London Fashion Week saw a sprightly display of fresh menswear trends and style expressions to suit the tastes of even the fussiest male fashionistas.
Menswear fashion has been stagnated for decades. Only during recent years, it has started to liven up with bolder statement pieces and vibrant colours. It is refreshing for the fashion-adoring eye to gaze upon such innovations experimental shapes.
The prevailing question is, how many of these shamelessly extravagant styles would be actually bought and worn on the streets – or anywhere else outside the extravagantly lit catwalks for that matter. Then again, fabulously unique style should be free to wear anywhere in our book.
Another intriguing observation is that whilst only 5 years ago, male clothing designs differed dramatically from the women’s styles, recent seasons has seen a mergence of gender lines with more androgynous/unisex pieces proudly on display.
Fierce trends spotted on the catwalk:
Barbour surprised all with eloquent poems emblazoned stylishly on the backs of black overcoats.
Bobby Abley mixes bright colours with black and plays around with a childlike teddy bear theme.
Craig Green´s work varies between monochrome rainwear, padded car interiors, inspired suits and shapely garments made of panels of Kazakhstan tapestry.
The MAN collection changed from comfortably wearable pieces to evening gowns and wowed all with stunning sculptural showpieces. It was apparent that plenty of inspiration had been borrowed from chic female eveningwear.
Agi and Sam play around beautifully with the combination of black, white, red and navy colours, creating a very wearable collection with strong personality. The narrow red line on black garments spiced up the monochrome pieces with a touch of pleasing pizazz.
Astrid Andersen´s silk and velvet clothes in warm shades of wine, gold, cream and navy are aimed for the gentleman with refined sartorial tastes.
Psychedelic shapes, satin dressing gowns, sultry pajamas and a-symmetric knitwear feature in Katie Eary´s enigmatic collection.
A strong military theme inspired numerous designers this season – Liam Hodges utilized this style and pattern with a bright neon green shade, while Matthew Miller has been inspired by the armour belts for quite a few of his designs. Christopher Raeburn also used the military theme in his work, while Maharishi combines this idea with feisty sportswear.
Berthold specialises in baggy monochrome sports-inspired pieces in white, black and wine coolers, using soft flowing fabrics for rectangular oversized pieces. His catwalk was dramatically lined with plaster casts of white squashed empty plastic bottles and images of explosions in the background.
J.W.Anderson stands out with bright coloured oversized knitwear.
Christopher Shannon plays around with colour-blocking patchwork, heavily slashed jeans and lines of snap fastenings along the trouser leg seams, with a couple of oversized padded pieces thrown in – how very 90s, as viewed through the distorted mirror.
KTZ combines sportswear with abundant lacing.
The iconic Vivienne Westwood finished the shows featuring knitwear, patchwork, prints of her own face combined with children´s drawings, next to her more sophisticated signature pieces of men´s and womenswear.
Roll on London Fashion Week 2018…
