And so to the hotly anticipated collection, a mix of womenswear and menswear unfurled with a slew of cobalt blue checks and a solitary ‘prorsum’ white satin dress fluttering in the darkness. There were trapper hats too, and plenty of plaid with a punkish semblance as kilts were layered over trousers. Add to that Aran and argyle jumpers, oversized slouchy pants, English rose adorned T-shirts and loads of faux fur bits and pieces, while coats often resembled dressing gowns. The accessories were strong as would be expected from Lee given his track record previously at Bottega Veneta, with an elegant ‘b’ curling on the satchels and saddle bags. A silvery chunky bejewelled bag was brilliantly gnarly and pure Lee DNA texture. The shoes were expectedly quirky like Tate Modern talking points, all square frame toes in shearling and faux fur, alongside moulded rubber gum boots.
It felt youthful, tinged with teenage rebellion and loaded with plenty of good old British spirit, albeit with a more street vocabulary than posh ‘prorsum’. Post show Anna Wintour and Baz Luhrmann exited flanked by Christopher Bailey, the other Yorkshireman who was the creative lead at Burberry for 17 years. He is good friends with Lee and is rumoured to have been a sounding board. Elsewhere, ideas of what British fashion means in a time of both post-Brexit and economic uncertainty, were grappled with by designers both established and emerging throughout the London season.
The creativity and ‘use what you have’ spirit London Fashion Week is known for fostering remains. This was evident in the many emerging brands such as Priya Ahluwalia and Conner Ives working with mainly upcycled fabrics, the dramatic fishtails and baroque details at Harris Reed and Irish designer Simone Rocha continuing to expand her codes of romance with a dark twist. Rocha is known for her mountains of tulle, crystals, lace, pearls and bows that swerve the saccharine. Her folklore-inspired tales are inclusive ones – Rocha, who launched menswear last season, has long unpicked ‘rules’ of femininity and masculinity. This season Rocha included delicate baby pink slip dresses encrusted with bows and pearl capes to be tied around the shoulders and puff sleeve dresses with balls of raffia encased inside – a nod to the Irish autumn harvest tradition of Lughnasadh.
Other ideas of nature could be found at Christopher Kane, where he took inspiration from animals and the weeds of his working class childhood with AI-generated animal prints, as well as bustles and a weed embroidery on sober grey suiting. Florals could also be found at Richard Quinn. The designer kept to his signature high voltage flower motifs amid a set inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, as well as showing a series of white bridal looks. There was fun to be had at JW Anderson, this season designer Jonathan Anderson was inspired by the Scottish dancer, choreographer and provocateur Michael Clark and spliced reworked pieces from his own archive with the bright, pop art-ish and subversive prints used in Clark’s costumes.
Meanwhile, it scarcely gets more essentially British than Sir Ian McKellen – the thespian opened Steven Stokey-Daley’s S.S.Daley menswear show with a mellifluous reading of Lord Tennyson’s The Coming of Arthur. Other designers stayed true to the designs their fans know and love them for, such as Nensi Dojaka, the 2021 LVMH prize winner who has attracted an ardent cult and celebrity following for her delicately scant lingerie inspired bodices and dresses.
This season the Albanian- born, London-based designer added in splices of mauve, red and even denim to her sheer little silhouettes. Meanwhile, Roksanda Ilic whose flair for unusual and compelling colour combinations, such as pistachio and plum, rusted orange and hot pink, showed elegantly languid draped dresses and others that were incredibly sculptural, with padded boning inspired by the work of avant-garde Osaka-born artist Atsuko Tanaka.
Others changed things up a little more, such as Molly Goddard who tempered her signature overblown tufts and puffs of tulle into pieces that were, as she wrote in the notes, “grown up, streamlined”. Never fear though, the tulle is still here, in midi and maxi-length skirts, some with leopard underlay, paired with Fair Isle knits and shrunken cardigans. In myriad
ways British fashion might be keeping calm and carrying on, but it seems there’s still room for creativity, fun and reinvention too.
The autumn/winter '23/'24 collections continue this week with the likes of Fendi and Etro showing on day one of Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday.