Autumn Week 13/14 highlights

Dolce and Gabbana

This season’s golden collection goes to Milan Fashion Week’s Dolce and Gabbana as the pair turned to the traditional treasures of Italy for inspiration, concocting glittering mosaics and jewelled montages. Relaxed womanly shapes and dangling golden crosses, each saintly piece was as much a work of art as a wearable garment, perhaps a timely ploy showcasing the irony in the riches of faith. Immaculate attention as always had been crafted into every detail as miniature bags came encrusted with jewels, and roses delicately entwined themselves around heels and toes. The Dolce and Gabbana girls this season were the definition of feminine power and true nobility, and never has a set of crowns looked so felicitous.

Valentino

Fragile delicacy was the theme at Valentino this season, as Chiuri and Piccioli showcased a stunning assortment of high collared, loosely tailored dresses. The subtle strictness behind every piece set a sense of Brontë-like restraint; as if each decoration of crisp white embroidered lace had been designed for the characters in The Professor itself. Come next winter for the dedicated Valentino girl, although legs will be bared aplenty, shoulders will almost be as sacredly covered as the décolletage.

Oscar de la Renta

The most anticipated show this season was that of Oscar de la Renta as the world of fashion anxiously awaited results of his collaboration with the infamous John Galliano. Having taken him on as an accommodating step towards recovery just a couple of months back, de la Renta most definitely bequeathed more of his collection to Galliano than to the standard apprentice. The collection, although still true to the house in its classic styles, was edgier than the label is used to seeing.

Harshly knotted belts forced clinched pleats to shape the otherwise cocoon-like pieces, as shoulders came as outsized as the erect hats propped over the heads of models; as if the girls themselves were beautiful moths trying to escape from the sharp grasps of nature. Perhaps a delicate reflection of the difficulties Galliano had faced in order to finally re-emerge from the dark. The real moment of metamorphosis, however, came in the form of mysteriously dark hooded capes, which effortlessly infused the gothic drama of Galliano with the simple nostalgia de la Renta always captures so perfectly. If the speculations of this comradeship carving out a future for both parties prove true, then to join and conquer may well turn into fashion’s new rule.

Alexander McQueen

It is almost a fact taken for granted now that Sarah Burton will bring to each and every fashion week the most elaborate show, and this time round she most definitely did not disappoint. Where Burton’s collection lacked in number (there were just ten looks), it made up for in extravagance. Tightly fitted head cages replaced spring’s wide honey-collector hats this autumn, implicative of the womb and the protection a mother might bestow upon a child; reminding us that Burton designed the collection whilst in the last stages of her pregnancy.

To describe this season’s garments as embellished would be a blasphemous understatement, almost every garment seemed to be constructed solely from glittering pearls. Of course, the collection would not be true to McQueen without exaggerated silhouettes, yet here too Burton surpassed expectations. Fetish-like corsets led to hourglass hips as angel-puffed sleeves floated above tiers of laced pleats. Somewhere between Elizabethan royalty and future surrealism, metal fishnets collided with high-necked ruffles creating a truly extraordinary collection suited for such miraculous times.

Balmain

Wasp waists and vibrant colours took the Balmain girls back to the days of glam rock this season, as attitude became as much a requirement as power shoulders and rich jewels. Leather was worn parallel to glimmering diamonds, shimmering sapphires and peacock coloured silks as, once again, Rousteing worked his magic in toughening the luxurious and turning seemingly unwearable ideas into pieces coveted by the nouveau rich. Prepare to embrace the gleaming new cult of Balmain.

Marc by Marc Jacobs

The little sister line of Marc Jacobs may have surprisingly usurped its mainline sibling on more than just the timetable of NYFW this season. The adverse weather that forced the designer to showcase Marc by Marc Jacobs in lieu of the original Marc Jacobs show timetabled successfully ushered the 70s back into the limelight.

Sleek A-line dresses complemented radiant voluminous hair as ravishing red lips boosted the elegance of blocked colours. The looks were enticingly polished, almost secretarial in fact, but with an added dash of confidence and enigmatic intelligence. Alluringly elegant, Mr Jacobs showed that sometimes, the simplest ideas are the most effective.