It's London Fashion Week SS14, but you weren't invited to any shows. Feel skinny and important by reading these reports instead. Air kisses.MARQUES’ ALMEIDA
It can be pretty easy for a designer's great ideas to get lost in the frenzied, terrifying powder keg that is the countdown to fashion week. But not so for Marques’ Almeida, who opened their show yesterday with deep blue bootleg jeans and what looked a bit like a bridesmaid's dress knotted into a boob-tube (handy), before moving into black and white pony skin boots and coats that made me weep with joy into my neighbour's shoulder. Following that were sheer pink princess trousers with a matching top, perfect sexy split leg dresses in super-light fabric in black and pale green and a white denim jacket that just ended everything forever.There’s nothing more disappointing than following a designer for a few seasons and never quite figuring out what they’re trying to say. But Marques' Almeida are clearly two designers who know exactly who they’re designing for, why they’re designing and what they’re trying to get across. As the models walked the runway to All Saints, everything else sort of melted away; all the usual fashion week bullshit, all the belligerent whispering about seating allocations and backstage passes, all the party recommendations (like anyone wants to socialise with the international fashion pack after 6PM – please).Instead, strong, fun, sexy women in frayed workwear and uber-feminine colours and textures existed, in reality, right before my very eyes. I've always believed everything Marques’ Almeida tell me with their collections, and this season was no different.NASIR MAZHAR
And then there’s Nasir Mazhar, who seems to exist in a bubble of his own. This year, he filled the courtyard area of the Topshop space in Regent's Park with girls in bright pink bikinis, tracksuits, harnesses, caps, thigh-high metal embellished boots and a whole lot of gelled baby hair. Nasir’s another designer who firmly sticks to his guns when it comes to his style, and is equally consistent with the casting, styling and presentation of his collections.As his futuro-chola-hypebeast girl gang took turns cheering each other into the middle of the crowd, photographers jostled in with the audience (and gawping security guards) until you couldn’t really tell anyone apart. Suddenly you realised you were standing toe-to-toe with somebody wearing a fluffy red skirt-suit / underwear set complete with full-length fake nails and a hand full of Nasir Mazhar signet rings. There are a lot of things right with being up close and personal with the collection of a designer so entirely inspired by street culture and sportswear. And being able to handle the fabrics (in a totally non-creepy way) and smell the hairspray made it a whole lot realer.Sure, the fact that he sticks exclusively to that sporty streetwear thing every season means that Nasir’s hardly about to shock the London fashion circuit, but he can get away with presenting relatively similar womenswear collections because it’s still completely fresh. You only have to look at the latest Rihanna for River Island collection to see his influence on mainstream fashion. You’d also have to be mad to pass up an invite to a show that comprises of the ten hottest girls in the whole of London. Please exist forever, Nasir.Follow Bertie on Twitter: @bertiebrandesMore from LFW SS14:Sequins, Coal and Ham
Advertisement