Fashion Capital - LFW Feb 09

LFW Feb 09 - Horace

A little bit of everything took to the runway...

Emma Hales deserved the wink that Adam Entwisle gave her when they graced the catwalk after their third-season London Fashion Week runway show, because a collection of menacing black layers and grimy neons were a perfect antidote to '80s overload.

The Horace show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout brought in everything from YSL-style drop-crotch trousers and slashed wool jackets for men to neon-and-black check pyjama bottoms and black satin tunics for women. Perhaps the strongest pieces of the collection were those that felt distinctively post-Alexander Wang. For women, this could mean heavily distressed, long-sleeved tops with tiny black waistcoats, wet-look leggings and knee-high leather boots. On the men, picture hooded black leather jackets, beat-up white t-shirts and skinny black jeans. Both sexes also looked Camden-appropriate (yet individual) in black wool capes and neon-flannel tunics. Ladies lost their soft image with dark-rimmed eyes and messy headbanded hair.

Trying to look rough by wearing lots of oversized or super-fitted black layers gets cliche, as does throwing on flannel for the same purpose - but these designers showed that, as with any style in London, there are trendsetters who can avoid the stereotypes by adding just a bit of their own unique spin. Judging from the mostly well dressed and universally boundary pushing audience at the Horace show, there should be no problem using the clothes sent down the runway to help spread that message across the city.